As part of the agreement, San Jose-based Novellus will install three advanced thin-film deposition tools--a Vector plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system (PECVD), a Sabre copper electrochemical deposition system, and an Altus tungsten chemical vapor deposition (CVD-W) system--at CNSE's Albany NanoTech Complex.

A team of Novellus researchers will be located with CNSE staff at Albany NanoTech, where they'll conduct leading-edge research into advanced nanofabrication processes, including copper fill for interconnects, copper through-silicon via fill for 3-D packaging applications, tungsten deposition for transistor contacts, and thin dielectric film deposition.

Separately, Novellus has also developed an advanced Hollow Cathode Magnetron (HCM) Ionx PVD copper seed process that will enable copper interconnects below the 2x-nm technology node. This will allow the company's HCM PVD technology on the Inova platform to continue to be used for barrier and seed thin film deposition, avoiding the migration to less-productive and costly ALD or CVD approaches.

"This latest innovation in HCM technology will extend PVD copper seed to the 22-nm node and beyond," said Wai-Fan Yau, general manager for Novellus' Integrated Metals Business Unit, in a statement. "Our advanced copper seed offers the ability to fill ultra-small features, resulting in increased device reliability, without having to introduce more complicated and costly CVD or ALD processes into the manufacturing sequence."