Canon launches FPA-5520iV HR option for back-end i-line steppers

Canon Inc. has begun selling the FPA-5520iV HR Option, a high-resolution addition for the Canon FPA-5520iV i-line stepper used in back-end semiconductor lithography processes.

New HR Option steppers also inherit such features as enhanced functionality for Fan-Out Wafer Level Packaging (FOWLP) and increased productivity for semiconductor manufacturing processes.

As mobile devices become increasingly compact and energy-efficient, suppliers need to produce semiconductor chips that are thinner with a larger surface area.

The market for semiconductor lithography equipment with greater FOWLP functionality continues to expand, reflecting increased demand for high-density redistribution layer wiring that requires high-resolution lithography.

While the FPA-5520iV achieves a resolution of 1.0 µm, the FPA-5520iV HR Option employs a new projection optical system that achieves a resolution of 0.8 µm, the finest resolution available in packaging-oriented lithography systems.

This advancement allows finer circuit patterning to enable the further miniaturisation of semiconductor chips while allowing increasing data bandwidth and processing speeds.

The FPA-5520iV HR Option maintains the same basic functionality, performance and productivity of the FPA-5520iV stepper (released in July 2016) for FOWLP processes while delivering a higher resolution of 0.8 µm.

FPA-5520iV HR Option steppers provide improved productivity by offering such capabilities as handling extremely warped reconstituted wafers, a problem encountered during mass production using FOWLP technology, as well as an improved rate of operation by automatic detection of alignment marks of chips that are known to be placed non-uniformly on reconstituted wafers.

By continuing to provide a wide variety of solutions and upgrade options for its semiconductor lithography equipment, Canon supports users’ increasing productivity needs.