Friday, September 1, 2017

Sentech supports the German FMD initiative in Adlershof Berlin with Etch and ALD technology

With the handover of the grant approvals to Fraunhofer and Leibniz, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) launched on April 6, 2017 the first research fab operating throughout Germany.
Most of the planned funds have been desicated for the semiconductor cluster Silicon Saxony in the State of Saxony (101 M EUR) and around Berlin (117 M EUR), see below. The former East Germany is where most high volume semiconductor prodcution (Infineon, Globalfoundries, XFab) and leading edge research and development takes place in Germany.  Just recently Bosch Sensortech also announced they are heading to Dresden in Saxony fwhen they take the step to MEMS production on 300 mm wafers. However, considerable founds are to be invested across Germany in a typical German decentralized Federal way.

Now researchers and companies in Adlershof outside Berlin are pushing forward joint development in microelectronics. Above all, the Ferdinand-Braun Institute, Leibniz Institute for High-Frequency Technology, conducting application-oriented research. As part of the recently launched "Forschungsfabrik Mikroelektronik Deutschland (FMD)", the institute is enganging additional experts for furture technologies at the Wista site.




Dr. Irina Kärkkänen and her fellow Sentech plasma application engineers and the Sentech President Albrecht Krüger at the nearby Sentech applications lab. 

"The FMD is a unique chance for the German and European semiconductor and electronics industries to strengthen it internationally", says Prof. Günther Tränkle, Director of the Ferdinand Braun Institute, Leibniz Institute for High Frequency Technology (FBH). "German research is already very strong in this area, but a common structure has been missing." Now this is changing: Together with 12 other research institutes and a total of more than 2,000 scientific staff, the Adlershofer Institute is one of the world's largest pools for technologies around Smart Systems. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research is supporting the FMD with around 350 million euros, of which 117.2 million euros will flow to Berlin and Brandenburg, whereby the two Leibniz and Fraunhofer institutes will modernize and complement their technological infrastructure.

The equipment from Sentech for the FMD consists of three modules, two of which are reactive ion etching cambers, that are used to etch very fine structures in wafer based production. In addition, the system can be used to deposit thin three-dimensional layers on by atomic layer deposition. A technique that the FBH could not access previously. "Microoptics and optoelectronics are an important future field," says Krüger, "so the FMD is of great importance for the companies and institutes in Adlershof." Krüger is convinced that: "From here, important impulses for the technology will emerge."

Original full article in German : LINK
More inforamtion on FMD : LINK

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