KLA-Tencor Ushers in New Era of Electrical Line Monitoring with the IC Industry's Fastest E-Beam Inspection System
Wednesday June 11, 8:31 am ET
eS30 Tool Removes Key Roadblock to Sub-130-nm Production Success
SAN JOSE, Calif., June 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- To help chipmakers break through one of the biggest roadblocks to sub-130-nm production success, KLA-Tencor (Nasdaq: KLAC - News) today unveiled the eS30 -- the industry's first e-beam inspection tool specifically designed for high-volume production line monitoring of electrical defects. According to company officials, while e-beam inspection continues to escalate in importance in chipmakers' development lines, it is now becoming equally vital to detect the new genre of recurring electrical defects in production that can hinder yields and dramatically reduce fab return on investment (ROI). This is especially true for leading memory and logic manufacturers, given the unprecedented incidence of electrical defects in both filled and unfilled high aspect ratio structures and the high value of every processed 300-mm wafer.
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As both the innovator and market leader in e-beam inspection, KLA-Tencor was the first to allow chipmakers to isolate the electrical defects that negatively impact device quality and reliability. This newest generation tool -- which follows the company's widely adopted eS20XP series -- delivers more than a two-fold increase in throughput, sensitivity and image resolution capability, while allowing users to classify defects in real time and trend by defect type. These advanced capabilities, coupled with its significant cost-of-ownership advances, make the eS30 the first inspection platform optimized for all phases of the IC technology life cycle. As a result, chipmakers will now be able to adopt and proliferate cost-effective electrical defect monitoring strategies in their high-volume production environments to reap substantial gains in both production yields and ROI.
The new "electrical line monitoring" inspection market
"We're entering a new era and witnessing the entry of 'electrical line monitoring' into in-line process diagnostics," explained G. Dan Hutcheson, chief executive officer and president of market research firm VLSI Research. "We're also seeing history repeat itself, with e-beam inspection now poised to replicate the quantum shift that occurred when optical tools first migrated from engineering analysis onto the production floor in volume quantities. Once again, KLA-Tencor is leading the charge with high sensitivity tools that have been optimized for the production mandates inherent in this type of shift. As a result, chipmakers have a powerful new weapon in their ongoing battle to speed yield ramps, time to market and, ultimately, time to profit on their next-generation chips."
New production challenges drive the demand for new defect management methodologies
The combination of smaller process windows, new materials and more complicated process integration at and below the 130-nm node has given rise to a new and challenging class of defects. These defects -- which can be extremely small, sub-surface or within high aspect ratio structures -- lead to significant yield and reliability issues in production. Yet, a vast majority of these defects are electrical in nature and cannot be detected by conventional inspection methodologies. As with previous-generation processes, e-beam inspection has been critical for identifying and sourcing yield-relevant defects during IC development. However, with these defects recurring randomly in volume production at the 130-nm node and below, limiting e-beam inspection to process development is no longer a viable option. Avoiding electrical defect mechanisms in production requires dedicated high-speed e-beam inspection at key process steps.
"For a 0.13-micron copper fab, having a bad via/contact defect density of only several parts per billion could lead to significant yield losses during production," stated Pete Nunan, vice president and general manager of the Yield Technology Services Group at KLA-Tencor. "Controlling recurring electrical defectivity is thus extremely critical to achieving production success for advanced copper processes. By implementing inline e-beam inspection for its first copper via module using KLA-Tencor's e-beam inspection technology, a leading U.S. logic customer was able to reduce the frequency and magnitude of open-via excursions that, up to this time, had not been detected. Furthermore, the customer was able to use the e-beam inspection data for timely excursion control, resulting in a 15- to 20-percent baseline yield improvement over a three-month period. Preliminary results have indicated that by increasing electrical defect sampling to 100 percent of wafer lots using inline e-beam inspection, the customer could further reduce the risk of these recurring excursions to baseline production yields."
Waiting until end-of-line e-test to find the sources for recurring electrical defects places weeks of product at risk. Inline probes are ineffective in capturing electrical excursions since the test areas on product wafers are too small to allow detection of extremely low defect density (parts per billion) excursions. Failure to capture these recurring excursions inline can cost chipmakers hundreds of millions of dollars (U.S.) annually in lost revenue. This problem mandates the adoption and proliferation of high-speed e-beam line monitoring strategies in order for fabs to capture electrical excursions inline. KLA-Tencor's high-speed, high-sensitivity eS30 system provides a first line of defense against recurring electrical defects by providing fabs with production line monitoring capability. Preliminary studies with advanced customer fabs indicate that as many as three eS30 systems are required for a 10,000 wafer-start-per-month logic fab or a 20,000 wafer-start-per-month memory fab.
High-speed e-beam inspection for production line monitoring
Leveraging the considerable experience gained in the field with the eS20XP, KLA-Tencor has made substantial performance improvements to the new eS30 platform. Significant reductions in tool overhead time, coupled with faster scanning speed and extensive ease-of-use enhancements, more than double the throughput of the eS30. These improvements enable inspection in under an hour for many applications. Additional features include KLA-Tencor's proprietary eControl(TM) technology, which improves inspection stability and increases the electrical signal of voltage contrast defects by reducing wafer charging. The eS30 also incorporates KLA-Tencor's proven inline automatic defect classification (iADC) capability, which allows chipmakers to quickly identify and trend by yield-relevant defects. A new 20-nm-resolution defect review capability speeds recipe setup and optimization two-fold over the eS20XP and, in combination with iADC, reduces the need for off-line SEM review.
Benchmark sensitivity for engineering analysis and advanced process development
In addition to meeting the production inspection requirements for today's advanced devices, the eS30 provides the sensitivity needed for advanced process development down to the 65-nm node and below. A comprehensive range of pixel sizes enables tool operators to balance throughput and sensitivity for optimal inspection results. Improved imaging flexibility enables the eS30 to detect critical defects on a wider variety of layers, including silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and low-k dielectrics.
"For today's leading chipmakers that are now ramping sub-130-nm processes into high-volume production, electrical line monitoring will be integral to their production defect management strategies, and will play an essential role in enabling them to achieve their yield and profitability goals," stated Rick Wallace, executive vice president of the Wafer Inspection, Review, and Analysis Group at KLA-Tencor. "Our latest product introduction, the eS30, overcomes the throughput and cost-of-ownership hurdles that have been the traditional barriers to making e-beam inspection practical for the production floor. Customers planning their advanced fab layouts are now considering multiple e-beam systems for electrical line monitoring applications. As these chipmakers ramp to production, they now view both optical and e-beam inspection tools to be integral components of an effective excursion monitoring strategy."
KLA-Tencor is currently accepting orders for the eS30. Several leading 300-mm manufacturers have already installed the eS30 in fabs for production line monitoring applications.
About KLA-Tencor: KLA-Tencor is the world leader in yield management and process control solutions for semiconductor manufacturing and related industries. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., with operations around the world, KLA-Tencor ranked #6 on S&P's 2002 index of the top 500 companies in the U.S. KLA-Tencor is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol KLAC. Additional information about the company is available on the Internet at kla-tencor.com
NOTE: eControl is a trademark of KLA-Tencor.
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Source: KLA-Tencor |
