Tag Archives: letter-semi-tech

UCLA professor Yang Yang, member of the California NanoSystems Institute, is a world-renowned innovator of solar cell technology whose team in recent years has developed next-generation solar cells constructed of perovskite, which has remarkable efficiency converting sunlight to electricity.

Despite this success, the delicate nature of perovskite — a very light, flexible, organic-inorganic hybrid material — stalled further development toward its commercialized use. When exposed to air, perovskite cells broke down and disintegrated within a few hours to few days. The cells deteriorated even faster when also exposed to moisture, mainly due to the hydroscopic nature of the perovskite.

Now Yang’s team has conquered the primary difficulty of perovskite by protecting it between two layers of metal oxide. This is a significant advance toward stabilizing perovskite solar cells. Their new cell construction extends the cell’s effective life in air by more than 10 times, with only a marginal loss of efficiency converting sunlight to electricity.

The study was published online Oct. 12 in the journal Nature Nanotechnology. Postdoctoral scholar Jingbi You and graduate student Lei Meng from the Yang Lab were the lead authors on the paper.

“There has been much optimism about perovskite solar cell technology,” Meng said. In less than two years, the Yang team has advanced perovskite solar cell efficiency from less than 1 percent to close to 20 percent. “But its short lifespan was a limiting factor we have been trying to improve on since developing perovskite cells with high efficiency.”

Yang, who holds the Carol and Lawrence E. Tannas, Jr., Endowed Chair in Engineering at UCLA, said there are several factors that lead to quick deterioration in normally layered perovskite solar cells. The most significant, Yang said, was that the widely used top organic buffer layer has poor stability and can’t effectively protect the perovskite layer from moisture in the air, speeding cell degradation.  The buffer layers are important to cell construction because electricity generated by the cell is extracted through them.

Meng said that in this study the team replaced those organic layers with metal oxide layers that sandwich the perovskite layer, protecting it from moisture. The difference was dramatic. The metal oxide cells lasted 60 days in open-air storage at room temperature, retaining 90 percent of their original solar conversion efficiency. “With this technique perfected we have significantly enhanced the stability.”

The next step for the Yang team is to make the metal oxide layers more condensed for better efficiency and seal the solar cell for even longer life with no loss of efficiency. Yang expects that this process can be scaled up to large production now that the main perovskite problem has been solved.

This research is a joint project with National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan. This research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the Ministry of Science and Technology in Taiwan.

The work, published this week in Nature Communications, details how electronic properties at the edges of organic molecular systems differ from the rest of the material.

Organic materials — plastics — are of great interest for use in solar panels, light emitting diodes, and transistors. They’re low-cost, light, and take less energy to produce than silicon. Interfaces — where one type of material meets another–play a key role in the functionality of all these devices.

“We found that the polarization-induced energy level shifts from the edge of these materials to the interior are significant, and can’t be neglected when designing components,” says UBC PhD researcher Katherine Cochrane, lead author of the paper.

‘While we were expecting some differences, we were surprised by the size of the effect and that it occurred on the scale of a single molecule,” adds UBC researcher Sarah Burke, an expert on nanoscale electronic and optoelectronic materials and author on the paper.

The researchers looked at “nano-islands” of clustered organic molecules. The molecules were deposited on a silver crystal coated with an ultra-thin layer of salt only two atoms deep. The salt is an insulator and prevents electrons in the organic molecules from interacting with those in the silver — the researchers wanted to isolate the interactions of the molecules.

Not only did the molecules at the edge of the nano-islands have very different properties than in the middle, the variation in properties depended on the position and orientation of other molecules nearby.

The researchers, part of UBC’s Quantum Matter Institute, used a simple, analytical model to explain the differences which can be extended to predict interface properties in much more complex systems, like those encountered in a real device.

“Herbert Kroemer said in his Nobel Lecture that ‘The interface is the device’ and it’s equally true for organic materials,” says Burke. “The differences we’ve seen at the edges of molecular clusters highlights one effect that we’ll need to consider as we design new materials for these devices, but likely they are many more surprises waiting to be discovered.”

