Philips Unveils Laser, Issues Challenge

ALMELO, The Netherlands -- Delivering cost effective characterization of dielectrics for 300 mm wafers, Philips Analytical’s new MQ Garnet 300 laser ellipsometer/reflectometer can measure ultra-thin films with sub-Å repeatability and long-term stability. From Lab-2-Fab™ the MQ Garnet 300 supports the whole thin film and process equipment design, engineering and process roll-out from R&D through to in-line process control. The measurement tool characterizes multiple films, with fast measurement and simultaneous evaluation of multi-layers such as ONO, OPO and CMP films. Although the instrument has manual loading for R&D, its operation and wafer mapping is completely automatic, with software controlled XY-mapping and a standard autofocus system for fully automated 300 mm wafer characterization. It has a small (0.80 x 0.75 m) footprint and comes with Windows NT® E95-0200 compliant software, full upgradability, and worldwide customer support. As part of Philips Analyticals’ Gem series, the MQ Garnet 300 comes with the customer and application support needed for the potentially difficult and costly process and procedural transitions (and the consequent training) when rolling out new technologies from the R&D laboratory though to full-scale production (Lab-2-Fab™). In addition, it helps with the expensive transition from 200 mm to 300 mm wafers thanks to the ability to handle any wafer size from 100 to 300 mm. Philips reduces transition costs by matching instrument specifications from one stage to the next, and also by allowing application information to be exchanged between technologically different tools, for example from an XRF wafer analyzer to a laser ellipsometer/reflectometer.In a separate release:Philips Analytical is claiming semiconductor industry benchmark performance for its automatic PQ Ruby Laser Ellipsometer/Reflectometer by meeting the “Tool-2-Fab™” challenge. In matching a customer fab’s existing precision and repeatability figures, Philips provides 1-on-1 results matching of film thickness measurements and optical characteristics with the existing instruments to ensure inter-tool repeatability. The PQ Ruby will therefore fit straight into a semiconductor manufacturing process without the customer having to change quality control procedures or retrain operators. The challenge is part of Philips’ Lab-2-Fab™ philosophy for helping customers through difficult and costly process and procedure transitions when rolling out new technologies from the R&D laboratory right through to full production. It similarly helps customers through the transition from 200 to 300 mm diameter wafers. Because precision and repeatability give a ‘catch-all’ indicator of measurement quality in the production environment, they are essential for process and yield improvement – engineers must know how much variation comes from the process, rather than merely from the measurement system.Philips Analytical