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News >> Technology >>
Numerical in pact with Samsung
By siliconindia
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Wednesday, 18 December 2002, 20:30 IST
SAN JOSE: Numerical Technologies, Inc. (Nasdaq: NMTC), a provider of subwavelength lithography-enabling technology to the global semiconductor industry, Wednesday announced that Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has signed an agreement to license Numerical's phase-shifting technology for the production of its newest and most advanced SRAM product.
The agreement comes after a lengthy and successful research and development engagement during which teams from both companies worked closely to refine the 120-nm manufacturing process for this product. Production of the device -- which will fuel Samsung's cutting-edge electronics products -- is expected to commence in early 2003.
Already deployed in multiple fabs and foundries around the globe, Numerical's production-proven phase-shifting technology enables semiconductor manufacturers to reliably and cost-effectively fabricate subwavelength integrated circuits (ICs) using available optical lithography equipment. Numerical's phase-shifting technology is the only commercially available strong phase-shifting technology that is currently used in IC production. It has been employed to fabricate transistors as small as 9 nm in a research environment -- the world's most miniscule transistors manufactured with 248-nm lithography equipment.
"Having the requisite technology to produce our next-generation devices is only one part of our manufacturing equation," said Dr. Jeong-Taek Kong, vice president of Samsung Electronics. "Cost efficiency, extendibility and yield are the other components that sharpen our competitive edge and strengthen our bottom line. Early trials demonstrated that Numerical's phase shifting can competently help generate cost-effective 100-nm semiconductor features with yields that meet our high expectations and those of our customers. As a result, we're hitting the manufacturing milestones on our product development schedule on time and with the right technology."
"Making our customers successful continues to be the cornerstone of our corporate philosophy," said Numerical's interim president and chief executive officer, Naren Gupta. "We're very pleased, therefore, to be playing a small but critical role in Samsung's early ability to ramp up production of their newest and most advanced memory device. Our agreement is the result of patience, hard work and commitment on both sides, and it's gratifying to see our combined efforts result in a new manufacturing process that is ready for rollout."
Samsung joins a list of other licensees of Numerical's phase-shifting technology that includes Intel, Fujitsu, Motorola and Taiwanese foundry, UMC.