Eaton medium-current ion implanter readied; DRAM partner sought

Electronic News, May 11, 1992 by Peter Dunn

BEVERLY, MASS. -- Eaton Corp.'s Semiconductor Equipment division is readying a new medium-current ion implanter, and seeking to establish a development partnership with a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) manufacturer.

Eaton's new implanter, the 8200P, will feature full parallel beam scanning and 200mm wafer capability, and will be able to implant devices with feature sizes down to at least 0.25 micron, according to Robert Klimm, director of marketing, sales and service. Robotics and control systems are substantially the same as those used in Eaton's GSD high-current implanter, which has been on the market for about two years.

Mr. Klimm acknowledged that Eaton has lost market share in the medium-current area over the last year, primarily to Varian Associates' E220 system. The 8200P, which will be formally introduced at semicon/West in June, is expected to help win some of that business back, he said.

"The first prototype is in final assembly now, and we expect to ship by the end of the year to one or more of several potential customers," said Mr. Klimm.

Pricing for the 8200P will be approximately $1.6 million, he noted.

Although high-current systems account for more dollar value in the implant market, Eaton expects better growth in the medium-current segment, said Mr. Klimm. Smaller IC features, especially shallower transistor junctions, require less power during implantation, is lower for the medium-current machines. In addition, single-wafer processing, as used on medium-current systems, is preferred to the batch processing used by high-current implanters.

To gain more knowledge about advanced IC production techniques, and get feedback early on in its system development process, Eaton has set a goal of being "in a true partnership with at least one or two customers," said Mr. Klimm.

"We need a direct alliance with a DRAM manufacturer. We have an indirect one now with NEC, through the Sumitomo-Eaton joint venture. We want a partner to help critique our products and help debug an early production unit. They would get first access to new machines, and economic considerations."

The concept, heavily promoted by Sematech, has become commonplace in many areas of the semiconductor production equipment market, but less so in the implanter business.