JMAR Licenses Bede Scientific X-ray Technology, Makes Equity Investment

In a move to better position itself in the semiconductor equipment market, JMAR Technologies Inc. (San Diego) has executed a series of technology, financing, and investment agreements with Bede Scientific Instruments Ltd. (Durham, England). Bede provides x-ray-based instruments to the semiconductor industry; in addition, the company owns a stake in x-ray optics developer Reflex s.r.o., a joint venture based in the Czech Republic.

Under the agreements, JMAR acquired exclusive worldwide rights to apply Bede's Microsource x-ray generator and optics technologies to certain nanoimaging and metrology applications for the semiconductor industry.

On the financial side, JMAR also made an interest-bearing loan of $700,000 to Bede to allow it to increase production. In return, JMAR received the right to purchase a minority interest in privately-held Bede, with first refusal rights on all future Bede equity sales.

According to company president and CEO John Martinez, the company plans to use the technology to develop x-ray-based systems for imaging the interior of semiconductor chips, and mapping and detection of nano-impurities on wafer surfaces. Additional applications include macromolecular structure analysis for the biomedical/pharmaceutical industries, and radiobiology studies of the human aging and DNA repair processes.

JMAR has developed a compact, high-power x-ray source technology, called 'PXS,' designed to provide the basis for a practical alternative exposure source for next generation semiconductor lithography. "The Bede x-ray source technology, based on electron beams, operates at power levels too low in intensity for lithography and other high throughput manufacturing applications,'' said Martinez. "On the other hand, they produce X-rays with photon energies as much as ten times greater than most of the photons emitted by the PXS."

The spectral output of the two sources covers adjacent, rather than overlapping segments of the x-ray region, Martinez noted. "JMAR's PXS sources are believed optimum for higher power x-ray applications where processing throughput (i.e., minimal exposure time) is important and absorption of the x-rays in the target material close to the surface is key to the process," he said. "Conversely, the Bede sources appear optimum for precision measurement and imaging applications where the length of the illumination period is often not critical but the ability of the x-rays to penetrate the target is essential to the success of the instrument.''

With the availability of the Bede source technology, the JMAR Spectrum, heretofore limited to about 2 KeV in energy, will now be extended by a factor of 10 to about 20 KeV or more, according to Martinez.

Edited by Kristin Lewotsky, Photonics Online