Cochrane and colleagues plan to keep looking at what happens at interfaces in these materials and to work with materials chemists to guide the design rules for the structure and electronic properties of future devices.

Methods

The experiment was performed at UBC’s state-of-the-art Laboratory for Atomic Imaging Research, which features three specially designed ultra-quiet rooms that allow the instruments to sit in complete silence, totally still, to perform their delicate measurements. This allowed the researchers to take dense data sets with a tool called a scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) that showed them the energy levels in real-space on the scale of single atoms.

Invention of the first integrated circularly polarized light detector on a silicon chip opens the door for development of small, portable sensors that could expand the use of polarized light for drug screening, surveillance, optical communications and quantum computing, among other potential applications.

The new detector was developed by a team of Vanderbilt University engineers directed by Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering Jason Valentine working with researchers at Ohio University. The work is described in an article published on Sept. 22 in the online journal Nature Communications.

Wei Li, left, and Jason Valentine in the lab. (Anne Rayner / Vanderbilt)

Wei Li, left, and Jason Valentine in the lab. (Anne Rayner / Vanderbilt)

“Although it is largely invisible to human vision, the polarization state of light can provide a lot of valuable information,” said Valentine. “However, the traditional way of detecting it requires several optical elements that are quite bulky and difficult to miniaturize. We have managed to get around this limitation by the use of ‘metamaterials’ — materials engineered to have properties that are not found in nature.”

Polarized light comes in two basic forms: linear and circular. In a ray of unpolarized light, the electrical fields of individual photons are oriented in random directions. In linearly polarized light the fields of all the photons lie in the same plane. In circularly polarized light (CPL), the fields lie in a plane that continuously rotates through 360 degrees. As a result there are two types of circularly polarized light, right-handed and left-handed.

Humans cannot readily distinguish the polarization state of light, but there are a number of other species that possess “p-vision.” These include cuttlefish, mantis shrimp, bees, ants and crickets.

Cuttlefish also produce varying patterns of polarized light on their skin, which has led scientists to hypothesize that they use this as a secret communication channel that neither their predators or prey can detect. This has led to the suggestion that CPL could be used to increase the security of optical communications by including polarized channels that would be invisible to those who don’t have the proper detectors.

Unlike unpolarized light, CPL can detect the difference between right-handed and left-handed versions of molecules. Just like hands and gloves, most biological molecules come in mirror-image pairs. This property is called chirality. For example, cells contain only left-handed amino acids but they metabolize only right-handed sugars (a fact utilized by some artificial sweeteners which use left-hand forms of sugar which taste just as sweet as the right-hand version but which the body cannot convert into fat).

Illustration of how circularly polarized light passes through the silicon chip and is absorbed by the metamaterial. (Valentine Lab / Vanderbilt)

Illustration of how circularly polarized light passes through the silicon chip and is absorbed by the metamaterial. (Valentine Lab / Vanderbilt)

Chirality can be dramatically important in drugs because their biological activity is often related to their handedness. For example, one form of dopamine is effective in the management of Parkinson’s disease while the other form reduces the number of white blood cells. One form of thalidomide alleviates morning sickness while the other causes birth defects. The number of chiral drugs in use today is estimated to be 2,500 and most new drugs under development are chiral.

“Inexpensive CPL detectors could be integrated into the drug production process to provide real time sensing of drugs,” said Vanderbilt University doctoral student Wei Li, who played a key role in designing and testing the device. “Portable detectors could be used to determine drug chirality in hospitals and in the field.”

The metamaterial that the researchers developed to detect polarized light consists of silver nanowires laid down in a sub-microscopic zig-zag pattern on an extremely thin sheet of acrylic fixed to an optically thick silver plate. This metamaterial is attached to the bottom of a silicon wafer with the nanowire side up.

