Solid State Technology articles from November 2005

Solid State Technology archives from November 2005

The future of energy.(Editorial)
November 1, 2005... Is the world running out of oil? Will there be enough fuel available as China and India rapidly industrialize? These are very important questions for policymakers across the globe. At Semicon West, there were warnings that polysilicon shortages...

Turning blue is good news for solid-state lighting.
November 1, 2005... Scientists have been trying to get an organic compound that emits a stable blue light with a lifetime that exceeds the previously thought 1000 hr lifetime barrier ever since Shuji Nakamura's invention of the first inorganic blue LED in the...

Researchers find new mechanism for particle growth in nanocomposites.
November 1, 2005... A research team from the Georgia Institute of Technology and Drexel U. has discovered a new mechanism by which polymer materials used in nanocomposites control the growth of particles. Reported at the recent national meeting of the American...

Liquid-cooling technique uses microfluidic channels on chip backs.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... A new technique for fabricating liquid cooling channels onto the backs of high-performance ICs could allow denser packaging of chips while providing better temperature control and improved reliability. Developed at the Georgia Institute of...

UV curing adds mechanical strength.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Ultraviolet (UV) curing has emerged as a way to add mechanical strength to low-k dielectrics, according to some researchers at the recent IITC (International Interconnect Technology Conference). UV not only is proving more effective than e-beam...

Wafer tool inspects at different wavelengths.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... A new wafer inspection tool from KLA-Tencor comes with "superset capability" that allows it to inspect at UV, DUV, and visible wavelengths as needed. "Different defects and materials require different wavelengths, and the best one isn't...

Consumer economics drive: FPD manufacturing strategies.
November 1, 2005... The challenge in discussing flat-panel displays (FPD) is that they are both a technology and an application. For example, the thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display (TFT-LCD) is a very specific technology that comprises an electronic...

Meaningful reliability testing requires a highly parallel source-measure method.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Pete Hulbert, Keithley Instruments Inc. New semiconductor materials and shrinking device dimensions have made reliability testing increasingly important because the gate dielectric behavior of modem devices isn't well understood, requiring...

45nm node integration of low-k and ULK porous dielectrics.
November 1, 2005... As the semiconductor industry proaches the 45nm process-technolgy node, the capacitance of the copper interconnect must be reduced to lower the RC delay and increase chip performance. The International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors...

Analyzing damage from ultralow-k CMP.
November 1, 2005... OVERVIEW Introduction of porous ultralow-k (ULK) materials poses challenges, such as poor mechanical properties due to porosity, that affect all unit processes, including CMP. Minimizing and eliminating low-k damage are the primary...

Controlling porous low-k damage with decoupled plasma etching.
November 1, 2005... OVERVIEW One of the key challenges in backend integration is damage to the low-k dielectric during etch/ash processes. A decoupled plasma approach offers independent control of the chemical and physical components of these processes and is...

Fluorine plasma chemistry for high-AR dielectric etching.
November 1, 2005... OVERVIEW As device sizes continue to shrink, anisotropic dielectric etching faces a daunting list of challenges that include etch selectivity, etch uniformity, aspect-ratio dependent etching, and etch stop. Data in this article show how...

Using 'statistical dashboards' to automate particle and yield analysis.
November 1, 2005... OVERVIEW In semiconductor fabrication, optimized control over hundreds of process steps and multiple equipment sets is essential to achieving high yields in volume manufacturing. A "statistical dashboard" concept, originally created 10...

Japan ramps up for high-volume SOI-based manufacturing.
November 1, 2005... The silicon-on-insulator (SOD revolution that was first launched in Japan more than 25 years ago is returning home. A plethora of SOI-based applications, led by the IBM, Sony, and Toshiba breakthrough Cell processor, will launch new generations...

What's driving outsourced assembly and test in Japan.
November 1, 2005... Successful suppliers to the semiconductor industry must acknowledge the importance of Japan in semiconductor manufacturing. Japan is the world's second-largest geographical market in terms of chip sales, and the island nation remains the...

