Novellus has some competition yapping around their ankles in the Cu market. NuTool and Tokyo Electron in this case. Also Robert, would you let us know how Brown works out for you? I am interested in changing brokers, and have been looking at Ameritrade and DLJ and Brown.
electronicnews.com
NuTool Debuts Copper Deposition Tool In Japan
By Jeff Chappell, Electronic News
Dec 07, 2000 --- CHIBA, Japan -- Milpitas, Calif.-based NuTool Inc. publicly unveiled their tool and their technology for copper deposition here at Semicon Japan, and while opinions vary on its feasibility, it has certainly gained interest from the industry from both sides of the Pacific.
Following their announcement last week that Japan’s largest toolmaker, Tokyo Electron Limited, would be handling sales and support for NuTool, the company announced here that its electrochemical mechanical deposition (ECMD) tool and technology is ready for production.
“We are ready to meet strong customer demand for ECMD technology,” said Bulent Basol, vice president of process and technology for NuTool.
NuTool says its proprietary technology solves the problems of copper deposition such as overburdening, the building up of copper over small features, and steps that occur over large features. The technology reduces polish time and possibly dishing and erosion, NuTool claimed.
Basol explained that as the tool deposits a copper layer, there is a pad that physically touches the wafer and this coupled with NuTool’s process chemistry, allows differential copper growth rate between copper deposited on the wafer surface and that deposited in a feature. The rate, pressure and the mechanical path of the pad can all be controlled via software. A typical application takes about three minutes per wafer, according to Basol.
In a worst case scenario, copper deposited on the wafer surface is only 30 percent of the copper deposition rate in a feature or a ratio of three, but the company has demonstrated that ratio can be as high as 10, Basol said. In that instance the seed layer was 1,500 angstroms thick and the wafer surface or field layer was 6,800 angstroms thick, while the feature thickness was 48,000 angstroms.
“We have successfully filled 0.1 micron vias and 1 micron vias in the same die,” Basol said.
Basol presented post chemical mechanical planarization data from a customer that demonstrated deposition in 3.5 micron deep features that were .8 and 0.1 microns wide, with no dishing or erosion. The customer was able to complete deposition with only one polishing step, Basol said. Customer data has further shown that ECMD copper has large grains and low resistivity, NuTool said.
Basol added that the company already had systems installed and operating at customer sites.
Only time will tell for sure if NuTool’s technology will be able to address the problems inherent in depositing copper in a production environment. But Dean Freeman, principal analyst with the Gartner Group Inc.’s Dataquest, suggested that TEL’s partnership with the startup is a big vote of confidence. The data NuTool presented here at Semicon was very compelling, Freeman said, and the company’s technology appears to have substance behind its marketing.
Others in the industry aren’t too sure, however. Saket Chadda, chief technical officer for CMP company SpeedFam-IPEC Inc., suggested that combining the process of electrochemical plating with some form of mechanical activity on the wafer that is similar in nature to CMP could be problematic.
'The compound effects can be disastrous,” Chadda said, adding that doesn’t meant the problems can’t be solved.
But ECMD is a technology that has yet to be proven, he said, noting that a research division within his company is studying the technology. |
