News: Suppliers
27 November 2024
AlixLabs debuting 300mm APS wafer processing equipment at SEMICON Japan
AlixLabs AB of Lund, Sweden — which was spun off from Lund University in 2019 and has developed the Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) Pitch Splitting technology (APS) — is participating at SEMICON Japan 2024 at Tokyo Big Sight (11–13 December), marking the public debut for its 300mm wafer process chamber. Its Made in Sweden APS (ALE Pitch Splitting) tools are aimed at allowing the semiconductor industry to scale down to sub-7nm manufacturing processes in a more sustainable way, and is positioned as an alternative to costly double patterning or EUV (extreme ultraviolet) solutions.
APS is designed to reduce the cost of leading-edge manufacturing, sub-7nm, where feature sizes of less than 20nm are required. An estimated cost saving of up to 40% per mask layer can be achieved with APS rather than relying on EUV lithography, and complex self-aligned multi patterning schemes.
“As our 300mm tool is being put through its paces in our lab, we look forward to demonstrating it for Japanese clients,” says chief operating officer & R&D manager Amin Karimi. “Japan is investing heavily in revitalizing its semiconductor industry and once again becoming a leading-edge player in the business. With APS we can help make this happen at lower costs up front as well as during mass production, while we lower the carbon footprint of the production,” he adds. “We have a lot of interest from Japanese clients.”
APS and the Made in Sweden tools associated with it can already create 20nm half-pitch lines and critical dimensions below 15nm on silicon and 3nm on gallium phosphide. It also has numerous applications for power electronics, including precision etching and surface cleaning, each allowing for improved electrical performance than conventional methods in use today, it is claimed.
AlixLabs’ goal is to supply leading semiconductor manufacturers, in both logic and memory segments. At SEMICON Japan, it will be represented by Karimi in the EU Pavilion.
AlixLabs gains €345,000 grant from Swedish innovation agency Vinnova
EU Intellectual Property Office grants trademark registration for AlixLabs’ APS process
