IBM Corp and Fremont, California-based Lam Research Corp have signed a contract to co-develop a low pressure, high density, inductively coupled plasma source for etch requirements in fabricating dynamic memory chips: the high density plasma source will be designed into existing and future Lam offerings and it will be commercially available; it will operate at low pressures to facilitate the necessary mass transport features required in 0.25 micron design rules and regimes, and it will be capable of producing high plasma densities to ensure high etch rates and high throughput; also, it will feature independent DC bias control and wafer temperature control capability; the two companies say that the new technology will be applicable to 300mm wafer processing.
