Case History

How can you acquire a refurbished plating tool and receive
in depth process engineering support ?

That's the question that a North American IDM asked when they approached Rhetech about the purchase of a fully remanufactured Equinox series ECD™ plating tool. Intended for use in advanced packaging, this was to be this customer's first electrochemical deposition system.

In normal circumstances, there are limited process engineering resources available to used equipment buyers. In this case, Rhetech broke the mold by building a unique, three way partnership between the customer, Rhetech, and Semitool:

• Before the purchase: Rhetech and Semitool's ECD Process Group worked with the customer to understand their requirements and establish comprehensive process specifications.
  
  
• At the purchase: Working through Rhetech, the customer purchased with their tool a Semitool Technology License for a defined Process of Record, or POR. During the build cycle: Customer staff went to Semitool's process development center in Kalispell, MT for a demonstration of the POR on their wafers.
  
  
• After tool installation: Semitool process engineers came to the customer's location to qualify the POR and train customer staff in the nuances of process maintenance and control.
  
  In short - new tool results on a used tool budget.

Semitool process support is not free of charge, but can be deployed to support both plating and surface preparation applications. Ask us how. Contact Rhetech