Solmates of Science Park Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands (a spin-off from the MESA+ Institute of Nanotechnology) has received an order for one of its pulsed laser deposition (PLD) equipment systems from nanoelectronics research center imec of Leuven, Belgium, for delivery in second-quarter 2016.
Solmates says that its PLD equipment can help to accelerate the entry of new processes into commercial products, playing a role in the development of future chip designs and the integration of new materials for next-generation transistors.
Solmates will become a member of imec's 'Beyond CMOS' Industrial Affiliation Program (IIAP), which focuses on the integration and benchmarking of novel device concepts beyond traditional transistor scaling. These include piezoelectrics for alternative computing devices and two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and MoS2 for ultimate scaling.
"This important and significant deal fits our roadmap towards mainstream CMOS compatibility," says Solmates' CEO Arjen Janssens, "Imec is a world-leading center for nanoelectronics with significant global partnerships and therefore represents the perfect gateway to this key market."
Solmates (which owns key patents related to PLD technology and processes) claims that its PLD platform is the next disruptive deposition technology following the adoption of atomic layer deposition (ALD) for thin-film manufacturing. The technology uses a laser to create a plasma of the material to be deposited, enabling industrial-quality deposition of new-generation materials. An automated tool offers high-yield customized deposition of various 'More than Moore' materials on a wide variety of different substrates. The technology is already in use at customer sites, and several processes are qualified for (piezo) MEMS, LED and power IC applications.
