Lam Research Corporation engages in the design, manufacture, marketing, and servicing of semiconductor processing equipment used in the fabrication of integrated circuits. The Company provides such equipment to the worldwide semiconductor industry. The Company's products selectively remove portions of various films from the wafer in the creation of semiconductors.
Products
The Company’s etch products and services are defined around the Alliance and 2300 Etch Series platforms.
Dielectric Etch Products
Exelan, Exelan High Performance, Exelan HPT, 2300 Exelan, 2300 Exelan Flex, and 2300 Exelan Flex45 Systems: The Exelan family of products enables its customers to create advanced semiconductor devices. These systems, based on the Company’s patented Dual Frequency Confined (DFC) technology, can be extended to keep pace with the semiconductor industry’s roadmap for etching smaller features and newer dielectric materials. Exelan was introduced to serve the requirements for manufacturing copper conductive lines using dual damascene etch schemes. Exelan has been extended through a series of performance improvement upgrades, Exelan High Performance and Exelan HPT, to serve the etch requirements for the sub-130 nm technology node.
The 2300 Exelan, which was introduced to address the industry’s transition to 300 mm wafers, is a 200 mm and 300 mm wafer capable product. The 2300 Exelan Flex and Exelan Flex45 extend the capability of the 2300 Exelan family of products to address the requirements for 65 nm and below technology nodes.
Conductor Etch Products
TCP 9400 and TCP 9600 Series and 2300 Versys Series Systems: The TCP products use the Company’s patented Transformer Coupled Plasma source technology that can etch features for the 130 nm and below technology nodes. For 200 mm wafer sizes, the Company offers the TCP 9400PTX and TCP 9400DFM for silicon etch applications, the TCP 9400DSiE for MEMS (micro-electromechanical systems) based deep silicon etch, and the TCP 9600PTX and TCP 9600DFM for metal etch applications. These systems are used in the production of a range of advanced logic and memory devices as well as MEMS applications.
The 2300 Versys system is for etching silicon and metal films. The 2300 Versys system has the capability to process 200 mm and 300 mm wafer sizes. The 2300 Versys HP addresses metal etch requirements for the 90 nm node and beyond. The 2300 Versys Metal45 addresses backend metal etch uniformity and throughput needs for memory customers at 70 nm and beyond as well as metal hard mask applications for logic customers at 45 nm and beyond. The 2300 Versys Star silicon etch system enables sequential step tuning of gas flow and wafer temperature, which provides the dimension uniformity required for sub-110 nm technology nodes. The 2300 Versys Kiyo and Versys Kiyo45 enable processing at sub-65 nm technology nodes. Lam 2300 process chambers can be converted within the Company’s customers’ facilities from 200 mm to 300 mm.
Resist Strip Products
The Company offers integrated strip modules that remove the photoresist following metal and silicon etch for both 200 mm and 300 mm wafer manufacturing. Stripping the resist on the same system prevents exposure to air, protecting the wafers from corrosion. The Company has extended its silicon etch product line used in combination with a microwave resist stripper for both 200 mm and 300 mm wafer processing.
Cleaning Products
The Company provides technologies that address the damage concerns of wafer cleaning at sub-65 nm, allowing chemical cleaning to be extended to future technology nodes.
2300 cleaning products: Based on the production-proven 2300 Etch platform, the Company’s products are designed to offer cleaning capability for sub-65 nm technologies. The Company's proprietary Confined Chemical Cleaning technology provides a short chemical exposure time.
2300 Bevel Clean product: The Company offers bevel clean modules that remove films on the edge of the wafer using edge confined plasma technology. For 65 nm technologies and below, a primary source of device yield limiters are coming from defects transferred from the wafer edge. The Company's edge confined plasma provides customers with the latitude to control the wafer edge at multiple steps during the device fabrication process. Plasma processing can remove a range of films with control of the processing zone.
Markets
The Company primarily serves in the United States. It also serves in Europe, Korea, Japan and Asia Pacific.
Customers
The Company’s customers include various semiconductor manufacturers. In the period ended June 25, 2006, the Company’s major customers included Samsung Electronics Company, Ltd. and Toshiba Corporation.
Competition
The Company's primary competitors in the etch market are Tokyo Electron, Ltd. and Applied Materials, Inc.
History
Lam Research Corporation was founded in 1980.
