Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool Co Ltd of Ritto City, Shiga, Japan (founded in October 2015), a group company of Tokyo-based machinery maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd (MHI), has agreed with D-process Inc of Yamato, Kanagawa, Japan to collaborate on bonding services performed using MHI's room-temperature wafer bonding tools.
Room-temperature bonding activates wafer surfaces by irradiation with an ion or atom beam in a vacuum. Because - in contrast to conventional bonding - no heat is applied, room-temperature bonding is suited to materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE) as well as the manufacture of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS), which require very precise finishing, and biodevices, which cannot be heated. Room-temperature bonding can also be performed on a wide range of materials, including silicones, oxide dielectrics, glass, compound semiconductors, metals and ceramics.
The collaboration aims to establish an integrated service structure for polishing - including D-process' chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) - and room-temperature bonding as a way of advancing and expanding MHI's semiconductor foundry operations.
The agreement calls for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool to perform bonding, using its own room-temperature bonding machines, of wafers that have undergone CMP and/or other surface smoothing processes at D-process on consignment from customers. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool has offered room-temperature bonding services since 2014, including orders received from D-process. Future expansion is now anticipated in the bonding foundry business.
By providing services through D-process, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool looks to market the benefits of room-temperature bonding technology to the semiconductor manufacturing industry. The firm also aims to raise the level of bonding processes through close information exchange with D-process, as a way of expanding sales of its room-temperature bonding machines. Meanwhile D-process, which primarily deals in CMP services and is seeking to expand and improve its bonding services segment, aims to develop a customer base for room-temperature bonding.
Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Machine Tool reckons that, by teaming up with D-process, it will be positioned to accelerate the widespread adoption of room-temperature bonding both in Japan and abroad.
