Dec 6 2012
The Temescal Division of Ferrotec Corporation, a global supplier of materials, components, and precision system solutions and the leading manufacturer of electron beam evaporative coating systems, today announced a major process breakthrough in electron beam metallization for lift-off compound semiconductor applications.
The Auratus™ Deposition Process Enhancement Methodology improves wafer-coating processes dramatically, producing near-perfect uniformity while delivering up to 40% reduction in material consumption, resulting in significant cost savings on process materials like gold and platinum compared to traditional box coaters.
Traditionally, electron beam evaporation takes place inside of box-shaped stainless steel vacuum chambers using a high voltage electron beam to vaporize materials like gold or platinum. Once the material has been vaporized, it forms a flux cloud above the electron beam gun. This results in a thin film coating condensing on the wafers held in an assembly in the upper portion of the chamber. While this process is considered mature, traditional deposition methods have not fully considered optimizing the vapor cloud from the perspective of maximizing efficiency in lift-off process collection. Temescal's new Auratus methodology reinterprets electron beam evaporation by focusing on optimizing vapor cloud utilization.
"As an industry leader in electron beam deposition, our customers turn to Temescal for our expertise and knowledge of the vapor cloud and both thermal and film uniformity-based results," said Gregg Wallace, managing director of Ferrotec's Temescal division. "With the Auratus process enhancement methodology, we have re-envisioned electron beam deposition with an emphasis on multiple metal uniformity and collection efficiency. The results are incredible, with near-perfect uniformity, increased precision across a wide range of metals, and up to 40% cost savings on process materials, dramatically reducing cost of ownership."
Auratus is a proprietary optimization methodology for lift-off electron beam evaporative coating that incorporates patent pending technology to achieve unprecedented levels of uniformity, precision, and collection efficiency. Auratus enables Temescal customers to coat wafers with near perfect uniformity, resulting in more consistent, better quality products and fewer defects. Temescal's Auratus methodology also has the capability to increase the effective deposition rate, enabling customers to increase throughput.
Temescal's Auratus process enhancement methodology is only available on select Temescal systems. Contact Temescal for qualification.