The digital ink on Chip Shots' coverage of SEZ 's FEOL tool launch and Dean Freeman's FEOL cleaning sector comments was barely dry last week when news from another player in the FEOL surface treatment sweepstakes came over the wires.
Tokyo Electron (TEL) issued a press release that says it will start production shipments of its souped-up Expedius+ 300-mm automated wet station in January.
The announcement was a bit sketchy on certain details, so I reached out to TEL's folks in Austin, TX, for some additional information. Jay Emmons, TEL America's director of surface prep systems, replied with some answers via email.
So, what does the "+" sign mean? "The '+' designates the latest version and highest capability automated wet station offered by TEL," he explains. "[The company] has offered the Expedius platform for several years, and the '+' provides improvements and performance enhancements." The new version of the platform has been in "various stages of design and development, including alpha and beta tools, for almost two years,"adding that the beta sites have been in a "high-volume manufacturing fab" and a "straight development" facility.
Emmons listed several areas where the system had been upgraded, including a 20% smaller footprint than the earlier version of the tool; a mechanical throughput of 600 wafers per hour, which is said to be at least 25% higher than the competitors' rates; and a series of process performance options, such as advanced megasonics, wafer handlers capable of 2-mm edge exclusions, improved etch uniformity and rinsing with "megaflow bath," and reduced dry time with less potential from watermarks, which he calls the "best in market."
He says TEL's "focus was to make the next-generation wet bench smaller, faster, and more extendable to lower geometries. This is being driven by our customers, who would like to achieve the perceived process advantages of single-wafer processing while enjoying the cost-of-ownership and productivity advantages of the batch tools."
Since TEL also offers a single-wafer tool, Cellesta, I asked him to compare the two systems and to comment on the batch vs. single wafer debate. "Expedius is a 50-wafer batch processing tool....Cost of ownership is much better with batch, but depending on the application, single wafer can be improved. Both batch and single wafer are critical platforms for 300-mm manufacturers. The trend is to extend the batch into the next technology nodes, while developing single-wafer applications for critical areas. The estimates range from 30% to 40% for single-wafer wet applications in a fab as you enable the 45- and 32-nm technologies."
When asked about which key applications TEL is targeting with Expedius+, he includes "the full spectrum of FEOL wet applications...preclean, prediffusion, gate [apps], adding confidently that "all applications will benefit from the improvements." He says that customers want a smaller, faster tool, "with better process performance, [and] continued superior equipment uptime and reliability."
When I sought more details on both productivity metrics---such as throughput, overall equipment effectiveness, and mean time between maintenance---and defect and selectivity results, Emmons would not comment specifically, saying only that "actual field and development data are confidential and proprietary with our customers."
One subsystem of note on the Expedius+ is the Ingineo unit, which offers "both an advanced group controller and fault-detection aspect that provides remote access to all tool parameters, operations, real-time data, alarm logs, trend data, etc.," according to Emmons. "It allows improved performance, higher availability, less downtime, and faster event recovers. The customers like this, he says, because "they can do all this from their desk computer."
Emmons confirms that the "the first production tools began delivery in September" and that "orders have been received from all regions of the world" from logic and memory makers, with the latter group being the initial adopters but with success stories coming from the logic houses as well. He adds that 32-nm applications are already under way with the tool.
One thing the TEL announcement makes clear is that although SEZ, AMAT, and the other single-wafer proponents believe that they can take on more and more applications that are currently thought of as batch processes, the automated wet station crowd is not taking things lying down. With both single-wafer and batch equipment in its portfolio---as well as its renowned service and service team---TEL is well positioned in the ongoing FEOL surface cleaning/conditioning/treatment/etc. sweepstakes.
|
Blogs 
