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Product Briefing Outline: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company has unveiled interoperable design rule check (iDRC) and layout-versus-schematic (iLVS), two unified electronic design automation (EDA) data formats, for its 40nm process technology. TSMC claims to be the first foundry to collaborate with multiple EDA vendors to create and qualify an interoperable physical verification format that optimizes data delivery and interpretation between physical verification and analysis tools and advanced process technologies. Read more >>

Product Briefing Outline: The NBlend system from Norcimbus, offers a new option for mixed gases, bringing to market unique gas mixing technology that combines a MFC mixing system, surge tank, concentration analyzer and a proprietary Power Purge V controller. It is designed to mix two gasses to an adjustable ratio and supply a variable flow up to 250 standard liters per minute (slpm) continuously, while the concentration analyzer monitors and adjusts the blend ratio to maintain the concentration set point. It provides control accuracy of plus or minus 0.3 percent of the requested ratio, allowing it to deliver consistent results with varying flow rates and adjustable blend ratios. Read more >>

Product Briefing Outline: Alchimer S.A has launched its cost-saving ‘AquiVia’ deposition process. The AquiVia process is claimed to reduce overall cost of ownership for through-silicon via (TSV) metallization by up to 65% vs. conventional dry processes. Alchimer’s new process encompasses three distinct process steps required before the TSV can be filled with metal. It enables wet-process deposition of insulator, barrier and copper seed layers within high-aspect ratio TSVs, using Electrografting technology. Read more >>

Product Briefing Outline: KLA-Tencor has announced XP, a new upgrade package for 28xx broadband brightfield inspection systems. The XP package is the first commercially available product to give an inspection system access to standard IC design layout files. With access to this information, the inspection system can use knowledge of the defect’s location within the circuit to better estimate its probability of affecting device yield. In addition, XP can use the results of the design-aware wafer inspection to identify features on the mask that may be particularly sensitive to process variations during printing. These and other features of the XP upgrade package are designed to improve the sensitivity and productivity of existing 28xx inspectors and raise the information content of defect results, helping to accelerate identification and resolution of defect issues. Read more >>

Product Briefing Outline: Nova Measuring Instruments has launched ‘MatMaker,’ a Product-Driven Materials Characterization package, which is based on software algorithms and tools refined by Nova’s applications developers over the past 10 years. The company claims the new software changes the way spectral Optical CD is deployed in fabs, significantly reducing application development time and cost while at the same time increasing the measurement accuracy. Read more >>

Product Briefing Outline: Sokudo Co., Ltd. has recently launched the SOKUDO DUO platform, a new concept in photoresist coat/develop track systems that provides customers with the ultra-high productivity needed to optimize leading-edge lithography processing. Incorporating an innovative dual track design, the system simultaneously processes wafers in two lines, claimed to boost throughput to 250-300 wafers per hour (wph), depending on system configuration, while also improving uptime and substantially reducing system footprint. Read more >>

Product Briefing Outline: Peter Wolters GmbH, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Novellus Systems has developed an advanced polishing technology for its MicroLine AC 1500-P³ and AC 2000-P³ double-sided silicon wafer polishing (DSP) systems that will meet the lithography requirements for semiconductor device manufacturing at 22nm and beyond. Read more >>

Product Briefing Outline: ExpressSolutions starts by identifying and understanding a customer’s requirements for a specific process and ends with the implementation of an optimized wafer transfer system. By using Crossing’s modular ‘ExpressConnect’ automation solutions, ExpressSolutions delivers custom configurations that reduce overall cost and time-to-market while maintaining OEM differentiation at the process level. As part of the offering, ExpressSolutions facilitates the design, system integration and documentation of a complete wafer automation platform and its ongoing support. This allows customers to leverage internal engineering resources and achieve reduced acquisition costs, reduced inventory build-up and benefit from low platform support costs. Read more >>

Product Briefing Outline: Applied Materials, has launched its Applied ‘Endura CuBS RFX’ PVD system, designed for copper barrier/seed deposition and qualified for 32 and 22nm production by logic and flash memory manufacturers. The system sequentially deposits the Ta(N)/Ta barrier followed by the Cu seed layer under high-vacuum conditions. Integration of the complete sequence, including the Applied’s Aktiv Preclean [chamber or process], on the Endura platform is said to improve film adhesion and oxide-free interfaces, while preserving k-value integrity for low via resistance and high device reliability. Read more >>

Product Briefing Outline: KLA-Tencor and Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL) have introduced the ‘AcuShape,’ a new modeling and library-generation package to meet optical critical dimension metrology requirements for the 32nm node and below. The new software package enables metrology engineers in IC fabs to measure the dimensions of 3D logic and memory structures, such as FinFETs, bulb RCATs, and structures created by the advanced patterning technique called spacer pitch splitting. It is designed to operate on KLA-Tencor’s stand-alone optical critical dimension platform, ‘SpectraCD’, and Timbre Integrated Metrology (IM) CD systems. AcuShape has been shipped to several memory, logic and foundry fabs in the United States, Europe, Japan, Korea and Taiwan, where it is being used to measure production wafers and provide early learning on advanced R&D structures. Read more >>