Edwards, TEL Announce Joint Development Agreement

Edwards, located in Crawley, West Sussex, UK, has announced that it will jointly develop a perfluorocarbon (PFC) gas abatement system with Tokyo Electron Ltd (TEL) – the PA-01E for etch equipment. The new gas abatement system will be available mid-year 2009. The PA-01E system will help to reduce PFC pollution resulting from the dielectric film etching processes used in semiconductor manufacturing. It will be equipped with a plasma abatement device, collectively developed with Adtec Plasma Technology Co. Ltd., located in Hiroshima, Japan, which offers a high transformation rate and stable operation. It is also designed to have a significantly lower cost-of-ownership due to its reduced requirement for energy, consumables and maintenance. In addition, the PA-01E system will be designed to abate carbon monoxide in addition to PFCs, eliminating the need for additional abatement hardware.