An agreement has been signed between one of the largest semiconductor companies in Europe and Oxford Instruments for the supply of multiple Failure Analysis (FA) systems, to be installed in its manufacturing sites globally over a period of two years.
The first system orders have already been placed for twoPlasmaPro® 80 ICP65 systems, for sites in Europe and Asia. These systems, for single dies or chips up to 200mm wafers, offer industry leading high density plasma sources and ultra low plasma damage.
The company needed high specification equipment for FA to replace their existing long-running installed base, consisting mainly of Oxford Instruments’ systems. After a stringent selection process they decided once again to choose Oxford Instruments. The requirements are for systems offering front and back end removal processes. These applications for isotropic/anisotropic back-etching include processes for polyimide and passivation, IMD/ILD materials and low-k Oxide. Also Poly-Si etching, removal of thin active Si layers, selectivity control for the removal of SiO2/SiNx spacers, and Si-backside removal / thinning process are part of the supplied processes. Oxford Instruments will provide all this in one compact tool, in addition to the comprehensive global service and support required.
“This agreement with such a significant semiconductor company for multiple FA tools is significant for Oxford Instruments, as it demonstrates this important customer’s continued confidence in our leading edge processes and systems” said Dr David Haynes, Sales and Marketing Director at Oxford Instruments Plasma Technology, “Our flexible FA tools enable a wide range of processes, from passivation removal to anisotropic oxide removal, from small die or packaged device through to 300 mm wafer. Both before and on installation, our team of highly experienced FA application engineers will work with our customer to ensure the processes they require are running on their Oxford Instruments machines, to allow maximum usage.”