When Cleaning Chips Isn’t Clean Enough


Key Takeaways Contamination is becoming much more difficult to identify at the most advanced nodes, forcing fabs to rethink how control is achieved. Issues may show up as electrical or statistical anomalies, not particles, and not at time zero. Reliable classification is needed to identify critical contamination and reduce time and effort spent on nuisance failures. For much... » read more

Considerations For The Introduction of New EUV Resist Materials To A Fab (KU Leuven, imec)


A new technical paper titled "Process and materials compatibility considerations for introducing novel extreme ultraviolet resists in a fab: a guide for academia and entrepreneurs" was published by researchers at KU Leuven and imec. Abstract Excerpt "Despite having novel ideas, most researchers struggle to introduce their resist into an advanced fab, i.e., a facility where all the industr... » read more

Wafer Scale Tool To Transfer Graphene


A new technical paper titled "Assessment of wafer-level transfer techniques of graphene with respect to semiconductor industry requirements" was published by researchers at RWTH Aachen University, AMO GmbH, Infineon Technologies, Protemics GmbH, and Advantest Europe. Abstract (partial): "Graphene is a promising candidate for future electronic applications. Manufacturing graphene-based elect... » read more

In-Line Airborne Particle Sensing Supports Faster Response To Contamination Excursions


Fine particles (less than 5 micrometers in diameter) do not affect most industrial processes, but they can have a disastrous impact on semiconductor manufacturing. From the earliest days, manufacturing facilities have deployed air filtering and recirculation to remove particles from the cleanroom, but particles may still be generated inside process tools, where they can cause defects and yield ... » read more

Next-Generation Sustainability Gets More Challenging


The semiconductor industry has made major progress on reducing energy usage and water consumption, and effectively abating its emissions, as companies made sustainability a core requirement in their design of new processes and tools. But it’s about to get considerably harder. That means more opportunities to add value with innovative technologies, and also more need for collaboration. Next... » read more

Defects And Contamination Control


This week’s episode of the new Cosmos was particularly interesting because Neil Degrasse Tyson filled in a part of the recent history of semiconductors and made a great point about ethics in science. I had just moved to the United States when Carl Sagan’s Cosmos first aired, and at the time I thought he connected all sorts of interesting dots. The new edition is even better. In this ... » read more