Equipment & Material
1960’s
Following transistor, IC production started up. Initially, IC manufacturing equipment and materials were mainly made in-house by device manufacturers, but technology transfer to equipment and material manufacturers advanced in Japan and the US through the contract manufacturing from device manufacturers. At the end of the 1960's, most of equipment and materials came to be manufactured and sold by specialized manufacturers, advancing horizontal division of the semiconductor industry. In Japan, aligners etc. were partly imported from the United States, but most of the other equipment and materials were domestically supplied through the established supply chain.
1960's: Photo Repeater
Step-and-repeat cameras developed by Fairchild Semiconductor were commercialized as photo repeaters in 1961 by David Mann (GCA). They were used for making photomasks of contact exposure type aligners.
1960's: Reduction Camera for Photomask Manufacturing.
In the manufacture of photomasks for the contact exposure method, reticles with reduced artwork (original drawing) are made. Reduction camera were used for this reduction.
Artwork for Photomask Design
Redaction Camera for Photomask
1960's: Development of Negative Photoresist
For photoresist for lithography in the 1960's, negative photoresist (KTFR) by Eastman Kodak Company was widely used. In Japan, Tokyo Ohka started domestic production of negative photoresist (OMR - 81) in 1968.
1960's: Contact Aligner
In the 1960's, a contact exposure method was used, in which a photomask was brought into direct contact with a photoresist coated on a wafer to perform pattern exposure. The contact exposure apparatus was made commercially available since 1965.
Contact Aligner
1960's: Clean Bench
In the early 1960s, a clean bench to reduce dust contamination in the environment became indispensable for improving the yield of integrated circuit manufacturing.
First half of 1960's: Horizontal Diffusion Furnace
A supply chain of hot wall type horizontal diffusion furnaces used for thermal oxidation and gas phase diffusion was established in the 1960 's and was widely used in semiconductor manufacturing.
Early Horizontal Furnace
Multi-stage Horizontal Diffusion Furnace
1960: Epitaxial Growth Equipment
Silicon epitaxial growth method was developed in 1960. Epitaxial growth equipment and reaction gases became commercially available in the mid 1960's, and the supply chain was in place.
Early 1960's: Cassette-to-cassette System
A cassette-to-cassette system was developed which supported fully automated manufacturing processes.
Late 1960's: Plasma Asher
Plasma asher to change wet photoresist removal to dry removal process appeared.
1968: Pattern Generator
In 1968, a pattern generator was introduced to replace manual artwork for photomask reticle fabrication.
Latter half of 1960's: Ion Implanter
The R&D of ion implantation method had continued since the 1950's, and a full-scale ion implantation apparatus was developed in the latter half of the 1960's. It led to practical use of the ion implantation method in the early 1970's.
