Nextin CEO touts Zisys acquisition as boost to EUV

Nextin CEO said the company was developing a machine to remove static electricity with its recently acquired firm Zisys.

Nextin CEO Tae Hoon Park said during an interview with TheElec that this machine will be able to remove static electricity that was irremovable in previous machines during the extreme ultraviolet (EUV) process.

The machine will shine once the yield rate of the EUV process stabilizes to over 90%, which will be between 2024 and 2025, the CEO added.

Nextin offers optical inspection equipment used to find defects on chips during the front-end of wafer fabrication.

Nextin’s kits use dark field technology, where scattered light is used to look for defects. This process is less precise compared to bright field technology where reflected light is used to photograph the patterns on the chip, but is done faster.

The company is planning to develop inspection kits that use bright field technology at a later date, the CEO said.

Nextin’s acquisition deal with Zisys, which was signed last month and to be completed in July, is expected to allow it to expand its portfolio even more.

Zisys’ solution can remove static electricity on top of wafers. Its co-project with Nextin involves developing a newer machine that can remove even smaller static electricity.

Zisys’ previous machines were used for chips with circuit widths of under 180nm but today most advanced chips are going under 10nm __ the pair’s new machine aims to develop a machine for these advanced chips.

Nextin is aiming for a launch around 2024 to 2025 as current EUV process yield rates are too low anyway to benefit from an advanced static electricity remover.