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New semiconductor equipment and related product introductions were plentiful in 2007 with an almost continuous stream throughout the year. Though SEMICON West proved once again to the most popular time for new product announcements SEMICON Japan this year was busier than in that department than last year.

It is also very difficult to gauge the level of traffic to each product as on many occasions they have a rather long shelf-life with and initial peak in the days after posting online and then a long tail-off with little burst of activity for quite some time.

So this was interesting to put together as we really couldn’t be sure of the winners!

We did expect that ASML’s XT:1900 immersion tool would be in the top 10 lists as such tools are critical to leading-edge manufacturing. TEL’s ‘LITHIUS Pro’ product popularity only went to support such claims.

Another in the list that didn’t surprise us was the new etch platform from Intervac, as it received a lot of attention at SEMICON West as well as a good example of what ‘300mm Prime’ productivity improvements we could expect should this tool gain traction in the market.

Applied Materials was the only company to have two new tools listed and both of key significance in 45nm and below fabrication.

What was very surprising was the appearance of two software products. Historically these have not faired well compared to the big shiny stuff!

However, it was a very close run thing that Brooks PROMIS 5.8 MES software upgrade introduction wasn’t the most popular product reviewed in 2007.

It should be noted that some of the products were actually launched in the latter part of 2006. However, we have only counted page views of these products that occurred in 2007.

With Lam Research known for its lack of ‘official’ new product launches, the new Motif tool proved highly popular.

However, the two biggest surprises in the list were ATMI and ILOG. ATMI’s RegenSi wafer reclaim technology came a close third and could have been the top product of the year, it was that close at the top!

But the outright winner was a product launched in April the ‘VECTOR Express' from Novellus Systems. At its launch, we received a significant amount of traffic and its popularity held on through both West and Japan product onslaughts.

1. New Product: Novellus extends PECVD technology to the 45nm node with higher productivity

2. New Product: PROMIS 5.8 MES give upgrade benefits for fabs  

3. New Product: ATMI’s RegenSi wafer reclaim offers shorter etch times for 300mm wafers 

4. New Product: Tokyo Electron boosts photoresist track system productivity with ‘LITHIUS Pro’

5. New Product: Lam’s new Motif etch system targets 10nm post-lithography CD shrinks   

6. New Product: Applied Materials adds 30 percent more silicon strain in the Producer Celera

7. New Product: Optimize 300mm fab tool scheduling every 5 minutes offered by ILOG’s Fab PowerOps 

8. New Product: ASML’s ‘TWINSCAN’ XT:1900i near limit of immersion capabilities     

9. New Product: Intevac’s novel ‘Lean Etch’ platform posts 200wph productivity        

10. New Product: Oxide spacer system from Applied Materials enables 32nm self-aligned DP