ACM Semiconductor Equipment launches new products to take semiconductor equipment technology to a new level

Dr. Wang Hui first introduced the copper electroplating equipment for copper interconnects. The current copper plating market is about 200 million US dollars. Although the market is not very large, the technical content of copper plating equipment is very high. In addition to the high technical threshold, another difficulty of copper plating equipment is patents. "Many companies want to enter this market. Even if they overcome technical difficulties, they may not break through the patent barriers. Only by having both capabilities can they enter this market." Dr. Wang Hui said, "Shengmei started patent layout as early as 1998." Especially in the field of local copper plating, Shengmei Semiconductor Equipment has unique technology in the world today, and it is the leader in this field and has multiple patent protections. Using Shengmei Semiconductor's copper plating technology, uniform electroplating can be achieved in the initial stage of electroplating, and complete air-free filling can be achieved. At present, this technology is mainly used in 40nm and 28nm. Dr. Wang Hui said: "We will continue to advance to smaller process nodes. At 14nm, 12nm and smaller nodes, the superiority of this technology will become greater and greater."

Dr. Wang Hui then introduced the copper polishing equipment of Shengmei Semiconductor. Before explaining the concept of copper polishing, he first introduced the packaging technology. With the development of technologies such as AI in the future, the number of chip pins will increase. How to package and stack chips with thousands of pins? There is currently 2.5D packaging technology. After the chip is copper-plated, the excess copper on the surface needs to be polished off, which requires a core process-polishing. At present, the polishing at this stage uses mechanical chemical polishing (CMP), and traditional chemical polishing faces a problem, namely the cost of consumables. Shengmei uses a composite polishing technology, first electropolishing the copper film by 90%, then performing 10% chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), and then using wet etching to remove the barrier layer. Since the chemical liquid for electropolishing can be reused, this saves more than 80% of the consumables cost. This is also Shengmei's core patented product. Currently, only Shengmei can do it. This is also the technology that Shengmei has reserved for future advanced packaging.

Finally, Dr. Wang Hui introduced the core product of ACM Semiconductor Equipment - UltraC Tahoe. The name Tahoe also has a deep origin. According to Dr. Wang Hui, Tahoe is a very beautiful lake with very clear water located in the northeast of Silicon Valley. Its Chinese name is Lake Tahoe. The equipment was named Tahoe in the hope that the promotion of this equipment can reduce emissions and protect the water quality around the Fab plant to be as clear and bright as Lake Tahoe. Therefore, a major feature of this equipment is that it can greatly save chemical liquids, reduce the use of sulfuric acid by 90% , and reduce the impact on the environment. This is also an exclusive invention of ACM Semiconductor, the first in the world.

Looking at the above three product categories, we can find that ACM Semiconductor has a characteristic that all its products are differentiated, which others do not have yet. Dr. Wang Hui said: " If you want to compete with large semiconductor equipment companies, differentiation is the key. Only when your equipment can have advanced technology and achieve effects that others cannot achieve; another important point is that it can save costs, so that customers will choose you. This also proves that our development ideas are very correct."

In the next 10 years, China will become the global manufacturing center for semiconductor chips. However, the development of China's semiconductor equipment is still in its early stages, with a self-sufficiency rate of only 11% in 2016. There is still a long way to go, and it cannot meet the needs of the rapidly developing domestic semiconductor industry. In the future, only companies with revolutionary and disruptive technologies will stand out. Shengmei Semiconductor Equipment has always taken a differentiated route, insisted on patent layout, and has its own unique technology, contributing to the development of semiconductor equipment in China and even the world.

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