Air Liquide
HyALD & ZyALD: ALOHA’s New High Temperature ALD precursor for High-k

The most common Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) precursors for Zr and Hf are tetrakis-dialkylamido compounds, with various substituents to optimize the physical state –liquids being preferred over solids-, and the vapour pressure. These precursors have been found to yield self-limited ALD growth behaviour up to ~ 200-250°C, beyond which point parasitic CVD is obtained. This effect has also been found to be more acute on Zirconium compounds than on their Hafnium counterparts. The Zirconium compounds also tend to have shorter shelf lives at elevated temperature, up to a point where usage in a heated bubbler, along with the general facilitization of the product, is problematic.

It has also been shown that depositing at higher temperature would have multiple benefits, such as yielding as-dep films having higher k-value due to the predominant tetragonal phase of the oxide, and such as faster and more efficient chamber purge-out that avoids material build-up and particle excursions, especially when targeting thick layers.

In order to alleviate the thermal stability issue of these compounds, Air Liquide ALOHA R&D has developed a new family of products for the ALD of Hafnium and Zirconium based high-k films, dubbed HyALD and ZyALD. These molecules have been specially engineered to exhibit the desired thermal stability to improve shelf life and allow a much wider self limited ALD window.

A fundamental benefit of this family of compounds is that the typical growth per cycle is extremely close to that obtained with the usual ethylmethyamino analogs. In addition, ZyALD and HyALD also have similar vapour pressure to these analogs.

Hence, ZyALD and HyALD allow a much higher throughput capabilities than the otherwise proposed chemical alternatives based on metallocene compounds (i.e. in which the metal is sandwiched between two Cp groups). Last but not least, their relatively easy synthesis route and availability of raw material will not impose a significant added cost compared to the existing solutions in high volume. This new development exemplifies ALOHA™ capabilities to design, manufacture and evaluate new CVD and ALD chemistries for a large variety of applications and deposition methods, such as LP-CVD, SA-CVD, ALD, PE-ALD, PE-CVD, etc. With 3 application labs in the US, Japan and Europe, we bring same time-zone support and un-matched precursor screening capabilities to our customers and OEM partners.

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Carl Zeiss SMT - Nano Technology Systems Division
ULTRA 55

Electron microscopes are indispensable tools for todays nano technology development and production. Scanning electron microscopes (SEM) deliver high resolution surface information and are widely used in many applications fields like Materials Analysis, Life Sciences and Semiconductor Technology. The addition of analytical detectors like EDX (Energy dispersive X-Ray), WDX (Wavelength Dispersive x-Ray), EBSD (Electron Backscatter Diffraction) or CL (Cathode Luminescence) the Gemini FE-SEM technology enables full nano structural analysis.

The ULTRA55 Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope has a unique high efficiency, high resolution In-column EsB detector which enables ultra high resolution BSE imaging for compositional contrast. The ULTRA FESEM integrates the latest developments in the GEMINI technology utilising a newly developed Energy selective Backscattered detector (EsB). The ULTRA features the GEMINI In-lens SE detector for clear topographic imaging and the EsB detector for compositional contrast imaging enabling simultaneous real time imaging and mixing of both signals. The EsB detector incorporates a filtering grid which enables high resolution BSE imaging revealing previously unseen image details. A pole piece cap mounted AsB (Angular selective Backscatter) detector completes the detection system of the ULTRA55. This detector delivers at ultra short working distance orientation contrast of the sample, generated by low angle backscattered electrons.

The combination of the high efficiency In-lens SE detector for clear high contrast imaging of surface details together with the outstanding EsB detector for compositional contrast, makes the ULTRA one of the most versatile ultra high resolution FESEMs currently available. Applications as diverse as uncoated wafers, semiconductor cross-sections,ceramics, plastics, nano-particles, and immuno-gold labelling all benefit from the combination of the EsB and the In-lens SE detector.

