Draft:Bacus

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  • Comment: Well done on creating the draft, and it may potentially meet the relevant requirements (including WP:GNG, WP:NCORP) but presently it is not clear that it does.
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BACUS
Founded1980
TypeProfessional organization
FocusPhotomask Technology

BACUS (originally Bay Area Chromium Users Society) is a Technical Group of SPIE, the International Society of Optics and Photonics. It supports the development of photomask technologies used in semiconductor manufacturing, primarily through its management of the Photomask Technology and EUV Lithography ("PUV") Symposium.[1]

History

[edit]

BACUS was established in 1980 by a group of photomask professionals in Silicon Valley. The founding meeting took place at the Bacchus Inn in Santa Clara, California, where founding attendees, including Jim Wiley, discussed common issues in photomask technology and decided to organize a symposium to address them.[2][3] The following year, BACUS held its first symposium on photomasks and mask making in Sunnyvale, CA. Ten users, local to the San Francisco bay area, including AMI (now Onsemi), Ultratech, Master Images, Signetics, National Semiconductor, IBM, Micromask, Microfab, Hewlett Packard and Fairchild, presented chrome blank user requirements to the vendor community.[4]

In 1991, BACUS became a Technical Group of SPIE, facilitating broader collaboration within the photomask community.[5]

In 2005, the 25th annual BACUS Photomask Technology symposium was held in Monterey, California. with 1,154 attendees and almost 200 papers presented. While attendance still include companies from the Bay Area (Cadence, Synopsys, Mentor Graphics and KLA), international representatives Brion Technologies and ASML were also present. [6][7]

In 2009, Chris Mack, a regular attendee, reported the decline in attendance, due to the economy in his blog.[8]

In 2017, BACUS was co-located with the EUV Lithography Conference, together referred to as the SPIE PUV Symposium.[9]

Industry Impact

[edit]

Various industry trade publications like EE Times, Electronic Design News and Semiconductor Engineering, have covered numerous BACUS events and their impact to the mask industry in and beyond the Bay Area.

In 2002, several international vendors (ASML, Leica, Motorola, Photronics, Schott, Unaxis, Veeco and others) claim to have demonstrated a 9-inch reticle production capability over existing 6-inch masks.[10]

In 2003, mask yield under 30% was the topic of concern, where defects represented 50% of all yield loss according to Walter Trybula, a senior fellow at Sematech, a chip-making consortium, based in Austin, TX, and Kurt Kimmel, mask strategy program manager at IBM agrees.[11][12]

At a 2004 SPIE conference, a BACUS panel of mask-makers and users alike discussed whether 193 nm immersion was ready to replace 157 nm dry lithography. The panel included local and international representatives from Mentor Graphics, Advanced Mask Technology Center, AMD, TSMC, Toshiba and Photronics.[13]

In 2005, traditional Electronic Design Automation (EDA) vendors voiced their concerns in Design for Manufacturing (DFM). An increase in attendance by fabless companies was also noted.[6][7]

In 2010, members of the eBeam Initiative, a group of 34 companies including Synopsys Inc., Abeam Technologies Inc., EQUIcon Software GmbH Jena and Tool Corp, discussed a design-to-manufacturing approach known as design for e-beam (DFEB) to reduce mask costs.[14]

In 2024, the PUV conference highlighted the significant progress being made in EUV lithography and photomask technology as indicated by one of the plenary speakers, Christophe Fouquest (CEO of ASML).[15]

Awards

[edit]

BACUS issues several awards annually.[16] Awards and a selection of recipients are listed below.

