Tegal Corporation, a leading designer and manufacturer of plasma etch and deposition systems used in the production of power semiconductor, MEMS, and optoelectronic devices, announced today that the Company received an order for an Endeavor AT PVD cluster tool upgrade from a leading global manufacturer of power management components for the communications, consumer electronics, and industrial markets. The Endeavor AT PVD system upgrade will ship in the first quarter of CY2009, and will be used by Tegal's customer to expand the suite of thin silicon wafer backside metallization applications now running in volume production at the customer's domestic, ISO-certified wafer fab.
“Our customer's successful production experience with the superior wafer handling, film adhesion, and film eutectic creation capabilities of the Endeavor AT PVD system on thin wafer backside metallization applications resulted in this tool upgrade order, and we are pleased to have earned this repeat business,” said Paul Werbaneth, Vice President - Marketing, Tegal Corporation. “Once their Endeavor AT tool was released into volume production, our customer saw demonstrable commercial advantages resulting from the S-Gun PVD processes running on the Endeavor AT, and, as a result, have now decided to upgrade their Endeavor tool in order to expand the process and production capabilities of the system.”
The Tegal Endeavor AT system is a state-of the-art, ultra-high vacuum PVD cluster tool used in production fabs to deposit consistent, high purity films, with low to zero stress values, in an extremely clean process environment. Low stress films are widely utilized in backside metallization for power and discrete devices, under-bump metallization applications, advanced packaging, high-brightness light emitting diodes (HB-LEDs), and in creating electro-acoustic devices for BAW, FBAR, and RF MEMS applications. The Endeavor AT has an easy-to-use GUI, SECS/GEM communication, reliable low-contact wafer handling, and flexible wafer shape and size capability, that make the Endeavor tool ideal for ultra-clean production environments for both front-side and back-side applications. Optional damage-free soft-etch modules, and a variety of DC, AC, and RF magnetron configurations, are available to sputter the many different dielectric and conductive films used in semiconductor, MEMS, and other electronic device production.