tag: inspection

E-beam Vs. Optical Inspection
By Mark LaPedus - 11 Jul, 2016 - Comments: 0

The wafer inspection business is heating up as chipmakers encounter new and tiny killer defects in advanced devices. Last month ASML Holding entered into an agreement to acquire Hermes Microvision (HMI), the world’s largest e-beam inspection vendor, for $3.1 billion. The proposed move propelled ASML into the e-beam wafer inspection market. In addition, [getentity id="22817" e_name="Appl... » read more

Insider’s Guide To Photomasks
By Mark LaPedus - 17 Mar, 2016 - Comments: 1

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about photomasks and lithography with Franklin Kalk, executive vice president of technology at Toppan Photomasks, a merchant photomask supplier. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: What’s hot in mask technology these days? Kalk: It’s everything from the bleeding-edge like EUV to much more mature manufacturing. On the mature si... » read more

Inside Inspection And Metrology
By Mark LaPedus - 18 Dec, 2015 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor Engineering sat down to talk about inspection, metrology and other issues with Mehdi Vaez-Iravani, vice president of advanced imaging technologies at Applied Materials. What follows are excerpts of that conversation. SE: Today, the industry is working on a new range of complex architectures, such as 3D NAND and finFETs. For these technologies, the industry is clearly struggling... » read more

Lam To Acquire KLA-Tencor
By Mark LaPedus - 21 Oct, 2015 - Comments: 1

In a major and surprising move in the fab tool business, Lam Research has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire KLA-Tencor for about $10.6 billion in cash and stock. Lam’s proposed move to acquire KLA-Tencor would create a powerhouse in the fab tool industry. The combined company will have approximately $8.7 billion in annual revenue, propelling it to become the world’s second l... » read more

Gaps Remain For EUV Masks
By Mark LaPedus - 02 Oct, 2015 - Comments: 4

Extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography is once again at a critical juncture. The oft-delayed technology is now being targeted for 7nm. But there are still a number of technologies that must come together before EUV is inserted into mass production at that node. First, the EUV source must generate more power. Second, tool uptime must improve. Third, the industry needs better EUV resists. A... » read more

Mask Supply Chain Preps For 10nm
By Dylan McGrath - 17 Sep, 2015 - Comments: 0

As the semiconductor industry gears up for the 10nm logic node—now likely to begin in the second half of 2017—the photomask supply chain is preparing to grapple with the associated challenges, including dramatic increases in photomask complexity, write times and data volumes. The 10nm node will require more photomasks per mask set, the ability to print smaller and more complex features, ... » read more

Manufacturing Bits: March 24
By Mark LaPedus - 24 Mar, 2015 - Comments: 0

Mouse brains to multi-beam At the recent SPIE Advanced Lithography conference, Sematech provided an update on its multi-beam, e-beam inspection program. The goal is to develop a next-generation inspection tool, which could be faster than traditional e-beam inspection and could one day displace brightfield inspection. “Optical inspection is having trouble detecting particles that are small... » read more

Custom Print For Multi-Column Inspection
By eBeam Initiative - 16 Oct, 2014 - Comments: 0

By Tony Luo What are the challenges in optical inspection? Let's take a closer look. Click on the video below to find out. [youtube vid=vzFSyHwD_AU] —Tony Luo is the founder of Singapore-based Maglen. » read more

Stopping Mask Hotspots Before They Escape The Mask Shop
By eBeam Initiative - 28 Apr, 2014 - Comments: 3

By Aki Fujimura The same types of physics-based issues that have haunted lithography for decades have started to impact mask writing as well. The increasingly small and complex mask shapes specified by optical proximity correction (OPC) that are now required for faithful wafer lithography at 28nm-and-below nodes have given rise to an increase in mask hotspots. Mask hotspots occur when the shap... » read more

Non-Visual Defect Inspection: The Tech of Tomorrow?
By Jeff Chappell - 12 Dec, 2013 - Comments: 0

Remember when it first became obvious that the semiconductor manufacturing industry was going to expect lithography to resolve features smaller than the wavelength of light used in the litho tools themselves? Thanks to techniques such as the use of phase shift photomasks, sub-wavelength lithography is standard in chip fabs today. It might even be viewed as “old hat,” although still an ex... » read more

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