Veeco Instruments is seeing increasing demand from the semiconductor industry for its laser spike annealing (LSA) systems, having received multiple orders from both a ‘world-leading’ memory device manufacturer and an advanced logic customer.
The orders represent Veeco’s first systems intended for the high-volume manufacturing of DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) devices.
Laser spike annealing is a millisecond annealing technology used in front-end semiconductor manufacturing to lower resistance of key transistor structures by activating dopants.
The ordered LSA systems are capable of high temperature annealing while staying within reduced thermal budgets of advanced devices at leading edge nodes. These annealing steps are instrumental in determining the electrical properties and performance of the resulting devices.
“We are proud to have our LSA platform selected for high volume manufacturing by leading memory and logic device manufacturers,” commented Adrian Devasahayam, Ph.D., Veeco’s Senior Vice President, Product Line Management. “Veeco’s LSA system is widely acknowledged as the optimum annealing solution for low thermal-budget applications. As devices evolve at advanced nodes, precise annealing by our LSA platform is becoming more critical. The successful penetration in DRAM is expected to significantly increase our served available market.”
Both sets of orders will ship from the Veeco’s new facility in San Jose, California. In addition to laser annealing equipment, the firm provides ion beam, chemical vapour deposition (CVD), metal organic chemical vapour deposition (MOCVD), single wafer etch & clean and lithography technologies.