South Korean chip manufacturer chooses ClassOne system

The eight-chambered Solstice plating tool will be installed at Point Engineering’s manufacturing facility in Asan City, South Korea. "Our products call for unique manufacturing approaches,”says PEC‘s CEO, Bum-Mo Ahn in a press release. “In addition to copper, we require plating of palladium cobalt alloy into highly variant features; and this plating is done on a proprietary substrate. We needed a volume-manufacturing platform that has the necessary flexibility without sacrificing reliability. The Solstice S8 covers these needs very well, and it also has a compact footprint to conserve fab space." Point Engineering's new Solstice configuration includes a CopperMax processing chamber, a ClassOne-proprietary feature designed to optimise copper plating. The chamber enables consistent high-quality, high-rate copper plating, while maximising uptime and reducing bottom-line operating costs. “Point Engineering has gained considerable respect in the industry for its semiconductor parts, which frequently go into probe pins and micro power inductors," says ClassOne‘s CEO, Byron Exarcos. “In today’s semiconductor industry, we’re seeing that new product categories often drive the need for novel approaches in manufacturing. Point Engineering’s groundbreaking new products demand a process-experienced equipment provider and a flexible platform. We’re gratified that Point Engineering has chosen ClassOne and Solstice to partner with them on their next-generation products.” The Solstice S8 is an 8-chambered system designed and built by ClassOne for high-performance, fully-automated electroplating and surface preparation, specifically for ≤200mm semiconductor wafer processing.