BALL Semiconductor reaches greatest milestone by building integrated circuit on one-millimeter spherical surface

BALL Semiconductor today announced it has again made history by building the world`s first spherical semiconductor, culminating 18 months of intense research and development.

Using a combination of proprietary and traditional processes, BALL Semiconductor developed five-micron NMOS inverter circuits on a one-millimeter spherical surface. BALL Semiconductor chose to build an NMOS semiconductor as its first spherical device because it is less complicated, yet, still includes all the fundamental technologies needed to build most types of spherical semiconductors.

"Until now, we have proven such basic technologies as chemical vapor deposition, spherical lithography and etching individually, but the NMOS spherical semiconductor brings these processes together, producing a feasible product," said Akira Ishikawa, chairman, CEO and president of BALL Semiconductor.

Required processes for fabricating the NMOS spherical semiconductor included spherical single crystallization, spherical silicon surface polishing, integrated circuit design on the sphere with mask data generation and fabrication, spherical lithography with alignment of balls, etching and probe-testing of the transistor, spherical resist coating, high temperature oxidation at 1300 degrees Celsius and atmospheric chemical vapor deposition.

BALL is now shifting its focus to develop a pilot line so as to prepare for the mass production of spherical semiconductors and sensors. "We will use the pilot line to test mass production processes of NMOS spherical semiconductors and then progress to the production of CMOS semiconductors, radio frequency devices and MEMS (microelectro mechanical systems) devices," said Mr. Ishikawa.

BALL Semiconductor established an aggressive three-year timeline to research and develop the proprietary tools and processes needed to develop spherical semiconductors. Since the creation of the company in 1996, BALL Semiconductor set a goal to complete research and development in 1999 and to produce commercially viable products in the year 2000.

"With the achievement of the NMOS spherical semiconductor, we must now lay the groundwork for introducing our semiconductors to various industries in the year 2000," said Mr. Ishikawa. "Through research and numerous meetings with prospective customers, we have found that the health-care and automotive industries contain substantial opportunities for spherical semiconductor solutions, taking advantage of smallness and roundness of the BALL products which will be combined with integrated circuits and sensors."

Through spherical semiconductors, BALL Semiconductor hopes to reduce the capital cost of semiconductor manufacturing down to 10% of the typical initial semiconductor investment through the use of hermetically sealed tubes in place of clean rooms and by reducing processing times to days versus months.