The nanowires generate a cloud of free-flowing electrons that produce “plasmon” density waves that efficiently absorb energy from photons that pass through the silicon wafer. The absorption process creates “hot” or energetic electrons that shoot up into the wafer where they generate a detectable electrical current.

The zig-zag pattern can be made either right-handed or left-handed. When it is right-handed, the surface absorbs right circularly polarized light and reflects left circularly polarized light. When it is left-handed it absorbs left circularly polarized light and reflects right circularly polarized light. By including both right-handed and left-handed surface patterns, the sensor can differentiate between right and left circularly polarized light.

Three images of the same surface demonstrate the new detector's capability. The researchers coated the surface with right- and -left-handed metamaterial in the form of the Vanderbilt logo. The image on the left was taken in plain polarized light. The one in the center was taken with left-handed circularly polarized light. And the image on the right was taken with right-handed circularly polarized light. (Valentine Lab / Vanderbilt)

Three images of the same surface demonstrate the new detector’s capability. The researchers coated the surface with right- and -left-handed metamaterial in the form of the Vanderbilt logo. The image on the left was taken in plain polarized light. The one in the center was taken with left-handed circularly polarized light. And the image on the right was taken with right-handed circularly polarized light. (Valentine Lab / Vanderbilt)

There have been two previous efforts to make solid-state polarized light detectors. According to Li, one used chiral organic materials that are unstable in air, worked only in a narrow range of wavelengths and had a limited power range. Another was based on a more complicated multilayer design that only worked at low temperatures.

“That is the beauty of metamaterials: You can design them to work in the fashion you desire,” said Li.

The efficiency of their prototype is 0.2 percent — too low to be commercially viable. Now that they have proven the viability of their approach, however, they have a number of ideas for how they can boost the efficiency to a level comparable to conventional photodetectors.

The research was supported by National Science Foundation grant CBET-1336455, Office of Naval Research grant N00014-14-1-0475, U.S. Army Research Office grant W911NF-12-1-0407 and the Volkswagen Foundation.

 

X-FAB Silicon Foundries, a More-than-Moore foundry, today announced new transistors that have drastically reduced flicker noise on its mixed-signal 0.35µm and 0.18µm CMOS process platforms. Flicker noise in CMOS MOSFETs has been reduced in both the n-channel device in the XH035 0.35µm process and the p-channel device in the XH018 0.18µm process by a factor of five, thereby setting the industry benchmark.

The new XH035 3.3V n-channel MOSFET has a lower flicker noise comparable to that of its companion XH035 3.3V p-channel MOSFET, when referenced to its input, and maintains the standard n-channel MOSFET’s threshold voltage and current drive capability. Using both types of low-noise transistors it is possible to design improved, lower-noise amplifier variants with a significantly higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and to make circuits that are more compact with better performance and are more cost-effective. Similarly, the new 0.18µm process XH018 3.3V p-channel MOSFET exhibits a much lower flicker noise level than the standard p-channel device. The new low-noise XH018 3.3V p-channel device behavior now is similar to that of the low-noise XH035 3.3V p-channel MOSFET device.

Dr. Jens Kosch, Chief Technical Officer at X-FAB, explained the significance and cost-effectiveness of the new low-noise CMOS transistors: “For years X-FAB has set the benchmark for low-noise transistors with our p-channel MOSFET transistor in our 0.35µm technology. When our customers asked for additional low-noise transistors, we developed our XH035 low-noise n-channel MOS transistor (NMOS) and our XH018 p-channel MOS transistor. The combination of the complementary XH035 n- and p-channel transistors offers designers more freedom in their circuit designs. No longer are they limited to only a low-noise p-channel device, and they benefit from having no additional mask layer expense. In addition, the new XH018 p-channel device makes it possible to develop noise-critical designs for 0.18µm processes.”