  • Lifetime Achievement Award - To recognize an individual who, during their lifetime, have made distinct contributions of business or technical significance to the photomask industry.
Year Name Citation Ref
2012 Richard Ole Larson of Toppan Photomask In recognition for his Contributions to the Photomask Industry 1973 – 2008 and to Honor his actions exemplifying: Leadership by Example, Mentoring, and Operations Excellence. [17]
2013 Deno Macricostas, founder of Photronics For for his dedication to customer service, strategic acquisitions and partnerships. [18]
2014 Jim Wiley, of ASML In recognition of contributions to the industry, particularly in the area of photomask defect characterization, printability, and publication. [19]
2017 Dr. Hiroaki Morimoto of Mitsubishi Electronics Highlights of his work include the ion beam repair system that was commercialized by Seiko Instruments and the invention of the attenuated phase-shifting mask with a single-layer absorptive shifter which is still used in production. BACUS News, October 2017, Vol. 33, Issue 10[3]
2018 Frank Abboud For his thirty+ years of significant contributions in all areas of photomask technology, more specifically for his leadership in the development of advanced e-beam pattern generation. BACUS News, October 2018, Vol. 34, Issue 11[3]
2019 Uwe Behringer of UBC Microelectronics In recognition of his promotion and support of the photomask industry over many decades through his efforts to plan and organize The European Mask and Lithography Conference and his unflagging contribution to the Photomask Technology and Photomask Japan conference. BACUS News, January 2021, Vol. 37, Issue 1[3]
2021 Ken Rygler of Rygler and Associates For influencing the entry of the E.I. Dupont Company into the merchant mask business in the 1980's. [20][21]
2024 Hans Loeschner of IMS Nanofabrication In recognition of his contributions toward the development of the IMS electron multi-beam mask-writer (MBMW) technology. [22]
  • BACUS Award - To recognize contributions to the photomask industry that have at least one of the following attributes: a fundamental change or innovation, an enduring contribution, and/or an enabling contribution.
    • 2013: Tadahiro Takigawa of ASML Japan in recognition of his contributions toward development and commercialization of high keV vector scanned beam photomask lithography tools. Close to half of all masks are now made with 50 keV VSB technology developed or influenced by Takigawa, first at Toshiba Machine Corp. and subsequently at NuFlare.[18]
    • 2014: Dan Meisburger of Tec-Start Consulting in recognition of his work and influence in the development of the high-speed electron beam mask inspection system.[19]
    • 2017: Dr. Hans Loeschner and Dr. Elmar Platzgummer of IMS Nanofabrication in recognition of their contribution to the photomask industry through their work and influence to develop and commercialize e-beam lithography tool.[3]
    • 2023: Haruhiko Kusunose of Lasertec Corporation in recognition of "The enablement of EUV mask inspection using 193nm optical inspection system"[23]
  • Photomask Technology Conference Best Presentation- To recognize an oral presentation and research, this recognition is awarded at the chairs' discretion, typically by committee vote. Presentations are judged on three criteria: technical impact, scientific analysis, and delivery/presentation.
    • 2018: Dr. Scott Lewis for his presentation "Design and implementation of the next-generation electron-beam resists for the production of EUVL photomasks"[24]
    • 2023: Toshiyuki Todoroki and Kou Gondaira of Lasertec Corporation for their paper, "Actinic pattern mask inspection for high-NA EUV lithography"[23]
  • Photomask Technology Conference Best Poster - To recognize a poster presentation and research, recognition is awarded at the chairs' discretion, typically by committee vote.
    • 2018: Hayden Alty for his poster "Using 3D Monte Carlo simulation to develop resists for next-generation lithography"[24]

Publications

[edit]

Conference Proceedings[25] are published by SPIE and cover a wide range of topics in photomask technology. SPIE also archives BACUS newsletters published from 2010-2023.[3]

