SMIC Enters Into Joint Development Effort With Luminescent for Its 65nm and Below Process Nodes
October 05 2005 - 5:30AM
PR Newswire (US)
Collaborative Effort to Explore Inverse Lithography Technology
(ILT) at World-Leading Semiconductor Foundry MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.
and SHANGHAI, China, Oct. 5 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- -
Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation ("SMIC")
(NYSE: SMI; HKSE: 981), a world-leading semiconductor foundry, and
Luminescent Technologies, Inc., a provider of lithography
enhancement systems to the semiconductor industry, today announced
a joint development program to evaluate Luminescent's Inverse
Lithography Technology (ILT) products in SMIC's production
environment for its 65-nanometer (nm) and below process nodes.
Together, the two companies will apply ILT to cutting-edge IC
designs. The collaboration commenced with the installation of
Luminescent's Explorer development platform at SMIC's production
facility in Shanghai. "SMIC has successfully demonstrated the
enabling characteristics of this technology in its mask shop and on
silicon," said Dr. IC Chen, vice president of LTD center at SMIC.
"Lithography represents an ongoing challenge, and the RET area, in
particular, has seen few true innovations in the last decade. SMIC
prides itself on championing new and innovative process approaches
that allow us to provide best-in-class solutions for our
customers." Crediting SMIC for pioneering new lithography
initiatives, Luminescent's chief executive officer, David Fried,
noted, "With this agreement, SMIC is pushing the envelope of
semiconductor manufacturing technology to expand its business and
maintain its competitive edge. By deploying our Explorer product in
SMIC's first-class production environment, we are partnering with
this leading foundry on its advanced lithography initiatives." ILT
mathematically determines the mask features needed to produce the
intended on-wafer results, and is a more rigorous and direct
alternative to reticle enhancement technology (RET). It is the
first reticle creation technology developed specifically for the
deep sub-wavelength era. Benefits include: expanded lithography
process windows; superb pattern fidelity; and reduced
time-to-silicon -- all without changing the existing lithography
infrastructure and design-to-silicon flow. About SMIC SMIC is one
of the leading semiconductor foundries in the world, providing
integrated circuit (IC) manufacturing at 0.35-micron to 0.11-micron
and finer line technologies to customers worldwide. Established in
2000, SMIC has four 8-inch wafer fabrication facilities in volume
production in Shanghai and Tianjin. In the first quarter of 2005,
SMIC commenced commercial production at its 12-inch wafer
fabrication facility in Beijing. SMIC also maintains customer
service and marketing offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan, and a
representative office in Hong Kong. As part of its dedication
towards providing high-quality services, SMIC has achieved ISO9001,
ISO/TS16949, OHSAS18001, TL9000, BS7799 and ISO14001
certifications. For additional information, please visit
http://www.smics.com/ . About Luminescent Technologies, Inc.
Luminescent provides lithography technology to the semiconductor
industry. The company's Inverse Lithography Technology (ILT)
products accurately and rapidly turn design intent into production
reality by improving on-wafer pattern fidelity, expanding process
windows and accelerating time to silicon. Luminescent is a
privately held, venture-backed company based in Mountain View,
California. To learn more about Luminescent, please visit the
company's website at http://www.luminescent.com/. About
Luminescent's Explorer Lithography Development System The first of
Luminescent's lithography technology platforms -- the Explorer --
provides complete ILT capability for small blocks. A mask may be
created to print well at nominal exposure/defocus and multiple
additional exposure/defocus anchor points. An intuitive
topology-based specification of wafer image quality provides
superior ease of use for practicing lithographers. Featuring
comprehensive process window analysis, the product has a simple
interface for illumination optimization and lithographic
exploration. DATASOURCE: Semiconductor Manufacturing International
Corporation CONTACT: Reiko Chang of SMIC, +86-21-5080-2000, ext
10544, or ; or Andrew Moore of Luminescent Technologies, Inc.,
+1-408-472-3187, or Web site: http://www.luminescent.com/ Web site:
http://www.smics.com/
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