PRESS RELEASE

Gilroy, California – DSG Technologies, a developer of low temperature microwave heating and curing systems, announced today that it has completed development of its first products for curing applications for the front and back end of line, including low-k dielectric curing, shallow-trench isolation (STI) curing, pre-metal dielectric (PMD) curing and polyimide curing. The company was founded last year by Jeffrey Kowalski, former president of Silicon Valley Group (SVG), a company that designed and manufactured vertical diffusion systems.

In the semiconductor industry, resistance heaters (IR heating) are used as the heat source for curing of films on semiconductor wafers used in IC processing, DSG said. Traditionally, curing of these films were done at high temperatures (>750 °C).  The introduction of new materials (e.g. NiSi) has driven the need for new technical requirements, which include: 400°C maximum temperature operation, ppb wafer ambient control, and most significant uniform temperature gradients across all wafers in the batch. DSG said its technology drastically improves thermal uniformity on the wafer (< 1 degC/wafer) not only during steady state but as well during transient temperature ramps.

"Until now, there has been no technical way to heat silicon wafers in a batch at fast ramp rates while minimizing the delta temperature gradient across the wafer," Kowalski said. "DSG Technologies was founded to develop and deliver products that do just that. Although industrial applications have used microwave for decades, microwave heating of silicon hasn't been possible due to difficulties in power density control (hot spots), effective depth of penetration, and cost control. DSG Technologies has resolved these issues by innovation”

As the industry approaches the sub-50nm technology era, curing applications will require precise low temperature control, DSG Technologies said. Uniform temperature control can be achieved because, unlike external heating, microwave heating is volumetric throughout the material. Microwave energy can also effectively couple with O-H bonds in the films, which dramatically reduces the moisture content, which is not possible with conventional heating. The system also reduces curing temperatures, lowers operational costs, improves film quality, and dramatically improves cycle time.

DSG Technologies also intends to serve MEMS, Flat Panel Display and Solar applications, among others.