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EV Group teams with GenISys on simulation enhancements for mask aligner lithography |
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Feb 08, 2007 at 05:43 PM |
 EV Group (EVG) has formed a product development partnership with GenISys GmbH for the development and marketing of a simulation platform for advanced mask aligner lithography processes, specifically for MEMS. The partners aim to improve MEMS development times, yields and overall costs throughout the manufacturing process.
"Lithography is one of the critical process steps defining the final pattern of a device feature," said Alois Malzer, product manager of EV Group. "Differing from the sub-micron semiconductor manufacturing, MEMS processes are primarily based on conventional mask aligner exposure (proximity printing) because of low cost, high throughput and the ability to pattern thick resists. The MEMS industry with much shorter product cycles requires a lot of effort for setting up optimal process parameters. Traditionally, those parameters such as mask design, resist type, film thickness, light source type/spectrum, exposure dose and proximity gap are optimized by a large number of costly experiments. Due to time and cost limitations, optimal process parameters will often not be applied to production resulting in limited yield. Simulation enables optimizing the design and process in short time without ‘burning' wafers."
"Layout LAB lithography simulation software can significantly reduce the number of experiments and support the process engineer in getting better yield or troubleshooting," said Ulrich Hofmann, founder and general manager of GenISys. "Preliminary investigations with this 'virtual lab' allow the user to define the right starting point for potential experiments."
The software models the optical system of a mask aligner consisting of light source (shape, wavelength spectrum, light divergence, exposure dose), mask pattern (arbitrary design), and proximity gap to calculate resulting 3D intensity distribution and resist contour on the wafer within seconds, according to the company.
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