Brightfield inspection is enhanced with ultrabroadband imaging.(PRODUCT NEWS)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... The 2800 Series, a brightfield wafer-inspection platform, reportedly provides the industry's only ultrabroadband (DUV, UV, and visible) wavelength inspection at 2x the throughput of previous-generation DUV brightfield imaging tools. The system...

Modular inspection system pushes to the edge.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... The Reflex AF series of modular, automated defect inspection systems detects particles, scratches, and microroughness (haze) on unpatterned wafer surfaces, including edges (edge exclusion = 2mm), and also provides sorting functions. Up to four...

Optical CD and thin-film metrology combine in one tool.(compact disk)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... The ultra-II CD combines optical critical-dimension and thin-film metrology in one tool, offering low cost-of-ownership, reduced transport delays, and rapid notifcation of yield excursions for deposition, lithography, and etch processes. The...

DRIE system etches at rates >25[micro]m/min.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... The Pegasus deep reactive-ion etch system features a modular design for reduced foot-print, and is compatible with any of STS' modular single-wafer loadlock or full-production cluster systems. It achieves etch rates >25[micro]m/min with a...

Inkjet materials printing system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2005... The cartridge-based Dimatix Materials Printing (DMP) system provides high-precision jetting of fluids such as nanoparticle-based metallic and organic materials on surfaces including plastic, metal sheets, silicon, and paper. The printing system...

X-ray detectors for metrology system.(PRODUCT NEWS)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... New solid-state silicon-lithium detectors provide high resolution and a high degree of sensitivity, and extend the energy range for measurements of heavier elements (up to 29keV) on the Microbeam XRF, which combines nondestructive...

XRR/XRF metrology tool.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2005... The BedeMetrix-F x-ray metrology tool offers combined x-ray reflectivity (XRR) and x-ray fluorescence (XRF) for inline, nondestructive, high-speed film-thickness measurements on patterned wafers. Small-spot x-ray optics measure test pads and...

ALD system.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2005... The Iris dielectric atomic-layer deposition (ALD) system provides high-k and metal film deposition for capacitor and gate dielectrics with sequential remote plasma-anneal capability with the addition of the Iris plasma anneal process module....

Multimodule wet processor.(PRODUCT NEWS)
November 1, 2005... The SSEC 3308 single-wafer wet processor achieves wafer throughputs of up to 180wph in a small footprint. Eight process modules may be arranged in any combination of double-sided clean, wet-etch, or strip-processing configurations. Wafers can...

Calibration software for WLT.(wafer-level test )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... SussCal 6 high-frequency calibration software provides fully automated multiport calibration for wafer-level test (WLT) systems. The software controls the multiport vector network analyzer (from any major manufacturer), the automatic or...

Dielectric materials.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... ST 100 is an inorganic spin-on oxide for front-end-of-line applications such as shallow-trench isolation and premetal dielectric that allows void-free fill of extremely narrow gaps with aspect ratios up to 13:1, and shows high wet-etch...

Matching network for process control.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... Equipped with microprocessor-controlled stepper motor circuitry and digital, user-selectable tuning algorithms, the Navigator matching network for radio-frequency generators minimizes reflected power by automatically tuning the complex...

Device characterization system.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... The Model 4200-SCS semiconductor characterization system offers the PIV (Pulse I-V) package option for work with high-k materials, thermally sensitive devices, and advanced memory chips. The SCS performs laboratory-grade DC device...

Miniature interferometer.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... SP-D Series miniature double-plane mirror interferometers are incorporated into customer systems for simultaneous pairs of nanoprecision length measurements. The frequency-stabilized He-Ne lasers and fiberoptic-coupled sensor heads allow...

Memory test system.(Brief Article)
November 1, 2005... The T5587 memory tester offers a comprehensive, high-throughput solution for DDR-SDRAM, NOR, and NAND flash memory test. It offers a maximum test speed of 200MHz (400Mbps in DDR mode), which supports multichip packages (MCP), enabling...

Reaching 45nm requires an accelerated flow of innovation.
November 1, 2005... If the industry is to reach the 45nm node by decade's end, it will be due, in large part, to a continuing acceleration of the flow of innovation, mostly from the bottom up. While the industry faces unprecedented technical challenges, it has...