Improving Line Edge Roughness Using Virtual Fabrication


Line edge roughness (LER) is a variation in the width of a lithographic pattern along one edge of a structure inside a chip. Line edge roughness can be a critical variation source and defect mechanism in advanced logic and memory devices and can lead to poor device performance or even device failure. [1~3]. Deposition-etch cycling is an effective technique to reduce line edge roughness. In this... » read more

Reliability Performance Of S-Connect Module (Bridge Technology) For Heterogeneous Integration Packaging


With the explosive increase in demand for artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous driving, Internet of Things (IoT), data centers, augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR), the market of high-performance computing (HPC) applications is growing rapidly [2]. And, the HPC market requires high processing speed, fast network clusters and large parallel computing. To meet the market requirement... » read more

Metrology Analysis Tool For Photolithography Process Characterization At Advanced Nodes


Continued scaling of integrated circuits to smaller dimensions is still a viable way to increase compute power, achieve higher memory cell density, or reduce power consumption. These days, chip makers are using single-digit nanometer figures or even Angstrom to label their manufacturing technology nodes, which are associated with the size of features patterned during the lithography process. ... » read more

European Mask And Lithography Conference 2024 Worth Attending


The European Mask and Lithography Conference (EMLC) 2024 recently was held in Grenoble, France, and had about 190 participants from a wide range of companies and institutions. Being relatively new to the field of lithography (my background is EDA, machine learning, optimization) and not being a fan of gigantic conferences, I thought it would be a good idea to visit this conference. My main p... » read more

Building A Sustainable And Diverse Semiconductor Workforce: Insights From ASMC 2024 Panel Discussion


As the semiconductor industry works to attract talent to overcome its labor shortage, governments, educators, and the private sector must collaborate to make industry career opportunities more accessible for prospective employees. This concept provided the framework for a panel discussion during SEMI’s 35th annual Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference (ASMC) that took place in Alba... » read more

Development Of Capacitance Measurement Unit For A System Level Tester


By BeomSeok Kim, SeongHwan Kim, Unki Kim, SeongBeom Cho, DongHo Seo, and SangHun Yun In back-end semiconductor processing it is important to improve the performance of semiconductors due to the limitations of miniaturization in front-end processes. To achieve this goal, the industry continues to invest in back-end processing and competition is fierce in advanced technology of back-end proces... » read more

Virtual Exploration Of Novel Vertical DRAM Architectures


In this article, we demonstrate a pathfinding technique for a novel Vertical DRAM technology. First, we identify important process parameters (defined by current semiconductor production equipment capabilities) that strongly impact yield. By using a virtual model, we then perform experimental optimization of the Vertical DRAM device across specific target ranges, to help predict and improve the... » read more

Applying Machine Learning To Accelerate TCAD Calibration


TCAD models are the fundamental building blocks for the semiconductor industry. Whether it is a new process node or a new multi-billion dollar fab, accurate TCAD models must be developed and calibrated before they can be deployed in technology development. While TCAD models have been around for (many) decades, their complexity is growing exponentially, as is the demands placed on the R&D en... » read more

AI: Great, But Somehow Still Not Very Good


In an invited presentation at CS Mantech 2024, Charlie Parker, senior machine learning engineer at Tignis, provides context for the AI hype cycle with a high-level overview of machine learning concepts, then explores how the technology fits into the fab, from inventory management to institutional knowledge capture, but warns that it is worth being aware of the ways in which machine learning mod... » read more

Photoresist Materials Development


Toru Fujimori of FUJIFILM Corporation provides an overview of the development of photoresist materials for masks and wafers to support continued pattern shrinkage and address stochastic issues in lithography. » read more

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