中国65nm的蚀刻机都成功了 祝贺

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China startup aims for piece of fab-tool market

Looking to turn the IC-equipment industry upside down, China startup Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. (AMEC) has rolled out its initial tools, unveiled its strategy and disclosed plans to go public in the future.

Shanghai-based AMEC, one of the few IC-equipment companies in China, has unveiled a separate reactive ion etcher and a high-pressure chemical vapor deposition (HPCVD) tool. Both 300mm systems are geared for use in manufacturing 65nm chip designs and beyond.

To date, the company is clearly the most advanced fab-tool vendor from China. The nation boasts some minor silicon wafer suppliers, electronic materials firms and a few low-end equipment vendors. Up to now, fab-equipment technology from China has been laughable and decades behind the tools from Europe, Japan and the United States.

AMEC, sometimes referred to as the "Applied Materials of China" by some observers, could be a new force in the maturing equipment industry, which has seen few startups in recent times. In fact, the company claims that its machines have some competitive advantages over tools from the likes of Applied Materials Inc., Lam Research Corp., Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) and others.

AMEC, which consists of former employees of Applied, Lam and others, hopes to unseat its rivals in China as well as in global markets. "We want to be a leader, not a follower," said Gerald Yin, chairman and CEO at AMEC, in an interview. "We plan to be a global company, not an Asian company."

Hurdles ahead

But the startup faces some challenges to reach its lofty goals. First, AMEC is simply late to the game in a maturing market. Second, there may be little or no room for a new entry in the etch and CVD markets; most chipmakers already have their favorite and entrenched fab-tool suppliers and are not willing to gamble on a new vendor, especially one from China.

Third, it's unclear if a new player from China has the technology, funding or road map to compete against Applied, Lam and TEL. And finally, there are some worries about the intellectual-property (IP) issues and doing business with a China fab-tool supplier.

Yin dismissed many of those notions, saying that there is indeed room for a new startup in the competitive semiconductor equipment business.

A former executive at Applied, Lam and other companies, Yin said that the semiconductor industry is still looking for new and innovative ideas to maintain the breakneck pace of Moore's Law. But one of the problems is that current fab-tool suppliers have grown somewhat complacent and are finding it difficult to keep pace with the demands from leading-edge chipmakers, he said.

"There are so many challenges for the semiconductor industry," he said. AMEC, he said, is bringing a new solution to the etch and CVD party. And more importantly, the company has "done its due diligence in IP," he added.

But is that enough to keep the company out of legal trouble? It's unclear at this point. Then, there are the touchy export control issues in China. Generally, all advanced fab-tool vendors must obtain an export license from the United States to sell their gear into China.

AMEC faces a slightly different scenario: The company must import advanced subsystems and components from foreign suppliers into China. In response, AMEC claims that the U.S. government has issued an export license for the importation of "critical devices" to the company.

In any case, the company has come a long ways in a short time. Founded in 2004, AMEC has kept somewhat of a low profile. Over the years, the company has garnered some $111 million in funding from several entities, including Qualcomm, Samsung, Walden International, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Goldman Sachs and others.

AMEC, which has 250 employees, has a manufacturing site in Shanghai. In June 2007, it reached a milestone by quietly shipping its initial beta tools to undisclosed customers. By early 2008, AMEC hopes to have a total of six tools in various beta sites.

Beyond that, AMEC is seeking to become profitable by 2009. By 2010, it hopes to have some 70 to 100 systems in the field, with a possible initial public offering (IPO) in the works in that timeframe.

Product rollout

Earlier this month, the company has rolled out its first products for use in making logic, memory and other devices. To gain share, AMEC claims it won't bomb the prices in the marketplace. "We want to get market share, not by cutting prices," Yin said.

Instead, AMEC claims to have the technology that can compete with the fab-tool giants. The company's etcher, for example, has a CD control between 3- and 5nm. Most of the competitive tools are struggling to go below 5nm, according to Yin.

"A lot of companies are struggling to get to 3nm, which is very challenging," he said. At the 32nm node, the CD control requirements could go down to 2nm, he added.

The company has two tool lines. AMEC's Primo D-RIE is a decoupled reactive ion etch system for use in critical and other dielectric etch applications. The company's Primo HPCVD system is aimed for shallow trench isolation (STI) and pre-metal dielectric deposition.

At the heart of each tool is a mini-batch cluster architecture, said to improve productivity by more than 35 percent over comparative systems, while offering a 35-percent lower cost-of-ownership benefit.

The 300mm Primo D-RIE system leverages a twin-station mini-batch cluster system with a single-wafer environment. The mini-batch cluster is said to have up to six single-wafer process stations. An endpoint control per station feature enables each wafer to run in a single chamber environment.

It features a decoupled and dual-frequency RIE plasma source. Direct resistive top electrode heating with a close-loop control enables precise and fast temperature control for consistent wafer processing, according to the company.

The tool is aimed for 65nm and 45nm chip designs and beyond. Applications include hard mask open, spacer, dual damascene via and trench etches, among many others.

Meanwhile, the 300mm Primo HPCVD system is also based on a mini-batch cluster architecture and a patented multichannel distribution technology. The mini-batch cluster is said to have up to 12 single-wafer processing stations.

- Mark LaPedus

EE Times

http://www.eetasia.com/ART_8800495262_480200_NT_db29a015.HTM

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