2007 Editors' Choice Best Product Awards
The editors of Semiconductor International have chosen 21 products that represent the level of excellence required in semiconductor manufacturing.
Jennifer Yario, Assistant Managing Editor -- Semiconductor International, 7/1/2007
21 winners. We've broken our own tradition of choosing 20 winners, but there were so many good entries this year, we couldn't resist. Although we did pick 20 companies, so we stuck to our lucky number somewhat.
The Editors' Choice Best Product Awards is an annual contest hosted by Semiconductor International to find and reward the products created by companies that reflect the level of excellence needed to succeed in our industry today.
The Semiconductor International staff would like to congratulate all the winners presented here in alphabetical order by company. We urge all companies to nominate products for the 2008 awards. A sincere thank you to all the companies that participated in the 2007 contest.
Aerotech
The WaferMax T-RE 10000S-RU is a brushless, slotless, direct-drive rotary stage used for pre-process wafer alignment. The high-accuracy alignment is performed after pre-alignment but before wafer processing/inspection. Performance is assured with a 10,000 lines per revolution encoder that results in 0.065 arc-sec resolution. A 2048 line option is also available. The motor and high-performance rotary encoder are directly coupled to a common shaft. A standard 25 mm aperture allows for easy pass-through of vacuum lines where limited rotation is available. Angular contact bearings are used to maximize performance with respect to wobble, moment stiffness and rotating friction. A thick-walled, precision-ground shaft further minimizes wobble.
Asymtek
The DispenseJet DJ-9000 is a fluid valve for jetting a wide range of fluids, including underfill, SMA, encapsulants, conformal coating, ultraviolet (UV) adhesives, silver epoxy, etc. When in use, the jet flies over the part using a high-speed mechanism, shooting precise volumes of fluid in dots, lines and patterns where needed. The valve can jet an underfill stream size of 35 μm from a safe distance above the die, resulting in fillet sizes as small as 250 μm. It delivers a small diameter fluid stream to easily fit between the die edge and wire bonds. The Dispense Jet DJ-9000 is an advantage to users because of its increased speed when compared with needle dispensing. Jetting is faster because of the reduced amount of mechanical travel required by the jet mechanism.
Carl Zeiss NTS
NVision 40 is a crossbeam workstation for failure analysis on ICs, TEM sample preparation and process control. It combines a best-in-class SEM and FIB column, resulting in high-resolution SEM imaging during ion milling and unrivaled milling speed. Less time and resources are exhausted, as time to sample is clearly reduced compared with other equipment. The workstation provides users with the highest-current density FIB column currently available. It also features a dome-type chamber design and a pendulum vibration insulation system for enhanced stability. SmartSEM software allows fully unattended multi-site preparation of samples.
Credence Systems
The Sapphire system was designed to create and perform comprehensive, high-performance testing from engineering and characterization through production. It has an extremely flexible architecture and software. The tester delivers a channel count of greater than 2000, along with the speed and accuracy necessary to support the testing of multiple cores per microprocessor as users move from dual-core to emerging configurations featuring 4, 8 or 16 cores. The system's XTOS software enables users the configuration flexibility to design and execute newly complex multi-core tests quickly, while pin density allows the platform to test high pin-count multi-core devices simultaneously.
CyberOptics Semiconductor
The WaferSense auto leveling system (ALS) wirelessly captures inclination measurements of process equipment, enabling users in the fab to speed level checks and adjustments while making equipment setup accurate and repeatable. ALS provides precise pitch and roll measurements — accurate to +0.03° — that can be logged to relate inclination with yield and determine the ideal equipment adjustments. The wireless devices operate at pressures as low as 10-6 Torr. Using WaferSense ALS, a user is not required to break down the equipment or defeat a vacuum chamber, climb a ladder or enter confined spaces with dangerous robots, therefore increasing fab and worker safety. The system reduces calibration time through live feedback, as the leveling wafer collects and displays inclination data via LevelView software on a laptop or PC wirelessly in real time. ALS allows the user to zero measurements to a reference surface and adjust other stations in relation to it.
