New Alchimer CEO, Steve Lerner, predicts demise of vapor deposition processes for through silicon vias by 2009

Steve Lerner, recently appointed CEO of Alchimer SA, Massy, France, has predicted the demise of vapor deposition processes for depositing nanoscale films in through silicon vias (TSVs) within a year. Lerner is a technologist with 29 years’ experience in semiconductor development and manufacturing. He founded advanced packaging and device companies Alpha Szenszor, GigSys and CS2, and has held executive positions at Amkor, Swire and AME.

“Dry processes, including PVD and CVD, cannot cope economically with the demands of high aspect ratio TSVs for 3D IC packaging,” he says. “The limitations of these processes are major roadblocks to the advancement of the semiconductor industry – and they’re prohibitively expensive.”

Alchimer develops chemical formulations and processes for the electrochemical deposition of nanometric films in TSVs. The technology, developed to overcome the limitations of vapor deposition processes, is known as Electrografting (eG). The deposited layers form covalent bonds with the substrate, effectively grafting the two materials together. Customers can buy the formulations from the company or license them, together with the process IP. eG provides nanometer scale thickness control from 2 to 500nm, best-in-class uniformity at wafer scale, and conformal coating on patterned surfaces, even at aspect ratios of 10:1 or more. It is a wet process that promises substantial cost reductions, including halving the cost of processing wafers for high aspect ratio TSVs.

Alchimer technology is easily transferable to industry-standard process lines, so there is no need for investment in new capital equipment.

Lerner adds: “After 4 years’ development work, we are now in advanced negotiations with a number of foundries and IDMs.”

Alchimer