Israeli High Tech Continues Its Progress (Part II)

Alexander E. Braun, Senior Editor -- Semiconductor International, 10/1/2006

Note: Read Part I .
 
There are several reasons for Israel to be a world center for metrology and inspection, measurement and test. From a technical perspective, metrology requires a systems approach. This means an application of several technologies, among which are electronics, mechanical engineering, software and optics. Israeli infrastructure in these areas is solid and advanced. Its origin dates from 45 years ago, a byproduct of the defense industry, later shifting to civilian applications as well.

Israeli technology was also enormously stimulated when the Soviet Union dissolved, and many of the Jewish Russian scientists and technologists were allowed to emigrate, considerably increasing the population of doctoral-level scientists, physicists and mathematicians. Metrology systems require all these specializations. Software needs only software, and optics only optics; the type of inspection, measurement and test platform systems modern semiconductor technology needs result from contributions from sundry disciplines.

Another aspect of this success is the Israeli ability to work in groups. Because of its troubled history, getting specialists from disparate disciplines and having them function as a team is not as problematic there as it can be elsewhere. Working as a team goes beyond being just a profit motive — it is also a survival trait. An important result is that most projects are executed within a reasonable time, and there is a stronger sense of belonging. A more impressive title or higher income are not always the first considerations; thus, employees are not as inclined to move from company to company, as is the norm in Silicon Valley and other high-tech centers.

However, from another perspective, Israel is limited, which is why it does not seriously compete in the process equipment arena. Developing processing equipment in Israel would be too expensive. It may take five years to develop and cost $100M before a processing platform is fielded. Metrology costs less, and its time to market is faster. Also, particularly with the Internet, where it is produced is not as critical for a metrology platform as it would be for processing equipment. If there is a problem, the solution can be worked out while the user sleeps. With processing equipment, the provider must be in place; processes cannot be sent over the Internet and geography can make a major difference.

Israel’s Institute of Technology, the Technion, founded in 1924, is one of several well-funded and equipped government and academic organizations in which R&D takes place in all branches of science. Shown here is the Electronic Microscopy Materials Engineering Group. (Source: Technion)

Like their counterparts everywhere, Israeli metrologists are acutely aware of industry trends. Giora Dishon, founder and, until recently, president of Nova Measuring Instruments (Rehovoth, Israel), sees optical CD, non-metal thin film, metal and others, including metal metrology research areas, converging. “Looking ahead, we see everything blending into technologies that include spectral photometry and scatterometry, which can be combined and applied in all these areas in different useful aspects. When Nova began, it produced integrated non-metal thin-film metrology, and succeeded with CMP measurement. Since then, we've expanded to other areas we thought would evolve faster toward integrated metrology.” Although successful in most of its venues, the company has been disappointed by litho's and CVD's slow adoption of integrated metrology.

Dishon believes integrated and standalone metrologies should not continue as distinct segments, but must merge. “We asked a Japanese high-volume semiconductor manufacturer which he preferred for etch metrology. His reply was, 'I'll start with standalone and move to integrated.' His target is achieving APC.”

Queried about how he thinks metrology will cope at 45 and 32 nm, particularly with the adoption of so many new materials, Dishon said that there are two sides to the story. “First, we didn't think that all these materials would come to be used in high-volume manufacturing. Second, adoption has slowed. One example is low-k: first 'medium' low-k (>2.5), and then progressing slowly to 'real' low-k (2.0). Looking forward, whether you consider improvements like metal gates or high-k, things don't always happen as expected. For instance, I don't see good indications that high-k will be used at the early 45 nm.”

With the demand for advanced aluminum applications in the industry, Isaac Maxon, CEO of Jordan Valley (Migdal Ha 'Emek, Israel), expects continued developments in acousto-optic techniques, which for some time have been useful as process control techniques. From 65 nm on, as barriers continue thinning, he believes X-ray metrology will become increasingly important, although he admits it faces challenges such as a too-large spot size, which he thinks requires at least an order-of-magnitude reduction. “Considerably better optics will be required,” he said. Sidewall coverage and void and via analysis are other areas that Maxon views as requiring additional attention as the technology progresses. Until better solutions are designed, it appears that, short term, more destructive analysis will be used.