The new 0.35µm lower-noise n-channel transistor and its low-noise p-channel counterpart, integrated within the XH035 process design kit (PDK), are available immediately for new designs. Noise parameters are included within the device models to facilitate an accurate simulation of the noise behavior of a circuit prior to its actual use. For the 0.18µm XH018 process, the new lower-noise 3.3V p-channel MOSFET will become available for new designs in November 2015.

Tektronix, Inc., a worldwide provider of test, measurement and monitoring instrumentation, today announced the release of a major system software update (KTE version 5.6) for the Keithley S530 Parametric Test System that can reduce measurement speed by as much as 25 percent. This translates into increased wafer-level test throughput and directly improves the S530’s cost of ownership (COO) for semiconductor production and R&D departments.

Lower manufacturing costs and increased yields are key goals for semiconductor production companies who must also deal with evolving materials and device structures. In-line parametric test throughput and overall COO are directly related to the time it takes to complete all necessary measurements across semiconductor wafers. This new release of the Keithley Test Environment (KTE) software for the popular S530 steps up to these demands by delivering a significant improvement in test performance.

“When it comes to manufacturing and testing modern IC devices, driving down the cost-of-ownership is the name of the game,” said Mike Flaherty, general manager, Keithley product line at Tektronix. “With this latest release, we’ve taken the parametric test system with the best COO and reduced measurement time even further for improved in-line wafer test throughput. This will help our customers improve the bottom line and stay competitive in a fast-moving industry.”

The software upgrade for the S530 includes enhancements to system SMUs that reduce settling time associated with low current measurements. Faster current measurements result in faster overall system measurement speeds. New system measurement settings and streamlined software execution further improve system speed. The upgrade also includes integration of Tektronix’s newest Keithley digital multimeter (DMM) for faster low voltage and low resistance measurements.

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC), a global semiconductor foundry, today announced that it has entered high volume production for touch IC applications manufactured on UMC’s 0.11um eFlash process. The specialized technology, first introduced by UMC in late 2012 as the foundry industry’s first, true 12-volt aluminum back-end-of-line (BEoL) process, is developed for next generation touch controller IC and IoT applications. Compared to 0.18um, 0.11um provides smaller and faster logic devices for higher performance, while enabling the integration of higher density embedded Flash and SRAM for use in microcontrollers for touch-screen products of all sizes.

Kurt Huang, senior director of corporate marketing at UMC, said, “Touch panels have become the predominant interface used for today’s electronics. A key advantage of UMC’s touch platform solution is that we provide the 0.11um eFlash with proprietary flash macro design services to IC designers. We also offer the best cost vs. performance by incorporating an aluminum BEoL process to serve the highly competitive touch IC market. In addition, just like our 0.18um eFlash, support for true 12-volt power meets the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) requirements needed for today’s larger touch screens and ‘hovering’ applications used during web navigation on touch surfaces.”

UMC’s 0.11um touch IC platform delivers more than three times the SNR improvement over today’s widely used 3.3V solution, allowing IC designers to create a new generation of enhanced touch interface products. The foundry has extensive experience manufacturing touch controller ICs, with more than 30 touch customers in production at the foundry and over 40 million touch ICs shipped per month. The 0.11um process is developed on 8-inch manufacturing using the most aggressive aluminum BEoL technology, allowing touch IC designers to enjoy lower NRE and related costs to increase market competitiveness. UMC also provides in-house flash IP to speed time-to-market and facilitate customization to address evolving market trends. An ultra-low leakage (uLL) process is currently being developed to further reduce core current on devices and SRAM by up to four times.

By Dr. Peter Harrop, Chairman, IDTechEx

Perovskite photovoltaics efficiency gains are double those of organic PV, exciting researchers from KIMM in Korea to Dyesol in Australia. However, it is like the little girl, “When she was good she was very, very good and when she was bad she was awful”. Perovoskite photovoltaics promises over 20% efficiency, low cost materials and even flexible, transparent and stretchable versions dearly needed for new applications. Record power to weight ratio is needed for the electric vehicle end game, the land vehicles, boats and aircraft described in the IDTechEx report, “Energy Independent Vehicles 2016-2026”.

