OYAMA, Japan--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Gigaphoton Inc. (Head Office: Oyama, Tochigi; President and CEO: Hitoshi Tomaru), a leading manufacturer of light sources used in lithography, has announced the order and delivery of laser upgrades in a new business offering. Through this, the company has replaced existing excimer laser light sources connected to existing exposure devices in a mass production line with new state-of-the-art models. Regardless of manufacturer, Gigaphoton is capable of replacing lasers ranging from early KrF models to lasers used in ArF immersion lithography, and has built a track record of delivering these to a myriad of customers and locations.
Along with the rise of IoT-based business, the operating rates of 200 mm foundries producing communication chip sensors and MEMS continues to improve. Against this backdrop there is a growing trend to pursue productivity improvement by upgrading existing equipment. Reducing operating cost and the frequency of downtime caused by maintenance with older lasers has also become a pressing concern for customers.
The latest business offering delivered by Gigaphoton solves the needs and challenges of such customers, which is accomplished by the delivery and replacement of older lasers with the newest model matching their wavelength. This laser upgrade results in higher productivity in existing lithography equipment, while providing significantly lower projected operating costs and downtime.
Hitoshi Tomaru, President and CEO of Gigaphoton says, "It has been 20 years since the advent of the mass production DUV lithography process, and today over 4000 lasers are in operation in production plants around the world. Given the growing expectations of customers regarding these laser upgrades, we anticipate the market of this business to grow to a scale equaling that of new lasers. The state-of-the-art technology that we provide improves the performance of customer's equipment and boosts the output of mass production plants while greatly reducing operating costs at the same time. We believe this is an important achievement in line with our mission to provide our customers with HVM (high-volume manufacturing) support. We intend to continue contributing to continuous value improvement at mass production plants around the world.
About Gigaphoton
Since its founding in 2000, Gigaphoton has been developing and supplying user-friendly, high-performance, DUV laser light sources, for leading semiconductor manufacturers throughout Asia and in parts of the United States and Europe.
Gigaphoton is working to be the number one supplier in the world of excellent lithography light sources, which are required for high-volume manufacturing (HVM) in which productivity and cost/effectiveness are important. Always focusing on the needs of the end users, Gigaphoton aims for the best reliability in the world and for customer support that meets global standards in all areas from research and development through manufacturing.
For more details please visit: www.gigaphoton.com