News

29 September 2010

 

EVG installs wafer cleaning system at University of Tokyo

Wafer bonding and lithography equipment maker EV Group (EVG) of St Florian, Austria has received an order for its EVG301 megasonic wafer cleaning system for compound semiconductor research at the University of Tokyo. 

Installed at the university’s Takagi & Takenaka Laboratory, the new tool is focused on preparing a particle-free wafer surface for bonding III-V materials such as gallium arsenide, indium phosphide, and indium gallium arsenide (GaAs, InP and InGaAs) to silicon wafers.  The system augments the laboratory's research focused on developing semiconductor transistors incorporating compound semiconductor materials for large-scale integrated (LSI) devices to overcome limitations introduced with scaling beyond the 22-nm node using traditional silicon.

“The miniaturization of semiconductor devices is reaching its physical limitations, and traditional scaling in line with Moore’s law is not sufficient to address future demands for higher-performing LSI devices,” notes Takagi & Takenaka Lab researcher Dr Masafumi Yokoyama. “We have been evaluating new materials, such as III-V compounds, with silicon in an effort to create new research breakthroughs that will address device performance demands in the post-scaling era. In support of our efforts, we adopted EV Group's megasonic wafer cleaner, the EVG301, to help us achieve superior quality wafer bonds that are void-free,” he adds.

To continue to meet consumer demands for lower-power-consuming, higher-performing and higher-functioning chips, the semiconductor industry is evaluating the benefits of incorporating new materials with silicon, beyond pure silicon-based wafers, says EVG. This shift is paving the way for future market growth of compound semiconductors, as well as more efficient manufacturing technologies to achieve maximum end-device performance. For example, MOCVD heteroepitaxial growth can result in inconsistent wafer formation, compromising the integrity of the wafer surface and ultimately impacting end-device performance. EVG believes that wafer bonding is a promising solution to overcoming this problem. Essential to wafer bonding integrity is the need for a particle-free bonding surface. Wafer cleaning is hence critical to ensuring that the wafer surface is free of voids created by particles that can negatively impact the quality of the wafer bond and the overall wafer uniformity.

“The Takagi & Takenaka Laboratory is invested in a vital research area, given the limitations the semiconductor industry faces with traditional scaling using silicon alone,” comments Yuichi Otsuka, representative director of EV Group Japan K.K. “We have always been a significant supporter of R&D work, which EV Group was founded upon, and continue to provide enabling technologies to advance innovation.”

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