New silica contamination standards for UV inspection tools

Feb. 7, 2008 – VLSI Standards has released a new NIST-traceable silica contamination standards product line to calibrate new high-intensity UV inspection tools, including both bright- and darkfield inspection, as well as reticle tools.

The standards, available for both 200mm and 300mm wafers, involve depositing silica spheres which have well-characterized optical properties and a very tight monodisperse size distribution. Particle sizes are 100nm, 126nm, 150nm, and 180nm, with sizes down to 50nm available upon request. Silica particles also can be deposited on custom substrates, such as reticles and patterned wafers.

“Silica particles are an ideal vehicle to calibrate, monitor, and benchmark the latest generation of inspection tools that use high power UV illumination sources, whereas polystyrene latex spheres can degrade upon prolonged exposure,” according to Marco Tortonese, president of VLSI Standards, in a statement.

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