Lam Research Corp will develop an etch system for manufacturing large-scale flat panel displays, under an agreement with the US Display Consortium. The deal, the Consortium’s largest to date, will help fund a $13.4m research and development effort to build on Lam’s patented Transformer Coupled Plasma technology for next-generation flat panel manufacturing. The Consortium, part of the US government’s $580m national flat panel initiative, is charged with choosing US companies with the technology and expertise needed to provide a competitive manufacturing advantage. The two-year contract involves three other companies: Xerox Corp’s Palo Alto Research Center will assist in process integration and testing of hardware in pilot production; Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories will lend expertise in reactor and source modelling; and the University of Wisconsin will help with plasma source development and characterisation. The contract marks Lam’s formal entry into the flat panel market. The main advantage, says Lam, of its Transformer Coupled Plasma technology is the ability to control ion energy and density independently, while producing a high-density uniform plasma over a very large substrate area.
