Deposits in semiconductor corona emitters in cleanroom and simulated air
Charles G. Noll, ITW Static Control and Air Products, SIMCO Static Control and Cleanroom Products, Hatfield, Pennsylvania
Chip scale and flip chip: Attractive solutions
Just as surface-mount packaging technology (SMT) gradually won over converts from through-hole technology, chip- scale packaging (CSP) is now gaining as a replacement for SMT. Unlike the previous tran ...
Model-based analysis for precise and accurate epitaxial silicon measurements
New model-based, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy epitaxial silicon characterization techniques have significantly better accuracy and precision than current techniques. They also provid ...
Integration risks in 300-mm wafer fab automation
A crucial requirement for emerging 300-mm wafer fabrication facilities is recognizing and addressing the many risks associated with full factory automation. While pieces of such automation have been s ...
Atmospheric downstream plasma- a new tool for semiconductor processing
Plasma processing is critical to semiconductor manufacturing because it provides the means to create and control chemical reactions at the wafer surface that would otherwise not be available. Conventi ...
"One-day install" of fab equipment
It now averages two weeks to install and hook up a piece of fab equipment. A comprehensive method for equipment installation significantly reduces fab start-up time. A variety of techniques, with vary ...
Wide mrgin CMP for STI
The challenge in integrating oxide CMP for shallow trench isolation is to expose silicon nitride completely across all active regions, with minimal nitride loss and oxide dishing. Device patterns stro ...
MRS Meeting Report
With some sessions spilling out into hallways, the 1998 Spring Materials Research Society (MRS) meeting in San Francisco updated some 2000 attendees on the latest work on copper, low-k as well as high ...
Worldwide highlights
Fourth month-to-month decline for chip sales. Worldwide semiconductor sales dipped less than 1% on a month-to-month basis in March, but fell a sharp 4.9% from year-ago levels, according to the Semicon ...
Japan
Japan tool orders down. February orders at Japanese toolmakers are 67.5 billion yen ($514 million), 35% below year-ago levels, and 23% below the 87.7 billion yen level of January, according to the Sem ...
Asia/Pacific
Anticipating a second-half surge in foundry business, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) will maintain its plans for a 40% capacity expansion in 1998 and expects to be running flat out by t ...
Europe
Johnson Matthey is investing approximately 3 million UK pounds ($5 million) to add manufacturing and technical support to its 22,000-ft2 Widnes facility, which is now slated to become the company`s pr ...
Rest of World
ShellCase Ltd., Jerusalem, Israel, has entered an agreement with Xicor Inc., Milpitas, CA, under which Xicor has agreed to license the ShellCase wafer-level CSP manufacturing process technology and bu ...
Using a Web intranet for fab data distribution
Practically applied Web technology on an intranet has proven to be feasible and advantageous in a semiconductor materials production environment. The system provides data and information management, i ...
Novellus, others unveil integrated copper system
Novellus Systems Inc., in an alliance with Lam Research Corp., Integrated Process Equipment Corp. (IPEC), and OnTrak, has unveiled Damascus Complete Copper, a full spectrum of equipment and processes ...
Copper ECD in beta test
CuTek, a San Jose, CA, startup firm working to commercialize electrochemical copper deposition (ECD) technology, says it has successfully filled 0.25-?m, 8:1 aspect ratio contact holes with no voids o ...
Semiconductor300 attacks 300-mm challenges
The Semiconductor300 joint venture between Motorola and Siemens is reportedly the world`s first 300-mm wafer fabrication facility, and as such will have to try many experiments and grapple with a numb ...
"Manufacturable" 100-nm features from 248-nm lithography
The combination of optical proximity correction (OPC) design features with alternating phase-shift photomasks (PSM) has been shown to have real potential for a manufacturable process window at less th ...
Outlook improving for 193-nm material
A recent worldwide survey by the Arthur D. Little consulting firm has found a generally improving outlook for production and availability of high-purity calcium fluoride (CaF2), a critical material fo ...
New venture to commercialize EUV litho technology
A newly formed private corporation, United States Advanced Lithography, is seeking $50 million in funding to develop extreme UV lithography under license from the Extreme UV Limited Liability Corp. (E ...
Chemists rewrite boron chemistry reference
A recent computation by chemists with the National Partnership for Advanced Computational Infrastructure (NPACI) suggests that a definitive reference on a fundamental property of boron is wrong. Speci ...
CMOS "down in the mouth"
CMOS technology, specifically active pixel imaging, may soon get you in and out of your dentist`s chair faster. The enabling circuit is a CMOS active pixel sensor (APS) imaging "camera-on-a chip" from ...
Israels Nova expands metrology line
With a growing business in on-tool film thickness measuring systems for CMP, Nova Measuring Instruments, Rehovoth, Israel, hopes to expand its offerings to provide comparable on-line capabilities for ...
Army Grant for artificial eye
The University of Michigan College of Engineering has been awarded a $1.6 million US Army grant to design an artificial eye on a microchip - an optoelectronic device capable of sensing and processing ...
Taiwan, with $100 billion foreign reserves, hopes to cash in its chips
While most of Asia wallows in debt, Taiwan chipmakers are pushing ahead rapidly with fab expansion plans backed by more than $100 billion in foreign reserves its banks have piled up over the past few ...
WSC opens membership to Taiwan and China
The World Semiconductor Council (WSC) opened council membership to Taiwan and China at its second annual gathering, where meeting sponsor Semiconductor Industry Association (SIA) also announced that i ...
Model-based adaptive process control: A CD-control exmple
Emir G?rer, Tom Zhong, John Lewellen, Reese Reynolds, Silicon Valley Group, Track Division, San Jose, California
IBM advanced lithography facility: the first five years
In five years of industrial R&D operation, the advanced lithography facility (ALF) has proved the viability of synchrotron-radiation-based x-ray lithography for IC manufacturing. The Oxford Helios ele ...
NTRS critical-level lithography: Reading between the lines
Careful examination of the 1997 National Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors (NTRS) specifications for critical dimension and overlay tolerance reveals areas where the industry needs more detail and ...
Rapid thermal processing market
The RTP market has withstood the uncertainties of the marketplace better than hot-wall furnaces or, indeed, better than the overall semiconductor equipment market. In 1997, a weak growth year for the ...
Windows NTs foundation for equipment automation
In a relatively short time, Windows NT has gained a prominent place in industry, including semiconductor manufacturing automation applications. Software vendors are now providing, even via the Interne ...
Surface cleaning using energetic microcluster beams
A new in situ vacuum surface-cleaning process uses microcluster beams formed by electrohydrodynamic emission from capillaries to clean surfaces contaminated by solid particulates and organic films. Pr ...
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