MEMC to adopt SiGen SOI wafer technology

MEMC Electronic Materials Inc. has entered into a licensing agreement with Silicon Genesis Corp. (SiGen), to manufacture wafers using their layer transfer technology. SiGen is a developer of Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI) and other engineered wafer technologies.

The agreement allows MEMC to utilize SiGen's NanoTec suite of process capabilities in the production of layer transfer wafer products, including SOI and strained SOI. The benefits of SiGen's technology are realized through the use of proprietary non-contact wafer smoothing technology following the room temperature cleaving of plasma-activated bonded wafers.

This technology is expected to allow substantially improved bonded SOI layer uniformity, which will be required for fully depleted SOI applications that will enter the mainstream beyond the 65nm node.