Simultaneous ultra high resolution imaging and video processing of nano-scale surface details are now combined with compositional information which enables imaging of particle distributions, clear boundary imaging and precise feature measurement. The higher energy backscattered electrons which are detected by the EsB detector are less sensitive to charging on nonconducting samples.

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Epichem Group
Novel Hafnium and Zirconium Precursors for Atomic Layer deposition

As the size of memory devices continues to be reduced the conventional materials, used to deposit the new dielectric layers required are becoming unsuitable. Al2O3, grown by atomic layer deposition (ALD), is already being used commercially to replace SiO2, but to meet future demands materials with even higher dielectric constant are required.

Hafnium and Zirconium oxide based materials have been investigated for some time and several precursors for ALD are now available to high purity in large volume, however, they possess a number of problems for optimal use in the ever more demanding deposition processes needed to meet industry requirements. Epichem have therefore designed a series of novel hafnium (Fig.1 and Fig. 2) and zirconium (Fig. 3) cyclopentadienyl molecules specifically for high temperature atomic layer deposition (ALD) which have deposited uniform conformal layers on deep trench (~60:1) wafers at temperatures up to 450°C with non-detectable carbon and hydrogen.

The significant advantages of the new Hafnium and Zirconium Precursors are:-

• Excellent precursor physical properties
• Both Bis(methylcyclopentadienyl)methoxymethylhafnium and Bis(methylcyclopentadienyl)methoxymethylzirconium sources are liquids at RT.
• Excellent TGA, thermally stable, no decomposition during vaporisation or growth (no particle issues).
• Good vapour pressure.
• Excellent ALD characteristics
• High quality layers.
• True self-limiting growth at ~350°C for Zr and ~450°C for Hf.
• Conformal step coverage on 60:1 DT wafers.
• Successful growth testing on 200 and 300mm ALD systems.

HfO2 and ZrO2 ALD is at the forefront of new memory and logic device manufacture and these hafnium and zirconium cyclopentadienyl molecules exhibit a significant advantage over the hafnium and zirconium amides due to the uniform conformal layers on deep trench (~60:1) wafers at temperatures up to 450°C with non-detectable carbon and hydrogen.

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Greene, Tweed's Chemraz perfluoroelastomer compound helps customers cut downtime and loss of productivity. Chemraz critical seals minimise micro contamination and offer excellent chemical resistance, maximising seal-life expectancy in wet and dry wafer fabrication processes such as etch, CVD and diffusion. A wide variety of unique seal designs and seal components enable customers to increase throughput and eliminate application challenges when compared to previous component solutions.

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Soitec’s strained SOI (sSOI) wafers for sub-65-nm processing—launched in July, 2006 marking the industry’s first commercial line of these future-ready substrates. It promised that combining the high mobility advantages of strained silicon with the proven speed and power dissipation benefits of SOI, Soitec’s new sSOI wafers were designed to bring added performance and power advantages to future-generation chips.

Speaking at the time the president and CEO said “This newest line of SOI substrates targets advanced applications in the network processing, computing, gaming and high-end wireless industries, where speed and ultra-low power are critical issues,” said André-Jacques Auberton-Hervé, president and CEO of Soitec. “In addition to enabling chipmakers to further amplify the performance and power advantages of their chips, our new sSOI wafers will serve as an extendible platform for the future.”

According to Suresh Venkatesan, director of Austin Silicon Technology Solutions at Freescale Semiconductor—a leading innovator in sSOI technology—the need to control both active and standby power consumption, while continuing to improve transistor performance, is driving the industry to develop creative, non-traditional scaling techniques. “Strained SOI technology is an excellent example of the types of innovation Freescale is incorporating into their transistor roadmap. While this technology is currently under evaluation for the 45-nm node—initially targeting networking and gaming applications—it could eventually help Freescale’s customers create dramatically smaller and more powerful entertainment electronics and intelligent portable devices,” Venkatesan said.

