Temescal of Livermore, CA, USA (a division of Ferrotec Corp) has introduced its UEFC-5700, a ultra-high-efficiency electron-beam metallization system for lift-off compound semiconductor applications. UEFC-5700 is the first Temescal system to incorporate the Auratus deposition process enhancement methodology, offering near-perfect uniformity while delivering up to 40% increases in material collection efficiency, resulting in significant cost savings on process materials like gold and platinum compared to traditional box coaters, says the firm.
UEFC-5700 is designed for compound semiconductor production environments that use lift-off electron-beam evaporation processes. It features a unique conical-shaped vacuum chamber that reduces volume and surface area, significantly reducing pump-down time, adds the firm. The system also features a patent-pending High-Uniformity Lift-off Assembly (HULA) design that uses a dual-axis motion to optimize collection efficiency.
"With the UEFC-5700, we have significantly improved the throughput efficiency of traditional lift-off coating processes. From the unique chamber design to the HULA carrier system, the UEFC-5700 improves pumping and batch capacity with excellent uniformity across all evaporated materials, enabling the system to run more wafers and more batches per day than any conventional box coater," says Gregg Wallace, managing director of Ferrotec's Temescal division. "The biggest benefit to users of this system is the improvement in uniformity and collection efficiency of all materials being evaporated. For IDMs and foundries, this equates to improved yields of better devices that cost much less to produce."
UEFC-5700 offers increased wafer production capacity, up to forty-two 150mm wafers in a batch, without a significant change in raw material or energy consumption. In terms of footprint and power consumption, the UEFC-5700 is virtually identical to Temescal's largest production system, the FC-4400.
With its conical-shaped load-locked chamber and 44,000 liters/second of installed cryogenic pumping capacity, the UEFC-5700 reaches process pressures faster than most conventional box coaters. Systems have reached 5E-07 Torr in under 10 minutes, improving production cycle times and the number of batches that can be run per shift or day.
