JMAR Awarded 34.5M to Advance X-ray Nanolithography

JMAR Technologies Inc., a provider of precision micro- and nanotechnology products, announced that its JMAR Research Inc. (JRI) division, located in San Diego, has received a Letter of Intent from the Department of the Army to execute a formal contract funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) valued at up to $34.5 million.

The contract directs JMAR to proceed immediately to deliver "with all diligence" JMAR's patented first-of-a-kind, one-nanometer point source X-ray lithography (XRL) system to produce high-performance semiconductor integrated circuits needed to support a wide range of critical military missions.

JMAR believes that the cost and performance advantages of XRL make it the technology of choice to meet the government's need to cost-effectively produce the ultra-high-speed gallium arsenide (GaAs) semiconductors required for many critical military applications.

Such microcircuits are essential, for example, to the operation of the electronic warfare arrays found on the Air Force's newest front-line fighter, the F-22 Raptor, and to the forward-looking radar on the recently approved Joint Strike Fighter. They are also critical to the effectiveness of the Army's Longbow missile and are expected to play a key role in its evolving "digital soldier" program, as well as in a variety of classified airborne, space and battlefield systems.

The company expects that once its XRL equipment is qualified for production of semiconductor products for military applications, GaAs chip manufacturers will move to install these XRL systems into their commercial product manufacturing facilities. JMAR also believes that XRL offers significant potential for a variety of manufacturing applications in the general nanotechnology field.

"This new contract, which will be incrementally funded over a three-year period consistent with the government's annual budget cycle, confirms JMAR's position as the world's leading developer and provider of compact, low-cost XRL sources and systems," said John S. Martinez, Ph.D., JMAR's chairman and chief executive officer. "We expect this additional funding will enable JMAR to clearly demonstrate the superiority of XRL for producing high-performance compound semiconductors, such as those based on GaAs or gallium nitride (GaN), more rapidly and more cost-effectively than other lithography processes."

In the second quarter of calendar 2002 JMAR plans to combine its XRL point source system, which was developed by JRI, with an upgraded Model 5 stepper produced by the company's XRL System division, JMAR/JSAL NanoLithography (JSAL), in Vermont. The integrated system will then be installed at a government-approved GaAs microcircuit production facility, where it will be used for system demonstrations and semiconductor manufacturing process evaluation purposes. It will also serve as a platform for developing future, higher-performance XRL systems. JSAL is the world's leading developer and manufacturer of XRL stepper systems, having built and installed 16 of the 20 such systems ever delivered.

The types of compound semiconductors to be fabricated under the contract and the specific processes to be employed will depend, in part, on the production needs and market/mission requirements of the company's demonstration site partner. Applications under consideration for the initial XRL systems include the fabrication of critical GaAs components for a number of advanced military and commercial electronics systems which use high-power, wideband Monolithic Microwave Integrated Circuit (MMIC) amplifiers.

MMICs operate at frequencies ranging from 2 gigahertz (GHz) to well above 100 GHz in the most sophisticated equipment. Current applications for MMICs include the Army's Longbow missile detection system for the Apache helicopter, its Brilliant Anti-Tank, or BAT munition, the Air Force's Milstar satellite communications system, and various electronics packages found in its newest front-line fighters, such as the F-22 Raptor.

Next-generation military and commercial systems being designed to incorporate MMIC devices include concealed weapons detection (CWD) and through-the-wall surveillance (TWS) systems; autonomous landing systems and independent landing monitors that will enhance the ability of commercial and military aircraft to operate safely in all weather conditions; hazard avoidance systems for commercial and military helicopters; collision avoidance radar for commercial and military vehicles; and a range of aircraft and satellite-based sensing and observation devices for both meteorological and military applications.

For proper performance, these devices require circuit features as small as 100 nanometers in etched recesses that are up to 2 microns deep. XRL has been proven to be a highly effective technique for creating these features due to its superior "depth of focus" capabilities, which are difficult to achieve with existing or projected future optical lithography techniques that employ deep ultraviolet (DUV) or extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light sources.

X-ray lithography has the potential to produce high performance GaAs MMIC and related chips more rapidly and more cost-effectively than other processes. Direct-write electron beam tools, the only other lithography approach used to produce many high performance MMIC circuit features, are regarded as too slow, hence, too costly, to be feasible for large-scale production. By contrast, JMAR's initial XRL system, now in final development, is readily scaleable to higher production throughput rates. As that occurs, they will become increasingly more cost effective to operate.

JMAR believes its XRL systems are preferable alternatives for helping the government obtain the highly advanced GaAs-based MMICs it needs for many present and proposed next-generation military systems. JMAR expects the same considerations will apply to the commercial product arena as demand grows from the information technology (IT) and auto industries for these higher performance products.

"JMAR's XRL technology offers several potential advantages when compared with other lithography methods," Dr. Martinez added. "One of these is the existing proximity X-ray mask technology, which enables the use of relatively inexpensive collimators to intensify and direct the short wavelength X-rays onto the mask/wafer targets without the need for the extremely complex and expensive focusing optics that have become inbred in all types of advanced optical lithography techniques, including DUV and EUV. Furthermore, the inherent nature of collimated X-ray light enables lithographers to readily manufacture certain critical high performance circuit features that otherwise are very difficult, or impossible, to make with current or envisioned future alternative lithography systems."

All manufacturing demonstrations conducted under this program are planned to be performed at economically viable throughput rates for GaAs wafer processing, culminating with compound semiconductor lithography at the rate of 20 wafer levels per hour with circuit feature size resolutions as small as 70 nanometers. The program builds on prior and ongoing DARPA XRL technology development efforts, including JMAR's laser plasma X-ray sources, its JSAL X-ray stepper technology and important X-ray mask and processing technology advancements achieved during the past several years. It will also utilize the output of the MMIC technology development and application programs at certain key defense contractors.

"The primary focus of JMAR's XRL program, today, is to satisfy the near-term high-frequency chip requirements of the military and commercial compound semiconductor market," Dr. Martinez added. "This program also continues to pave the foundation for development of a more cost-effective solution for the Next Generation Lithography (NGL) needs of the mainstream silicon market," he said. "We expect that the X-ray source and stepper technology upgrades to be funded at JMAR by this important new XRL program will also help us move closer to that goal. When the objectives of the program are met, we believe XRL will have firmly established itself as a solid frontrunner in the race to become the lithography system of choice for many NGL silicon semiconductor applications."

Dr. Martinez noted, "As our nation re-examines its national security priorities to better safeguard Americans and combat terrorism worldwide, we believe that JMAR's technology leadership and its long-standing support of the Department of Defense mission over the years will translate directly into additional opportunities for our XRL business."

JMAR Technologies Inc. is the world's leading developer and manufacturer of semiconductor X-ray lithography sources and systems and is a leading developer of proprietary advanced laser, X-ray and EUV light sources for other high-value microelectronics products.

In addition, JMAR manufactures precision measurement, positioning and light-based manufacturing systems for inspection and repair of semiconductors and continues to play an important role in adapting its precision semiconductor manufacturing technology to the fabrication of data storage, advanced biomedical and optical communications products. It is also a fabless provider of high performance integrated circuits for the rapidly growing broadband information transfer market and other microelectronics applications.