Soitec receives Semiconductor International's 2002 Editors' Choice Best Product Award for its UNIBOND® SOI wafers
BERNIN, France — December 9, 2002 — Soitec, the leading manufacturer of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers used in semiconductor manufacturing, today announced that its UNIBOND® SOI wafers have received the prestigious Editors’ Choice Best Product Award from Semiconductor International magazine. Soitec’s UNIBOND SOI wafers—which offer superior speed and power consumption benefits in the production of today’s advanced integrated circuits (ICs)—were recognized for excellence in overall performance, quality and comprehensive support.
“The Editors’ Choice Best Product award differs from other award programs in that products must be nominated by users, not by the people who make or sell them. We receive input from multiple users for each product to verify that each has successfully shown superior performance in semiconductor manufacturing,” noted Semiconductor International Editor in Chief Peter Singer. “The users who nominated Soitec’s UNIBOND SOI wafers were able to provide real-world examples of the products’ proven performance and reliability in a number of different applications.”
André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, president of Soitec, stated, “We are extremely honored to receive the Semiconductor International’s Editors’ Choice award. This accolade reflects the success of our efforts to ensure that our UNIBOND wafers deliver consistently high reliability and performance, thereby underscoring customers’ confidence in our enabling Smart Cut® technology. But, perhaps even more significantly, this award also provides further evidence of the industry’s growing acceptance of UNIBOND SOI as the de facto material standard for addressing the stringent speed and lower power-consumption requirements essential at sub-100 nm design rules.”
New electronics-based applications are driving continuous advancements in device speed and miniaturization. To achieve these goals and optimize performance and power consumption, the semiconductor industry is evolving fundamental technologies, shifting wafer and device dimensions, and adopting new materials such as SOI. Soitec anticipated the industry’s need for these advanced materials, leveraging its patented Smart Cut technology to develop its line of 200- and 300-mm UNIBOND SOI wafers in a wide range of film thicknesses.
Soitec’s Smart Cut process is based on thermal oxidation, ion implantation, wafer bonding and atomic level splitting. Its key feature—hydrogen implantation—weakens the silicon crystal at the desired depth. This acts as an atomic scalpel to lift off a thin layer of silicon, bonded on a base wafer of choice. This technology offers unique flexibility in terms of wafer diameter,
buried oxide layer thickness and uniformity. In addition, the use of standard semiconductor manufacturing equipment allows cost-effective, high-volume production of UNIBOND wafers with consistent quality and process repeatability.
About Semiconductor International:
Semiconductor International, published by Reed Business Information and part of Reed Elsevier’s global array of technical publications, is the leading technical publication reaching and covering the global semiconductor industry. SI boasts the industry’s most experienced full-time technical
editorial team, and has the largest circulation to semiconductor manufacturers of any industry publication. Additional information about SI and its many products and activities are available at www.semiconductor.net
Smart Cut and UNIBOND are registered trademarks of Soitec
Company contacts:
Camille Darnaud-Dufour
Marketing Communications
Soitec USA
Ph/fax: (650) 251-9066
Email : camille@attglobal.net
Agency contact:
Brandy Heartburg
MCA
Ph: (650) 968-8900
Fax: (650) 968-8990
Email : bheartburg@mcapr.com