DEK
The Galaxy DirEKt ball placement system platform allows placement of solder balls as small as 0.2 mm in diameter at 0.3 mm pitch at the substrate and wafer level. First-pass yields are over 99%. Although this metric meets the next-generation wafer-level chip-scale packaging (WLCSP) requirements, the company's R&D efforts continue, with 0.175 mm repeatable ball placement achieved in a lab setting with higher production volume testing underway. The system can be redeployed to host numerous packaging processes, such as backside wafer coating, thermal interface materials deposition, and wafer bumping and encapsulation, to allow packaging firms to maximize resources. Two side-by-side printers are used in the process. The system achieves 60 wafers per hour throughput.
Entegris
The IntelliGen Mini is a mini dispense system used during the photolithography process to accurately dispense photoresist and anti-reflective coatings (ARCs) onto wafers. By combining constant pressure filtration with real-time, closed-loop control, the system achieves lower defect levels and allows users to use tighter filter membranes to improve yield on 90 and 65 nm processes. The dispense confirmation system automatically monitors each dispense and, if an anomaly is detected, the system sends an error message that stops the process so that wafers can be inspected and reworked. Typical users may eliminate 40 L or more of photoresist waste per tool each year, lowering the amount of hazardous waste in the fab. The dispense system meets the RoHS limits and Green Procurement criteria.
F&K Delvotec Bondtechnik
The Wire Bonder 64/66000 G5 (fifth generation) is used to connect semiconductor chips to their substrate using ultrasonic energy to weld wires. It has the flexibility of one machine base with different bond heads for quick changeover of fine, heavy and ribbon wires. Accuracy is 10 μm at 3σ. The system comes with an optional integrated Post-Bond inspection system, which allows for 100% quality check on the entire production volume without compromising throughput.
ILS Technology
The secureWISE software-as-a-service (SAAS)
provides semiconductor manufacturers and equipment OEMs with secure, real-time
networking and collaboration from remote locations via a virtual private
network. All users can share information in real time and remotely execute
production commands worldwide. It eliminates the need for multiple
site-to-site VPN connections between chip customers, OEM supplier and fabs. A
main advantage is intellectual property (IP) protection. The model uses both
hardware and software to provide a defense in depth security for IP as it
travels throughout a fab, across time zones and geographical boundaries. The
expertise needed to fix or adjust a tool in a fab can be accessed online, so
advanced processes can be brought online more rapidly to improve yields and
minimize waste.
Inficon
FabGuard is fault detection
and classification (FDC) software that provides users with active control of
process tools using the principles of FDC. It interfaces with the process tool
to gather data about the tool and process via semiconductor equipment
communications standard (SECS) commands and protocol. The data is collected,
conditioned, correlated and analyzed using mathematical principles, such as
principle component analysis, time series, stepwise regression or metrology
prediction. FabGuard then analyzes the data for deviations in process
conditions, changes in tool operation and suboptimum wafer parameters. Results
are stored in an Oracle or SQL database and sent to the fab host server. In
addition, the software can control various non-standard sensors that may be on
the process tool, such as interferormetry sensors or RF power supply sensors.
K-Patents Oy
Process Refractometer PR-23-M measures in real time the liquid chemical concentrations through the fabrication process. The concentration of dissolved solids is determined by making an optical measurement of the solution's refractive index. The same instrument can be used to measure any chemical. It provides continuous 4–20 mA or digital measurement signal, is physically small, and is easy to install in bulk chemicals supply and distribution and in point-of-use chemical blending, mixing, dilution and spiking applications.
KLA-Tencor
Archer 100 is an overlay metrology system used for controlling overlay. It was designed to significantly enhance the precision and productivity of immersion and future double patterning lithography technologies. It reduces total measurement uncertainty by more than 30%, to 1.4 nm. The system also reduces scribe line space requirements with micro-grating targets as small as 10 × 10 μm2. By shrinking target pitch to submicron dimensions, it provides ample information content compensation.
