Grant Technologies chosen due to well-engineered, highly serviceable, cost-effective solution which offered ultra stable (to +/-0.01C) temperature control
Vistec Lithography, a developer of electron beam lithography systems for the worldwide semiconductor industry, has selected Grant Technologies, a designer and manufacturer of custom scientific and industrial solutions, to develop a bespoke refrigeration system to cool the lens, chamber and handling system within its VB300 electron beam nano-lithography machine.
Engineers at Vistec Lithography's development facility in Cambridge, England, needed a high-precision refrigeration system for its new VB300 product to provide ultra stable (to +/-0.01C) temperature control within a range of 12 to 22C, flow rate 1-2 litres per minute, max pressure 2-3 bar and a cooling capacity of 250W.
The equipment also needed to connect to a host computer over a DeviceNet to provide operators with real-time temperature monitoring and alarm outputs.
Peter Goodall, manufacturing and quality production engineer at Vistec Lithography, said: "Grant's custom solution has exceeded our expectations.
"Its engineering team listened to our requirements and developed a well-engineered, extremely reliable temperature control system which is highly serviceable and extremely cost-effective.
"Maintaining a stable water temperature is critical to controlling the accuracy of the electro-magnetic lens within the state-of-the-art VB300 system therefore we needed a supplier with a proven track record and substantial thermodynamics expertise".
Vistec Lithography's VB300 electron beam system is designed for use in advanced production and R+D applications to create the ultra-fine images used in the semiconductor and nanotechnology industries.
The system has the ability to load and fully expose substrates up to 300mm in diameter and mask plates up to 7inches square with a lithographic capability to the sub-10nm level.
These applications are undertaken by customers for the development of the next generations of nano-devices and structures, at major semiconductor manufacturers, industrial R+D facilities, as well as at universities and other technology centres of excellence.
"We were very impressed by Grant's solution and in particular their flexibility and speed of responsiveness," added Amin Javer, senior system design engineer at Vistec Lithography.
"For example, we decided after the first system was delivered to add inline thermal detection capability.
"We discussed this with Grant's engineers and within a matter of weeks they proposed and implemented an innovative solution which fully met our brief - it was an incredibly quick turnaround".
Grant Technologies designs and manufactures custom scientific and industrial solutions to meet its customers' application-specific requirements.
Leveraging its 50-year heritage in heating and cooling, mixing and shaking, data logging and data acquisition, and extensive manufacturing expertise, the company has delivered successful solutions to hundreds of companies across a diverse range of industry sectors.
These include, among others, life sciences, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, automotive, industrial, oil and petrochemicals, scientific, military and environmental testing.
Paul Pergande, head of Grant Technologies, said: "We pride ourselves on providing our customers with fast-turnaround custom-built solutions using our considerable expertise in thermodynamics, data acquisition and equipment design.
"We are delighted to see that our temperature control system has now been integrated by Vistec into their market-leading VB300 lithography machine which is being used at the very forefront of semiconductor research."
