Exhibitor Outlook
-- Semiconductor International, 6/15/2000
Who better than top executives at some of the leading equipment and materials firms to suggest what will be key trends to look for at this year's SEMICON West? As you'll see in the following random sampling, today's execs believe people will be talking about all the red in the International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS); the red indicates areas where no known solution exists. Other hot topics include integrated metrology, the move to 300 mm, the shift to smaller geometries (0.13 µm and below), how long the present economic upturn will last, and, of course, a variety of new materials including copper and low-k dielectrics. Stay tuned for our July issue, where our editors will present their views of the latest trends, as well as a special section on products that will be featured at the show.Dave Hemker
Vice President,
New Product Development
Etch Business Unit
Lam Research Corp.
Manufacturers are requiring seamless, low-risk solutions for implementing new technologies to maximize productivity during the current upturn. To reduce risk, etch system suppliers are employing various strategies for transitioning to 300 mm and integrating new 200 mm technology that should be evident at SEMICON West.
For example, Lam is qualifying etch systems and processes using 200 mm wafers in 300 mm-capable chambers. The processes developed at 200 mm are then scaled up for 300 mm, minimizing the time and cost for actual 300 mm qualification. The use of scaling models to accurately transition customer-specific recipes from 200 mm to 300 mm contributes to this reduced cycle time.
To reduce process integration risk, etch systems suppliers are working with customers earlier in the development cycle in areas like new material evaluations. This includes handling preliminary process development work for new low-k dielectric materials, photoresists, lithography technologies and even future-generation materials like high-k dielectrics.
Supplier involvement with consortia, such as IMEC's 193 nm lithography development program, is another approach.
Another integration strategy is the trend toward performing more etch steps in the same chamber. With an ex situ approach, CD variation problems must be partitioned across multiple systems. Using the same chamber, as with Lam's poly etch system, lowers risk because the entire stack can be controlled. A specific CD performance can be achieved, even though the stack may involve multiple steps and multiple layers.
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President and CEO
Extraction Systems Inc.
In the near term, 150 nm device production using 248 nm lithography will be the basis of advanced IC production. In this technology node, lithography-induced CD variations will contribute 80% of the propagation delay variation in CMOS devices. Both resist and scanner optics contamination remain as sources of CD variation. Resist contamination accounts for 6 -12 nm of a 20-25 nm CD error budget - about the same as reticle errors - and optics contamination degrades throughput and image quality. New process quality chemiluminescent resist contamination air monitors and polymeric catalyst-based filter systems are making these yield-limiting issues manageable.
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CMP/Cleaning Business Unit
Lam Research Corp.
With current capacity needs and continued cost consciousness, the pursuit of increased productivity will be a hot button at SEMICON West this year. For CMP, efforts are focusing on process efficiency, flexibility and control.
With shallow trench isolation (STI) moving mainstream, direct STI processing is being developed to improve throughput by eliminating an entire masking step. While it requires design changes and a CMP system capable of handling broad pattern density variations, manufacturers increasingly are pursuing it. For example, Lam's CMP system is in direct STI production for one manufacturer and actively in development with others.
Flexibility for applications from STI to copper dual-damascene, with their diverse process specifications, is being required of CMP systems. Although fabs are not running multiple processes on a single tool, this simplifies operation and maintenance throughout the different process modules in the fab. This flexibility is requiring suppliers to develop planarization technologies capable of adapting to a variety of materials and incoming film thickness profiles.
With immature applications, such as copper/low-k dual-damascene processes, flexibility also means providing reliable endpoint detection. This helps bring processes up faster, maintains consistency and improves yield. Conventional approaches, such as single-wavelength reflectometry, are proving difficult to extend. To address this problem, suppliers are introducing new techniques such as Lam's in situ multi-wavelength reflectometry.
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Chairman and CEO
Rudolph Technologies Inc.
The development of new metrology techniques with wider capabilities certainly will be evident at SEMICON West 2000. The increasing costs of even minor process excursions as well as the move to 300mm wafers are motivating metrology equipment manufacturers to bring integrated metrology capabilities into the forefront. Our new metrology tools are now being designed from day one with integration and the fab's cost-of-ownership in mind.
Metrology tool manufacturers are expanding their product offerings from stand-alone to integrated tools whenever it makes the most economic sense. To us at Rudolph, this means providing integrated metrology for both opaque and transparent films on a common platform that is linked to stand-alone tools for more in-depth analysis. We believe this is the best way to take advantage of integrated metrology while still having the full capabilities of stand-alone tools when needed.
The equipment manufacturers that can provide integrated metrology options for both types of films, opaque and transparent, will have a great advantage as production in copper, low-k dielectrics and 300 mm ramps in the coming years. The metrology tool suppliers at the show will exhibit a wide array of technology advancements combined with integration options as we continue to come up with newer, better ways to help improve yield across the fab.
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President and CEO
Surface/Interface Inc.
The new 1999 International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (ITRS) again shows the Yellow Brick Road of "solutions being pursued" leading to the Red Wall Barriers of "no known solutions." And again you will see at SEMICON West new technology from suppliers turning the yellow to clear and the red to yellow in the never-ending pursuit of Moore's Law. If you look at the metrology tables in the ITRS, you immediately notice that in many areas today's technology does not even meet today's needs! These are challenges that all metrology suppliers are vigorously addressing. For example, we at Surface/Interface have developed new technology for accurate 3-D shape measurements that will help eliminate the yellow in areas where traditional 2-D metrology or 3-D cross-sectioning isn't meeting the needs of today's advanced manufacturers. Semiconductor equipment suppliers in 2000, as in the past, will win this ITRS confrontation by making the customer's previously impossible dreams come true.
