SAN JOSE, Calif., April 5, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ultratech,
Inc. (Nasdaq: UTEK), a leading supplier of lithography, laser
processing and inspection systems used to manufacture semiconductor
devices and high-brightness LEDs (HBLEDs), as well as atomic layer
deposition (ALD) systems, today announced that it has received
multiple commitments for its LM7 laser melt anneal system. After
its recent introduction in Q416, two leading North American
semiconductor manufacturers will target use of the LM7 melt system
at 7-nm and below nodes. Ultratech plans to ship both systems in
the first half of 2017 to the customers' facilities in the U.S.
As the industry faces the challenges of device manufacturing at
7-nm and below, laser melt anneal technology has received attention
as a solution not only for front-end-of-line, but also for middle-
and back-end-of-line applications. In particular, scaling at
these nodes has resulted in scrutiny of the contact structure
between the transistor and the first metal layer. The focus is not
solely on the transistor device performance, but issues related to
the resistance at the contact, which are becoming a limiting factor
in the operation of the transistor, increasing drive current and
limiting overall speed. A paper presented in December at the 2016
IEEE International Electron Devices Meeting (IEDM), which used
Ultratech's laser melt anneal system, provided data to support the
system's capability to enable contact scaling consistent with
transistor performance targets for the 7-nm node and beyond.
To view the paper:
http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/7838437/?reload=true
"As we continue to scale to smaller nodes, contact resistance is
widely acknowledged to be one of the gating issues that must be
addressed," said Yun Wang, Ph.D.,
Senior Vice President and Chief Technologist, Laser Processing at
Ultratech. "Ultratech's laser melt anneal technology addresses
emerging annealing requirements for 7-nm and beyond, with
applications spanning the front end where the focus is on device
performance and leakage improvement, the middle-of-line for contact
resistance, and at the back-end-of-line where the focus is on
material modifications and reduction of resistive capacitive (RC)
delay. Over the last few years, Ultratech has been engaged with
multiple customers on all of these applications, running wafers at
our facility using our laser melt anneal technology. We look
forward to working with these two customers and to providing our
laser melt technology to meet their aggressive technology
roadmaps."
Ultratech LM7 Laser Melt Annealing System
The LM7
laser melt annealing system is based on the production-proven
LSA201 laser spike anneal platform with ambient control. Built on
this proven hardware/software platform, the LM7 provides a novel
solution for melt annealing applications for 7-nm and below nodes.
The LM7 uses a unique dual-laser process that provides
nanosecond-scale melt anneal with reduced pattern effects compared
to conventional melt anneal approaches. Ultratech's LM7
laser melt anneal system provides the industry with a low
cost-of-ownership solution for advanced annealing requirements for
high-volume manufacturing at 7-nm and beyond.
Safe Harbor
This release includes forward looking
statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Forward looking statements can generally be
identified by words such as "anticipates," "expects," "remains,"
"thinks," "intends," "believes," "estimates," and similar
expressions and include management's current expectation of its
longer term prospects for success. These forward looking
statements are based on our current expectations, estimates,
assumptions and projections about our business and industry, and
the markets and customers we serve, and they are subject to
numerous risks and uncertainties that may cause these forward
looking statements to be inaccurate. Such risks and uncertainties
include the timing and possible delays, deferrals and cancellations
of orders by customers; quarterly revenue fluctuations; industry
and sector cyclicality, instability and unpredictability; market
demand for consumer devices utilizing semiconductors produced by
our clients; our ability to manage costs; new product
introductions, market acceptance of new products and enhanced
versions of our existing products; reliability and technical
acceptance of our products; our lengthy sales cycles, and the
timing of system installations and acceptances; lengthy and costly
development cycles for laser processing and lithography
technologies and applications; competition and consolidation in the
markets we serve; improvements, including in cost and technical
features, of competitors' products; rapid technological change;
pricing pressures and product discounts; our ability to collect
receivables; customer and product concentration and lack of product
revenue diversification; inventory obsolescence; general economic,
financial market and political conditions and other factors outside
of our control; domestic and international tax policies;
cybersecurity threats in the United
States and globally that could impact our industry,
customers, and technologies; and other factors described in our SEC
reports including our Annual Report on Form 10K filed for the year
ended December 31, 2016. Due to these
and other factors, the statements, historical results and
percentage relationships set forth herein are not necessarily
indicative of the results of operations for any future period. We
undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward looking
statements to reflect any event or circumstance that may arise
after the date of this release.
About Ultratech: Ultratech, Inc. (Nasdaq: UTEK) designs,
builds and markets manufacturing systems for the global technology
industry. Founded in 1979, Ultratech serves three core markets:
frontend semiconductor, backend semiconductor, and
nanotechnology. The company is the leading supplier of lithography
products for bump packaging of integrated circuits and high
brightness LEDs. Ultratech is also the market leader and pioneer of
laser spike anneal technology for the production of advanced
semiconductor devices. In addition, the company offers solutions
leveraging its proprietary coherent gradient sensing (CGS)
technology to the semiconductor wafer inspection market and
provides atomic layer deposition (ALD) tools to leading research
organizations, including academic and industrial institutions.
Visit Ultratech online at: www.ultratech.com.
(UTEKG)
Unity Platform is a trademark of Ultratech, Inc.
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SOURCE Ultratech, Inc.