Ultrathin, flexible, stretchable and lightweight versions have been produced by Johannes Kepler University in Austria powering a miniature aircraft and airship. With 100% yield, exhibiting 12% efficiency they are only 3μm thick and weigh 5.2g m-3. Organolead halide perovskites are promising because they absorb light more efficiently: thinner layers are needed. Researchers suggest it could power EIVs as robotic insects and drones, and its flexibility and stretchability could be useful in bio-electronics.

But when she was bad she was awful. PbI, one of the breakdown products of the perovskite, is both toxic and carcinogenic. A glass panel can be made hermetically sealed, but plastics can be easily pierced. We need a barrier layer to make flexible versions last for 5-10 years, and yet still not be that much heavier and even then it will not be chewable by children as required for packaging and toys. OPV will be better for that.

The new IDTechEx report, “The Rise of Perovskite Solar Cells 2015-2025” finds that the stability of perovskite cells under ambient conditions is a persistent problem. The perovskite decomposes in the presence of water and the decay products attack metal electrodes. Heavy encapsulation to protect perovskite can add to the cell cost and weight. Water vapor penetrating the perovskite can produce reactive iodides that rapidly corrode the metal electrodes.

Progress is being made. New perovskite solar cells with 16% efficiency have been developed by researchers from Switzerland and China. Stable and moisture resistant, they overcome some of the problems of perovskites. An interlayer protects the metal, allowing the cells to preserve their efficiency for two days. The resulting solar cell has greatly enhanced stability because of stabilizing crosslinks in the material. These are formed by the phosphonic acid ammonium additive hooking together the perovskite crystallites through strong hydrogen bonding with the phosphorus and nitrogen-containing terminal groups of the linker molecule. The team explains that the additive allows the perovskite to be incorporated uniformly within and on the surface of a mesoporous titanium dioxide scaffold material. This nearly doubles the efficiency from 8.8 to 16.7% and it makes it moisture resistant, as the cations passivate the surface and render it inaccessible to water molecules. Next, the hysteresis in the J-V curves will be removed enhancing efficiency.

On the other hand, IDTechEx advises that lead free perovskites in photovoltaics have very low efficiency but the many other benefits may find them a market slot and they will be improved in efficiency in due course. All this will be covered by IMEC of Belgium, IDTechEx and others in presentations and masterclasses at the IDTechEx Show November 18-19 in Santa Clara California.

Eight parallel conferences include “Energy Harvesting and Storage”, “Photovoltaics” and “Electric Vehicles: Everything is Changing”.

In support of Governor Andrew Cuomo’s commitment to furthering New York State’s international leadership in the global nanotechnology driven economy of the 21st century, SUNY Polytechnic Institute’s Colleges of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (SUNY Poly CNSE) and Inficon, Inc. (INFICON) today announced plans for a joint research and development alliance on advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology. The 2-year R&D agreement will leverage SUNY Poly CNSE’s globally recognized state-of-the-art capabilities and INFICON’s in-situ monitoring technologies that are enabling the “smart factories” of the future with real time nanoscale process control. The joint alliance will also formally launch a new Advanced Manufacturing Performance (AMP) Center dedicated to the component, sub-system and site-service companies that support the advanced manufacturing processes in a broad array of industries. The AMP Center is expected to lead to the creation of 50 jobs and will leverage the operations at the NanoTech Albany Complex while expanding to the Computer Chip Commercialization Center (QUAD-C) in Marcy with dedicated R&D capabilities, which will also support new advanced manufacturing operations recently announced by Governor Cuomo.

“Governor Cuomo’s high-tech economic blueprint for New York State is rooted in world class research and development opportunities and our partnership with INFICON will enable increased efficiency and effectiveness as we determine new manufacturing standards necessary to meet the future needs of the industry,” said Michael Fancher, Executive Director of the New York State Center for Advanced Technology in Nanoelectronics and Nanomaterials (CATN2)  “INFICON and CNSE have enjoyed a long relationship and this agreement marks a new level of collaboration with one of the world’s leading innovation companies located just 30 minutes away from SUNY Poly’s Marcy campus that is expanding its operations in the New York NanoTech corridor today. We look forward to our collaboration with INFICON and enabling the continued growth of New York’s burgeoning nanoelectronics industry.”

