As part of a program to advance x-ray lithography technology, Jmar/Sal NanoLithography Inc., a division of Jmar Technologies Inc., has received a $1.7 million order from the University of Wisconsin to upgrade its JSal Model 4 x-ray lithography Stepper, installed at the university's Aladdin Synchrotron at the Center for NanoTechnology in Stoughton.

The instrument would produce high-precision, multilayer sub-50-nm semiconductor microcircuits. It would expose and process wafers with highly reproducible linewidths of 70 to 50 nm or smaller, and would have wafer processing throughput rates in excess of 30 wafer levels per hour.

Other participants in this project include Mitsubishi Electric Corp., which will supply advanced x-ray masks, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Vermont and Louisiana State University.