> Herwig Kirchberger, responsible for EV Group’s worldwide MEMS and Photovoltaic activities as a Business Development Manager

Herwig Kirchberger joined EV Group in 2002. He held different management functions within Technology and Sales of the company and is currently responsible for EV Group’s worldwide MEMS and Photovoltaic activities as a Business Development Manager. He received his MS in applied physics from the Technical University of Graz/Austria in 2000 and his MBA in international entrepreneurship from the University of Krems/Austria in 2007.

Can you tell us what the applications which are currently contributing to EVG’s growth are?

As a pioneer in providing production equipment to the MEMS and semiconductor industry our growth is currently fuelled by early investments into thin wafer handling and Advanced Wafer Level Packaging technologies including transparent packaging, 3D interconnect and TSV. Consumer based MEMS applications that require production proven, reliable and Cost of Ownership optimized equipment solutions contribute to further strong growth of our company.

 

Advanced packaging (and more specifically WLP and TSV technologies) are very “hot” topic for the semiconductor business. “Can you describe what the EVGroup latest offers for advanced packaging are?

We have recently introduced the 300mm GEMINI platform for 3D stacking, the successor of the most successful 200mm fully automated wafer bonding cluster with Smart©View wafer-to-wafer Alignment. Especially for TSV, our new EVG150 Nano©Spray Coater is able to apply extremely uniform resist coatings over vertical via structures with aspect ratios up to 1:6. And our novel high-temperature compatible thin wafer handling solutions on the standard EVG850 platform ensure failure-safe handling of ultra-thin and fragile substrates. For redistribution and bumping we have recently launched our enhanced IQ Mask Aligner Technology. It is understood that all WLP and TSV tools are 300mm production ready.

 

What are the latest releases you are presenting for Semicon West 2007?

The “EVG Aligner Campaign” is aimed at increasing EVG’s market share in Lithography, providing its customers with fully integrated alignment solutions for existing and emerging technologies. The program includes a technical roadmap targeting at new 3D stacking applications, introduction of lean manufacturing policies to reduce delivery time and streamline production costs as well as enhancing process development and product demonstration capabilities at EVG sites all over the world. We will also release our recently formed strategic alliance with Brewer Science that addresses the development of high-temperature intermediate layers for carrier-supported thin wafer processing solutions. Finally we are very proud to celebrate the Installation of the 100th automated production wafer bonder and thus a total of 500 bond chambers in the field. Even if others may claim that they are off to take over market leadership in wafer bonding, our comprehensive installation base of production wafer bonders as well as the satisfaction of our customers (see our VLSI ranking for the last 5 years) are proofing and ensuring the clear no.1 position of EVG in this technology now and in the future.

 

What are you considering to be the most important news within the semiconductors and MEMS industry over the last semester? Specifically regarding packaging?

For us it is definitely the commercialization of transparent packaging technologies at wafer level in a high volume production environment (e.g. CIS, Displays). This move of our customers is boosting a good portion of our product portfolio. Well-received was also the news of large and financially strong packaging foundries investing more into MEMS packaging technologies. This will help the industry to push for required standards. MEMS customers pushing towards more capacity (throughput, install base) and driven by consumer related applications (we like to call it the “Wii effect”) will remodel the existing MEMS value chain. We are well prepared to continue playing a significant role in this market in the future.

 

What are the next steps for the development of EVG in the next 3 years?

It is well understood that the market and technology leadership positions EVG holds will be further built upon, aimed at gaining market share through the introduction of innovative solutions that create significant value for the customers. We’ll continuously strive for leadership in speed of commercialization of new solutions through optimizing the Cost of Ownership of production equipment. This will ensure complete satisfaction of all our stakeholders. With regards to technology we will introduce innovative solutions that will significantly contribute to advancements in next generation wafer level packaging and submicron alignment technologies, nanoimprinting as well as large area Lithography and Bonding applications.