Press Release
Delft, 13 September 2007
Breakthrough MAPPER in new lithography for chip production
Delft, The Netherlands - MAPPER Lithography has reached an important milestone in the development of its highly innovative lithography machine for advanced chip manufacturing. The company is the first to demonstrate massively parallel electron beam writing. By eliminating the use of the costly mask, MAPPER represents a major breakthrough in lithography and enables a significant reduction in manufacturing costs and time-to-market.
The company showed 45 nanometer dense patterns (32 nm node) in resist with multiple parallel electron beams with its demonstrator machine. MAPPER’s machine is based on two technological breakthroughs: the use of light to switch the electron beams individually and the use of MEMS lens arrays to focus the parallel electron beams accurately.
Dr. Burn Lin, senior director of TSMC’s lithography division in Taiwan says: “This achievement is a significant breakthrough. This proves the multi-beam resolution capability of MAPPER's low voltage approach. We will continue to explore the viability of using MAPPER's technology for our advanced manufacturing processes.”
Boudewijn Baud, MAPPER’s CEO, adds: “Our whole team has been working hard to achieve this milestone. From now on we can focus on transferring the technology to a 300 mm platform. For that purpose we will significantly expand the team.”
MAPPER’s technology
MAPPER develops lithography machines for the chip industry. These machines utilize a new and innovative technology with which the chips of the future can be made cost effectively. MAPPER’s machine provides a highly cost-effective way of making the next generation of chips because it makes the mask redundant and combines high resolution and high productivity. Current lithography machines use photographic techniques to create minute electrical circuits smaller than 1/100th of a human hair on a silicon wafer. They use a mask which contains the blueprint of the chip and transfer this pattern on to a photosensitive layer (comparable to a photograph being exposed on film).
About MAPPER Lithography
MAPPER’s offices are located in Delft, The Netherlands, near Delft University of Technology, one of the shareholders. MAPPER has a headcount of almost 100, which is a mix of young enthusiastic graduates/PhD's and experienced managers, and works together with a number of qualified contractors. Shareholders of MAPPER are besides Delft University of Technology professional investors - Capital-C Ventures, KT Venture Group, Quest for Growth and KBC Private Equity - and private investors.
For information:
Bert Jan Kampherbeek, Vice President Market Development
Tel + 31 15 888 0250
Smink, Van der Ploeg & Jongsma
Tel + 31 20 647 8181