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Usage of ultra high purity (UHP) liquefied specialty gases has never been so high in the microelectronics industry. This increasing consumption is also largely due to the fast growth of the TFT-LCD and photovoltaic industries, which have become major users of gases such as UHP NH3. Distribution of very large flows of liquefied gases is challenging in that sufficient heat must be provided to the liquid phase of the material to compensate the heat of vaporization, and this in a very quick fashion to accommodate the very large flow variations. Failing to accommodate the instantaneous energy demand yields pressure decay and heavy boiling of the liquid with droplets entrainment (which is detrimental to contamination and corrosion) when the heat flux in insufficient, or to pressure overshoots and instability when the flow goes down.

On cylinders, the usage of very efficient resistive heaters at the bottom of the cylinders, coupled with a pressure-based feedback control loop has now been widely implemented WW in the AVP™ gas cabinets of Air Liquide. However, usual heaters are incapable of accommodating the wide heat flux swings required for bulk delivery systems, mostly because of the poor thermal coupling to the container and the heat diffusion time.

As a result, Air Liquide Electronics System has recently developed and patented a new solution called Bulk-AVP, based on induction heating. Bulk-AVP consists of an induction generator coupled to a flexible inductor that can fit most reservoir geometries from cylinders to ton tanks or ISO containers. Bulk-AVP enables end users to make the most out of their liquefied specialty sources, be they packaged in cylinders, ton tanks or even ISO containers.

Bulk-AVP provides end users with the following distinctive advantages:

• Usable flow rate increased by a factor of up to 5 compared to traditional heating technologies.
• Up to 750 slm of NH3 from a size-440 ton tank.
• Bulk distribution of low-vapour pressure gases becomes possible (WF6, HF, 3MS, …)
• Reduced equipment and installation costs: a system equipped with Bulk-AVP can replace multiple gas cabinets.
• Reduced operating costs thanks to unsurpassed energy efficiency.
• Higher flow rates from existing gas cabinets that can be retrofitted to benefit from Bulk-AVP performances.
• Increased safety thanks to Air Liquide’s patented AVP control technology (pressure-based heating control).

Bulk-AVP has been selected by Semiconductor and PV customers for high-flow dispense of critical liquefied gases.

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DuPont Advanced Packaging Lithography, backed by over 30 years of experience with dry film photoresists, manufactures Microlithographic Polymer Film (MPF), designed for advanced semiconductor packaging applications including flip chip, backside wafer coating and other wafer level packaging and MEMS applications. MPF offers the most advanced negative photoresist formulations for excellent productivity, reduced environmental foot print, simple processing and high yields. MPF allows solvent free, aqueous-based developer and remover processing, without jeopardizing cleanliness and resolution.

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This immersion lithography innovation combines advanced technology and process expertise from both Entegris and the former Mykrolis as a result of their merger in August 2005.

Immersion is the newest lithography technique for printing 45 nanometer (nm) or smaller features on semiconductor wafers, using ultra pure water between the optical lens and the wafer. The UPW lens is utilised to significantly improve image resolution. The water must be extremely pure as the smallest impurity can damage image resolution, react with the photoresist, or contaminate the lens. To achieve this requirement, the LiquidLens system provides the highest water purity level at the temperature and pressure required. Entegris has delivered several LiquidLens systems for evaluation and process development use to several major customers. According to Entegris, these leading companies are turning to the LiquidLens system to ensure that precisely controlled UPW is provided to advanced lithography processes as the companies move to production.

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Honeywell burn-in material is Honeywell’s latest generation of reusable thermal interface material (TIM), providing outstanding, repeatable thermal performance over many thousands of cycles.

Traditionally, greases and phase change thermal interface materials were relied upon by semiconductor manufacturers for thermal module test applications. Although their thermal performance has proved excellent, their use is limited to a single assembly cycle.

As opposed to these traditional, single-use solutions, Honeywell’s innovative new material provides outstanding, repeatable thermal performance over many thousands of temperature cycles.

