Technology Leadership

Lam is both the market share and technology leader for etch semiconductor processing equipment. Over the years, Lam has consistently provided innovative technologies to address the challenges of semiconductor manufacturing. The significance of several of these industry firsts has helped shape technology trends in the industry.

These innovations include:

Being first to commercialize an inductively coupled plasma source technology with a planar coil. The Company's patented TCP™ source technology was introduced to the industry in 1992 and continues to provide leading—edge capability for advanced conductor etch applications, such as those for the sub—90 nm technology node. Most competing conductor etch systems in production today employ inductively coupled plasma technologies that emulate the planar coil.

Introducing Dual Frequency Confined™ (DFC™) technology for dielectric etch. Introduced in 1995, this was the first technology that proved flexible enough to etch all of the structures being proposed at the time for the new dual damascene schemes for integrating copper interconnect. Later, this flexibility was leveraged to perform multiple sequential process steps in the same process chamber (in situ) rather than processing individual steps in separate chambers. This approach, previously believed too complex for production processes, now saves chip manufacturers significant capital cost and improves productivity and performance. As a result, new dielectric etch technologies being introduced in competing systems now include confinement and/or cleaning strategies and two frequencies for plasma control.

Developing the first 200/300 mm capable etch product line with a 200 mm comparable footprint. This enabled cost—effective 200 mm production learning on the equipment and straightforward scaling of 200 mm processes to 300 mm since the same etch technology is employed. This strategy provided semiconductor manufacturers with a low—risk solution to developing next—generation processes, allowing them flexibility in determining how best to implement 300mm manufacturing and the new materials and technologies associated with this wafer—size transition. As market acceptance grew for this design approach, bridge tools with a similar design approach emerged on the market in several equipment segments.

Enhancing advanced process control capability in anticipation of future 300 mm requirements. As the transition to 300 mm processing progresses, the needs involved in automating processing are becoming clear. Lam's decision early on to develop an open architecture software platform and provide access to all tool data is emerging as the right approach. Semiconductor manufacturers leading the industry in APC development are now choosing Lam's platform because of its flexibility, e—diagnostics capability, ease of connectivity, and integration of sensors and metrology capability.

Decoupling of plasma density and bias power for conductor etch. With its Voltage Control Interface™ technology, Lam was first to decouple bias power and plasma density successfully and provide closed—loop control of power at the wafer. This capability provides independent control of two important etch process parameters. Employed in production for several years, this technology has significantly increased process flexibility and control of results.

Providing unique technologies to control parameters that impact CD uniformity. Lam recently introduced capabilities for step—by—step control of gas flow and wafer temperature for silicon etch. These parameters are largely decoupled from other parameters, so their impact on CD is more intuitively understood, enabling effective process tuning. Because significantly more precise CD control is required for bringing sub—90 nm processes to production, an industry trend toward tuning capability has emerged.

Introducing an in situ clean strategy performed after each wafer is processed. Lam's proprietary dielectric and conductor etch system designs enable this cleaning process. Called Waferless Auto Clean™ (WAC™), Lam's process is completely automated and does not require user intervention or consuming a wafer to protect the chuck. The technique cleans the process chamber to eliminate "memory effects" from previous processing. This improves process performance and repeatability, increases the mean time between cleans (MTBC), and enables in situ processes for both dielectric and silicon etch. In situ processes involve combining multiple process steps into a single pass through a process chamber. Because of the significant cost and productivity benefits of this approach, developing in situ processes has become an important industry trend.

As part of Lam's mission to provide innovative productivity solutions in etch, the Company's scientists and engineers strive to be first to introduce new capabilities to ensure customer competitiveness. Lam's core technologies include TCP high—density source technology for conductor (metal and silicon) etch and DFC medium—density plasma source technology for dielectric etch processes.

Lam's systems employ these technologies to provide advanced solutions for the conductor and dielectric etch processes in the manufacture of integrated circuits.

Lam's innovative technologies position the Company to continue gaining market share in the emerging growth markets including back—end copper/low k interconnect processes and front—end gate processes involving new materials and approaches.