Tokyo Seimitsu to exhibit the recently developed NS300 inline wafer profiler at SEMICON Japan
As a follow-up to their development of water surface inspection instruments, Tokyo Seimitsu Co., Ltd. (Chairman & CEO: Hideo Ohtsubo) has developed the NS (NANO SCANNER) 300 wafer profiler, a semiconductor measuring instrument that will contribute to improving the yields of increasingly micronized semiconductor devices. The NS 300 will be exhibited at the upcoming SEMICON Japan 2000 tradeshow.
The NS300wafer profiler is a high-speed, ultra-precise surface shape measuring instrument for inline measurements. It is primarily used for post-CMP, all-wafer measurements. Delivering high throughputs, it enables APC (Advanced Process Control) in CMP processes, allowing users to measure surface shapes such as erosion, dishing and recess based on actual wafers and patterns. In addition, it enables damagefree measurements by adopting scanning atomic force microscopy (AFM) technology.
Existing wafer profilers have been used primarily in device development processes, but rarely in volume production lines, since there has been no suitable measuring instrument for inline measurements and the accuracy requirement for post-CMP surface shape is not particularly demanding.
In short, in multilayer interconnection processes in which lithography, etching, deposition and CMP are executed repeatedly, quality control is implemented for each die by matching data based on inline failure inspections and measurements for critical dimension and film thickness, which are implemented after each process, with proberbased electric property data in test processes, yet surface shape such as erosion is rarely controlled.
Given that the requirement for accuracy of surface shape in CMP processes becomes more demanding and the adoption of metal CMP in Cu interconnection accelerates, however, it will be critical for users to control quality with inline surface shape measurements. Because CMP processes involve complex factors and include consumables such as pads and slurries, grinding performance may suddenly change in mass production. By controlling the quality with inline monitoring to confirm whether surface shape is kept within a specified tolerance, users will be able to protect CMP processes, lithography and etching from failure, resulting in yield improvement. Tokyo Seimitsu seeks to create a new market by introducing the NS300 inline wafer profiler for post-CMP, all-wafer measurements.
The NS300 is scheduled for volume production after completion of Tokyo Seimitsu's new factory in Hachioji city at the end of March 2001, followed by full-scale production in May 2001.
- Price: 200 million - 250 million yen (cleaning module included)
- Sales target in the first year (2001): 100 units
- Key features and performance
Inline instrument for all-wafer measurements
Measurements based on actual wafers and patterns
