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Solid State Technology - semiconductors, chips, integrated circuits

Technology

Overlay control goes to high-order
Dec 24 -- More challenging overlay requirements are driving a trend to use high-order control knobs for production set-up of scanners. This article explores the overlay requirements that are driving this trend, the challenges involved with implementing in production, and the cost-of-ownership trade-offs between different high-order control strategies....
 
ASML "double-dips" with updated litho tool
Dec 10 -- MLW peers under the hood of ASML's new NXT 1950i with company exec Frank van de Mast to understand the platform's benefits for double-patterned immersion litho, as well as leading-edge single patterning and spacer-layer DPT applications, and even EUV....
 
Making scanners march in step
Dec 08 -- Brion Technologies, an ASML company, has developed a suite of products to optimize the performance of diverse scanners so that challenging chip patterns can be manufactured in parallel, on old and new tools, at high volume....
 
When photoresist is not enough
Nov 26 -- Pattern transfer is becoming trickier at 4x/32nm nodes and beyond, with thinner resist layers and higher aspect ratios/etch requirements for both logic and memory. Enter ashable hardmasks as a possible solution. Novellus VP Tim Archer tells SST about the company's strategy and technology to address this pain point....
 
45nm node registration metrology for EUV reticles
Nov 05 -- Tighter registration tolerances for the 45nm node and beyond require a next-generation registration metrology tool with capability to measure EUV masks with diverse substrate materials that might be used in 32nm and 22nm chip production....
 
Reality, FUD and vision
Oct 28 -- We're in the fifth year of a major inflection point in the semiconductor market, and the most exciting and challenging time in the industry's history -- but there's still a lot of FUD (fear, uncertainty, doubt) that's drowning out all the vision. EDA guru Gary Smith offers several doses of reality, and lists what you'll need to do if you want to be a winner in this new challenging world....
 
Understanding characteristic EUV image variations in full-field exposure tools
Oct 24 -- A clear understanding of the physical origin of image CD and placement variations will make it possible for EUV users and optical proximity correction (OPC) vendors to develop OPC strategies at the 22nm and 16nm device nodes to effectively compensate for them....
 
To 32nm and beyond: SPIE panel debates assortment of challenges
Oct 21 -- What challenges must maskmakers overcome to reach the 32nm node, and what hurdles lie beyond? A star-studded panel of experts assembled at this year's SPIE Photomask Technology Conference (Oct 6-10) to examine the future....
 
ASML's new platform pushes ArF to the limit
Oct 20 -- A litho-etch, litho-etch (LELE) approach is one of several double patterning schemes concocted to help span the gap between current single-exposure 193nm immersion litho and EUV. But LELE places extreme demands on both the productivity and the performance of the lithography tool. ASML's new Twinscan NXT platform strives to address these challenges, as described at ASML's recent Eindhoven (Netherlands) press event....
 
Haze and sun for mask symposium
Oct 13 -- Highlights from last week's SPIE/BACUS Symposium on Photomask Technology in Monterey CA, include discussion of damage to pellicles caused by aggressive 193nm radiation, what's behind a new "sun effect" linked to clearing off reticle haze, more calls to replace chrome with opaque MoSi, why mask industry sales are improperly skewed, and the difficulty of migrating to smaller dimensions....
 
Fujitsu, e-Shuttle, D2S deal benefits maskless IC slice
Oct 12 -- The new partnership between Fujitsu Microelectronics, Advantest Corp. (through their JV, e-Shuttle), and startup D2S aims to make ICs faster and more cost-effectively for low- to mid-volume ASICs....
 
Slowly but surely, EUV moves toward reality
Oct 02 -- EUV lithography is still a long way from manufacturing, not expected for mass production until at least 2012 and the 22nm node. But early work with alpha tools is giving a much better understanding of what the platform's capabilities will be, and where the needs are (optics, resists, sources). And at some point the answers will come only with taking risks and making the investment....
 
Litho crossover at Diskcon
Sep 24 -- A full-day symposium at this year's Diskcon USA explored the lithography implications of sub-ITRS roadmap feature sizes on disk drives, with the challenge that HDD lithography must cost 10× less than NAND flash lithography, the lowest-cost semiconductor process....
 
MoSi-ing along to 32nm
Aug 18 -- The chrome material that has blocked the light on binary masks for a generation may finally have outlived its usefulness, with interest now turning to opaque OMOG for 32nm generation and beyond photomask technology, explains Toppan Photomasks' Franklin Kalk, in an exclusive interview with SST....
 
 

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