Alchimer’s Challenge
By David Lammers
Can Alchimer cross the “valley of death” – the gap between an innovative idea and commercial acceptance?
Europeans raise the issue often, saying that too many technologies hatched in European research labs fail to make a dent in the marketplace. Alchimer’s technology appears to be at least halfway across that gap, four years after its “electrografting” barrier and seed deposition first gained widespread attention.
Alchimer, based in Massy, France, offers a wet chemistry approach to seed and barrier deposition that works with electroplating tools rather than the more expensive CVD and ALD deposition equipment required for today’s barrier and seed layers.
I first heard about Alchimer when I joined Semiconductor International magazine in mid-2007. Then editor-in-chief Peter Singer wrote a detailed article about Alchimer, complete with some great graphics, and the story got a number of page views. When the offer came to meet Alchimer’s CEO Steve Lerner while I was in France for the SEMI ISS Europe meeting, I jumped at the opportunity.
Lerner is a battle-hardened American packaging industry executive who was named CEO of the French spinout before the 2008 downturn. (He spent an earlier stint in Europe managing Amkor’s European business.) He managed to raise enough money – right in the middle of the downturn — to stave off a potential bankruptcy.
Now, Lerner claims Alchimer is on the verge of breaking through to commercial adoption. The company has been demonstrating its technology at a lab in Seoul, and another in Taiwan, for the past year. “We have been in a proof of concept relationship with an industrial partner in Korea, one of the biggest companies in the world. They will start out using the Alchimer technology in two product areas that are not on anyone’s roadmap,” Lerner said.
Once Alchimer and its unnamed partners show that the approach works and is cost effective, Lerner said several other customers will adopt the Alchimer technology. “We are in the mode of breaking through with one or two of the big guys,” Lerner said.
“Three years ago we could only demonstrate one film. Now, we have two 300-mm proof of concept lines, and we are knocking off the technical issues one by one,” Lerner said.
The Alchimer technology has applications beyond through silicon vias (TSVs). The conductive layer in solar cells is another major opportunity. “We can deposit a thin-film nickel barrier layer,” Lerner said, that will improve the conversion efficiency of solar cells.
In wafer-level packaging, Lerner said the Alchimer approach “can replace PVD and sputtering for all conductive films.”
The French company has been developing a deeper file of third-party reliability data to show customers. It has redesigned its Web site. And Lerner, while keeping his home base in Paris, is spending most of his work days in Asia where the highest volume customers are.
Steve Lerner
He talks knowledgeably about how hard it is for any startup to go head-to-head with the largest equipment companies. There are plenty of startups, and plenty of smart CEOs such as Lerner, who have talked a good game but ultimately failed.
With 3D TSVs, solar, LEDs, interposers, and wafer level packaging all in various states of technological change, there are myriad opportunities for advances in deposition.
Lerner is convinced that Alchimer has what it takes – both in terms of technology and cost savings — to cross “the valley of death.” It is a story worth following.
