"Our top tier customers require suppliers to have advanced development and manufacturing facilities," said Eric Johnson, president of JSR Micro. "By upgrading our fab to 300mm, along with moving to a higher NA scanner, we are able to support our most advanced customers' needs."

As part of the up-grade JSR Micro is planning to install and 300mm lithography tool, though the company did not state whether it would an immersion tool and from which supplier. Currently the company uses a variety of wave-length lithography systems from either Nikon or Canon. The most advanced system is a Nikon 5305B ArF Scanner working with a TEL Clean Track ACT-8. All previous track systems at the facility had been TEL's.

However, the company has reported that it has purchased an RF3 track system from Sokudo Co, the new name for the recently formed JV between DNS and Applied Materials. The 300mm wafer track system will be used primarily to provide state-of-the-art capability for 65nm and 45nm node materials research and qualification in ArF, multilayer materials, chemical shrink materials and top antireflective coatings (TARCs) for 45nm processes. Additional process support for JSR Micro will be available from the nearby Sokudo engineering resources within Applied Materials' Maydan Technology Center in Santa Clara, California, according to the press statement.

"Placement of an RF3 at JSR Micro is an additional step toward strengthening alliances with leaders in the lithography market," said Akira Yamano, executive vice president, Sokudo. "Working with JSR Micro allows Sokudo to expand our materials knowledge-base on the RF3 in order to meet customers' most advanced lithography process requirements."

JSR was recently ranked the number one worldwide supplier of 193nm ArF photoresist chemicals by Gartner Dataquest.