Dear labmembers:

It is with deepest regret and a sigh of relief that we report the remaining ultratech stepper is down for good. With blood, sweat, and tears, Mahnaz, Mario, Gary, and Cesar kept the machine limping along for months (years?) until the last user reported his project complete.

For SNF, the Ultratech 1000 stepper was a workhorse system: easy to use and reliable, until age and obsolescence began to take its toll. In its time, it had state-of-the-art autoalignment capability and was the industry standard. It (or rather, a slightly earlier model) is commemorated on the insightful Chip History website:

https://www.chiphistory.org/equipment_landmarks/1980/interesting_products/ultratech_model900_stepper_1980_84/ultratech.htm

It remains in the lab, though will be removed soon. We will hold a memorial ceremony then and all will be welcome to join.

The SNF Litho Team

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That machine had sub-micron alignment. If your die was small enough and it wouldn't drop into z-mode it was a fire and forget process.

RIP!

Tony [Flannery]

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Will the memorial ceremony involve sledgehammers?

Aaron

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alva shalom

[Paul Rissman]

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.... I still work for Silicon Light Machines which was originally started under the name Echelle by Dave Bloom. We made our first grating light valves on that
stepper (which we now make in a commercial fab and are sold into high end lithography products).

I can recall many nights when that stepper hummed along in auto align mode and gave astounding layer to layer alignment results. I also remember slaving through manual alignments due to bad marks which gave almost equally good alignment results and also gave you the satisfaction of playing a video game.

Sorry to send this random nostalgia based email to you, but your note really stirred some memories and I am sad to see that true workhouse finally be laid to rest. I wish I could come in one last time and shoot a boat of wafers.

Regards

Jim Hunter
Director, Process Technology
Silicon Light Machines

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I just wanted to express my condolences on your loss.

I'm afraid our Tencor profilometer is on it's last leg, and will also be put to rest soon.

Have a good weekend.

Roy [Martin]

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