News | July 1, 2024

Forge Nano Expands Semiconductor Business; Unveils New 200mm Wafer Atomic Layer Deposition Cluster Tool Ahead of SEMICON West

  • Forge Nano doubles down on semiconductor market with new tool and industry-first application to capture More-than-Moore market segments
  • TEPHRA ALD cluster platform designed to coat single wafers at 10x the throughput of traditional ALD systems with unparalleled 100x precursor efficiency and lower costs
  • Unlocks industry-first all-ALD Metal Barrier Seed film enabling conformal high aspect ratio thin film coatings at commercial scale

Denver, CO (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) - Forge Nano, Inc., a leading ALD equipment provider and materials science company, today further expanded into the semiconductor market with the unveiling of its new Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) product offering – TEPHRA – Forge Nano’s new single-wafer, ALD cluster platform. By offering single-wafer ALD coating quality at throughputs similar to the speed of batch systems, Forge Nano’s TEPHRA will allow customers to produce best-in-class coatings at commercial scale with unrivaled precursor efficiency and speed.

Powered by Forge Nano’s ALDx technology, which offers ultrathin, uniform, pinhole-free films with an unprecedented 10x throughput for single-wafer processing, TEPHRA is dedicated to the manufacturing of specialty semiconductor applications on 200mm wafers and below. With 100x efficient chemical use, rapid cycle times, increased yield, and low-risk manufacturing, TEPHRA is the only single-wafer cluster tool with commercial throughput speeds serving applications in advanced packaging, power semiconductor, radio frequency devices (RFD), microLEDs, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), and more.

“TEPHRA is designed to unlock new capabilities to meet the growing demand of novel More-than-Moore market device applications that seek high-throughput ALD capabilities without sacrificing film qualities. Forge Nano will enable advanced device architectures with groundbreaking efficiency in the semiconductor space with our innovative ALD wafer tools that prioritize cost, performance and efficiency,” said Paul Lichty, CEO of Forge Nano. “With TEPHRA, Forge Nano is opening new coating solutions and opportunities for our proprietary coating techniques that address high aspect ratio structures, which have previously been underserved in the semiconductor industry.”

Forge Nano’s ALDx technology enables conformal coatings to scale to aspect ratios greater than 10:1. With a flagship all-ALD Metal Barrier Seed film application, TEPHRA offers nitride and metal depositions in high aspect ratio structures for advanced 3D integration applications, including through silicon and through glass vias. By moving beyond 10:1 aspect ratios, manufacturers can scale their packaging processes and reduce power consumption by overcoming common pitfalls of directional deposition technologies, including PEALD, which struggle with conformality and void formation.

TEPHRA is available in a range of configurations with the option for four-sided, six-sided and eight-sided cluster platforms. TEPHRA can process wafers up to 200 mm between 80 and 300°C with six process precursor channels and dedicated chambers for oxide, nitride and metal depositions. TEPHRA also features Forge Nano’s patented CRISP technology, a suite of catalyzed thermal ALD processes that enable low temperature and hard-to-deposit materials without the need for plasma.

For more information on Forge Nano’s TEPHRA product, visit the TEPHRA product page at: https://www.forgenano.com/products/tephra. SEMICON West 2024 attendees can stop by the Forge Nano booth (#133), located in the south exhibition hall, for additional product information and to discuss capabilities with our product specialists.

About Forge Nano
Forge Nano is changing the way products perform. With our proprietary Atomic Armor coating technology, Forge Nano enables battery material providers, semiconductor fabricators and a host of high-tech product engineers to design their technology down to the individual atom. The superior Atomic Layer Deposition surface coatings produced by our Atomic Armor process allow our partners to unlock peak performance by optimizing products to last longer, cost less and increase performance and safety. Our team of scientists have worked with an expansive portfolio of commercial partners to develop custom solutions to meet any need at any scale, from small-scale R&D and laboratory work to large-scale, high-volume production. Learn more at https://www.forgenano.com.

Source: Forge Nano