Honeywell burn-in material employs a tailored metallic alloy coated on one side with a highly thermally conductive adhesive that allows for both adhesion and reduced contact resistance. The adhesive layer also allows for very easy application and requires no ancillary equipment. The device contact side is bare metal, delivering thermal interface performance while leaving the device residue free.

These new burn-in materials reduce cost of ownership as compared to traditional grease or phase change material. That is because it can be re-used so it eliminates a cleaning step and reduces material usage. Beyond its cost-of-ownership advantages, it also out-performs other commercially available multi use thermal interface materials. This new material is also extremely flexible and can be custom fit to the customer’s application requirements in terms of both size and thickness. Besides these advantages and customization, Honeywell burn-in material meets “ROHS” standards and is recyclable. Although this new material may be used for any TIM application, it is best suited for applications that require a multiple use, residue free TIM and has become the product of choice for many well-known, leading semiconductor manufacturers.

Honeywell burn-in materials are a new family of innovative product offerings providing superior thermal interface performance for applications that require multiple assembly cycles (i.e. burn-in). Honeywell burn-in materials’ unique thermo-mechanical properties can provide over 1000 cycles of consistent thermal performance while leaving the test surface clean and residue free. This new material is now providing key benefits to the industry.

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Linde Electronics
On-site Fluorine Generation Systems

The Semiconductor, Flat Panel Display and Photovoltaic industries have been rapidly increasing their global consumption of PFC (per-fluoro compound) gases as a source of Fluorine radicals for post-deposition cleaning of CVD process chambers over the past 10 years. This has clear environmental implications. One technique, dry cleaning of chambers via thermally activated high pressure compressed gases, also presents inherent safety hazards and high costs for 300mm wafer fabs.

Linde’s solution to environmentally sustainable chamber cleaning, elemental Fluorine (F2 ), has zero global warming potential and is fundamentally lower cost to manufacture than gases derived from Fluorine.

Low-pressure on-site Fluorine generation and gas delivery provide an environmentally responsible and cost-effective alternative for the safe and reliable supply of F2 to both thermally activated and plasma-enhanced CVD process chamber cleaning. Unsurprisingly, this compelling approach has recently gained increasingly wide acceptance across electronics manufacturing.

Linde’s Solution
To meet the exacting needs of electronics manufacturing, Linde Electronics developed the Generation-F range of integrated Fluorine chamber cleaning solutions that incorporate gas generation, storage, delivery, abatement and complementary maintenance and service.

Generation-F systems are built up from core generation modules sized to suit the varying demands of Semiconductor, TFT-LCD and, more recently, the latest generation of thin film Solar fabs.

Use of on-site generated Fluorine gas provides significant benefits to end users in improving safety, reducing direct material costs, reducing material lifecycle energy consumption and eliminating PFCs.

Industry Uptake
The significance of this innovation on the global semiconductor industry is demonstrated by uptake in use for thermal cleaning, which has increased significantly over the last 12-18 months with 4 new Generation-F systems supplied to 300mm fabs in China, Korea, France and Singapore.

The merits of Linde’s elemental Fluorine in PECVD chamber cleaning for TFT-LCD are now well established as leading manufacturers like Toshiba-Matsushita have embraced it for its environmental benefits but discovered that it comes as a package with serious economic benefits too. In the last year, Linde has expanded, commissioned and now operates a complete fab supply scheme of >100 tonnes per year capacity in the LCD industry in Korea.

It has taken 10 years of product development and refinement of Linde’s proprietary Fluorine generator design to create this overnight success. Throughout this history of development and deployment in industries outside of electronics, as well as more recently in semiconductor and TFT-LCD, the Linde system has uniquely proven itself to operate with full reliability and a perfect safety record.

