Lam Research Expands Its Portfolio for Atomic-Scale Processing

SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwired - July 07, 2014) - Lam Research Corp. (NASDAQ: LRCX), a major global supplier of innovative wafer fabrication equipment and services to the semiconductor industry, today announced the addition of atomic layer etch (ALE) to its portfolio of atomic layer deposition (ALD) products. The new production-worthy ALE capability on the 2300® Kiyo® F Series conductor etch system delivers atomic-scale variability control to enable next-generation wafer processing. Together with Lam's VECTOR® ALD Oxide product for dielectric film ALD and ALTUS® systems for tungsten metal film ALD, these products support the industry's shift toward manufacturing chips at the atomic scale, where every atom matters.

As feature sizes continue to shrink and new device architectures are introduced, controlling process variability in manufacturing becomes much more challenging. Looking ahead to next-generation requirements, feature dimensions will soon have tolerances that are on the order of a few atoms. At the same time, device aspect ratios continue to increase, and topographies are becoming even more complicated. For the most advanced structures, conventional plasma etch and deposition processes are unable to meet these requirements, and new approaches are needed. ALE and ALD provide a solution by using cycles of multi-step processes that deposit or remove a few atomic layers at a time, thereby delivering precise control. The challenge is to deliver sufficient productivity to make these processes suitable for increasingly cost-sensitive manufacturing environments.

Lam's new ALE capability on the 2300 Kiyo F Series conductor etch system provides both the productivity and technology needed. The product leverages fast gas switching and advanced plasma techniques in the reactor to boost throughput, while dynamic RF bias enables the directional etching required to remove material in high aspect ratio (deep and narrow) features. As the latest offering in Lam's market-leading Kiyo family, the 2300 Kiyo F Series system continues to provide superior uniformity and repeatability enabled by a symmetrical chamber design, advanced electrostatic chuck technology, and independent process tuning features.