Dilip Patel, Intel assignee, ISMI, USA, & Milton Godwin, ISMI, Austin, Texas, USA

ABSTRACT

New issues have appeared recently in the landscape of defect detection and review. A need to examine defects in the bevel-edge portion of the wafer has grown in proportion to the recoverable edge ‘real estate' on larger wafers. Further, inherent limitations to in-line elemental analysis have been identified, using scanning electron microscopy/energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), as defects of interest become smaller than 100nm in diameter. This article recounts how International SEMATECH Manufacturing Initiative (ISMI) has examined these issues, conducting surveys of vendors and analysis laboratories to seek pathways to enable new and more promising techniques of inspection and review.