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The aggressive shrinking of design rules with the increasing requirement to reduce costs of running a 300 mm Fab are pushing equipment particle performance to lower defectivity counts and tighter control. The rapid qualification of process equipment and the identification of excursions on monitor wafers before the product is committed is an important metric of a Fab strategy to minimize the product...
In today's automotive business a lot of new features with safety relevance are added to the vehicles. Therefore customers require high quality and reliability. The semiconductor industry provides a major contribution to the increased performance and functionality of car electronics and needs to develop sophisticated strategies for quality learning and continuous improvement in order to meet the challenging...
The duration of the reliability qualification test for a new software release at ASML is derived from the SEMI-E10 standard. A system level 'run production' test case is used for qualification, even if specific sub-system test cases could reach the target confidence faster. The confidence in the reliability of a sub-system can be increased faster by utilizing sub-system test cases, because sub-system...
Surface photo voltage (SPV) measurement has become an important semiconductor characterization tool due to the availability of commercial equipment and its non-contact nature. In this study, we discuss the application of the SPV technique for the control and monitoring of ion implanters, specifically for quantifying and qualifying lattice damage and electrically-activated dopants due to ion implantation...
The capital investment for semiconductor fabrication continues to increase as pricing pressure for microprocessors is greater than ever. This profit margin challenge is especially taxing in the area of lithography as the increasing transistor count also drives an increase in the number of mask layers. The cost of lithography equipment for a leading edge factory today is ~$0.5-1 billion. Intel continues...
Enhanced resolution capability, defined in Rayleigh's criterion as: R = (k1*lambda)/NA (1); where R = minimum resolution, lambda = exposure wavelength, and k1 = process dependent factor is the key motivation for the transition to immersion lithography, and the continued push for higher numerical apertures (NA). Regardless of the imaging enhancements made possible by immersion lithography though, this...
This paper describes the implementation of a first generation inline X-ray diffractometer for the characterization of polycrystalline thin films. The tool is able to provide quantitative structural data on either blanket or patterned wafers, which allows it to serve as a routine line monitor, or as an analytical probe for process development, tool matching, or problem diagnostics.
The aim of this paper is to extend the intensive yield learning and manufacturability process further into the process life cycle. This necessarily means employing chips of high circuit complexity, up to the final products complexity. In this way, the actual effects that the design flow will have in combining low-levels of IP can be understood more accurately. The paper will also describe how analysis...
Progressive mask defect (such as crystal growth, haze etc.) continues to threaten the industry (especially at 193 nm lithography) [1]. This drives the need for wafer fab mask inspection [2] which can be achieved via two methods. The first method is indirect, commonly known as image qualification[4], where a mask is being exposed followed by the inspection of the printed wafer to detect if there is...
This paper presents a new dispatching rule for multi- product, multi-machine job shops with routing flexibility, targeting on maximizing throughput at a low level of WIP (work in process). It shows the relative advantage of the newly developed dispatching rule "work in parallel queue" (WIPQ) in comparison to other dispatching rules which attempt to increase the production system throughput...
The use of predictive maintenance can return significant gains in total tool cost of ownership (COO) through reductions in parts usage and storage, unscheduled downtime, and maintenance time.
Average yield is the typical and most generally accepted metric for the semiconductor manufacturing process. Here we show that statistical analysis of the same data used to measure average yield can be used to extract additional useful information that reveals a more detailed picture of the manufacturing process. We measure the number of failing chips for each wafer in a large data set and find that...
The approach of this study is to install a realtime concentration monitoring system in a slurry blending system with the main intention of replacing a complex auto-titration system for cost reduction and optimization of the blending process. A Swagelok CR-288 concentration sensor was installed in a Kinetics Slurry Blending System to monitor in real-time the peroxide concentration of the slurry batch...
As the design rule of devices decreases with shrinking gate width dimensions, the properties of sidewall layers are becoming increasingly important for controlling electrical properties, especially for processes in the nanometer-grade range. Poor control of the sidewall process can cause errors in both the implant area and length of the device channel. An optical technology has been developed and...
The complexity of modern manufacturing processes has sharply increased the number of steps affecting device and circuit performance. We discuss a number of critical steps, their control methodology and how to minimize the time to detect. Product test results and data-mining are used to identify critical steps and to determine which inline signals require most attention. The last section is devoted...
The article describes the wafer yield loss due to wafer backside defect. The backside defect pattern will transfer to the next wafer surface during the following clean process and cause the process defect issue. These defects will impact the yield. Real root cause finding let prevent action work well.
Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) of Hf and Zr oxide films is of considerable interest and promise for future generation Metal-lnsulator-Metal (MIM) structures in memory applications. Hafnium and zirconium alkylamides such as tetrakis(ethylmethylamino) hafnium (TEMAH) and tetrakis (ethylmethylamino) zirconium (TEMAZ) are the most considered precursors. However, their relatively low thermal stability might...
In order to monitor plasma-enhanced SiON process for 70-nm-node, the Corona Oxide Silicon technology (Quantox XP) is implemented to detect the gate material characteristic besides optical metrology tool. H2 annealing following post-nitridation annealing (PNA) reduces the noise of the equivalent oxide thickness (EOT) and thereby increases the monitoring stability. Quantox parameters have good correlations...
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