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December 3, 2007
OMRON LASERFRONT INC.

Sales of the New SL473DS Wafer Marker

OMRON LASERFRONT INC. ("OＬＦＴ;" Head Office: Sagamihara, Kanagawa; President and CEO: Takeshi Matsunobu) announced that sales of the SL473DS Wafer Marker, a compact system with excellent printing quality, began today. The delivery time for a model with standard specifications is approximately four months from the date that the order is received.

The new product was developed as a successor to the SL473DS Wafer Marker, a low-priced soft-marking device (see Note 1) that generates no debris and has maintained high popularity in the market since its release in 1989. The SL473DS features a completely air-cooled, laser-diode (LD) pumped solid-state green laser (see Note 2), and achieves the same level of marking quality as the higher-level SL473F2 and SL473G Wafer Markers. An optional function also enables automatic switching for back surface marking.

The SL473DS features compactness, with a 1.1-m (W) x 1.2-m (D) footprint, and low power consumption. Priced at approximately the same level as previous models, it offers high cost-performance. OＬＦＴ has set a sales target of 100 units over a three-year period.

Increased diversity in electronic and semiconductor devices in recent years has led to demands for greater traceability by marking each product during the wafer process with information such as lot numbers and data codes for quality control. In addition, the use of micro-machining in device circuits has made it necessary to employ soft marking, and LD pumped solid-state lasers with highly stable pulses have become essential.

The new SL473DS was developed to meet these market needs, and has the following main features:

[1]	A compact size and high cost-performance.
[2]	A green laser as standard equipment, for high-quality soft marking with excellent visibility and debris suppression.
[3]	A completely air-cooled, LD pumped solid-state laser, for improved marking stability and dramatically reduced maintenance requirements.
[4]	Optionally available back surface marking and hard-marking specifications.
[5]	Optionally available 3" and 8" wafer configurations. Multiple wafer sizes can also be handled as an option for the standard 4" to 6" sizes.

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Including the periods during which the OLFT Wafer Markers were distributed in Japan by NEC Corporation and Laserfront Technologies Inc., sales have exceeded 250 units, which represents the top market share for wafer markers used in domestic Japanese semiconductor processes. As the new model goes to market, OLFT plans to take maximum advantage of this sales record and to further reinforce its customer support system by responding flexibly to the need for custom specifications.

The main specifications of the SL473DS are provided on the attached page.

Note 1: Soft marking
A shallow dot marking process that generates minimal debris (particles) on the wafer, and requires laser marking of a uniform depth.

Note 2: Completely air-cooled, LD pumped solid-state laser
A highly efficient, completely air-cooled laser that requires no water cooling and is pumped by a semiconductor laser diode. It uses an Nd:YLF laser crystal, whose high peak power maintains a stable pulse.

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Main Specifications of the SL473DS Wafer Marker

Item	Specification
Size (m)	1.1 (W) x 1.2 (D) x 1.5 (H)
Weight	600 kg
Power	200 VAC, 15 A, single phase
Laser oscillator	LD pumped Nd:YLF SHG (523 nm)
Wafer	4" to 6" sizes (3" and 8" sizes optional) Multiple wafer size configuration optional
Marking	Soft marking Back surface marking (optional)
Characters	SEMI compliance
Throughput	60 wafers/hour
Operating system	Windows XP

SL473DS

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