“The demands on the nanoelectronics industry are increasing rapidly and it is vital that we continue to build our sensing and analysis capabilities. SUNY Poly CNSE is a critical enabling resource in catalyzing new research and development, not just due to its world-class facilities and personnel, but also its ability to foster partnerships between state government, the private sector and New York State’s top-flight universities and research institutions,” said Peter Maier, President of INFICON, Inc.  “With our recent expansion in Syracuse, INFICON has grown its local workforce to 260 and is excited to launch this partnership to advance the development of next generation sensor technologies.”

INFICON is a provider of instrumentation, critical sensor technologies, and advanced process control software that enhance productivity and quality in sophisticated industrial vacuum processes. The establishment of the semiconductor research and development partnership with SUNY Poly CNSE will characterize precursor and/or byproduct compounds containing phosphorus, arsenic, antimony, gallium, and/or indium that may evolve from the surface of wafers during and/or following various processes throughout the semiconductor manufacturing sequence; identify and develop methods for detecting and analyzing such compounds; and improve and develop sensor technologies and equipment that embody or incorporate such methods.

STMicroelectronics, a global semiconductor company, and a manufacturer and supplier of MEMS for consumer and mobile applications, has introduced a six-axis motion-sensing device fully supporting image stabilization in smartphones, tablets, and digital still cameras. The latest addition to ST’s iNEMO (TM) range of inertial motion sensors, the LSM6DS3H combines a 3-axis gyroscope, a 3-axis accelerometer, and an ultra-low-power processing circuit in a System-in-Package solution that offers the industry’s lowest power consumption and smallest package size.

Electronic Image Stabilization (EIS) and Optical Image Stabilization (OIS) techniques help minimize image blurring caused by camera motion while the snapshot is being captured. Initially developed for professional cameras, these techniques are being increasingly deployed in smartphones and tablets, where blurring is most likely to occur when the user takes a photograph with an outstretched arm.

Key technical features of the LSM6DS3H include:

  • Ultra-low power consumption of the motion sensors (0.85mA in normal mode, 0.4mA in low power mode), allowing the gyroscope to be “always on”;
  • Accelerometer power consumption in low-power mode down to 10 uA, 60% less compared with the previous-generation 6-axis module (LSM6DS3);
  • Supports both EIS and OIS applications with a choice of I2C or SPI for the primary interface and a dedicated auxiliary SPI interface to the camera module;
  • Compact package measuring 2.5mm X 3mm X 0.83mm;
  • Accelerometer ODR (Output Data Rate) up to 6.66 kHz, Gyroscope ODR up to 3.33kHz;
  • Smart FIFO for dynamic data batching and smarter power management: 4kbyte FIFO + 4kbyte flexible (FIFO or programmable);
  • Full-scale acceleration range +/- 2 / +/- 4 / +/- 8 / +/- 16g;
  • Full-scale angular rate range +/- 125 / +/- 245 / +/- 500 / +/- 1000 / +/- 2000 dps;
  • Supply voltage from 1.71 to 3.6V, independent IOs supply down to 1.62V;
  • SPI/I2C serial interface data synchronization feature;
  • Embedded temperature sensor.

“Very often people use the phone camera with outstretched arms, which can degrade the image quality,” said Andrea Onetti, General Manager, Volume MEMS and Analog Division, STMicroelectronics. “Our new multi-function motion sensor sets to minimize blurring in any photo situation while extending battery life because of the ultra-low power consumption.”

