SEOUL, South Korea and ST. FLORIAN, Austria -- EV Group (EVG), a leading supplier of wafer bonding and lithography equipment for the MEMS, nanotechnology and semiconductor markets, today announced that leading Korean components manufacturer, Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., LTD. (SEMCO), selected the company's EVG810LT, a LowTemp® plasma activation system, for its R&D work involving stacked and 3D MEMS devices. The tool will be shipped and installed in March, following successful demonstrations at EVG's cleanroom facility in Austria.

The EVG810LT is a single chamber, stand-alone plasma activation system for low-temperature bonding for up to 200-mm wafers. EVG's revolutionary plasma activation technology enables high-surface energy bonding at the fusion/molecular and intermediate layers, resulting in bonds with fracture strengths exceeding bulk silicon at shorter annealing times. Its low-temperature, closed-chamber design offers bond surface uniformity across a wide range of thermal-sensitive materials, including silicon-based semiconductors, compound semiconductors, glass and polymers. The low annealing temperate - ranging from room temperature up to 400 degrees C - results in stress-free, warp-free, aligned substrates, ultimately lowering packaging costs for MEMS devices.

"We are committed to bringing leading-edge MEMS devices to market, and in doing so, are focused on improving the quality and performance of next-generation 3D and stacked MEMS devices," said Dr. Jae Woo Joung, general manager of Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., LTD. "In turn, we're looking to partner with companies that can deliver the latest manufacturing approaches, process expertise and support to help us realize our goals. EV Group's plasma activation technology proved to meet our stringent requirements - offering the high reliability and high-quality processing results we demand for our products."

Dr. Weonsik Yang, general manager at EV Group Korea Ltd., noted, "As the Korean market continues to increase its technological developments and rise to compete in the global MEMS arena, EVG is excited to have the opportunity to work closely with an industry innovator and leader, such as Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., LTD. We are extremely dedicated to enabling our customers in this region, and look forward to future collaborative efforts with SEMCO."