I wanted to share with you the article recently published in Electronics Weekly:

450mm is not actually dead, it’s just that the focus has shifted from Europe to New York.

None other than the Governor of New York State welcomed the world’s first ever 450mm Immersion Scanner to the SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Albany NanoTech Complex.

“New York is proud to be home to some of the most sophisticated computer chip research on the planet, and with thousands of scientists and engineers fromAlbany to Buffalo we are growing the industry like never before,” said Cuomo at a ceremony last month, “these strategic investments in nanotechnology, as well as replicating the success in Albany across Upstate, have attracted global leaders like Nikon that are bringing private funding and job opportunities to New York.”

In 2011, Cuomo announcement that G450C partners, including Intel, IBM, GloFo, TSMC and Samsung, would invest over $4.8 billion to build the world’s first 450mm wafer and equipment development environment at SUNY Poly’s NanoTech Complex.

In April, Toshikazu Umatate, Nikon Corporation Senior Vice President and General Manager of the Semiconductor Lithography Business Unit said, “The Nikon 450mm program is progressing steadily. Nikon is committed to continuous lithography innovation and advancement, and supporting the industry in achieving the next generation of semiconductor manufacturing.”

Nikon and SUNY Poly demo-ed the world’s first fully patterned 450mm wafers in July 2014. Nikon made the scanner in Japan where it was first tested to produce fully exposed 450mm wafers, and then shipped to Albany for installation.

With Nikon’s immersion scanner joining existing 450mm infrastructure at SUNY Poly’s College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, the total investment in 450mmwafer equipment at the Albany NanoTech Complex has risen to over $700 million.

In Europe, of course, the action centered on ASML’s development of a 450mm litho tool and Imec’s construction of a 450mm prototype fab line.

ASML’s efforts were said to have been halted early last year as financial backers Intel, Samsung and TSMC re-thought their 450mm timing schedules.

In mid-2012, Intel had paid $3 billion for a 15% stake in ASML said it would put another $1 billion into the 450mm and EUV R&D projects, Samsung bought a 3% stake in ASML for €503 million with a commitment to put up €276m for ASML’s R&D programs, and TSMC paid €838 million for a 5% stake in ASML and another €276 million for the R&D projects. Intel also funded Nikon’s 450mm development effort.

It is now thought that Intel has stopped funding 450mm and has penciled in 2023 for 450mm volume production deployment.

Imec’s 450mm cleanroom was originally supposed to be ready to run 450mm prototype wafers in 2018. But it was assumed that these would be run on an ASML lithomachine.

So it seems the New Yorkers are stealing a march on the Europeans.

David Manners, Senior Components Editor on Electronics Weekly See original article: www.electronicsweekly.com/mannerisms/delusions/450mm-focus-goes-west-2015-05/

David Manners | May 28, 2015