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Tegal sells tool in Japan

An unnamed Japanese IC manufacturer purchased a 6500-series etch system from Tegal, the vendor announced. The tool will be used for polysilicon and selective nitride applications for manufacturing nonvolatile FeRAM devices. The devices are used in smart cards and for other memory applications. The Petaluma, CA—based supplier said the system costs between $1.8 million and $3 million. The tool was set for shipment by the end of September.

Aera to supply MFCs

Aera of Austin, TX, will supply mass-flow controllers to Applied Materials under the terms of a new agreement, the supplier said. The contract with the world's biggest semiconductor OEM also stipulates that Aera's digital MFC, the FC-D980, will be the default standard on certain Applied etch platforms.

Clients order $4M in tools

Two "notable" semiconductor manufacturers have purchased cleaning and stripping tools from SubMicron Systems of Allentown, PA. A GAMA-1 system and two Rear-Mount systems for removing light organic contamination and heavy positive resist strip have been bought. The tools will be shipped to sites in California, Singapore, and Ireland, according to SubMicron.

Sematech installs wafer monitor

A wafer surface monitoring system from AST Products has been installed at Sematech in Austin, TX. Sematech has been using the VCA-3000XE to characterize surfaces during various semiconductor manufacturing stages. The instrument uses contact-angle measurements. Ron Carpio, a senior technical staff member in the consortium's lithography support division, reported the automated system nondestructively provides spatial data indicating the chemical state of the wafer surface "in the cleaning, lithography, and interconnect areas."

Slurry tools sold

FSI International has received an order valued at approximately $2.4 million from a U.S. semiconductor manufacturer for its P6000 slurry blending and distribution systems. The order includes ChemPrep 100 chemical blending systems and ChemFill delivery modules. The ChemPrep systems will be used for on-site blending and dilution of concentrated hydrofluoric acid and ammonium hydroxide for post-CMP cleaning processes. The equipment is scheduled to ship in the fourth fiscal quarter of 1998. FSI says the customer purchased its first slurry distribution system from the supplier in 1995.

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