Nissin Ion Equipment's Business Domain
Nissin Ion Equipment aims at promoting a development-based business through the manufacture of various equipment at the core of which are proprietary ion beam and plasma technologies.
Ion Implantation Business
Known in Japan as the "rice of industry" due to their indispensability, semiconductor electronic materials remain essential to our daily lives. From the very heart of computers to controlling various electronic devices, as well as in solar cells and LED, semiconductors play an active part in a wide range of sectors.
Ion implantation was originated by Dr. William Shockley, a Nobel Laureate in Physics, and one of the inventors of the transistor and semiconductor devices. It serves as one of the very important processes in semiconductor device manufacturing which greatly enhanced the degree of integration and miniaturization.
Ion implantation technology involves the modification of the electrical properties of a substance through ion doping. Elements such as boron (B), phosphorous (P) or arsenic (As) are ionized in plasma then accelerated at high voltages from a few keV to several hundreds of keV. The kinetic energy of the ion is used to penetrate a target and the implanted ion modify its electrical properties (conductivity). These devices include silicon (Si) wafers as well as compound semiconductors such as gallium arsenide (GaAs), and silicon carbide (SiC), and poly-silicon on glass.
Click to enlarge
An ion implanter is a high-voltage and high-vacuum equipment which is basically composed of the following:
An ion source (ion beam generation section) where the material of interest is ionized by a gaseous discharge and accelerated through extractors maintained at high potential. The energy of the extracted ions is determined by the ion source and extractor potential.
The ions pass through a mass analyzing system (ion delivery section) where ions of specific mass and charge can be selected through bent electromagnets. By specifying the magnetic field strength, ion of a certain mass, charge and energy can extracted.
The mass-separated ion beam enters a "beamline system" (ion transfer section) where electrostatic electrodes can control the beam cross-sectional area, focusing and scanning.
Finally, an "end-station" (ion implantation section) is where the implantation process is performed. Accelerated ions are implanted onto a target substrate.
The ion implantation process turns the substrate into a "usable semiconductor", and thus plays an indispensable role in the semiconductor/FPD manufacturing process. A complex electronic device can be formed by changing the photomask (circuit diagram) and repeatedly perform multiple processes that include ion implantation.
Anticipated areas of business
Affordable semiconductor substrate manufacturing (hydrogen and helium ion implantation)
Material modifications (ion nitridation and ion carbonization technologies)
Medical applications (medical treatment employing ion beam irradiation, etc.)
Combining diverse cutting-edge technologies
Ion implantation is achieved through equipment technology that is a combination of a wide variety of technical fields. For example, engineers with in-depth knowledge of vacuum technology, electronic circuit technology, plasma chemistry, material engineering, high-voltage insulation technology, mechatronics, information and telecommunications, as well as IT and other fields of expertise work together in the development of equipment and processing technologies towards the advancement into new fields of application.
