!!! Press Release !!!

AIXTRON’s Atomic Vapor Deposition (AVD) breaks the limits for advanced logic and memory device manufacturing

Aachen, March 31st, 2003 - AIXTRON is proud to announce another breakthrough in the precisely controlled deposition of ultra-thin layers of Oxide materials required for future state-of-the-art semiconductor devices. Utilizing AIXTRON’s proprietary Atomic Vapor Deposition (AVD) technology, high-k dielectric and ferroelectric materials can be deposited with outstanding film quality and highly linear thickness control at atomic scale, while offering substantially higher productivity than conventional atomic layer deposition methodologies.

The replacement of silicon dioxide by high-k materials such as hafnium oxide and hafnium silicate will be required for future device generations. This fact is reflected in current industry technology roadmaps. The controlled deposition of thin high-k films will be a requirement for the manufacturing of advanced CMOS and memory devices (MPUs, DRAMs, FERAMs).

High-k materials can overcome the limitations of silicon dioxide and silicon nitride films currently used for transistor gate and DRAM capacitor applications. With shrinking device dimensions, silicon dioxide layers become extremely thin which significantly influences the leakage characteristics of the gate structure. Silicon dioxide cannot adequately fulfil the electrical isolation requirements when thickness is reduced to just a few atomic layers.

AIXTRON’s proprietary Atomic Vapor Deposition technology breaks through these limitations. By the accurate injection of small quantities of liquid precursors into a heated vaporizer volume, AVD enables atomic precision growth at the high deposition rates of advanced MOCVD deposition technology. High quality layers can be grown with unsurpassed precision and linearity, enabling a precise control of nucleation layer growth and in-situ grading of the composition during film formation. AVD simplifies and improves productivity of manufacturing advanced semiconductor devices. AIXTRON’s AVD technology offers the most cost effective approach to meeting market demands for higher speed performance, lower power consumption, and reduced manufacturing costs.

Tim McEntee, Executive Vice President and COO of AIXTRON, states: “We are very excited by the outstanding results we have achieved thus far with our unique AVD technology. For these types of advanced semiconductor applications, no other technology can offer the combination of atomic level precision, multi-component film compositional control, and productivity on a 300 mm compatible platform.”

With conventional Atomic Layer Deposition technology, thin CVD films can be deposited in a layer-by-layer fashion at an atomic scale, however, only relatively low deposition rates can be achieved. This is in stark contrast to industry demands for high productivity high throughput processes and low manufacturing costs. Conventional Atomic Layer Deposition technology also lacks the flexibility to control the complex multi-component materials needed for future generations of devices.

AIXTRON’s AVD technology is specifically well suited for the growth of advanced high-k, multi-component oxide, ferroelectric, and metallic materials such as Al₂O₃, HfO₂, STO, BST, SBT, PZT, Pt, Ir, and Ru which are currently on the semiconductor industry’s advanced technology roadmaps.

AIXTRON offers this AVD technology for a number of deposition platforms including the Tricent cluster tool platform for 200/300 mm wafers, AIXTRON’s multi-wafer Planetary Reactor as well as several small scale reactors designed for research applications.

AIXTRON is the worldwide leading manufacturer of MOCVD equipment with an installed base of more than 650 systems. All these systems are operated in the field of multi-component materials including compound semiconductors, dielectric, ferroelectric, metallic materials, strained silicon, and silicon germanium. AIXTRON’s equipment is used by a diverse range of customers worldwide to manufacture critical, advanced components such as HBTs, PHEMTs, MESFETs, Lasers, LEDs, Detectors and VCSELs used in fiber optic communications systems, wireless and mobile telephony applications, optical storage devices, illumination, signaling and lighting, as well as a range of other leading edge technologies. AIXTRON AG (FSE: AIX ISIN DE0005066203) is listed in the Tec-DAX of the German Stock Exchange (Deutsche Börse) and is included in the Dow Jones Sustainability Index World and the MSCI World Index.
 

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© AIXTRON AG, March 31th, 2003

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