September 30, 2011 - SEMATECH has promoted Dr. Stefan Wurm, a GlobalFoundries assignee (née AMD), to director of its lithography program, after serving as SEMATECH's associate director of lithography since 2008, when both he and Bryan Rice (an Intel assignee) were named leaders of the lithography division. Before that he managed and "was instrumental in shaping and directing" SEMATECH's EUV program for four years. He joined SEMATECH's 300mm initiative in the late 1990s responsible for 300mm metrology tool equipment demos.

Given Wurm and Rice's close work over the last three years in SEMATECH's litho division, don't expect any drastic changes under his tenure, Wurm told SST in an interview. "Our mission for the near future: help make EUV work," he said. "That's what it boils down to." (SEMATECH reps confirmed that this exec transition was planned, since assignments typically last three years, and that Rice will continue in a more business-strategy role identifying strategic initiatives for SEMATECH's overall programs.)

Since SEMATECH's always been more focused on the infrastructure aspect e.g. masks and resists, that means its focus will still encompass:

-- Masks: Reducing mask defect and providing defect learning to enable pilot line-ready blanks.

-- Resists: Jointly driving resolution with SEMATECH's Resist Materials and Development Center (RMDC), and work on EUV-specific challenges relating to film thickness, patterns, linewidth roughness, etc.

-- Tools: "We are going ahead full-speed" with members and partners in EUV mask infrastructure, Wurm said, looking at challenges that need to be overcome before high-volume manufacturing work can begin, particularly areas that are not getting enough funding or there's a lot of risk -- a prime example being metrology sources. SEMATECH kicked off its AIMS (aerial imaging metrology system) development program in May of this year, intending to develop the technology by 2014, and produce an EUV mask pattern inspection tool by 2015 for 16nm work. (News Alert: Wurm hinted that there will be an update on the AIMS work during next month's EUV lithography symposia in Miami.)

Beyond EUV, Wurm noted that SEMATECH is also looking at alternative lithography technologies, centering its focus on nanoimprint. "Not a lot of people know that the best printing work has been done here the past couple of years, and how ready this technology is to meet industry needs," Wurm said. Another area of activity is how to get a fast mask writer -- i.e. multibeam. That's "something we're pursuing," Wurm said, indicating a project in this area will kick off sometime in 2012.

From a broader perspective, although there won't be any radical changes in the litho technologies SEMATECH is working on, the organization is sensitive to changes in its membership's needs. "Our membership has become more diverse, not just semiconductor companies but suppliers and even subsuppliers," Wurm noted. (A trip down recent SEMICON West exhibitor aisles reveals the truth of this statement; there are a lot more robotics and pumps and other components on display.) Companies in the industry are becoming keenly aware of how increasingly expensive it is to stay in the game, and they're taking a hard look at how they'll be able to pursue their technology roadmaps and share R&D.

For SEMATECH, that means a slightly different mindset for "delivering things of importance to our members, what their needs are," Wurm said. For example, EUV defect work has progressed to the point where it's "very good at figuring out where defects are, how big they are, what composition, how to trace them, etc.," down to the 20nm-30nm level -- but that's a capability many components suppliers just don't have, he pointed out. For them, key issues are how to test their equipment for defectivity, and are their own materials actually creating the defects? Defect reduction is a critical area not just in EUV masks but every aspect of chipmaking. "It's an issue across the industry," Wurm said, and "there's a lot of opportunity to join forces and work together."