Junkosha, a specialist in advanced cable solutions for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, has announced a new 1 mm pitch configuration within its Junkosha Super Low Outgassing Cable portfolio. The announcement was made at SEMICON West 2026, where the company used the event to highlight its collaborative cable engineering approach with semiconductor equipment manufacturers (SEMs).
The new cable configuration addresses a persistent integration challenge in semiconductor equipment design: space constraints within ultra-high vacuum (UHV) chambers. In environments where linear stages, motors, and encoders are already tightly packaged, even a marginal increase in cable width can force redesigns of routing arrangements, mechanical interfaces, or assembly tooling. The 1 mm pitch configuration is intended to minimise such downstream engineering impact.
According to Junkosha, the cables have achieved a flex life of 30 million cycles at a 70 mm bending radius, qualifying them for demanding high-flex motion applications typical of vacuum-compatible linear and rotary stage assemblies. Low outgassing performance is a critical requirement in UHV environments, where volatile compounds released from materials can contaminate process chambers and compromise yield in wafer-level processes.
The product development follows what Junkosha describes as a collaborative engineering model, working directly with equipment manufacturers to define, test, and refine cable geometries and material specifications around application-specific requirements rather than adapting standard catalogue products. This approach is increasingly relevant as semiconductor equipment architectures become more compact and the tolerance for integration compromise narrows.
For the European electronics manufacturing supply chain, cable qualification for semiconductor equipment is a discipline that intersects with broader advanced packaging and wafer handling trends. As front-end equipment suppliers face pressure to reduce equipment footprints while maintaining throughput and reliability, subsystem components including cabling must meet tighter dimensional and performance specifications.
Junkosha's Super Low Outgassing Cable portfolio is positioned for integration into equipment used across etch, deposition, lithography, and inspection segments, where vacuum-compatible, high-cycle-life interconnects are standard requirements. The 1 mm pitch variant extends the range to applications where previous configurations were dimensionally impractical.
Quelle: SEMICON Europa – https://www.semi.org/en/node/176426
