Semiconductor International back issues from October 2007:
A Step Up for High-k CMOS.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Ruth DeJule, Contributing Editor Sematech, a consortium of leading semiconductor manufacturers, began operations in 1988 in Austin, Texas, with the goal of improving equipment productivity. As Sematech expanded to conduct cooperative R&D with a global network of industry, ...
Guiding Chamber Cleaning By FDC, APC.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Francesco La Spada and Rosaria Politi, STMicroelectronics, Geneva, Switzerland, www.st.com The dielectric chemical vapor deposition (DCVD) process requires periodic cleaning of the chamber walls to prevent flaking of the film that grows on the walls during deposition. This ...
Copper Barriers Hold Up Under Stress.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Laura Peters, Lead Technical Editor PVD continues to deliver barrier and seed layers that act as effective copper barriers. But as scaling continues, particularly beyond the 32 nm node, alternative schemes and materials may come into play. The technology behind the ...
The Big Debate: 450 mm or Not?
Oct 01, 2007 ... Peter Singer, Editor-in-Chief It's fairly rare in the semiconductor industry to have such a sharply defined and hotly debated topic as the need to transition from 300 to 450 mm wafers. It's exactly the same argument from the proponents of change as with every other ...
The Necessary Evil.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Tom Mariano, Vice President and General Manager, Industrial Equipment Division, Foliage, Burlington, Mass., www.foliage.com It has been lurking around the semiconductor industry for decades. The entire industry is dependent on it, but it is notoriously unreliable. It is probably ...
Tough Thermal Apps Drive AuSn Die Attach.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Jonathan Harris and Erich Rubel, CMC Interconnect Technologies, Tempe, Ariz., www.cmcinterconnect.com You can match the appropriate deposition technique with the die attach requirements of a given application. Gold-tin (AuSn) solder is widely used as a die attach ...
Eliminating Probe Interactions, Other Metrology Issues.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Alexander E. Braun, Senior Editor Michael Garner, manager of the External Materials Research Group, Technology Strategy, at Intel Corp. (Santa Clara, Calif.), gave a presentation at the 2007 International Conference on Frontiers of Characterization and Metrology for ...
Interconnect Metrology Confidently Looks at 32 nm.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Alexander E. Braun, Senior Editor Although current inspection and measurement technology appears sufficiently capable to continue the progress to smaller nodes, robust modeling and a high degree of shape and interfacial control are needed. As some metrology tools reach the ...
Study Examines Changing Face of NGL.(Report)
Oct 01, 2007 ... Aaron Hand, Executive Editor, Electronic Media Although optical lithography has - despite the odds - remained the semiconductor industry's workhorse for a considerably longer time than repeatedly predicted, the quest for a winning next-generation lithography (NGL) contender has ...
Ultralow-k Technology Moves Forward.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Ruth DeJule, Contributing Editor To reduce k values, the industry has gone beyond the dielectric material itself and onto optimizing the device design and fine-tuning integration schemes. The development of low-k materials started with silicon dioxide that had a ...
Managing Heat Flux in Advanced Packages.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Andrew Delano and Devesh Mathur, Honeywell Electronic Materials, Spokane, Wash., www.honeywell.com/em Wafer-level heat transfer, thermal interface materials, underfills and heat spreaders all contribute to thermal management. Today's computers come equipped with ...
Has the Challenge of PFCs Really Been Solved?
Oct 01, 2007 ... Michael R. Czerniak and Kirel Tang, Edwards, Wilmington, Mass., www.edwardsvacuum.com; Shou-Nan Li, Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), Hsinchu, Taiwan, www.itri.org In the semiconductor industry, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) chambers were traditionally cleaned ...
FPD Wet Processor.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff SSEC 3404 is a wet processor for flat panel displays up to 500 * 500 mm in size at rates to 100 panels/hour. With single-panel technology, the system provides a fully automated, dry-in/dry-out solution. Four ...
SEM Vibration Cancellation.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff The FloorPlatform PZT features sub-Hz vibration cancellation in an active hard-mount floor platform that fits most commercial SEMs. It is compatible with all internal vibration isolation systems. The tool ...