By Pete Singer, Editor-in-Chief

Continued advances in the semiconductor will increasingly be enabled by materials technology, versus the scaling that has been commonplace over the last 50 years as defined by Moore’s Law. Yet new materials technology will itself create new challenges, not only in terms of deposition, etching, cleaning, planarization and cleaning, but in terms of handling. “I like to at materials within the context of what a lot of people are describing as the inflection points in the industry,” said Jim O’Neill, Chief Tech- nology Officer at Entegris. “Most materials innovations and new material introductions have been associated with those.”

O’Neill joined Entegris in 2014 as part of the ATMI acquisition. Prior to that, he was director of 14nm technology development at IBM where he led process development activi- ties at both Albany Nanotech and East Fishkill facilities.

“Historically, Moore’s Law has really been about miniaturization, but we’ve run into patterning limitations with wavelengths,” O’Neill said. “We’ve run into mobility problems with the channel ma- terials we now have. In order to maintain the spirit of Moore’s Law, materials have really been front and center.”

Today, materials are being driven most aggressively by multi-patterning: “There’s been a class of materials that have been increasingly emphasized in terms of low temperature silicon for the whole patterning stack,” O’Neill said.

Another key area is the device and the transition from planar to 3D structures, such as finFETs on the transistor side, and 3D NAND on the memory side. “This has put an increased emphasis on deposition and a transition from CVD to ALD type precursors,” O’Neill said. “Also, very specific materials such as fluorine-free tungsten, for example, for 3D NAND.”

New high mobility channel materials are also needed in the frontend. In the back end, there’s whole class of new materials being introduced for interconnects and metallurgies to try to improve RC delay performance and reliability, including cobalt and ruthenium.

One of the biggest challenges with introducing these new materials is that the infrastructure that surrounds them needs need approaches. “What you end up having to do — and what’s so disruptive to our customers — is change the whole integration scheme,” O’Neill said.

In the case of cobalt, for example, clean processes and post-polish process have need to be cobalt-compatible. “You’re not just putting in a new CVD material. You’re putting in that material and changing the enabling infrastructure that surrounds it. That’s a real challenge for our customer, the process integrators and the fab folks. But for us it creates a great opportunity,” O’Neill added.

O’Neill said Entegris’ deposition business is growing, driven to some degree by the increased need for ALD materials for 3D structures, which is the ATMI part of the business. But there are also new challenges in handling those materials. “Many of the precursors that we’re dealing with are solids. The whole challenge of handling solid materials and deriving a gas from a solid that ends up delivering a film on a wafer goes beyond the material itself and deals with the container: Its filtration, its handling. Those are really expertises of the traditional Entegris,” O’Neill said.

Entegris is now working on capabilities that would take the solid precursor in a delivery vessel with the appropriate filtration to remove any entrained particulates in the delivery stream, then sensor monitor capabilities to ensure that there is feed gas flow. “That’s really an entire materials delivery solution focused on enablement and no defectivity,” O’Neill said.

Monday, at SEMICON West, Entegris announced the release of Torrento X Series 7 nm filters with FlowPlane linear filtration technology. FlowPlane is the semiconductor industry’s first scalable, linear, high-flow filtration platform enabling advanced wet cleaning applications for the 10nm node and beyond. The first in a series of filters based on the linear filtration technology, the FlowPlane S model is designed for point of dispense (POD) applications, enabling improvements in both on-wafer defectivity and yield for critical wet cleaning applications.

“We’ve reached an inflection point where filter design must evolve to meet the needs of the most complex semiconductor manufacturing processes,” said Entegris Vice-President of the Liquid Microcontamination Control business unit, Clint Haris. “A filter is the last line of defense to prevent defect-causing contaminants from reaching the wafer. Our smaller, more powerful filtration solution will enable our customers to effectively implement their 10 and 7nm technology nodes.”

Torrento X series 7nm filters with FlowPlane linear filtration technology improve retention and increase flow rate performance by 100% compared to similarly sized radial filters. Moreover, FlowPlane users will benefit from the format’s smaller device footprint as well as improved wafer defectivity performance.