Issue

Have you ever tried to suck a baseball through a straw? Getting vital information from semiconductor tools via the SECS interface is like that. Suck hard enough on the straw: the best you will get is a mangled baseball.

The properties of Ti contact and TiN barrier layers deposited by PVD are shown to depend on the target-to-substrate distance. A long throw process, combined with low chamber pressure, extends PVD processes below 0.17mm design rules. Ionized PVD processing extends PVD capability even further.

This article presents several determinant factors for successful integration of PVD copper seed and electroplating. A general description of copper-plating chemistries is given. Based on a large volume of experimental work, a summary of filling trends and observations is provided, along with two proposed mechanisms for bottom-up fill performance.

Post-copper-CMP cleaning presents challenges in addition to slurry removal. It is necessary to remove Cu contamination from some areas of the wafer (front-side dielectric, edge, and backside) while avoiding or limiting Cu removal from other areas (the Cu lines).

The application of chromeless phase-shift masks to sub-100nm gate length SOI transistor fabrication has achieved considerably enhanced resolution performance compared with alternating aperture while still preserving good process latitudes.

The combined attributes of focused ion beam reticle repair and the quantitative application of atomic force microscopy, the latter implemented as SNP, provide a complete solution for advanced reticle repair and characterization.

o sustain optical lithography for the next five years, the industry must systematically address the technical challenges that will be encountered in developing and using the progression of excimer laser light sources needed, specifically KrF, ArF, and F₂ lasers.

Coping with space charge effects is perhaps the major challenge for designers of high-throughput charged-particle projection-lithography systems. Coulomb interactions produce beam blur that depends on the beam current, linking the resolution and the throughput. The strength of that relationship is controlled by other system parameters. Understanding how the blur depends on the system parameters is essential for designing and optimizing the system for maximum throughput at a given resolution.

The industry's accelerating use of reticle enhancement technologies—optical proximity correction and phase shift masking—has brought along with it a need for automatic verification of photomask images, which are no longer exact replicas of the circuit design layout.

The new Semi Standard E95-0200 specifies a unified user interface GUI for the semiconductor industry. A straightforward, intuitive screen layout displays information in an efficient and comfortable manner to enable operators to navigate critical function controls accurately and rapidly. Such an industry standard simplifies software development and equipment operation and reduces production errors in the fab.

PECVD deposition of oxy-nitride films is well-known as a source of large quantities of fine particulate by-product that can cause maintenance issues for vacuum pumps and downstream exhaust gas treatment devices.

As shallow trench isolation progresses toward the 100nm regime, numerous technical and manufacturing problems need to be resolved. The work presented here examines the current process parameter envelope, identifies problem areas, and develops an integration scheme that reduces process complexity and cost.

CMP processes are being used in an increasing number of applications in the wafer fab in response to shrinking device geometries with their increased need for planarity.

The implementation of resist filtration below 0.1?m within existing dispense systems raises concern as the removal rating of the filter approaches the size of large molecular weight components of the photoresist.

A new single wafer hot-wall isothermal furnace RTP system incorporates many benefits of large batch furnaces while satisfying throughput and thermal budget constraints motivating an industry migration towards single wafer processing. The system is capable of producing wet and dry oxides, with and without chlorine.

The design concept and hardware configuration of a single wafer, RTF system, plus temperature measurement/control methods and thermal characteristics are described.

In situ steam generation is a new oxidation technology for single-wafer RTP. Its process parameters can be controlled very precisely, and it provides productivity benefits compared to dry oxidation and torch-based wet oxidation.

Temperature control is a critical factor in most chemical and physical reactions. A well-designed heating source for a wafer chuck will improve the system's temperature uniformity and stability. Detailed thermal analysis is a key part of the design process. A design and analysis approach for heated chucks is presented here.

From an array of commercially available methods for measuring the thickness of epitaxial layers, including referee methods, a robust comparison has revealed that FT-IR spectroscopic analysis results in the most accurate measurements for the 0.3-25mm range.