  • Connecting climate with photomasks: Using skills for good by Emily Gallagher of Imec[26]
  • Translating e-beam-litho performance to optical specification by Vistec Electron Beam[27]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "SPIE BACUS Technical Group". spie.org. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  2. ^ Wiley, Jim (October 29, 2018). "Early Silicon Valley Mask Making & BACUS Founding". Medium. Retrieved April 25, 2025.
  3. ^ a b c d e f "BACUS News". spie.org. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  4. ^ "Front Matter: Volume PM81". Bay Area Chrome Users Society Symposium 1981. SPIE. 2023-10-05. p. 0. doi:10.1117/12.3009927. ISBN 978-1-5106-6866-9.
  5. ^ Levinson, Harry (2023). "Long Live BACUS!". Journal of Micro/Nanopatterning, Materials, and Metrology. 22 (4): 040101. Bibcode:2023JMNMM..22d0101L. doi:10.1117/1.JMM.22.4.040101 – via SPIE Digital Library.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: article number as page number (link)
  6. ^ a b McGrath, Dylan (2005-10-07). "Design, manufacturing worlds collide at Bacus". EDN. Retrieved 2025-06-05.
  7. ^ a b McGrath, Dylan (2005-10-07). "Design, manufacturing worlds collide at Bacus". EE Times. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  8. ^ "Making Masks in Monterey". www.lithoguru.com. Retrieved 2025-08-11.
  9. ^ Willis, Jan (2017-08-17). "What's Changing At BACUS". Semiconductor Engineering. Retrieved 2025-04-10.
  10. ^ LaPedus, Mark (2002-10-01). "Is the IC industry ready for a new photomask size?". EE Times. Retrieved 2025-02-07.
  11. ^ LaPedus, Mark (2003-09-12). "Photomask yields become a growing crisis, say experts". EE Times. Retrieved 2025-07-07.
  12. ^ Lapedus, Mark (2003-09-12). "Photomask yields a growing crisis, experts warn". EDN. Retrieved 2025-07-07.
  13. ^ EETimes (2004-02-25). "Bacus panel wrings out immersion lithography". EE Times. Retrieved 2025-07-07.
  14. ^ McGrath, Dylan (2010-09-23). "The horror of 80-hour photomask write times". EE Times. Retrieved 2025-07-07.
  15. ^ Levinson, Harry (2024-12-04). "Takeaways From The 2024 SPIE Photomask Technology + EUV Conference". Semiconductor Engineering. Retrieved 2025-04-24.
  16. ^ "Photomask Technology + EUV Lithography awards". spie.org. Retrieved 2025-04-14.
  17. ^ "In memoriam: Rich Larson". spie.org. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  18. ^ a b SPIE. "Industry Leaders Drive SPIE Photomask Technology Conference". www.prweb.com. Retrieved 2025-05-09.
  19. ^ a b Cicero, Diogenes (2014-10-06). "Photomask Technology speaker says EUV is nearly production-ready | Semiconductor Digest". Retrieved 2025-07-07.
  20. ^ "Oral History Interview: Ken Rygler | SEMI". www.semi.org. Retrieved 2025-08-11.
  21. ^ "Ken Rygler receives 2021 Bacus Lifetime Achievement award". spie.org. Retrieved 2025-06-09.
  22. ^ ims-admin-2024 (2024-10-22). "BACUS 2024 Lifetime Achievement Award for IMS Co-Founder Hans Loeschner". IMS Nanofabrication GmbH. Retrieved 2025-06-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  23. ^ a b "Lasertec Receives "BACUS Prize" and "Best Paper Presentation Award" at SPIE Photomask Technology + EUVL Exhibition 2023". Lasertec Corporation. Retrieved 2025-06-05.
  24. ^ a b "KNI Collaborators Win Two Awards at 2018 SPIE Photomask Technology + EUV Lithography Conference". The Kavli Nanoscience Institute. 2018-10-12. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  25. ^ "SPIE Digital Library Photomask Technology Proceedings". www.spiedigitallibrary.org. Retrieved 2025-06-05.
  26. ^ "Connecting climate with photomasks: Using skills for good | Electro Optics". www.electrooptics.com. Retrieved 2025-06-19.
  27. ^ "Meet us at Bacus Photomask Technology 2024 in Monterey, CA". www.vistec-semi.com. 2024-09-24. Retrieved 2025-06-05.