USHIO Installed a projection aligner to develop 2.5 glass interposers

TOKYO, JAPAN: USHIO Inc. announced that the company installed one unit of a projection aligner dedicated to developing 2.5D glass substrate at the Georgia Tech 3D Systems Packaging Research Center (GT-PRC).

Based on conclusion of the partnership agreement related to the interposer development consortium sponsored by GT-PRC. USHIO has already dispatched its engineer and started supporting development of lower-cost glass interposers and packages.

GT-PRC, in partnership with a global industry consortium of end-users and supply chain manufacturers, is developing both 2.5D and 3D glass and organic interposer and package technologies requiring large area patterning, of 1 to 5 µm lithography, on super-thin glass and organic interposer substrates.

To form this partnership agreement, USHIO has leased and installed at GT-PRC, the projection aligner based on the latest stepper model Square 70 to provide the needed lithography technology for emerging glass and organic interposers.

USHIO is now aggressively developing the lithography technology, dedicated to 2.5D and 3D glass and organic interposers, including testing of exposure on large and thin glass substrate as well as achievement of the target resolution required to achieve these finer patterns.

Dr. Rao Tummala, professor and director of GT-PRC, commented on the USHIO partnership agreement: "We sincerely appreciate USHIO joining our industry consortium and providing the needed large area lithographic tool. The new smartphone industry requires exploring a new frontier in electronics systems, system scaling to go with transistor scaling that we have had since we began Moore's Law in the 1960s. But the biggest barriers in addressing this new frontier are high throughput manufacturing tools, materials and processes. USHIO's tool begins to address this need by shrinking the package lithography from current 10 µm to 1 µm in the short-term. We thank USHIO for supporting our leading-edge research and development."

Dr. Venky Sundaram, program manager of the LGIP program at GT-PRC, added: "USHIO's large panel lithography tool is a key building block in our strategy to enable glass interposers and packages for pervasive applications at a cost of less than 1c per mm2."

"I believe that our participation in this program will build momentum for USHIO to provide our leading-edge lithography technology for the advanced packaging industry. We also expect that this will help to increase the market share of USHIO's lithography systems, which have a competitive edge particularly for panel substrates, as well as accelerate the development of peripheral technologies for lithography," said Toyoharu Inoue, deputy GM of business unit I, USHIO Inc.

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