Gas Purification System.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff The Aeronex Gas Purification System (AGPS) Z2 Series allows users to purify large volumes of purge gases used in dry and immersion-based lithography tools. Using multiple purifier beds working in ...
Wet Processing System.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff CenTurio is a high-efficiency wet processing system equipped with the CenTurioDry drying tool and an extremely effective rinse process. It was ...
Cleanroom Framing System.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff Modular aluminum framing components have been designed for cleanroom applications and other contaminant-sensitive environments. The system uses easy-to-assemble, bolt-together construction for maximum ...
SEM.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff The Nova NanoSEM 30 Series is a high-end, versatile field emission SEM (FESEM) that features low kV performance for enhanced surface characterization, high current for compositional analysis capabilities and high-resolution operation in low vacuum to ...
HP Diode Laser Line.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff LIMO350-L12x0.1-DL808-EX420 lasers were designed for processing efficient thin-film solar cells on glass substrates. Two key features of the lasers are the high-power density and homogeneous ...
Solar Cell Cleaning Process.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff ECN-CLEAN is a processing step for crystalline solar cell manufacturing that provides a 2% relative increase in solar cell efficiency. Cells manufactured using ...
Spectrograph.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff SD1024F is an RoHS-compliant spectrograph according to definitions given in Directive 2002/95/EC. It was designed with a 200-800 nm optical system that employs a 1024-element, ...
Thin-Film Line.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff The SunFab production line was designed for manufacturing thin-film silicon solar modules using 5.7 m2 glass panels. The ultralarge substrates line can be configured to single or tandem junction technology, and can produce ...
Die Attach Films.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Staff Hysol QMI5100 and QMI5200 are dicing die attach film products designed to streamline the die attach process. Users can laminate the film to the backside of a wafer, dice the wafer, pick the die and ...
RFID Improves Throughput in Probe.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Mike Ingamells, Asyst Technologies Inc., Fremont, Calif., www.asyst.com; Jens Kober, AMD Saxony LLC & Co. KG, Dresden, Germany, www.amd.com A significant driver of wafer final test throughput is the availability of the right probe card for a particular lot of wafers. In ...
WLP vs. 3-D Integration: Where's the Line?(wafer-level packaging)
Oct 01, 2007; ... Sally Cole Johnson, Contributing Editor Where do you draw the line of distinction between wafer-level packaging (WLP) and 3-D integration? Ask a handful of people, and you're likely to get some very different answers. "In terms of general WLP trends, through-silicon ...
Analog ICs Are Alive and Well.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Gary Grandbois, Principal Analyst, iSuppli Corp., El Segundo, Calif., www.isuppli.com Although past expectations of an analog IC demise in the "digital" age were substantially overblown, the digital revolution has been notable in reshaping the nature of the analog IC market. In ...
IEDM Focus: Metal Gates/High-k for 45 nm.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Peter Singer, Editor-in-Chief Intel (Santa Clara, Calif.) and IBM (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) made news in January when both companies announced that they would be putting metal gate and high-k gate dielectrics into production by the end of the year for the 45 nm device generation ....
New Practices Improve Cleanroom Bottom Line.
Oct 01, 2007 ... Laura Peters, Lead Technical Editor The days of overbuilding and overspecifying cleanrooms may be over, at least, if Tengfang (Tim) Xu, researcher and manager in energy programs at Lawrence Berkeley Labs (Berkeley, Calif.) has anything to do with it. "For every 10% increase in ...
Device Characterization/Reliability Test System.(Suss MicroTec)(Brief article)
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff ProbeShield Technology was designed to improve the way devices are characterized and their reliability tested. Users benefit from quicker, more accurate measurement results, meaning more efficient model extraction, faster model turnaround and fewer design iterations. It ...
FIB Tool.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The V600CE is a focused ion beam tool designed to enable faster design validation and performance optimization for 65 nm and below devices. It offers users enhanced circuit edit capabilities by featuring advanced ion column technology, a versatile gas delivery system, and ...
