By John West, VLSI Research, UK

ABSTRACT

The advent of integrated metrology (IM) has been a topic of interest for some time.  Back in the late 1990s, the predictions were that, at 100nm and beyond, integrated metrology would be indispensable for a wide range of semiconductor manufacturing processes. But the reality has been a rather different story, one in which vendors have had to battle against basic economics and standalone metrology to make relatively minor inroads into the metrology market.