Veeco ships first 300mm ion beam deposition system to tier 1 memory customer

Introduction of the IBD300 System Represents A Significant Opportunity to Grow Revenue In The Front-End Semiconductor Market By Introducing A New Deposition Technology For Advanced Node Applications

Veeco Instruments announced that it has shipped its first IBD300™ Ion Beam Deposition (IBD) System to a Tier 1 memory customer for evaluation. With this product launch, Veeco introduces a differentiated deposition technology to the semiconductor industry that is expected to enable the industry’s roadmap. Compared to conventional sputter deposition technologies like Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD), Veeco’s IBD300 System has proven to achieve up to twenty percent lower film resistivity. The superior on-wafer performance is achieved by using unique ion beam deposition hardware and process parameters to control the grain orientation and grain size of the thin metal film. The lower resistivity enables memory manufacturers to continue to scale their devices to meet future performance requirements. Veeco is planning to ship a second system to another Tier 1 customer in the coming months and if these evaluations are successful, expects initial high volume manufacturing orders as early as late 2024 or 2025.

The enabling capability of Veeco’s IBD300 provides a significant opportunity to expand the company’s served available market into the deposition space in front-end Semi. Applications such as DRAM bitline and Logic wiring where low resistivity metals like tungsten, ruthenium and molybdenum are critical would benefit greatly from IBD.

“This new deposition system is the first of its kind for the Semi industry, and in particular for memory device production, that provides roadmap-accelerating capability for the industry,” commented Adrian Devasahayam, Ph.D., Veeco’s Senior Vice President, Product Line Management. “Driven by demand for artificial intelligence, machine learning, high performance computing and data-driven workflows, the Semi industry is continuously looking at roadmap-enabling technologies. We have received feedback from top-tier customers that IBD technology addresses high-value problems and helps solve critical challenges that traditional sputtering technologies struggle to achieve.”