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New Product: Negevtech upgrades defect sensitivity in its Argus 3200 inspection tool |
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May 10, 2007 at 02:25 PM |
 Product Briefing Outline: Negevtech has launched the Argus 3200 high-resolution wafer defect inspection system. Combining an enhanced version of Negevtech's patented ‘Step&Image' technology with its new ‘IPx' image processing platform, the Argus 3200 extends production flexibility and sensitivity into more applications in the front-end of line (FEOL) and back-end of line (BEOL) of memory wafer inspection applications. The Argus 3200 is installed at multiple leading-edge memory fabs and is available for demonstrations at Negevtech's Santa Clara demo facility. Negevtech is offering field upgrades to the Argus 3200.
Problem: Continued scaling requirements within the memory sector require continuous improvements in defect sensitivity to an ever-increasing range of yield inhibitors. The IPx 64 bit computing platform is claimed to enable detection improvements in difficult periphery and stitch-line regions of the wafer.
Solution: Argus 3200 platform utilizes custom-designed diffraction-limited high NA optics for high sensitivity brightfield and darkfield inspection. 2-dimensional Fourier filters suppress more pattern information. New sophisticated algorithms suppress more noise and enhance defects of interest (DOI) closer to boundaries, features, and in stitch-lines. Oblique illumination radially oriented at 0º combined with selectable cross-polarization methods (S/P and P/S) suppress wafer noise caused by grainy metal films.
Continuous improvements to the optics, new multi-modal illumination calibrations, and BKM enable more recipes to migrate to higher throughput setups, the company claims. Detection algorithms reach closer to boundaries and cell-to-cell comparison methods run along X and Y boundaries to optimize coverage of sub-array regions.
Applications: Improves DOI at boundaries, features, and in stitch-lines for front-end of line (FEOL) and back-end of line (BEOL) of memory wafer inspection.
Platform: IPx is a completely new 64 bit computing platform with 4x more computing power and 20x more memory, according to the company. It is fully scalable and will support performance advancements into the next generation of Negevtech systems.
Availability: April 2007 onwards.
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Product Briefings 
