Seletes 300-mm progress report

02/01/1999

Selete`s 300-mm progress report

At Selete`s recent 300-mm Program Evaluation Progress Announcement Conference in Tokyo, officials discussed interim results of a study of front-opening unified pods (FOUPs) for wafer handling, and outlined plans for a coming study of 300-mm materials handling. Selete forecasts that world semiconductor sales will bottom out, then rise this year, and that capital investment will start to increase in 2000.

The consortium has two R&D activities: evaluation of 300-mm equipment and materials for 0.18-?m device manufacturing using KrF lithography, which will be virtually concluded by March 2000; and R&D on advanced technologies such as ArF lithography, advanced masks for ArF lithography, electron beam direct writing, and advanced technology CAD.

The ArF litho and masks program is targeting 300-mm wafers and 0.13-?m production in 2000. E-beam work aims to realize 0.1-?m devices on 300-mm wafers in the same year. These R&D programs will continue in the 21st century under the Selete21 extension program.

Selete is evaluating 34 systems and has completed evaluation of 18. Most evaluations have been conducted at the 0.25-?m process generation; evaluation of 0.18-?m tooling is currently under way. Results have generally been good, but dry etcher particles and etch profiles need improvement, PVD/CVD metal coverage needs improvement, CMP uniformity needs improvement, and ion implantation and minienvironments are under evaluation.

Most of the top Japanese chip companies are planning a transition to FOUP minienvironments for 300 mm. Selete`s studies have found that FOUP mini-environments can be adopted in Class 1000 cleanrooms; FOUP is better than open cassette at protecting wafers from cleanroom chemical contamination; cross contamination does occur inside FOUPs; and dimensional precision of FOUPs needs improvement.