Linde’s High purity Generation-F systems are also alone in being qualified on numerous CVD tool platforms by OEM’s and end users, including AMAT, TEL, HKE, AKT, ULVAC and Jusung. Positive Impact on Fab Productivity In addition to the environmental, cost and safety benefits – it is increasingly clear that process throughput benefits can be obtained by displacing NF3 from high volume requirements on PECVD tools. Large plasma sources consume high power and require very low pressure to maintain a plasma with NF3. Some processes are constrained by cleaning time. The low dissociation energy of Fluorine allows higher gas flow for any given plasma source, which corresponds to a wider process window for cleaning and faster clean times. This benefit will become increasingly more valuable to end users as very large process chambers proliferate in the solar industry, where cleaning gases can be a relatively high proportion of total product cost. Use of Fluorine enables reduced clean times, increased substrate throughput and hence offers meaningful contribution to lowering the production cost of solar cells – all the while seamless driving environmentally sustainable manufacturing that is aligned with the fundamental ethos of the renewable energies industry.

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HÜTTINGER Elektronik GmbH + Co. KG
SCASAR MF generator

The manufacture of state-of-the-art flat panel displays and solar cells requires the deposition of extremely homogeneous and defect-free films. Until now, pulsed DC power supplies were the energy source of choice. With the introduction of our SCASAR, HÜTTINGER establishes a new level of performance. Featuring the industry’s most advanced arc management system, SCASAR meets tomorrow’s requirements today. SCASAR. It’s a modular solution, providing output powers of 25, 50, 75 and 100 kilowatts (kW) at a frequency between 20 and 70 kilohertz (kHz). This wide range means the SCASAR can be used for a great variety of plasma processes, especially those with dual magnetrons. The SCASAR series incorporates HÜTTINGER’s leading arc management solutions ARCtelligent and ARCgenious Arcs are detected and acted upon near-instantaneously. This and a very low stored energy allow to create ultra-thin, homogeneous films. Easy to setup and run, ARCtelligent and ARCgenious assure achieving high yields and high productivity. SCASAR is a complete new approach to achieving better yields in the area of dual magnetron sputtering.

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The Surfscan SP2XP is the unpatterned wafer inspection system best designed for monitoring defectivity on all types of bare wafer substrates, including prime silicon wafers, epitaxial, SOI (silicon-on-insulator) and engineered substrates. The short-wavelength UV technology delivers ultimate sensitivity down to 30nm defect sizes¬ – addressing the critical sensitivity gap in the IC gate module at the 65- and 45-nm nodes. The darkfield inspection system works by rapidly scanning a laser spot in a spiral pattern across the surface of the wafer. Scattered light is collected in large solid-angle collectors, which integrate the signal to detect even small defects. Because the shape, size and material of the defect and the wafer substrate affect the way the defect scatters light, normal and oblique incidence angles, narrow and wide collection channels, and selectable polarizations provide flexibility to capture all defect types.

A brightfield channel is also incorporated to provide the differential interference contrast (DIC) capability, which enables capture of large and flat defect types, and aids in defect separation. The Surfscan SP2XP system can perform oblique-, normal-incidence and DIC inspections in one step. By comparing data from multiple channels, rules-based binning (RBB) algorithms can separate crystalline defects such as faceted pits (air pockets or air bubbles), from reworkable defects such as micro-scratches, chatter marks, and particles. A new high resolution SURFimage (microhaze) reveals shallow haze scratches and emerging defect types, and delivers surface quality data that can correlate to process tool issues. These new, unique capabilities allows wafer manufacturers to reduce scrap, as polishing defects and fall-ons can often be re-worked. The system is delivered with fast throughput edge handling for wafer manufacture need. At the 45nm node, building a high performance device with optimum power consumption requires a substrate with the highest quality surface topography and electronic structure. Defects intrinsic to the substrate crystal, such as faceted pits in prime wafers, voids in SOI wafers, and stacking faults in epi wafers, are particularly damaging to the transistors built on top of them.