Metal Hard Mask Technology.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The Endura metal hard mask system with Versa TTN PVD technology was designed for advanced TiN hard mask film for patterning copper/low-k interconnects and high-aspect-ratio contact structures. It enables high-quality CD and profile control while ...
Single-Wafer RTP.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff Atmos is a dual-chamber, single-wafer 300 mm rapid thermal processing (RTP) system for high-volume chip manufacturing through the 32 nm node. The system's model-based temperature measurement and control system allows for precise control across the wafer and repeatable ...
PECVD Thin-Film Processing Platform.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff VECTOR Express improves process throughput on the VECTOR PECVD platform by 40%. The SmartSoak enhancement controls wafer heat-up independently from film deposition, enabling a more consistent wafer temperature ...
Laser Dicer.(Brief article)
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The X300D+ is a laser dicing system specifically designed to process thin silicon wafers. A non-ionic, water-soluble coating is dispensed onto the wafer for high-performance protection, preventing the risk of wafer contamination. The wafer is then diced using a ...
Linux-Based Parametric Test Systems.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The S600 Series of parametric test systems has migrated to the Linux operating system on the embedded control computer within each test system. This provides users with a more stable operating system ...
LCD Digital Panel Meter.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The Series DPMW is an LCD digital panel meter that accepts a 4-20 mA input signal from pressure, temperature, flow, level and other transmitters. It is designed with a high-contrast LCD display, which is available in red-, amber- or ...
Manual Bake Oven.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff A high-temperature manual bake oven is configured for use with 300 mm silicon wafers, but can be adjusted to accommodate different wafers sizes and substrates. Various forms of automation and timing are available, including ...
Polishing Pads.(Rohm and Haas Co.)(Brief article)
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff Two additions have been added to the VisionPad platform of CMP polishing pads. VisionPad 3200 is designed to improve the defectivity levels and planarization capability of Politex while extending copper barrier polishing lifetime. VisionPad 3500 ...
IR Laser Repair System.(ESI Inc.)(Brief article)
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff Model 9850 is a multiple-beam delivery laser-link processing system that uses two beams from a single laser to provide parallel processing capability. The 9850 was designed for high-throughput, automated 300 mm production ...
Temperature Control System.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The constant temperature control system incorporates heating and refrigeration modules to maintain a stable temperature between -25A* and 120A*F. The complete system consists of a compressor/condenser and a heater housed inside 304 stainless steel, and an ...
Bonder/Debonder.(EV Group Inc.)(Brief article)
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The EVG850TB/DB is a fully automated temporary bonding system for high-volume processing of thin and ultrathin device wafers. It offers users increased process flexibility, as it allows for automated handling, cleaning, lamination and bonding of ...
Dry Pumps.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff Next-generation dry pump technology for 300 mm process challenges at 45 nm and below features a range of dry pumps from 100 to 300 m3/hr, and boosters from ...
Inspection, Review System.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The IRIS2000 is a fully automated infrared inspection and review system used to see through silicon wafers to detect defects not visible by other means of illumination. It has a high throughput of ...
Mixed-Signal Tester.(Verigy )(Brief article)
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The V9300 consumer mixed-signal tester for wafer sort and final test handles a variety of highly integrated devices. It is used for optical display devices, DVD, DTV, set-top box and embedded power ...
RF-Power Platform.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The Paramount is a RF-power delivery system for etch and deposition processes. The 3 kW system has ultra-accurate power control and delivery across the full output range - ...
Pick-and-Place Handlers.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff A new voice coil actuator for the MT9510XP pick-and-place test handlers improves placement accuracy and throughput to >6000 uph. The actuator allows software programmable ...
Mass Spectrometer.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff PrismaPlus is a mass spectrometer for qualitative and quantitative gas analysis and leak detection. Users can select mass ranges (1-100, 1-200 and 1-300 amu) down to a detection limit of 1 ...
