Defense Industry Supplier i3 Microsystems Places Repeat Order for ClassOne’s Solstice Electroplating System

ClassOne Technology, global provider of advanced semiconductor plating tools, announced the sale of a second Solstice® S8 system to i3 Microsystems (i3M), a wholly-owned subsidiary of defense industry supplier i3 Electronics headquartered in Binghamton, NY. The eight-chambered Solstice S8 configuration includes ClassOne’s proprietary CopperMax™ chamber for advanced copper plating. The announcement was made jointly by ClassOne CEO, Byron Exarcos, and i3 VP/General Manager, Robert Nead.

“We brought in the first Solstice S8 to replace our wet benches and automate our plating processes,” said Nead. “And the tool’s high performance and flexibility have served us extremely well. With eight chambers, the Solstice is able to handle both plating and surface preparation processes. We’re now adding solvent strip and UBM etch capabilities to our first Solstice, and we are configuring our second Solstice to match. Bottom line, we’ve been very pleased with the Solstice and also with ClassOne’s customer service, both of which are strongly supporting our ongoing growth.”

“A key feature of i3M’s Solstice S8 configuration is that it includes our proprietary CopperMax™ electroplating chamber,” said Exarcos. “This unique chamber is designed to deliver class-leading copper plating quality while at the same time reducing plating consumables costs. It gives users the ability to routinely achieve exceptional levels of copper plating feature quality and also cut copper chemistry additives costs by as much as 95%.

Solstice presently serves many of the world’s leading defense contractors and is emerging as the electroplating and wafer surface preparation system of choice for meeting the exacting requirements of the defense and aerospace industries.

The ClassOne Solstice S8 is an eight-chambered system for high-performance, fully-automated electroplating and surface preparation. The Solstice platform also includes the S4, which provides up to four processing chambers, and the LT, with up to three chambers. In addition to electroplating, the tool’s unique Plating-Plus™ capability also enables it to handle many surface preparation functions, including wafer cleaning, high-pressure metal lift-off, resist strip, UBM etch and more. This multi-processing flexibility serves to streamline process production and can reduce the number of different tools a user needs to purchase.

About ClassOne
ClassOne Technology (classone.com) is a global provider of advanced and innovative wet-chemical wafer processing solutions, including electroplaters, spin-rinse-dryers, spray solvent tools and more. Headquartered in Kalispell, MT, the company focuses on making advanced processing technology available to users of ≤200mm substrates such as compound semiconductor and many emerging markets, who traditionally have been underserved by the larger equipment manufacturers. ClassOne Technology is built upon decades of experience from industry veterans creating high-performance semiconductor equipment. ClassOne Technology is a sister company to ClassOne Equipment (classoneequipment.com), long respected as the industry’s premier provider of refurbished name-brand processing tools, with over 2,500 systems installed worldwide.

About i3 Microsystems
i3 Microsystems (i3M) with corporate headquarters in Binghamton, NY, is a world-class vertically-integrated provider of leading-edge microelectronic packaging solutions, including integrated Ultra High Density (iUHD)/System-in-Package (SiP)/Fan-out Wafer-Level Packaging (FOWLP). i3M provides advanced assembly, design and layout, modeling, signal integrity, reliability and environmental testing and physical analysis. The company has developed System-in-Package technology to achieve important reductions in size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP) for numerous advanced devices, to increase the mobility, operational life, and overall viability of many products in defense and aerospace, high-performance computing, and industrial applications.