Online information source for semiconductor professionals
New Product: Negevtech upgrades defect sensitivity in its Argus 3200 inspection tool
Popular articles
Micron moving fast on Hynix in Q208 NAND flash rankings, says iSuppli - 19 August 2008
Numonyx to close California Technology Center - 12 August 2008
Micron close to Inotera share purchase, says Gartner - 06 October 2008
Applied Materials sees higher CapEx spending for 2009 - 15 August 2008
300mm Activity Report: 1st Quarter 2002 - 01 March 2002
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.