MKS has won significant business from a Korean end-user for ALD high flow of ozone systems

Since basically the start of ALD in high volume DRAM manufacturing on 300 mm wafers, ozone has been employed as the co-reactant for ALD of hafnia and zirconia based high-k node dielectrics in the DRAM capacitor memory cell. The ozone concentration directly controls through-put, uniformity and conformalty of the deposited high-k and most importantly also the high-k dielectric performance of the layer including CET/Leakage performance and log term reliability. Please see this early post on details for these processes (LINK)

Just recently MKS Instruments reported (Seeking Alpha Earnings call transcript, LINK) that they won significant business from a Korean end-user for a high flow of ozone systems used in atomic layer deposition to fabricate DRAM memory devices. In addition, MKS reported to have just received a significant suppler award from another major Korean OEM.

MKS further stated that they have made strategic investments with a significant impact on their semiconductor OEM and end-user businesses. Amazingly, the revenue in Korea has increased 250% since 2012. In 2017 alone, their Korea end-user business grew 114%, while the Korea OEM business grew 96%.

Based on this we may assume that high concentration ozone supply i still crucial for the ALD oxide processes in DRAM manufacturing.

MKS Ozone Gas Generators

SEMOZON^® ozone gas generators and subsystems are the industry standard for compact, high concentration, ultra-clean ozone gas generation. Applications include Atomic Layer Depostion (ALD), Chemical Vapor Deposition (CVD), cleaning and water treatment.

Link to MKS Instrument Ozone products: LINK

MKS Instruments, Inc. is a global provider of instruments, subsystems and process control solutions that measure, control, power, monitor, and analyze critical parameters of advanced manufacturing processes to improve process performance and productivity.  The Company’s products are derived from core competencies in pressure measurement and control, flow measurement and control, gas and vapor delivery, gas composition analysis, residual gas analysis, leak detection, control technology, ozone generation and delivery, RF & DC power, reactive gas generation, vacuum technology, lasers, photonics, sub-micron positioning, vibration isolation, and optics.  MKS’ primary markets include semiconductor capital equipment, general industrial, life sciences, and research.  Additional information can be found at www.mksinst.com.