Used TEL Episode™ 1 ALD/CVD Deposition Platform

TEL Episode™ 1 is a vertical batch ALD/CVD deposition platform from Tokyo Electron (TEL) designed for wafers 200mm in size and smaller; it belongs to the company’s series of high-volume manufacturing (HVM) furnace systems for thermal processing and deposition. It is not intended for advanced logic processes requiring single-wafer precision; rather, its core applications focus on thin-film deposition for power devices, analog chips, and mature-node semiconductor processes.

Process Capabilities: Operating in a batch mode, the system can process anywhere from dozens to over a hundred wafers per furnace tube. It supports both ALD and CVD deposition modes, enabling the formation of dielectric films such as silicon oxide and silicon nitride. Typical applications include the creation of gate insulating layers, sidewall spacers, and hard masks. The batch architecture offers high throughput and a lower cost-per-wafer, making it well-suited for production lines at mature nodes where high throughput is prioritized and the stringent, single-wafer-level precision required for advanced nodes is not necessary.

Design Focus: Episode™ 1 prioritizes process stability and equipment uptime. It features multi-zone temperature control, low-pressure processing capabilities, and compatibility with various wafer sizes, allowing for flexible transitions between 100mm, 150mm, and 200mm wafer production. Positioned within the same family of batch thermal deposition systems as TEL’s ALPHA-8SE™ i, the Episode™ 1 places a particular emphasis on ALD capabilities.

In short, Episode™ 1 is a batch-type ALD/CVD production platform serving the power semiconductor and mature-node manufacturing sectors. It occupies a different market segment—in terms of both throughput architecture and target process nodes—than the single-wafer, high-k ALD equipment from ASM that you previously inquired about.