Winbond Selects ESI's 70nm Link Processing Solution For Its Advanced-DRAM Production

Portland, OR - Electro Scientific Industries, Inc. recently announced that Winbond Electronics Corp. has adopted ultraviolet (UV) laser link processing to enable its move to 70nm advanced DRAM production. In addition to purchasing a Model 9850UV dual beam semiconductor link-processing system, Winbond is planning to upgrade several of its existing ESI Model 9830 infrared (IR) laser memory repair tools to UV Model 9835HDE laser systems. ESI shipped the 9850UV system to Winbond in Taichung, Taiwan, in December 2007. Upgrade shipments are expected to commence sometime this year.

Winbond Memory IC Manufacturing Vice President Wilson Wen explained, "To meet our aggressive product roadmap, we look for the best cost of ownership (CoO) and return on investment across multiple technology nodes. After careful review of the tools available in the industry, without a doubt the ESI 9850UV system provided the highest value proposition with unsurpassed CoO. We also chose to upgrade several of our IR laser systems to UV lasers to meet our 70-nm production requirements."

"Purchasing the Model 9850UV along with upgrading to the 9835HDE's 100-kHz laser capability enables leading customers like Winbond to achieve very high and very accurate energy delivery to smaller link geometries, which provides cost advantages by improving yields and throughput," stated Martin Igarashi, director of semiconductor link processing at ESI. "We greatly value our relationship with Winbond and will continue to develop extendible, cost-effective memory repair solutions for our customers worldwide."

9850UV Features

ESI's 9850 UV laser-link processing system features an architecture that utilizes two beams from a single laser to enable parallel processing. The 9850UV provides superior performance by combining the UV laser's small-spot capability with the dramatic CoO gains that dual-beam processing delivers.

9835HDE Features

ESI's Model 9835HDE features a high-throughput, 100-kHz laser and high-velocity stage, and is compatible with existing 9830 systems. The 9830HDE is ideally suited for high-volume manufacturing of 90-nm and 70-nm advanced-memory devices.

SOURCE: Electro Scientific Industries, Inc.