New UEFC-4900 brings Auratus™ Deposition Process Enhancement Methodology Benefits to 100 and 150mm Wafer Production Lines
Livermore, CA, USA — Ferrotec Corporation, a global supplier of materials, components, and precision system solutions and the leading manufacturer of electron beam evaporative coating systems, today unveiled the Temescal UEFC-4900, a mid-sized ultra-high efficiency electron beam metallization system for lift-off compound semiconductor applications. A smaller system that’s optimized for 100 and 150mm production wafer processes, the UEFC-4900 offers all of the benefits of the Auratus™ Deposition Process Enhancement Methodology, producing near-perfect uniformity while delivering up to 40% reduction in material consumption, resulting in significant cost savings on process materials like gold and platinum compared to traditional box coaters.
The Temescal UEFC-4900 is designed for active compound semiconductor production environments that use electron beam evaporation and lift-off coating processes. The UEFC-4900 features a conical shaped vacuum chamber that doubles the wafer capacity of the system compared to the similarly sized Temescal FC-2800. The system also features a patent-pending High-Uniformity Lift-off Assembly (HULA) design that uses a dual-axis motion to optimize collection efficiency.
“With the UEFC-4900, we’re bringing our most advanced Auratus process enhancements to customers operating 100 and 150mm production lines traditionally served by our FC-2800 system. From its unique chamber design to the HULA for wafer handling, the UEFC-4900 pumps down faster, coats more wafers, and runs more batches per day than the comparably sized FC-2800,” said Gregg Wallace, managing director of Ferrotec’s Temescal division. “But the real power of this system is its precision, producing near-perfect uniformity while reducing process material consumption by up to 40%. For IDMs and foundries, this equates to better quality devices that cost less. ”
The Temescal UEFC-4900 features significantly increased wafer production capacity. The system can process up to twenty-five 150mm wafers in a batch, more than double the capacity of the Temescal FC-2800 system with a similar footprint and power consumption.
With its unique conical shaped chamber and multiple cryopumps, the UEFC-4900 pumps down to process pressure significantly faster than conventional box coaters. With 39,000 L/sec pumping capacity, the system can reach 5E-07 Torr faster than the FC-2800, reducing production time lost waiting for the system to get to process pressure and increasing the number of batches that can be run per day.
The system incorporates Temescal’s Auratus deposition process enhancement methodology. Auratus is a proprietary optimization methodology for lift-off electron beam evaporative coating that incorporates patent pending technology to achieve unprecedented levels of uniformity, precision, and collection efficiency. Auratus enables Temescal system users to coat wafers with near perfect uniformity, resulting in more consistent, better quality products and fewer defects. Temescal’s Auratus methodology also has the capability to increase the effective deposition rate, enabling customers to increase throughput.