ASM International N.V. , announced that it has delivered its 100th Pulsar® atomic layer deposition (ALD) process module. This milestone positions Pulsar as the industry-leading ALD platform, installed in over 30 fabs worldwide for high volume manufacturing, pilot production and process development. Further highlighting its leadership within this market, Semiconductor International recently named the Pulsar 3000 a 2008 ‘Editor’s Choice Best Product.’

“Pulsar was first to market with its breakthrough technology, and is running in volume production for high-k gates and for several other applications,” explained Peo Hansson, general manager of ASM America, Inc. “ASM’s ability to deliver a variety of process applications and simplify integration has driven Pulsar’s adoption and established ASM as the clear leader in ALD technology.”

Films available for Pulsar include hafnium- and zirconium-based oxide films for high-k gates, lanthanum oxide and aluminum oxide for dielectric caps needed to tune metal gate work function and high deposition rate aluminum oxide for flash inter-poly dielectrics. In addition to high-k films for logic and  flash gate stacks, the flexibility of the Pulsar is further evidenced by its ALD processes for magnetic read/write (R/W) heads, ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM),  microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) devices and organic light-emitting diode (OLED) devices.

Pulsar’s technology is further strengthened by the company’s MicroChemistry group, which invented ALD. ASM is becoming increasingly focused on the exploration and delivery of new materials that can be deposited using Pulsar’s ALD technology. The company’s ability to fine tune materials for specific applications allows its customers to shrink transistors with simple scaling, while the development of new high-k materials will enable the extension of ALD for many process nodes.