MELVILLE, N.Y., – As mobile devices become progressively smaller and more energy efficient, the demand for semiconductor chips with higher levels of integration and thinner dimensions continues to increase. To help meet these demands, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, has announced that its parent company, Canon Inc., recently launched the FPA-5520iV, an i-line stepper1 that succeeds the FPA-5510iV. Launched in July 2011, the FPA-5510iV is recognized for its high resolution and overlay accuracy. The new lithography tool offers improved Fan Out Wafer Level Package (FOWLP)2 functionality and is designed to help users enhance their productivity.

FOWLP technology has attracted attention as a next-generation packaging technology to meet this demand. It enables the fabrication of thinner System in Package (SiP) modules combining different semiconductor chips with varying functions, such as processors and memory, and is expected to support the realization of higher-integration-level, thinner-package semiconductor devices with low-production costs.

In addition to inheriting the high-resolution performance (1 μm)3 when equipped with an optional lens component and high overlay accuracy (0.15 μm) of its predecessor, the new FPA-5520iVcan provide enhanced support for the processing of warped wafers and wafers with variations in chip alignment due to wafer reconstitution. 4 Accordingly, the new system is designed to better respond to the varied needs of the package market amid rapid technological advances and diversification.

The FPA-5520iV is designed to help solve various challenges posed by the mass production of next-generation package technologies. The system's wafer feeding system employs flexible pads enabling the processing of warped and distorted wafers. Also, equipped with Canon's proprietary vacuum system, the wafer stage makes possible significantly improved suction across the entire wafer, helping to ensure a high degree of flatness for high optical performance to support fine-pattern processing. The FPA-5520iV features an alignment scope with a field of view that offers approximately twice the area of its predecessor.

As a leading-edge back-end i-line stepper, the FPA-5520iV can help users achieve among the highest levels of productivity among same-class i-line steppers.5 Facilitating the detection of alignment marks, even when handling reconstituted wafers with inconsistent chip alignments, the system helps deliver improved operating rates for better efficiency. 6

Employing a newly developed high-intensity illumination optics system that realizes an approximately 30 percent improvement7 in illumination intensity, the tool supports reduced exposure times for the thick photo-resist processes used by back-end users to boost wafer processing capacity by approximately 20 percent as compared with the FPA-5510iV.8

The new lithography tool inherits its predecessor's proven projection lens optics, which boast high resolving performance, and alignment system, which makes possible high-precision overlay accuracy. Additionally, the new FPA-5520iV offers compatible operation with the earlier FPA-5510iV and makes use of software that supports easy recipe conversion.

For more information on Canon Industrial Products, please visit usa.canon.com/industrial.