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Performance
of 50 Completed ATP Projects
Status
Report - Number 2
NIST SP 950-2
Chapter
4 - Electronics, Computer Hardware & Communications
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Diamond
Semiconductor Group, LLC (DSG)
Lowering the Cost and Improving
the Quality of Computer Chips
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| Billions
of integrated circuits — the tiny chips that run personal computers
and thousands of other electronic devices — are fabricated every
year in the United States through ion beam implantation, a technique
for introducing carefully controlled impurities, or dopants, into
specific locations on the semiconductor wafers from which chips are
cut. Dopants control the electrical properties of the semiconductor,
forming the transistors and other microscopic components of each chip. |
COMPOSITE
PERFORMANCE SCORE
(Based on a four star rating.)
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Worker holding
the world's first 300 millimeter silicon wafer populated with electronic
components using the wide beam ion implantation technology. |
Ion Beam Implantation
for 300-mm Wafers
With chip components getting smaller and denser, the need for more accurate
control of dopant implantation has risen. At the same time, competitive
manufacturing has driven the size of production wafers up, making increased
accuracy problematic because of the difficulty in precisely scanning the
implantation beam across the wafer.
This ATP project allowed
Diamond Semiconductor Group (DSG), a two-person start-up company when
it applied to the ATP, to develop a new and better way to implant dopants
on large silicon crystal wafers measuring 300 mm or more in diameter,
compared with the previous industry standard of 200 mm. Because the area
of a 300-mm wafer is 2.25 times that of a 200-mm wafer and some waste
always occurs at wafer edges, the new approach enables the production
of about 2.5 times as many chips from a single wafer as the 200-mm technology
can make. The use of DSG’s new technology in production equipment
makes it possible to lower the cost and improve the quality of computer
chips and other integrated circuits.
Multiple Advantages
of Wide-Beam Technology
A key innovation in the new technology is passing the wafer under a 350-mm-wide
ion beam for implantation, rather than scanning the ion beam across the
wafer. The broad beam is very stable and therefore highly accurate. The
new equipment incorporating this technology is also significantly simpler
than earlier machines and so is cheaper to build and maintain and is more
reliable. Use of the DSG technology has already improved fabrication quality
substantially relative to the existing
industrywide standard. It doubled the mean time between failures, which
means that on average, failures occur only half as often as with current
equipment.
The DSG technology
also lowers fabrication costs by allowing implant equipment to be designed
to work on one wafer at a time. Although it seems counterintuitive, single-wafer
processing is actually an advantage. Fewer wafers are lost if equipment
fails, compared with current technology. The latter involves clamping
13 to 17 wafers to a large wheel, which then rotates at about 1,200 rpm
under the ion beam. One failure may result in 13 to 17 unacceptable wafers.
With single-wafer processing, only one wafer would be lost. In addition,
single-wafer processing enables ion implantation to be coordinated much
better with other fabrication steps, most of which are also performed
one wafer at a time.
Licensing for Two
Different Applications
The ATP project is already a commercial success. DSG licensed the technology
to Varian Associates, an ion-implant equipment manufacturer, which has
incorporated the new technology into products now being sold.
Worldwide sales of
ion implanters total $1 billion to $1.2 billion per year, and Varian has
40 percent to 50 percent of the market. Most of the equipment currently
sold is for 200-mm wafers, and Varian was the first to market equipment
that handles 300-mm wafers. Over the next five years, industry analysts
say, the majority of implanters sold will be for 300-mm wafers. All 300-mm-wafer
ion implanters currently manufactured by Varian include the DSG technology,
and those produced in the future are expected to, as well.
DSG is also developing
the technology for another application: flat-panel displays, such as those
used in notebook computers. The company has completed the development
work through a licensing agreement with Mitsui Electronics and Shipbuilding,
which invested $6.1 million in the effort. In late 1997, Mitsui announced
it had already
won a contract to supply the panels to a customer. Prior to licensing
the technology to Mitsui, DSG attempted to interest U.S. flat-panel display
companies in it. But most of this industry is off shore, and there were
no interested parties in the United States.
