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The ‘Bof W’ Award finalists, not as was orginally reported, which is an award system used by market research firm VLSI Research, have been revealed for this years SEMICON West. New products are measured by semiconductor manufacturing experts and industry trade journalist based on their financial impact on the industry, engineering or scientific achievement, and/or societal impact. The Best of West Award winner will be announced during a special ceremony on Wednesday, July 14, 2009 at 1:00pm (TechSITE North, North Hall, Moscone Center).

Finalists this year include Jordan Valley Semiconductors, Keyence Corporation and Nikon Corporation.

Jordan Valley was noted for its ‘JVX7200’ SiGe Metrology Tool, which combines advanced high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and X-ray reflectivity (XRR) channels to provide composition, thickness, strain, relaxation characterization and metrology for epitaxial layers such as SiGe and SiC. These technologies are said to be required for strained silicon processes.

The VHX-1000 Digital Microscope from Keyence Corporation was said to be the first system that integrates the functionality of stereoscopes, metallurgical microscopes, measuring microscopes and scanning electron microscopes into an all-in-one imaging, measuring and report-generating microscope.

The ability to offer fully-focused, high-resolution images for analysis, providing solutions for some of the most common difficulties in modern material inspection was deemed important enough to be listed a finalist.

This year a major equipment supplier was also a finalist, Nikon Corporation for its NSR-S620D Ultra-High Productivity Immersion Scanner. The lithography tool incorporates the ‘Streamlign’ platform and a 1.35 numerical aperture lens for double patterned lithography at 32nm, with extendibility to 22nm applications. The S620D targets 200 wafers per hour with a claimed high yield with an impressive 2nm overlay and improved CDU.