Aided with the new technology, UV laser, DIC, multiple-channel RBB, microhaze SURFimage and fast throughput, a new SP2XP unpatterned wafer inspection system has been introduced that has the new ability to distinguish crystallographic defects from relatively benign particles, flakes and other fall-ons. As wafers become more complex, with epitaxial layers and strained layers of various materials, their increased cost makes the identification of intrinsic defects of tremendous economic advantage to both wafer manufacturers and IC makers. Wafer manufacturers benefit from fewer scrapped wafers and improved substrate quality, while device manufacturers are ensured of wafers that support higher performance 45nm devices at higher yields. After product release in February '07, the Surfscan SP2XP system has been quickly recognized by wafer suppliers to adopt into production. Several systems have been installed into production.

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CDC101 - CD Control Tool for Mask and Lithography Applications

Pixer’s CDC101 is the industry's first on-the-fly, integrated solution for high-resolution Critical Dimensions Control (CDC), enabling both Mask Makers and IC Manufacturers to control local CDs (Critical Dimensions), and significantly improve global and local CD Uniformity across masks and wafers during lithographic operations.

Value Proposition

Mask Makers

• Improves yield on high-end masks
• Faster turn-around on high-end masks
• Ability to achieve advanced CD Uniformity & MTT specifications
• Leverages existing installed mask manufacturing equipment
• Eliminates costly purchasing of advanced writing and etching tools

IC Manufacturers

• Increases exposure latitude during lithography processes
• Improves lithography productivity: stepper throughput, extended life of existing installed costly equipment, etc.
• Improves yield on a specific critical mask
• Achieves specific CD width in a critical chip location
• Potentially better chip binning, i.e. higher speed, lower leakage, etc.

How CDC101 Works Shrinking geometries present a continuous challenge for IC Manufacturers seeking pinpoint control of their most Critical Dimensions, and subsequent distribution across the mask and the wafer. CDC101 features a selection of on-the-fly CDC (Critical Dimension Control) solutions geared specifically for mask and lithography applications. Pixer's CDC101 system accurately modifies the mask attenuation, without removing the pellicle, thus allowing for tool installations at either the Mask Manufacturers premises, or at the fab line itself. CDC101's fully automated mask correction processes enable seamless operations via a friendly and easy-to-use GUI. Additionally, a built-in transmission measurement unit allows for pre and post transmission verification, so tool performance is always verified and maintained, avoiding deviations.

Applications
On-the-fly CD Uniformity Improvement:
In this CDC101 application a global improvement of the mask or wafer CD Uniformity takes place. The user loads a list of CD measurements used to characterize the mask or the wafer current CD Uniformity. The system then automatically calculates the density map that defines the attenuation level to be written into the mask glass. The system uses a smart density interpolation algorithm to calculate the pixel density required for the rest of the mask area. The pixels are then written into the glass, and then the selected locations are verified using the built-in transmission measurement unit.

Local CD Control:
In this CDC101 application the user identifies a local area or multiple areas that require a very accurate CD width. Once these areas are identified, multiple CD measurements are taken and the target CD is defined. The target CD can be different per area. The system then operates in a very similar methodology as described above, in the "On-the-fly CD Uniformity Improvement" application.

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Rudolph Technologies, Inc.
E25/B20 Macro Defect Inspection System

The E25/B20 provides fully automated and fast defect inspection of the wafer edge and wafer backside without the need to ‘flip’ the wafer. In addition to inspection, it provides on-the-fly colour image capture of the defects and selected metrology to characterize the wafer. It is designed for inspection of 200mm and 300mm wafers for the immersion and dry litho, CMP, etch, clean, RTP and final QA steps. With its fast throughputs and advanced capabilities, the E25/B20 currently enjoys the largest installation based for automated in-fab inspection of the wafer edge and backside. Traditional laser-based edge inspection technology detects only the defect scattering signal and thus requires further optical review for proper defect identification. The results are unreliable when there are non-uniform films and varying surface profiles. The E25/B20 uses advanced algorithm and optics to inspect the wafer edge with its multiple-curved surfaces, changing bevel profile, and process variation. It uses similar optics and illumination to inspect the wafer backside so an edge defect that appears on the wafer edge will look the same if it reoccurs on the wafer backside. The E25/B20 can perform a full wafer edge inspection at a throughput of more than 80 WPH (300mm)and a full wafer backside inspection at a throughput of up to 75 WPH (300mm).

