DuPont Technologies and Shipley Announce Joint Development Agreement
Production of 157 Nanometer Photoresists for the Microelectroelectronics Industry
DuPont Technologies and Shipley, a wholly owned subsidiary of Rohm and Haas Company, today announced that they have signed a joint development agreement to produce fully formulated 157 nanometer photoresists and anti-reflective coatings which will be used to make future generations of semiconductor chips. Details of the agreement were not disclosed.
The companies expect to bring this technology to market by 2003.
As part of the agreement, Shipley becomes the first licensee of DuPont proprietary fluoropolymer binder resin technology, one of the critical ingredients in leading-edge products for micro-lithography. Both companies are actively seeking semiconductor device manufacturing partners to support this development effort.
The agreement will allow the companies to take a step closer to commercializing products that extend Moore's Law, which states that the number of transistors on a computer chip doubles every 12 to 18 months, thus increasing manufacturing productivity and chip performance. Today's most advanced chips have features as small as 130 nanometers. To reduce the feature size to 70 nanometers, which would more than triple the number of transistors on a chip, requires a new form of micro-lithography at 157 nanometer wavelength, including new photoresists and anti-reflective coatings. Seventy nanometers is approximately one thousandth the diameter of a typical human hair.
"We are very pleased to have Shipley as the first licensee for our proprietary technology," said John C. Hodgson, group vice president and general manager DuPont i Technologies. "DuPont has pioneered the development and production of leading-edge photopolymers and fluoropolymers and, coupled with Shipley's expertise in developing and manufacturing photoresists, this latest breakthrough will provide the enabling technology to extend Moore's Law for the next generation of faster, more powerful computer chips."
"DuPont iTechnologies will be a wonderful partner on this project," said Stephen Robinson, president of Shipley Microelectronics and vice president of Rohm and Haas Company. "DuPont fluoropolymer technology is unique and well-known within the industry. We believe it is a perfect fit with our photoresist technology expertise."
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