Analog Devices has presented photomask manufacturer Photronics with its Supplier Excellence Award in the Critical Indirect Materials category, one of only sixteen suppliers to be recognized in six categories. 

Carl Zeiss SMT has moved to a new North American base in Peabody, Massachusetts, which houses the company’s research, development and production as well as the Carl Zeiss Nano Solutions Center Peabody. The 53,000 square foot facility will be the workplace of over 150 employees and will serve as the company’s North American base for sales and service of the company’s product range. 

POWERLASE has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise in the International Trade category in recognition of the company’s expansion in overseas markets. The company has displayed significant success in the Korean marketplace, and has also been recognised for its R&D efforts with global academic institutions. 

The first 90W argon fluoride (ArF) laser light source to enter the market has been installed at Nikon’s Kumagaya, Japan facility by Cymer. The system is designed for volume immersion and double patterning photolithography at the 32nm node and beyond. 

ASML has shipped its 1000th KrF lithography system, which went to a customer in South Korea, the company said. The KrF system will be used for the production of memory chips. 

Brion Technologies has said that work conducted by STMicroelectronics at its Crolles2 facility with photomask partner Dai Nippon Printing shows the effectiveness of using model-based mask verification with 45nm masks for logic applications due to its ability to assist in the optimization of RET and OPC strategies, which are increasing in complexity and cost at each technology node. 

Blaze DFM has signed an exclusive agreement with TSMC that allows the foundry to offer customers Blaze’s Power Trim Service, which identifies paths in the design that have sufficient timing ‘slack’ so that transistors can be turned down to save power consumption without reducing the performance of the chip. 

POWERLASE is to supply nanosecond Q-switched, diode-pumped solid state (DPSS) lasers to the Extreme Ultraviolet Lithography System Development Association (EUVA) for research efforts to perfect the use of discharge-produced plasma (DPP) light source. 

Toshiba and Ponte Solutions are to collaborate on a via and contact etch DFM project that is designed to cut new process/node ramp times by reducing the need to run larger numbers of test wafers.