7 February 2012

EVG launches 2nd-gen EVG620HBL mask alignment system for LED making

At this week’s Strategies in Light 2012 conference in Santa Clara, CA, USA (7–9 February), EV Group (EVG) of St Florian, Austria, a supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS (micro-electro-mechanical system), nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, has launched the EVG620HBL Gen II — its second-generation fully automated mask alignment system for volume manufacturing of high-brightness light-emitting diodes (HB-LEDs).

Introduced a year after the launch of the first-generation EVG620HBL (at last February’s Strategies in Light 2011 event), the Gen II delivers a tool platform tailored to address HB-LED customer-specific needs and the ongoing demand of total cost-of-ownership reduction. It also optimizes tool footprint in the fab — delivering 55% higher wafer output for every square meter of cleanroom space compared to competing offerings, it is claimed.

“The HB-LED market is dynamic and fast changing, and our customers constantly need innovative solutions to ensure their output and capital investments are being maximized,” says business development manager Dr Thomas Uhrmann. “The EVG620HBL Gen II is a great example of how EVG quickly responds to its customers' needs by leveraging its expertise in HB-LED manufacturing to deliver an effective solution,” he adds. “Having already built a proven platform that is now a de-facto industry standard with our first-generation mask alignment tool, we expect the EVG620HBL Gen II will further widen the economical gap over competitive offerings.”, EVG’s bonders and mask aligners are currently being deployed by four of the top five major HB-LED makers, it is reckoned.

Escalating demands for cost reductions and yield enhancements require that equipment providers rethink what they offer in terms of total cost of ownership, EVG says. This is particularly true with mask alignment for lithography where maximizing yield is critical to fulfilling the long-term growth potential of LED technology, it adds. Accordingly, the EVG620HBL Gen II is outfitted with new features aimed at satisfying the specific demands of high-volume manufacturing (HVM) customers:

• enhanced microscope supporting automated mask pattern search, further reducing mask setup and change time (both of which are critical to enabling continuous device production in HVM environments);
• updated robotic handling layout with wafer mapping capability (supporting the demand for wafer traceability);
• improved alignment capability (line alignment), which leverages the grids that mark single LEDs for orientation instead of requiring alignment marks that take up valuable space on the wafer; and
• reduced system footprint, which optimizes total cost of ownership for operation and increases the wafer per footprint index.

Together, these key enhancements to the EVG620HBL Gen II enable a 20% reduction in cost-per-processed wafer compared to competing offerings, the firm reckons.

Built on EVG’s field-proven mask aligner platform, the EVG620HBL series features a high-intensity ultraviolet (UV) light source and an optional filter fan unit to maximize yield and enable what is claimed to be the industry’s highest wafer throughput of up to 165 six-inch wafers per hour (up to 220 wafers per hour in first print mode).

Another key feature is the availability of special recipe-controlled microscopes whose illumination spectrum can be varied and optimized to ensure the best pattern contrast with various wafer and layer materials, including substrate materials such as sapphire, silicon carbide (SiC), aluminum nitride (AlN), metal and ceramic. The EVG620HBL series processes 2- to 6-inch wafers.

At the Strategies in Light conference on Thursday 9 February at 8:30am (Pacific Time), EVG’s Dr Thomas Uhrmann is presenting on ‘High Throughput Lithography and Metal Wafer Bonding: Two Enabling Technologies for Future High-Brightness LEDs’.

See: EV Group Company Profile

Tags: EVG EVG620HBL Mask alignment system HB-LEDs

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