Making The Transition From Canon Mask Aligners To New-Generation Equipment

With the introduction of a new generation of modern contact proximity mask aligners for diverse industries such as biotech, consumer electronics, aerospace, communications and transportation, manufacturers seeking greater production flexibility to meet expanding market needs can now migrate their operations while staying within budget.

Considered by many as the original trailblazer, Canon PLA and MPA series machines survive today as extremely capable production machines. In the hands of competent remanufacturers such as Neutronix, Inc. www.neutronixinc.com), Canon projection and mask aligners are enjoying a "second wind" of utility today.

However, Canon mask aligners eventually run into limitations imposed by older design and lack of OEM factory support. For this reason, some industries are turning to a new generation of contact aligners that can provide greater choice in wafer size and shape and improved flexibility in manufacturing processes, while still containing production expenses.

Wafer size
New generation contact mask aligners must handle new sizes of substrates, ranging from pieces up to 8" diameter, which can help reduce production expenses.

"We recently converted from the traditional 4" wafer size to the larger 6" wafers," says Mike Planer, equipment and facilities manager for Silicon Microstructures, Inc. (SMI), a high-volume supplier of pressure sensors. "All of our production is now shifting to the 6" wafer because you get double the area. What you achieve is twice as many dies for essentially the same amount of money, which is why we went to Quintel machines."

In business since 1978, San Jose, California-based Quintel Corp. is representative of the manufactures that now offer new-generation proximity contact mask aligners capable of handling wafer sizes up to 200mm in diameter. The company's 7500 platform is flexible enough to meet the needs of applications that vary from traditional wafer and mask sizes, as well as types and thicknesses of substrate.

Shape
These newer machines can also be adapted to handle different shapes of substrates, such as squares and rectangles, which were never even conceived of at the time when contact mask aligner technology was originated 25-30 years ago.

Square substrates up to 7" by 7", for example, greatly increase the field of exposure, and hence output of product. The ability to handle rectangles also allows fabricators extra leeway when seeking to develop new applications.

Finances
Far from the least of considerations, economic realities often dictate when new production equipment gets purchased.

In such instances, contact mask aligner technology portends to offer the best benefit to cost ratio. The new generation of contact aligners can reproduce traces as small as 2 microns, at a fraction of the price of expensive stepper technology. In addition, the latest contact aligners give away little, if anything, in terms of flexibility to any tools before or since.

SOURCE: Neutronix, Inc.