JD Photo-Tools, a leading specialist for low cost, mature technology photo-masks, has announced the launch of its ‘Super High’ direct chrome photo-mask service. A mixture of new capital equipment, improved processes and specialist technology has considerably improved quality and accuracy, and at the same time has reduced feature sizes way below the previous limitations. The ‘Super High’ resolution is twice the resolution of previous capabilities, giving a four-fold improvement in accuracy and definition – which in ‘real world’ terms means features smaller than 2 µm.
The new systems allow the company to produce demanding chrome masks with micron sized features in as little as four hours — this being the fastest photo-mask production capability in the world, where normal industry production times for masks are over one week. Despite the largest investment in the company’s history, JD Photo-Tools have honoured their existing low-cost service commitments by holding prices at 2005 levels.
“The introduction of this technology now provides a significant, cost-effective alternative to electron beam technology,” stated Glenn Swanton, Managing Director. “Our production and management teams have worked tirelessly over the last few months to bring this new production process to market. Using this new technology we have the ability to produce both small and large format Photo Masks at an extremely high resolution — and at a fraction of the cost of current technologies. We already held a significant lead over our competitors on speed and price — this investment means that we can now also compete on the quality front but excel at it.”
