Japan Semiconductor Innovation 50     (T-12 1990s)

EB mask drawing machine, MEBES, by Etec System in the US had the global market share of 80~90% in the '90s. Association of Super-Advanced Electronic Technologies (ASET) played the role of center of technology development in Japan, and various breakthrough technologies were developed in 1995 to 1998, including high brightness single crystal LaB6 electron gun with high acceleration voltage of 50keV, varying shaped beams, continuous stage movement, vector scan, and proximity effect correction. Various Japanese companies developed high performance EB machines by the adoption of these technologies. NuFlare Technology, Inc., then Toshiba Machine, developed EBM-3000 in 2000, JEOL(Nihon Denshi) developed JBX-3000, and Hitachi High Technologies, then Hitachi Ltd., developed HL-7000M both in 2002, and they all commercialized these machines. These machines dominated the market owing to their high precision and high speed mask drawing capability. Nuflare Technology has the market share of more than 80% today, and they largely contribute to the global LSI manufacturing industry.

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