A hundred systems shipped may not seem like that big of a deal for a company the size of Applied Materials, which has thousands of its tools installed in the vast majority of planetary chip and flat-panel fabs.
Still, AMAT feels enough pride in its Producer GT equipment to have announced earlier this week that the high-productivity CVD tool had hit the century mark only nine months after its official launch. But the press release left me with more questions than answers, so I sent some follow-up queries to Betty Newboe and her media relations team at the ubiquitous semiconductor, LCD, and solar equipment giant.
Who did AMAT ship the 100th GT to?
The 100th was sent to a customer in Asia for flash applications but we would prefer not to single out single customers. This milestone represents our achievement with multiple customers in logic, DRAM, flash, foundries, and IDMs worldwide.
What does "throughput [THP] density" mean?
Throughput density is the THP per unit area of fab floor space. Customers benefit more from higher THP density since they can increase their capacity without increasing the physical size of the fab.
Along those same lines, please provide more details behind the statement that GT can process 75% more wafers than other Applied tools and 100% more than any competitive system, and then rectify those numbers with the claim elsewhere that GT has 50% higher THP.
The Producer GT system has 75% higher THP density than the previous Producer platform and 100% more than the highest THP competing system. The numbers can be confusing: THP is wafers per hour (wph), THP density is wph/m2 and takes into account the system footprint.
The GT's maximum THP is said to be 180 wph. What is the average THP seen in use today, and what are some examples of maximum THP in certain applications? What apps does GT run the fastest?
Clearly, there is a link between actual process time and THP; for a long process, the speed of the wafer-handling system becomes immaterial. Conversely, many modern applications call for rather thin films which can have short processing times, if the process and chamber technologies are right. For applications such as Applied's APF, thin TEOS, damascene nitride, and DARC, 180 wph is typical.
"Producer GT" rhymes with "throughput density."
(Photo courtesy of Applied Materials)
You mention the GT's great particle performance. Could you provide some data on that? Also, the GT is said to have lower mechanical-based particle performance---30% lower than what?
The improvement in mechanical-based particle performance is in comparison to the previous Producer system and has been demonstrated by in-house and on-site marathon data. Particle counts at 0.1 micron are in the single digits per wafer.
The system can go 150K wafers between preventive maintenance (PM): How does that translate into hours between PMs, and how does that compare with other Producer systems and competitive tools? There's also the question of platform serviceability. Could you provide more info on the claim that the time needed for PMs is reduced by 25% with GT?
The time between PMs varies greatly depending on process time, customer specs, and tool utilization. For example, a customer running a Producer APF system at 180 wph at 75% utilization would be doing a PM every 1100 hours. In designing the Producer GT system, we took the opportunity to optimize the packaging of components, add new features designed for better service access and ergonomic performance, and change some component designs to streamline calibrations and maintenance. For example, the gas panels are now located underneath each process chamber, greatly easing access to the transfer module and chambers for typical service and planned maintenance tasks.
You claim the tool is capable of going down to 22 nm process node. Is that as is, with existing chambers, or with chambers yet to be developed? Along those lines, GT does well with really thin films. What are examples of materials/thicknesses currently being processed on fab floors (APF for example), and being developed either at AMAT or at customers? How thin does AMAT think it can get?
The 22-nm litho-enabling application refers to the successful fabrication of 22-nm line/space arrays with self-aligned double patterning using existing Producer APF carbon hardmask and Producer ACE conformal oxide processes. Two typical current materials are Applied APF, which you mentioned, and silane oxide. For the APF process, film thicknesses range from 50 to 1000 nm. For silane oxide, the range is 5 to 2000 nm.
My favorite line in the press releases reads: "The Producer is used by every chip manufacturer in the industry for fabricating all types of devices through the most advanced technology node." Really? Every single chipmaker on the planet, and all, and I mean all, types of devices?! Or do you mean every chipmaker running state-of-the-art/cutting-edge processes? As you can imagine, I find the statement kind of hard to believe, given there are hundreds of chipmakers, especially when you factor in the compound semi crowd.
We are referring to semiconductor logic, memory, and foundry fabs using 300-mm silicon wafers. The Producer was not intended for the compound semiconductor industry.
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