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AFM/x-ray systems enable transition to 450 mm

Test & Measurement World Staff - July 15, 2012

Bruker introduced a 450-mm AFM (atomic force microscope) and two x-ray systems at Semicon West to support the semiconductor industry’s transition to larger wafer production. According to the manufacturer, the InSight-450 3D AFM, D8 Fabline x-ray, and S8 Fabline-T x-ray systems are designed to meet the industry roadmap challenges at future technology nodes on the larger 450-mm wafer size, enabling greater product capability and reliability for semiconductor development and production.

The InSight-450 3D AFM covers a broad range of roughness, depth, and CD (critical dimension) applications. Capabilities include bare-wafer process validation, roughness characterization, and pit/bump/scratch defect metrology; incoming substrate qualification; thin-film and epitaxial deposition performance with micro/nano roughness and angstrom-level step-height precision; etch-depth metrology for process development and control, inline resist profile measurements of CD, SWA (side wall angle), and LER (line edge roughness) with full TEM-like profiles; and CMP (chemical mechanical planarization) flatness performance to monitor dishing and erosion.

Equipped with high-brilliance x-ray sources, the D8 Fabline provides inline x-ray measurements for front-end-of-line and back-end-of-line process monitoring on blanket or product wafers. It can determine thickness, composition, and strain of SiGe, SiC, SOI, and III-V-on-Si, as well as composition and thickness of metal films and stacks. The S8 Fabline-T TXRF (total x-ray reflection fluorescence) performs nondestructive trace-metal and light-element contamination analysis.

Bruker, www.bruker.com