Tuesday, July 17, 2007



SAN FRANCISCO, Jul. 17, 2007 (PR Newswire Europe delivered by Newstex) --

SEMICON WEST -- The SAFC Hitech(TM) business segment within SAFC(R), a member of the Sigma-Aldrich Group (Nasdaq: SIAL), today announced details of its new five-year chemical roadmap for Metalorganic Chemical Vapor Deposition (MOCVD) and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) processes on silicon semiconductor substrates.

The new SAFC Hitech silicon semiconductor roadmap adheres to the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) guidelines and maps an extensive program of materials development across a number of layers within the semiconductor. These include materials for high-k dielectrics in logic and memory devices, additional functional memory architectures, electrodes in DRAM or gate stacks, barrier layers, wiring, and low-k dielectrics.

'As the silicon semiconductor industry moves from the 65nm node through 45nm, 32nm and beyond, demands placed on the electrophysics of the silicon device require the development of new enabling chemistries,' commented SAFC Hitech President, Barry Leese. 'We believe the semiconductor market is entering an 'age of chemistry' where continual materials evolution will be vital to enable future technology nodes. As our roadmap indicates, SAFC Hitech is positioning itself at the forefront of this material development with a number of advanced materials in production.'

'Silicon oxides and other 'traditional' materials have long been used as pre-metal dielectrics. What we are heralding to the industry is an expansion of the periodic table and the development of novel materials utilizing previously untried elements. We are already employing oxides and binary oxides such as aluminum oxides, hafnium oxides, hafnium silicates and zirconium oxides and complex rare earth oxides in our production processes. These metal oxides have a very high-k value and will continue to be widely exploited in the next couple of years if the industry stays on course with Moore's law,' added Dr. Peter Heys, Director of Research and Development at SAFC Hitech.

'Over the course of the new roadmap, SAFC Hitech will be introducing more complex high-k oxides for silicon semiconductor manufacturing, such as hafnium zirconium based layers, which offer greater flexibility as they can be doped with other materials like silicon, nitrogen, aluminum, lanthanum and yttrium to meet individual customer requirements in creating a layer that functions well for a particular device design. Beyond that, the research and development of, for example, lanthanide and strontium chemistries, binary metals and complex metals oxides or iterations of oxides will facilitate the delivery of the 50+ k values needed for future technology nodes,' said Dr. Heys.

'Looking to the future,' concluded Barry Leese, 'the materials that are going to be key in high-k dielectrics are those that possess the proper physical chemical characteristics and which meet or exceed the correct requirements in deposition capability across all device architectures. These materials will possess the appropriate electrical properties and must be offered at an acceptable cost to consumers. Our new roadmap, combined with our experienced research and development team, excellent strategic partnerships and worldwide presence puts us in a position to fully satisfy the demands and expectations of the market.'

For further information, visit SAFC Hitech (Booth 3618 in the Gateway Hall) during Semicon West, or go to  http://www.safchitech.com.

About SAFC Hitech: SAFC Hitech(TM) provides a unique chemistry service translating application understanding into performance materials worldwide. Through collaborative partnerships and an integrated approach from research and development, process development and scale-up to commercial manufacturing, SAFC Hitech invests in innovation and manufacturing enabling current and future technology needs.

About SAFC: SAFC(R) is the custom manufacturing and services group within Sigma-Aldrich that focuses on high-purity chemicals for high technology applications, cell culture products and services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing, biochemical production and complex, multi-step organic synthesis of APIs and key intermediates. SAFC has manufacturing facilities around the world dedicated to providing manufacturing services for companies requiring a reliable partner to produce their custom manufactured materials. SAFC has four operating segments -- SAFC Pharma(TM), SAFC Supply Solutions(TM), SAFC Biosciences(TM), and SAFC Hitech(TM) -- and had annual sales of nearly US$500 million in 2006. SAFC is one of the world's 10 largest fine chemicals businesses.

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Our biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical and other high technology manufacturing. We have customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and in industry. Over one million scientists and technologists use our products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 36 countries and has 7,600 employees providing excellent service worldwide. We are committed to accelerating Customers' success through leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit our award-winning web site at  http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

Cautionary Statement: This release contains forward-looking statements relating to future performance, goals, strategic actions and initiatives and similar intentions and beliefs and other statements regarding the Companies' expectations, goals, beliefs, intentions and the like, which involve assumptions regarding the Companies' operations and conditions in the markets the Companies serve. The Companies do not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Web site:  http://www.sigma-aldrich.com  http://www.safchitech.com


Sigma-Aldrich Group
Dr. Frank Wicks, President of SAFC, +1-314-286-8008; or Mark Button of Impress Public Relations, +1-408-310-2168,  mark@impress-pr.com, for Sigma-Aldrich Group; Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050215/CGSIGMAALLOGO, AP Archive:  http://photoarchive.ap.org, PRN Photo Desk,  photodesk@prnewswire.com



Newstex ID: PRN-0003-18186247


Delivered by Newstex LLC
via theFinancials.com