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Brion Technologies, Inc. is a pioneer in Lithography-Driven Design and Manufacturing. Founded in 2002, the privately held company is headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Brion’s Tachyon platform, is a highly accurate and ultra-fast OPC and OPC verification engine, enables a unique set of capabilities that address the interrelated challenges of design, photomask making and wafer printing in semiconductor lithography.

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Talus DFM is a foundry-qualified manufacturability and yield enhancement solution for designs targeted at the 65-nm process. It provides interfaces for accessing foundry-specific DFM data to provide improved accuracy bringing DFM to the designer’s desktop. With Talus DFM, Magma users can improve manufacturability and yield while concurrently optimizing timing, area, power and noise. The flow addresses both random and systematic yield loss and provides tighter correlation to silicon by managing process variation. Built-in DFM compliance checks correlate to foundry internal tools, simplifying handoff.

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Synopsys’ Odyssey product line consists of multiple components to satisfy the requirements of today’s modern semiconductor fabs. Odyssey Defect is a production-proven defect data management solution that is in use at over thirty manufacturing sites worldwide. With over ten years of developmental history, Odyssey Defect provides real-time lot dispositioning, SPC alarming and a complete set of defect analysis tools to help fab engineers resolve both random and systematic yield issues. A true 24x7 system, Odyssey Defect delivers results efficiently and reliably, leveraging error-correcting processes to assure users of maximum up time. Odyssey Defect has an open and vendor-neutral architecture that supports all inspection, review and classification tools with a full range of interactive charting, wafer mapping and reporting capabilities.

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TREK, INC.'s new Infinitron is an ultra-high impedance voltmeter instrument which enables contacting voltage measurements to be made with virtually no transfer of electric charge to/from the measured object, unlike other products in the market that transfer charge upon contact. The Infinitron (Trek Model 800) meets a market need to effectively measure site-specific voltage on devices sensitive to electrostatic discharge (ESD), during their handling and processing, in order to identify and rectify problems in the process that could result in potentially devastating ESD events (including immediate or latent device failure).

The Infinitron enables highly relevant (cost-effective) process improvements to be made in pursuit of minimizing device destruction and latent damage, thereby enhancing product integrity and improving production yields.

Some industry experts estimate the cost attributable to ESD damage in the electronics industry exceeds billions of dollars annually. That said, the Infinitron is expected to enhance yield management and deliver significant cost savings in this industry, as well as enable technological advancements in the field.

“The interest in Trek's Infinitron, from experts in the industry, has exceeded our expectations,” said Bruce Williams, chief designer of the Infinitron. “Using the Infinitron, our ability to accurately measure voltage at a surface, by contact, without affecting the charge of the surface, and without causing an ESD event, has generated true excitement in the electrostatic community,” added Williams.

This new electrostatic voltmeter offers a significant advancement in the state-of-the-art for ESD management in semiconductor and other electrostatic-sensitive environments and applications. It is indeed a “breakthrough” technology. Trek’s unique (proprietary) design in the Infinitron allows for true and accurate voltage readings, unlike other contacting voltmeters in the market that not only measure inaccurately but can actually cause ESD events during measurement, due to their charge-transferring measurement technology.

The Infinitron allows a more accurate and site-specific view of ESD issues and their cause/effect to be obtained, resulting in yield management & improvements. The ability to accurately measure a very small area, using the Infinitron, results in very high spatial resolution measurement capability. This is a significant advantage over other measurement instruments that are limited by their inherent technology.

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Vistec Semiconductor Systems GmbH
LWM9000 SEM