KLA-Tencor
The 2800 Series full spectrum brightfield UV/DUV/visible inspection system is used to monitor processes at 65 nm and beyond. It detects defect excursions by identifying excursions inline and builds a robust process for yield improvement by correlating inline defect data to inline process data or end-of-line probe data. The 2800 has demonstrated an 85% capture rate of ~22 nm defects, and ~50% capture rate of ~15 nm defects. The 2800 series is capable of delivering flexible full-spectrum wavelength (260–450 nm) coverage to capture the full range of yield-critical defects.
Metryx
The Mentor Series includes the OC23, an open cassette for 150, 200 and 300 mm; the SF3 single FOUP 200 and 300 mm; and the DF3 dual FOUP 200 and 300 mm. All tools use a series of accurate force measurements, and the mass change encountered during a process step is measured to atomic-level accuracy. Mass metrology is used on product wafers, but does not interfere with the wafer's front side. The SPC tool reduces the use of test wafers.
MKS Instruments
The πMFC-LP is a low-pressure mass flow controller designed specifically for SDS and VAC source gases serving the ion implantation industry. It controls from pressures of 650 Torr down to pressures below 10 Torr. The digital control electronics have been tuned to provide typical response times of <2 min. The SDS source results in fewer bottle changeouts, increased uptime and lower COO. It minimizes waste by its use of SDS and VAC sources gases, and reduces the number of potential exposures to highly toxic gases because more gas can be used per bottle. Its multi-gas, multi-range feature allows users to configure the tool for different primary implant gases. Using a straightforward Ethernet interface and a PC, the embedded configuration and diagnostics software lets users check MFC functionality without removing the MFC from the tool.
Nanonics Imaging
The MultiView 4000/NanoRaman/AFM is an integrated tip-enhanced system for chemical characterization with up to four independently controlled scanned probe microscopes online for correlated functional and structural imaging with atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The MultiView is a solution that can be integrated into standard optical microscopes with high numerical aperture (NA) lenses to collect the weak Raman signal. It also has cantilevered glass probes for AFM without the Raman background of standard silicon AFM cantilevers. It uses tuning forks for feedback, which do not provide any optical background that standard AFM laser-based feedback mechanisms cause.
NEXX Systems
The Stratus 200 is an automated electrodeposition system for 200 mm wafer processing in advanced packaging applications. It vertically immerses the wafer in the plating solution using ShearPlate technology, which uniformly reduces the boundary layer thickness. It provides programmable fluid agitation <2 mm from the surface of the wafer. Stratus has a wafer seal ring structure that keeps the electrical contacts dry.
Nova Measuring Instruments
NovaScan 3090CD is an advanced metrology platform for thin-film metrology of dielectric CMP and copper applications, as well as CD control and shape profiling. It implements polarized normal incidence spectroscopic scatterometry with an extended UV and IR spectral range. The platform applies both non-contact deep UV spectrophotometry and scatterometry to measure the thickness and topography of standard conducting transparent films.
The PEER Group
The PEER Tool Orchestrator (PTO) is a configurable software product used to quickly and accurately automate the EFEM and host connectivity of 300 mm equipment. It prepares the tool for installation into fully automated wafer fabs and bump assembly facilities. Fab automation specifications are built in. Engineering implementation efforts are decreased by 30% or more, while fab acceptance and reliability are improved.
Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL)
The Precio is a fully automated 300 mm wafer prober whose advances in wafer exchange and alignment enable the transition from full-wafer probing where a 300 mm wafer is tested in a single touchdown. The Auto Leveling option allows users to automatically and accurately level the plane between the probe card and test wafer. Precio also contains TELPADS-I, an integrated high-speed probe mark inspection capability.
VLSI Standards
NanoCD Standard is a wafer that contains a single isolated line, whose width is certified with an accuracy better than 1 nm. The wafer is used to calibrate a CD-SEM or a CD-AFM. For CD-SEM, it can discover and diagnose beam size adjustments, auto focus precision adjustments, DoF adjustment, astigmatism, electronic filtering algorithms, and tilt and column/stage alignment. For CD-AFM, users will know and measure the certified linewidth and be able to calibrate the tip width, ensuring the CD-AFM provides accurate measurements. The standard is NIST-traceable.
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