Issue

Few technologies in recent memory have generated more confusion than nanotechnology.

In 1965, Gordon Moore first observed an exponential growth in the number of transistors per IC and devised a law that threw down a gauntlet and, through intense competition, has enabled amazing gains in chip performance.

Every time cryogenic pumps are pushed to lower pressures in semiconductor manufacturing, new and often unexpected phenomena occur.

If there is one grand truth in the semiconductor industry, it is this: Simple device scaling to achieve performance gains is dead.

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology is driving progress in the manufacturing of new “inkjetting” products called shaped piezo silicon micropumps.

Coherent gradient sensing (CGS) is an emerging thin-film stress metrology technique that provides a method to map wafer-level stress on both blanket and patterned films.

Extensive characterization of physical vapor-deposited ruthenium and RuxNy films was carried out to evaluate their performance as a copper diffusion barrier.

Wafer cleaning has traditionally relied on the combination of strong chemistries and high-power megasonic energy to achieve cleaning efficiencies >90%.