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General Manager & Vice President Marketing
SELA
Behind all the in-line and integrated metrology tools in the fab, there is always the analytical laboratory with equipment that handles the non-routine characterizations and measurements. As processes change in dimension and materials content, material analysis and microscopy characterization of processes in development and production will expand. The analytical lab of the past changed years ago from 9-5, M-F, with white-coated analysts and several-day turnaround time, to labs attached and reporting to the fab. In the future, we will see even more changes in style and operation. Analytical support labs will become more automated (costly) and will turn around information even faster. Almost every system will be able to navigate directly to a specific feature or location on patterned and unpatterned wafers based on CAD design coordinates or defect coordinates. We also will see the analytical lab networked directly with the fab and its equipment for instant feedback. People from around the fab or around the world will analyze the same data and come to the right conclusions together. Behind it all, the analytical experts will still be in very close touch with the fab.
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President and CEO
FEI Co.
Two continuing trends will retain their prominence at SEMICON West this year. The continuing drive to reduce the size and increase the speed of integrated circuits is still creating smaller and smaller device geometries with increasing structural complexity. The newer trend, the introduction of new materials such as copper and low-k dielectrics and new processes such as dual-damascene, increases the complexity of both the manufacturing process and the device structures. Both trends have dramatically increased the importance of managing the manufacturing process - what we call structural process management. The particle beam solutions that FEI provides not only visualize but also manipulate device structures on the nanometer, and even the atomic, scale. Applications include automated cross-sectioning and measuring to provide 3-D metrology for process control, depositing and removing material to repair photomasks or modify circuits during design and development, and analyzing failures to improve process yields and product performance. The common benefit is faster time to data, resulting in shorter product development cycles, faster time to market, earlier defect detection and higher process yields. The current market drivers in semiconductor manufacturing will continue to dominate through the foreseeable future, and structural process management will play a critical role in the industry's success.
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Director of Strategic Marketing
Semitool
As the industry moves to integrate copper into production, so, too, will equipment manufacturers move to integrate process steps associated with copper interconnect. Integrating process steps into cluster tools has been the trend in the industry for the past several years, and copper will be no exception. Integration of ECD along with post-ECD clean/bevel etch and anneal will appear as a standard for ECD platforms going forward. Integration of the aforementioned process steps result in more consistent copper properties, with benefits for the downstream CMP process as well as device performance.
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Senior Vice President, Office of the President
Applied Materials Inc.
The shift to 300 mm manufacturing is the industry trend to watch at SEMICON West. This transition is essential to continuing the proliferation of digital consumer applications with cost-effective, faster and smaller chips.
Compared to a 200 mm wafer, a 300 mm wafer enables up to 2.5 times more dice/wafer for an equivalent yield percentage (dependent upon die size), while using the same number of processing steps. As a result of this die increase, as well as improved fab efficiency, it is estimated that chipmakers will achieve >30% cost reduction per die. The value equation offered by this shift is necessary to provide significant gains in productivity demanded by the consumer-driven market.
The technical feasibility of this shift has been shown in recent publications claiming >90% yield on 64 MDRAM 300 mm slices. As a result, more than 10 chipmakers are readying 300 mm pilot lines and manufacturing capability. The key transition issues include the ability to quickly achieve production readiness for high-volume manufacturing at #0.18µm geometries, implementation of new materials such as low-k dielectrics and copper, while minimizing defectivity.
The 300 mm opportunity must be implemented with an integrated factory efficiency strategy to achieve the full production potential of a fab and hence the anticipated economic results. With the introduction of more complex processing steps and the cost implications of a possible yield loss at 300 mm, it is essential to ensure optimal manufacturing operations and tight process controls. Process integration, automation, in situ metrology, inspection, diagnostics and controls are the key elements of factory efficiency. These can ensure quick "time to production" by minimizing defectivity and allowing real-time understanding/solutions of process excursions.
Finally, the 300 mm transition will be successful only if there is close collaboration in the supply chain. Effective process integration strategies and in situ metrology cannot be developed, demonstrated and evaluated without the participation of chipmakers. Partnering between chipmaker and supplier is critical to minimize the risks involved in introducing new 300 mm systems, as well as to enable the time-effective manufacturing of a 300 mm production line.
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Vice President Sales and Marketing
ThermoMicroscopes
One of today's favorite phrases is "Core Competencies." As we all find ourselves overextended trying to keep up with our fast-paced industry, equipment suppliers are listening more and more to these particular words, expanding and filling out their product lines and "delivered solutions" with partnerships. Many are obvious. For example, we supply scanning probe microscopes and have partnered with a software company to deliver the navigation software required to use our core technology (nano-scale imaging and characterization of surfaces) on a patterned wafer. Less obvious are the many partnerships with customers that are behind the many exciting announcements at the show. If you look beneath the surface of many announcements, you will find that the original ideas and inspirations came mostly from companies working closely with their customers to solve specific problems with that type of equipment - not from marketing professionals predicting the future! Enter the next hot buzz word - "relationships." We all try to take care of our customers. The most exciting new stuff will come from those equipment suppliers with the biggest ears and the closest relationships with the people in the industry dealing with everyday problems.
