Media Coverage and Awards
Faster Metrology, APC Needed to Fuel Rapid Time to Market
Alexander E. Braun, Senior Editor – Semiconductor International, 7/19/2007
New metrology and novel applications of more mature techniques are increasingly needed for process control. This was an underlying theme of the Advances in E-Manufacturing, Metrology and Process Control TechXPOT session yesterday at SEMICON West. The presenters confirmed that, as manufacturing processes grow increasingly complicated and more new materials are incorporated, increasingly powerful metrology tools are becoming necessary for the finely tuned process control schemes that are needed for timely, profitable yields. “The focus is on enabling the technology base to continue progressing, which requires us to get a handle on process control,” said Dave Kyser, session chair and senior director for strategic external research at Applied Materials (Santa Clara, Calif.).
The papers that were presented concentrated on various aspects of this. It was noted, for instance, that X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) applications are in a period of flux. An example given showed how XPS has become a production-worthy platform capable of performing inline metrology on patterned wafers, with new applications in the area of memory, and how it is finding uses where traditional techniques, such as optical or acoustical, may fall short, such as for high-k capacitors for DRAM, plasma implanting and highly engineered films for flash memory.1
The shift of the market (and therefore of the semiconductor industry) toward more consumer-oriented applications, while providing new opportunities, is also forcing faster ramping to meet time-to-market requirements that take advantage of these sometimes short-term opportunities. In the case of memory — with its declining prices — meeting a production or marketing window can spell the difference between profitability and disaster. A case in point is the iPhone, and the competition by many to now get into that market. All of these factors are making process control even more crucial. The 45 nm node is expected to pose challenges for metrology, with the continued rapid introduction of new architectures and materials, with crucial changes in memory as it progresses from 2-D to 3-D structures. Lithography is another key concern, requiring sensitivity in the capture rate of defect types, new materials, design defects, optical proximity correction (OPC) structures and the capability to print features.
1 References include “Pattern Wafer XPS Metrology for Advanced Process Control” by John A. Samuels, Ph.D., Director of Marketing, ReVera, Inc. Please click here to view a copy of the presentation.
The original publication of this article is available on Semiconductor.net.