SMEE Shipping Aligner for Back-End Apps

Yao Gang, Editor-in-Chief, SI China -- Semiconductor International, 4/7/2008 6:31:00 AM

China’s plan to develop its domestic equipment infrastructure got a boost at the recent SEMICON China 2008 show, where managers of Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Co. Ltd. (SMEE) said the company’s SSB500/10A aligner will be put to commercial use in semiconductor packaging lines in China. The aligner is targeted at thick-film bump packaging processes on 200 and 300 mm wafers.

SMEE is home to the National Research Center for Lithography Equipment Engineering and Technology, with a complete development environment for optical and structural design, simulation, control systems, software development and testing. It carries out overall design, integration, debugging, installation and testing of lithography systems based on customer requirements.

Shanghai Micro Electronics Equipment Co. Ltd. (SMEE) is shipping an aligner targeted at thick-film bump packaging processes.

The SSB500/10A uses g-line, h-line and i-line light, with a mercury lamp as the exposure source. The focusing system is compatible with thin- and thick-film processes. The system uses machine vision system (MVS)-based alignment technology without the need for wafer assignment marks, which enhances the equipment’s adaptability to exposure latitude (EL) processes. The control system of the SSB500/10A was independently developed by SMEE, with most of the parts made domestically. The EL process can meet 100 nm process requirements.

SMEE managers said they will launch a step-and-scan lithography system, the SSA600/10, in the second half of this year. Also on display at SMEE’s SEMICON booth was the STTP5000-1/10, a precision temperature control unit (TCU). The STTP5000-1/10, which provides ambient temperature control for lithography machines, uses proportional, integral, derivative (PID) control algorithms. It can keep recycling temperatures within ±0.01 Ž of the set value.

SMEE also cooperates with the Ricmar Group (Kramsach, Austria) to distribute Ricmar’s silicon transmission system and equipment in China, such as wafer transmission equipment and packaging machines.