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Product Briefing Outline: TEA Systems has announced the release of a new software product that enhances the control of overlay and registration in advanced semiconductor manufacturing to minimize the influence on critical feature dimensions and yield. Vector Raptor is a seventh generation overlay control tool specifically designed to address the unique problems now being introduced by Double Patterning and sub-45 nm process-node technology.

Problem: Double Patterning introduces single-layer registration errors that originate during reticle manufacturing, can be amplified during wafer processing and vary with changes in exposure of the individual feature. Current matching and modeling techniques cannot accurately deconvolve the sources of these errors that include a whole new family of overlay and feature-size product yield loss factors. Reticle pattern-to-alignment-mark and pattern-drift during the plate exposure for example, now combine with plate-processing errors on enhanced reticles to directly influence patterning overlay and feature uniformity during wafer exposure. In the wafer process we see new sensitivities to focus and dose as well as higher correlations between feature size and registration error. The next generation of semiconductors needs a new toolset capable of rapid resolution and precise correction of these error sources.

Solution: Vector Raptor (VR) provides an object-oriented, fully-interactive graphic interface for advanced control of overlay/registration with matching to any format feature-profile or film data. Common models are provided for all scanner tools and user-designed models can be added using the graphic interface of the VR Model Editor. These features combine to provide a new level of clarity in the precise resolution of each source of error and yield loss and its correction path.  Vector Raptor is claimed to resolve the relative response of multiple feature designs, design-response to exposure and reticle-scan noise, the lens-slit signature, various contributions of the wafer-process separate from exposure-tool grid-corrections and the unique contributions of those wafer-process-sensitive perturbations of enhanced reticle designs (RET) that originate in the photomask manufacturing process.

Applications: Overlay and Critical Feature Profile signature extraction overlay control and pre-exposure setup. Also used for matching of overlay/registration to feature-profile signatures, amongst others.

Platform: Vector Raptor uses TEA Standard Data Format workbooks for storage of all overlay, registration and feature-profile data as well as analysis reports. TEA Systems products provide tools to easily import any format metrology data into the standard format workbooks. There is never a charge for new-format updates. Our products include full support for ASML registration, overlay and FOCAL metrology.  Vector Raptor will import and model ANY form of metrology allowing the direct comparison of overlay and feature-size errors.

Availability: July 2007 onwards.