By Bernardo Kastrup, ASML, Veldhoven, The Netherlands - ABSTRACT - Feature shrink is the force that drives the semiconductor industry forward. At each step along the technology roadmap, manufacturers need to be able to produce chips efficiently, cost effectively and with high yield. As feature sizes become ever smaller, the manufacturing challenges increase almost exponentially, putting extremely tight requirements on parameters such as overlay and critical dimension uniformity (CDU). Even the tiniest process variation can have a potentially disastrous effect. In order to remedy these challenges, this paper’s proposal for a holistic manufacturing approach claims to avoid these effects by looking at all of the essential steps and processes together as a whole.
Read more >>

For a state-of-the-art fab to achieve profitable production yields,
successful in-line metrology is essential. Full functionality and high
circuit speed are achieved only through control of defectivity and
tight distributions of feature sizes. In-line monitoring of applicable
metrics is key to ensuring success. It is also used to fine-tune
production processes for improved yield and circuit speed. Metrology
has now become an inherent part of missioncritical production
processes. This article gives a high-level overview of the findings of
the ISMI metrology program to review some of the major manufacturing
challenges at future ITRS technology nodes.
Read more >>
David Laidler, Philippe Leray, Koen D’Havé & Shaunee
Cheng, IMEC, Leuven, Belgium
Read more >>
Oleg Kishkovich, Anatoly Grayfer & Frank V. Belanger,
Entegris, Inc., Franklin, MA, USA
Read more >>
Mark Thirsk & Mike Corbett, Linx Consulting LLC,
Massachusetts, USA
Read more >>
Don Grant & Debra Carrieri, CT Associated, Inc., Eden Prairie, Minnesota, USA
Read more >>
Sai Boyapati, Kevin Chamness, Frank Smith, Patrick Cowan & John Crowley, Spansion, Inc., Austin, Texas, USA
Read more >>
Jose I. Del Agua, Tze Poon, Pete Porshnev $ Majeed Foad, Applied Materials, Inc., Santa Clara, California; Malgorzata Jurczak, Jean-Luc Everaert & Wilfrid Vandervorst, IMEC, Leuven, Belgium
Read more >>
Twan Bearda, Rita Vos, Paul W. Mertens, Gabriela Catana
& Cedric Huyghebaert, IMEC, Leuven, Belgium
Read more >>