German government funds 32-nm mask litho project

With a budget of $24 million (16.7 million euros) with $11.3 million (7.9 million euros) contributed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, the project aims to help create new and maintain existing, highly qualified jobs, the parties said.

By Ann Steffora Mutschler, Senior Editor -- Electronic News, 9/4/2008

With the aim of giving the Dresden region of Germany a competitive edge in advanced photomask development and manufacturing, the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) said today it is funding a cooperative project called the “Critical Dimension and Registration for 32-nm Mask Lithography” (CDuR32).

During the next two and a half years, the project partners -- the joint venture of Advanced Micro Devices, Qimonda and Toppan Photomasks, Advanced Mask Technology Center (AMTC) in Dresden; Vistec Semiconductor Systems GmbH in Weilburg; and the German Metrology Institute (PTB) in Braunschweig and Berlin -- will cooperate to develop technologies and measurement processes for highly integrated electronics.

The CDuR32 project is part of the German government’s high-tech strategy and is meant to give the partners a head start in the development of strategic technology as well as a competitive advantage for the Dresden region, with the AMTC playing a key role in the project, given that it is a supplier of complex semiconductor photomasks which contain precise images of IC designs and are used to optically transfer these images onto silicon wafers.

Specifically, the project will develop mask technologies for 32-nm memory chips (DRAM, etc.) and 22-nm microprocessors, which will be used to produce the emerging generation of chips due to go into production in Dresden starting over the coming years, the parties said.

It is believed that this project will make an important contribution to maintaining and expanding the level of IT and communications technology in Germany as it is aligned with the goals of the European research support platform (ENIAC) and will help expand Europe’s position in nano-electronics.

With a budget of $24 million (16.7 million euros) with $11.3 million (7.9 million euros) contributed by the BMBF, the project aims to help create new and maintain existing, highly qualified jobs, the parties said.

For its part, AMTC is tasked with analyzing and developing the basic principles of manufacturing 32-/22-nm technology masks, while Vistec will develop a new generation measurement system to meet the stringent requirements of qualifying accurate mask structures to allow improvements in mask structures for the coming technology nodes – a prerequisite for the production of future chip generations. Finally, PTB will contribute its measurement capabilities and mathematical analysis methods to solve mask quality issues; i.e. the definition and characterization of the necessary measurement and calibration guidelines.