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Another Japanese photoresist supplier has teamed with SEMATECH to develop EUV resists for use at the 22nm node and beyond. Shin-Etsu Chemical will gain access to two micro-exposure tools (METs) located at the University at Albany’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering and University of California at Berkeley, as well as several advanced metrology tools to help develop the highly sensitive resists required for EUV lithography. Read more >>

SUSS MicroTec has shipped and installed a LithoPack300 lithography cluster to a customer in Japan, which will be used for 3D IC integration technology development. The cluster tool includes coat, bake, expose and develop modules for wafers up to 300mm. Read more >>

Toshiba Corporation has placed an order with Obducat’s Japanese distributor Canon Marketing Japan for one of its on nanoimprint lithography (NIL) systems. Toshiba use the NIL system for advanced R&D within several key application areas such as optoelectronics. Obducat said that its technology was selected from a range of suppliers after several evaluations of imprint trials. Read more >>

Nanometrics Inc., supplier of process control metrology systems used primarily in the manufacturing and packaging of semiconductors, solar photovoltaics and high-brightness LEDs, has announced a multiple system order for its Caliper Mosaic overlay metrology system. Read more >>

The University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana, has purchased Vistec’s EBPG5200 e-beam lithography system that is equipped with a modified platform that supports full exposure of substrates to a maximum size of 200mm. The University will use the system for research on new electronic, optoelectronic and magnetic device concepts and associated architectures at Notre Dame’s Center for Nano Science and Technology and the Notre Dame Nanofabrication Facility (NDNF). Read more >>

A large Asian-based IC manufacturer are installed Cymer’s XLR 600ix field-selectable 60 watt–90 watt, immersion light source into a Nikon scanner system, making it the first immersion light source of this kind to be installed. Cymer also claimed that all of the industry’s immersion double patterning light source selections in 2009 have been awarded to the company. Read more >>

An important step in bringing e-Beam maskless lithography to the fab floor could be in the making with news that MAPPER’s massively parallel electron beam platform is to be shipped to CEA-Leti, kicking-off a its three-year IMAGINE program to make the technology ready for IC production at the 22nm node and beyond. Read more >>

Cymer, Inc. has shipped the world’s first fully integrated laser-produced plasma (LPP) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) lithography source tool to ASML in Veldhoven, The Netherlands where it will support integration and testing of next generation EUV lithography scanners. This purchase is the first of many in an agreed multi-unit purchase deal. Read more >>

Loss-making photomask manufacturer Photronics is closing its only mask shop in China with the loss of approximately 75 jobs. The move is part of Photronics' efforts to lower its operational breakeven point. Mask shops in other Asian locations including Korea, Singapore and two sites in Taiwan will supply customers in China, the company said. In October 2008, Photronics announced the closure of its mask shop in the UK and recently re-negotiated its lease agreement at its joint venture mask shop with Micron Technology.

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A group of companies are to collaborate on improving design for mask manufacturing (DFMM) by breaking the barriers that have traditionally separated IC designers from mask shop engineers. Under Crystal, a European collaborative R&D program sponsored by the Cluster for Application and Technology Research in Europe on NanoElectronics (CATRENE), Satin IP Technologies SAS, Toppan Photomasks France SAS and XYALIS SaRL will also work to make mask manufacturing a more efficient and less iterative process. Read more >>