AdvancedPlacementSystem.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff CX-1 is an advanced placement system capable of placing SiP, MCM and other mixed-technology applications. It ensures users of high-quality placements and contributes positively to its lines. It creatively applies new features ...
Flip-Chip Underfill Technology.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff ME-532 is a flip-chip underfill specifically formulated to achieve high reliability for in-package or chip-on-board applications where fast flow under large chips is required. ME-541 is an anhydride-free flip-chip underfill for use when anhydride-based flip-chip underfills ...
Gold Wire.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff Formax is a gold wire designed for all types of stacked die and multitier applications. The wire has versatile looping capabilities, with loop heights of <3 mil to >16 mil ....
Mask Metrology Tool.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff LMS IPRO4 is a fully automated mask metrology system that measures CDs and overlay on reticles in transmitted and reflected light. It provides an enhanced measurement performance with a typical long-term repeatability of ...
S/TEM Wafer System.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff Expida 1255S is a wafer DualBeam system that integrates wafer-level S/TEM sample preparation with ultrahigh-resolution imaging and analysis in a single tool. It features an advanced ion beam column for preparing TEM samples, and an enhanced electron column ...
Gas Purification System.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The Aeronex Gas Purification System (AGPS) Z2 Series allows users to purify large volumes of purge gases used in dry and immersion-based lithography tools. Using multiple purifier beds working in ...
3-D R&D Tool.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The Quanta 3D FEG is an analytical DualBeam for advanced 3-D R&D. It features high-current ion column for rapid, site-specific cross-sections of samples to reveal subsurface ...
Mask Repair Technology.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff MeRiT MG 45 is a mask repair tool for the 45 nm node. The e-beam repair tool can process a wide variety of mask types, including quartz binary, alternating and attenuated phase shift masks, EUV and stencil ...
Vibration Control.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The Stacis 2100 is an active piezoelectric system that cancels vibration in real time by sensing floor vibration, then expanding and contracting piezoelectric actuators to filter out floor motion. Isolation ...
AFM Advanced Platform.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The Nano-DST provides users with dual scanner technology for atomic force microscopy (AFM). The large area scanners come in three models to study areas up to 100, 200 or 400 A[micro]m in X and Y. They exhibit low bow and coupling using ...
Soldering Flux.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff TSF-6592LV is a lead-free, no-clean tacky soldering flux designed to be a lead-free solution for interconnect applications. It is compatible with SnAg, SnCu, ...
Macro Defect Inspection System.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The NSX 100 is an automated macro defect inspection system designed for the back-end manufacturing environment and front-end ...
HAR Plating Resists.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff KMPR 1000 is a high-performance liquid resist, and Remover K is an aqueous stripper system for KMPR 1000 removal. KMPR 1000 is an epoxy-based, negative-acting, high-contrast, i-line sensitive photoresist and, when used with Remover K, enables ...
Chillers.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The ThermoFlex 900 and 1400 recirculating chillers deliver up to 20% more cooling, and can maintain temperatures from 5A[degrees] to 40A[degrees]C. An integrated map allows for a single user to unpack and install a unit, and a quick-start guide walks the user ...
Plasma Monitor.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The EQP-II is a plasma monitor for characterization and optimization of diverse plasma-related processes. It directly measures mass and energy of both positive and negative process ions - masses up to 2500 amu and ion energies to 1000 eV ....
Flow Ratio Controller.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff Delta II is a flow ratio controller that measures, divides and controls user-specified ratios of mixed gas flows to multiple zones or chambers for optimum process uniformity and repeatability. It features a wider dynamic ratio control range and faster gas flow response for ...
Dielectric Films.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff The SINR-Series of photo-definable, permanent dielectric films can be cured at 180A*C or lower. The line has been optimized for redistribution wiring, repassivation, stress buffer and ...
Wire Bonder.
Oct 15, 2007 ... Staff Bondjet BJ920 is a heavy wire bonder featuring high speed and accuracy, with an available large work area. It has bonding speeds as fast as 450 msec/wire, with 10 A[micro]m at 3placement ...