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Atonarp, the leader in in-situ, real-time high-sensitivity metrology for semiconductor process control, has announced the worldwide release for sale of its Aston platform. This marks an important milestone in the Company’s transition to a commercial organisation on a worldwide scale.

Aston is a compact mass spectrometer that provides accurate, real-time data on the process chemistry with sensitivity to measure the molecular concentrations down-to parts per billion. This data enables semiconductor manufacturing FABs to run more efficiently, thus increasing the yield and throughput, delivering dramatic financial benefits to FAB operators.

With today’s announcement, Atonarp is shipping production orders of Aston Impact to leading semiconductor FABs and equipment manufacturers in Korea and the US. It is also shipping dozens of Aston units for clients’ evaluations in their advanced processes to optimise their process and manufacturing efficiencies.

“The ability to rapidly detect, quantify and provide actionable process control data at a molecular level is a real game changer in advanced semiconductor manufacturing processes,” said Martin Mason, VP of Product Marketing at Atonarp. “Even a 1% increase in throughput can add up to tens of millions of dollars a year in production for a typical FAB. Aston is seeing significant traction where speed with sensitivity matter to molecular level process control efficiency.”

Metrology is a vital part of semiconductor manufacturing. The concentration of multiple gases is measured within production equipment to ensure process margins are met while minimising waste. Previous solutions have relied on optical emission spectroscopy and residual gas analysers, but these legacy methods cannot provide the speed and sensitivity required for today’s advanced memory and logic processes. Instead, Aston uses innovative mass spectroscopy technology, with a best-in-class sensor, to provide fast results with excellent sensitivity, as well as the robustness needed to resist corrosive gases and condensates.

Aston provides actionable data for advanced semiconductor applications such as atomic level deposition (ALD) and sub-fab operations. At less than nine parts per billion square root of Hertz (9ppb√Hz), Aston offers up to ten times better sensitivity than competitors’ solutions, without compromising on the speed at which data can be gathered.

Atonarp is actively engaged in partnerships to develop the Aston platform for new applications within the semiconductor space, as well as for applications where real-time, sensitive gas analysis is needed, such as Oil & Gas and lyophilisation process control.

Aston has achieved multiple certifications and qualifications, EN55032 (EU), EN 55035 (EU), FCC part 15 (US), ICES-003 (Canada), VCCI CISPR-32 (Japan), BSMI (Taiwan), KC EMC (Korea) for EMI/EMC compliance. With these certifications Aston is now being shipped in volume to customers worldwide.

Atonarp has partnered with ATI Korea to provide integrated solutions for Etch, CVD, Spatial ALD and Sub-fab applications to customers in the region.

For more information on the Atonarp Aston family of products please visit https://www.atonarp.com.

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