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Doc. No. PR101129E
SOKUDO DUO sets
productivity world record and >350wph throughput target
 KYOTO, Japan – November 29, 2010 -- Sokudo Co., Ltd. announced today that new world record productivity benchmarks have been established with their dual track, SOKUDO DUO system and throughput capability will be further increased beyond 350 wafers per hour (wph) in-line with photolithography exposure equipment. By similar technology improvements a stand-alone SOKUDO DUO system will be able to exceed 450wph throughput. The key components to realize these extremely high productivity levels will be in place and demonstrated later next year 2011.
Early last year, May 2009 Sokudo announced demonstrating 300wph throughput with a stand-alone SOKUDO DUO system. However, to date in-line coat/develop track systems had only been targeted for up to 250wph when integrated with photolithography exposure systems, also known as scanners.
“Competition among ASML, Canon, and Nikon will drive scanner throughput beyond the 200wph mark next year 2011,” indicated Charles Pieczulewski, Senior Manager of Strategic Marketing at Sokudo Co., Ltd., “Semiconductor manufacturers are continuing to demand increased photolithography productivity which will push further throughput improvements in scanners. When the SOKUDO DUO track platform was first designed we knew it needed to be extendable for the long-term because semiconductor manufacturers do not like investing the time and resources necessary to prequalify the stability of yet another new track platform from the same supplier.”
Two years ago Sokudo first shipped its breakthrough SOKUDO DUO platform, a unique new concept in photoresist coat/develop track systems which incorporates an innovative dual track design. The SOKUDO DUO simultaneously processes wafers in two separate lines, top and bottom levels, and thereby dramatically boosted the track system throughput capability. The SOKUDO DUO track system has now been accepted into multiple volume production semiconductor fabs world-wide and runs in-line with all three scanner company’s equipment across the full-range of photolithography applications from rough i-line (365nm) to leading-edge immersion ArF (193nm) exposure layers.
“SOKUDO DUO track productivity has been the highlight of our field performance world-wide,” notes Tadahiro Suhara, CEO of Sokudo Co., Ltd., “Our dual track systems are demonstrating world record results with in-line immersion ArF lithography productivity exceeding 3,600 wafers per day and stand-alone systems demonstrating over 6,000 wafers per day in volume production. These SOKUDO DUO track systems are setting a higher standard for productivity in the fab. By further increasing our throughput level above 350wph with the same platform we will be the first to establish a field-proven track system which enables semiconductor manufacturer’s key photolithography process total cost reduction.”
SOKUDO Co., Ltd.
SOKUDO Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Kyoto, Japan) is a joint venture company principally owned by Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd., with a minority interest held by Applied Materials, Inc. SOKUDO was established in 2006 for the development, manufacture, sales and service of advanced coat/develop track equipment for semiconductor production. Additional information on SOKUDO can be found at www.sokudo.com website.
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