New Canon i-Line Stepper Delivers Enhanced Productivity, Improved Support for FOWLP

MELVILLE, N.Y., Aug. 9, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- As mobile devices become progressively smaller and more energy efficient, the demand for semiconductor chips with higher levels of integration and thinner dimensions continues to increase.  To help meet these demands, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, has announced that its parent company, Canon Inc., recently launched the FPA-5520iV, an i-line stepper¹ that succeeds the FPA-5510iV. Launched in July 2011, the FPA-5510iV is recognized for its high resolution and overlay accuracy. The new lithography tool offers improved Fan Out Wafer Level Package (FOWLP)² functionality and is designed to help users enhance their productivity.

FOWLP technology has attracted attention as a next-generation packaging technology to meet this demand. It enables the fabrication of thinner System in Package (SiP) modules combining different semiconductor chips with varying functions, such as processors and memory, and is expected to support the realization of higher-integration-level, thinner-package semiconductor devices with low-production costs.

In addition to inheriting the high-resolution performance (1 μm)³ when equipped with an optional lens component and high overlay accuracy (0.15 μm) of its predecessor, the new FPA-5520iVcan provide enhanced support for the processing of warped wafers and wafers with variations in chip alignment due to wafer reconstitution. ⁴ Accordingly, the new system is designed to better respond to the varied needs of the package market amid rapid technological advances and diversification.

The FPA-5520iV is designed to help solve various challenges posed by the mass production of next-generation package technologies. The system's wafer feeding system employs flexible pads enabling the processing of warped and distorted wafers. Also, equipped with Canon's proprietary vacuum system, the wafer stage makes possible significantly improved suction across the entire wafer, helping to ensure a high degree of flatness for high optical performance to support fine-pattern processing. The FPA-5520iV features an alignment scope with a field of view that offers approximately twice the area of its predecessor.

As a leading-edge back-end i-line stepper, the FPA-5520iV can help users achieve among the highest levels of productivity among same-class i-line steppers.⁵ Facilitating the detection of alignment marks, even when handling reconstituted wafers with inconsistent chip alignments, the system helps deliver improved operating rates for better efficiency. ⁶

Employing a newly developed high-intensity illumination optics system that realizes an approximately 30 percent improvement⁷ in illumination intensity, the tool supports reduced exposure times for the thick photo-resist processes used by back-end users to boost wafer processing capacity by approximately 20 percent as compared with the FPA-5510iV.⁸

The new lithography tool inherits its predecessor's proven projection lens optics, which boast high resolving performance, and alignment system, which makes possible high-precision overlay accuracy. Additionally, the new FPA-5520iV offers compatible operation with the earlier FPA-5510iV and makes use of software that supports easy recipe conversion.

For more information on Canon Industrial Products, please visit usa.canon.com/industrial.

About Canon U.S.A., Inc.
Canon U.S.A., Inc., is a leading provider of consumer, business-to-business, and industrial digital imaging solutions to the United States and to Latin America and the Caribbean (excluding Mexico) markets. With approximately $31 billion in global revenue, its parent company, Canon Inc. CAJ, ranks third overall in U.S. patents granted in 2015^† and is one of Fortune Magazine's World's Most Admired Companies in 2016. Canon U.S.A. is committed to the highest level of customer satisfaction and loyalty, providing 100 percent U.S.-based consumer service and support for all of the products it distributes. Canon U.S.A. is dedicated to its Kyosei philosophy of social and environmental responsibility. In 2014, the Canon Americas Headquarters secured LEED® Gold certification, a recognition for the design, construction, operations and maintenance of high-performance green buildings. To keep apprised of the latest news from Canon U.S.A., sign up for the Company's RSS news feed by visiting www.usa.canon.com/rss and follow us on Twitter @CanonUSA. For media inquiries, please contact pr@cusa.canon.com.

¹ A semiconductor lithography system that employs a 365 nm wavelength mercury lamp as the light source.

² A type of package technology that offers such merits as higher levels of integration, a greater number of external contacts and a smaller package footprint.

³ Micrometer (μm): 1μm = one millionth of a meter.

⁴ Wafer reconstitution is an assembly process where individual die are mounted and encapsulated onto a carrier substrate for further processing.

⁵ As of July 4, 2016, based on a Canon survey.

⁶ Some wafers may be too distorted to be processed.

⁷ Compared with the FPA-5510iV.

⁸ No. of wafers processed per unit of time when exposing 300 mm wafers, 60 shots at 10000J/m².

^†Based on weekly patent counts issued by United States Patent and Trademark Office.

Specifications and availability subject to change without notice. All referenced product names, and other marks, are trademarks of their respective owners.

Canon U.S.A. Web site:   
http://www.usa.canon.com   

For sales information/customer support:
1-800-OK-CANON

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SOURCE Canon U.S.A., Inc.