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FORWARD INQUIRIESTO:
Dr. Geoff Irvine
 
VP, Business DevelopmentSAFC Hitech+1 978.374.5200 Ext. 287 
MEDIA INQUIRIES TO:
Mark ButtonImpress Public Relations+1 503.616.3817mark@impress-pr.com
NEW SAFC HITECH
®
PRODUCT ROADMAP PLOTS ROUTEFOR FUTURE GENERATION SEMICONDUCTOR MATERIALS
ST. LOUIS, MO./SEMICON West, San Francisco, CA. – July 15, 2009
–SAFC Hitech
®
, abusiness segment within SAFC
®
, a member of the Sigma-Aldrich
®
Group, today announceddetails of its new materials roadmap for Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD)and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) processes on silicon semiconductor substrates. Theroadmap outlines the development paths across current and future advanced memory andlogic devices, which includes barrier layers, interconnects, dielectrics and metals, that thecompany expects to see play out between now and 2014.SAFC Hitech last reviewed its semiconductor materials roadmap in mid-2007. However,regular monitoring is required in order to ascertain whether the market for semiconductor materials has evolved as expected. “There are numerous variables that can affect theselection, timing of insertion point and volume demand for electronic materials,” commentedDr. Geoff Irvine, SAFC Hitech’s Vice-President of Business Development. “SAFC Hitechroutinely analyzes external guidelines such as the ITRS roadmap, trends in devicedevelopment and economic conditions, and performs evaluations of our own research anddevelopment programs, allied to what we are seeing in our partnerships with customers.Through assessment, for example, if there are certain materials that have been adoptedmore rapidly than anticipated or adapted for an alternative application and, conversely, if there are some that may have seen a delay or reconsideration in use, our review processenables us to recast the materials requirements of the semiconductor industry and reviseour roadmap accordingly.”
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While so-called ‘traditional’ semiconductor materials, such as the commonly used dielectricsilicon dioxide, are still found in high volume applications, the pace and breadth of newmaterials exploration and adoption beyond these traditional materials is occurring at a rate notseen before in the industry: “Historically, the lifecycle of materials for semiconductors on a per unit process basis extended across multiple technology nodes,” continued Irvine. “What we areexperiencing now is a shortening of the lifespan of materials used across node generations asprogress in the development of next generation devices demands integration of new materialsto meet performance criteria. The rapid adoption of materials such as aluminum, hafnium andzirconium oxides, and mixed silicates, in production processes for both memory and logicapplications, is one such example.”“This rapid adoption and developmental trend is perfectly illustrated by deposition materials and,the rate of adoption and subsequent change of materials employed for dielectric materials for metal-insulator-metal (MIM) capacitors in the manufacture of DRAM devices,” expanded RaviKanjolia, SAFC Hitech’s Chief Technology Officer. “Precursor chemistries have transitionedrapidly from providing solutions for growing high quality conformal amorphous films of Al
2
O
3
toHfO
2
followed by ZrO
2
. Similar trends regarding timescales for the adoption and integration of new materials in other functional layers of the devices are now also being seen.”Looking ahead, SAFC Hitech is continuing its focus on next generation high-K for gateapplications, high-K and ultra high-K dielectrics for capacitor applications, the further development of metal gates, new electrode materials for DRAM and materials for copper barrier and copper seed, amongst areas of interest. The company has also made significant progressin developing germanium antimony telluride (GST) precursors for use in high volume phasechange memory (PCM) applications. PCM, a non-volatile computer memory that allows for thescaling of ultimate feature size further than is possible with conventional Flash memories, offersgreater storage capacity and superior performance for memory devices and is a technologywidely viewed as a strong replacement candidate for NAND Flash.
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