The uniform
ribbon beam vertically scanning a wafer, in an ion implanter manufactured
by Varian Associates. |
Benefits All Along
the Supply Chain
DSG’s broad-beam technology enables the generation of substantial
economic benefits. Varian sells its ion implanters to chip-fabrication
companies such as Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments. These companies,
in turn, sell their chips to manufacturers that use computer chips in
their products — computer companies like Apple, Gateway, Hewlett-Packard,
and IBM, as well as firms that make automobiles, appliances, consumer
electronics, and communications equipment. All along this chain of production,
the new technology is saving costs and improving quality.
End users of these
products can also expect to benefit from the new technology. Businesses
that use desk-top computers containing chips made with this technology,
for example, will get lower-cost, higher-quality machines. These will
enable better services at lower costs, producing economic benefits for
the businesses and their customers. Ultimately, company officials say,
the profit DSG earns from its new technology will likely be only one percent
to two percent or less of the total incremental economic benefits the
technology is apt to generate across the economy, that is, the spillover
benefits are likely to be large.
ATP Award Invigorates
Small U.S. Company
DSG reports that without the ATP award, it would probably have been unable
to do the research or survive as a company. Its only other alternative
then was to become part of a foreign company. All the high-risk research
and development work on DSG’s broad-beam technology was done during
the ATP project, and there was a high likelihood of failure. In addition,
the company’s status as an ATP participant facilitated the agreement
it negotiated with Varian to help DSG meet its cost share for the project
and, later, to include the technology in Varian’s wafer implantation
equipment.
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Project
Highlights
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PROJECT:
To develop a novel approach for introducing dopants — substances
that alter the electrical properties of semiconductor materials
— into large semiconductor wafers to enable faster, less costly
fabrication of larger wafers with smaller, more-densely packed components.
Duration: 3/1/1993 — 6/30/1994
ATP Number: 92-01-0115
FUNDING (in
thousands):
| ATP |
$1,326
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77%
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| Company |
393
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23%
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| Total |
$1,719
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ACCOMPLISHMENTS:
DSG developed broad-beam ion-implantation technology (now embodied
in Varian’s SHC80 Serial High-Current Implanter) that successfully
implanted the first commercially viable 300-mm semiconductor wafer.
The new technology doubled the existing industrywide mean time between
failures and provided additional ways to increase the quality and
reduce the cost of chip fabrication. The company:
- received
two patents for technology related to the ATP project:
“Compact High-Current Broad-Beam Ion Implanter”
(No. 5,350,926: filed 3/11/1993, granted 9/27/1994) and
“High Speed Movement of Workpieces in Vacuum Processing”
(No. 5,486,080: filed 6/30/1994, granted 1/23/1996);
- applied for
two additional patents for technologies related to the ATP project;
- licensed
the technology developed during the ATP project to Varian, which
incorporated it in its SHC80 implant system and is actively selling
the equipment to commercial customers; and
- licensed
its technology to Mitsui Electronics and Shipbuilding for a flat-panel
display application, after U.S. companies declined the licensing
opportunity. DSG used $6.1 million from Mitsui to develop a 650-mm
flat-panel component for displays. In 1997, Mitsui signed its
first contract to supply the displays to a customer.
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CITATIONS
BY OTHERS OF PROJECT’S PATENTS: See Figure
4.6.
COMMERCIALIZATION
STATUS:
The technology has been commercialized in one application and is
very near commercialization for a second application. Chip manufacturers
using the Varian SHC80 implant system (which incorporates the technology)
are producing larger (300-mm) wafers than before (200-mm) and making
them faster, with higher quality and at lower cost.
OUTLOOK:
The outlook is excellent. Varian is already selling semiconductor
fabrication equipment that incorporates the new technology, and
a flat-panel display application is under way. The technology generates
cost savings not only for companies using it to make computer chips
but also for those who ultimately buy the chips and the products
containing them. The benefits directly captured by DSG will likely
be only a small fraction of the total net benefits the technology
generates for the economy.
Composite
Performance Score:
COMPANY:
Diamond Semiconductor Group, LLC (DSG)
30 Blackburn Center
Gloucester, MA 01930
Contact:
Manny Sieradzki
Phone: (978) 281-4223
Number of Employees: 9 at project start, 25 at the end of
1997
Informal collaborator: Varian Associates Inc.
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of Contents or go to next section.
Date created: April
2002
Last updated:
April 12, 2005
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