BILTHOVEN, The Netherlands, Dec. 13, 2001 (PRIMEZONE) -- ASM International N.V. (Nasdaq:ASMI) (Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam:ASM) reported, at the International Electronic Device Meeting (IEDM) in Washington, D.C. last week in three papers, co-authored by its subsidiaries ASM America and ASM Microchemistry with international private and public research entities, that it supplied the atomic layer chemical vapor deposition (ALCVD(tm)) capability enabling much improved transistors. The new transistor designs can more than half the size of transistors made by conventional processes.
The reported advances include the use of a novel insulating material (hafnium oxide) as a gate dielectric, both in conventional planar and new vertical transistors made on Silicon wafers. In the latter design, control of critical transistor dimensions is by layer thickness, rather than by lithography, making possible transistors with even further reduced size and improved dimension control. The use of hafnium oxide as a "high-k" gate insulator resulted in transistors with exceptionally low leakage current.
Because of the low leakage current, less standby power is required, so that the battery life of electronic end products is extended, making these advances particularly important for semiconductor devices in portable electronics, such as cell phones, hand-held Internet and computing devices, and lap-top computers. Moreover, these new, smaller transistors showed encouraging drive current for a given size.
In the third paper, ALCVD aluminum oxide layers have been used to create a new type of non-volatile memory device, a so-called quantum dot device. These new memory devices are being explored because it is expected that they can be scaled to much smaller dimensions easier than the current Flash memories. A quantum dot of silicon on aluminum oxide has a size of only 5 nm (equivalent to less than 20 Si atoms in diameter).
The hafnium oxide and aluminum oxide were made by ASM's Atomic Layer CVD(tm) process. ALCVD(tm) is an advanced chemical vapor deposition technology that deposits single atomic layers on wafers, one at a time, at low temperatures. This process is used to create ultra-thin films of exceptional quality and flatness.
Arthur del Prado, president and CEO of ASM International, said: "Significant strides have already been made in the further miniaturization and performance of transistors with our ALCVD technology, installed on our Polygon(tm) cluster tools. These studies found the ALCVD process to be well suited to virtually any novel device structure. We believe our ALCVD technology is critical to the continued enforcement of Moore's Law with conventional silicon wafer technology."
ASM's Polygon tool is a versatile single-wafer cluster tool with a suite of process modules that offer a broad range of process capabilities in support of advanced 100 nm and 70 nm device applications, including gate-stack formation, gate-electrodes, and storage and de-coupling capacitors and electrodes. Process capabilities include amorphous and poly-crystalline silicon, silicon-germanium and silicon-nitride processes in Epsilon(r) modules, and ALCVD processes for atomic layer deposition of a multitude of materials, including aluminum-oxide (Al2O3) hafnium-oxide (HfO2), zirconium oxide (ZrO2), and mixtures thereof in Pulsar(r) modules.
The complete texts of the papers referenced herein are available on the ASM Web site: www.asm.com/iedm2001.
About ASM
ASM International N.V. is headquartered in Bilthoven, The Netherlands. ASM International is a global company, serving one of the most important and demanding industries in the world. The Company possesses a strong technological base, state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, a competent and qualified workforce and a highly trained, strategically distributed support network. ASM International's subsidiaries design and manufacture equipment and materials used to produce semiconductor devices. ASM International and its subsidiaries provide production solutions for wafer processing, assembly and packaging through their facilities in the United States, Europe, Japan and Asia. ASM International's common stock shares trade on Nasdaq (symbol ASMI) and the Euronext Stock Exchange in Amsterdam (symbol ASM). For more information, visit ASM's Web site at http://www.asm.com.
Safe Harbor Statement under the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: The statements regarding orders, earnings development and the effects of research and new products on ASM's future, and other matters discussed in this statement, except for any historical data, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These include, but are not limited to, economic conditions in the semiconductor industry, currency fluctuations, the timing of significant orders, market acceptance of new products, competitive factors, risk factors related to litigation and other risks indicated in filings from time to time with the SEC and Stock Exchange Authorities.
ASM, Epsilon and Pulsar are registered trademarks, and Polygon and Atomic Layer CVD and ALCVD are trademarks of ASM International N.V.