Micronic get first Sigma7500 order in Asia

"This order is a result of a comprehensive cooperation with the customer that was initiated in 2005," said Sven Lofquist, Micronic president and CEO. "The customer's decision to order a Sigma7500 system was made after a successful qualification and evaluation process." "Micronic is today the largest pattern generator supplier," said Sven Lofquist. "In pace with increasing acceptance of the Sigma technology in the industry, we are now also significantly strengthening our position as supplier of pattern generators for advanced semiconductor photomask manufacturing." The Sigma7500 is based on the same platform as the Sigma7300, and offers enhanced accuracy and productivity for advanced photomasks. This significantly widens the application space both for binary and phase shift masks (PSM) at the 90nm-, 65nm- and 45nm- technology nodes. In addition to meeting increasingly stringent requirements for resolution and accuracy at advanced technology nodes, the laser-based Sigma7500 provides productivity that is several times higher than that of e-beam pattern generators. This lowers mask cost and turn-around times from the mask shop, reducing cost and cycle times in IC development. The high resolution and productivity are achieved with the system's 248 nm excimer laser and Micronic's proprietary spatial light modulator (SLM) technology. A massively parallel bitmap output results in short write times - only two to three hours for advanced masks - that are independent of the design density and OPC.