June 14, 2011 — Metryx Limited, semiconductor metrology equipment company, joined the joint European Semiconductor Equipment Assessment Leveraging Innovation (SEAL) project to vet mass metrology for in-line production wafer monitoring. Metryx will work with IMEC and Intel to assess high-resolution mass metrology viability at 20nm and smaller nodes.
Mass metrology is valuable in the current-generation semiconductor manufacturing line, and pooled resources with IC manufacturers and research groups via SEAL will ensure mass metrology is an integral inspection tool as devices shrink, said Dr. Adrian Kiermasz, president and CEO of Metryx.
Yield changes from silicon loss, or substrate damage, resulting from high-dose implant resist stripping, and other expected metrology challenges, will be tested through SEAL. A method that can quantify silicon loss at this early stage of device production would improve fab yield and product quality, for example. Metryx’s platforms monitor wafer mass after a process step to quickly determine whether device manufacture process steps are operating consistently, using passive data collection (PDC) and normal distribution analysis.
SEAL exists to accelerate market availability of innovative wafer processing equipment, via cost-efficient equipment development. It unites equipment users and producers, materials manufacturers and IC manufacturers. 38 project partners — European semiconductor equipment manufacturers, materials manufacturers, major IC manufacturers, start-ups, and research institutes — started the joint EC-funded project SEAL on semiconductor equipment development and assessment. SEAL is a 3-year-long project with a total budget of more than EUR14m and funding of EUR9m.
Metryx mass measurement technology measures any mass change resulting from a process change with atomic level accuracy. Learn more at www.metryx.net.
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