Seeking SOI defects
The joint development partnership (JDP) is expected to create the industry's first wafer inspection system that is specifically optimised for SOI and meets the sensitivity requirements for the 90nm and 65nm nodes.
These new inspection systems will be based on KLA-Tencor's Surfscan SP1 system and is expected to ship to Soitec in early 2004. In addition to SOI, the new inspection system will be compatible with advanced substrates such as strained silicon-on-insulator (sSOI) and silicon germanium-on-insulator (SGOI).
Andre Auberton-Herve, president of Soitec, comments: "We believe that KLA-Tencor's new defect inspection technology will be essential for successfully bringing SOI - and future advanced substrates - into cost-effective, high-volume production."
Detecting critical defects is essential to reducing defect density, as well as increasing yield and wafer quality. Unlike traditional silicon substrates, SOI and other engineered substrates are composed of multiple film layers of different thickness (depending on the target IC application), which create interference effects that cause current inspection technologies to provide false and inconsistent defect readings, as well as inadequate overall sensitivity. At the 65nm node, where SOI adoption is expected to increase dramatically for the production of high-end microprocessors and logic ICs, even greater levels of inspection sensitivity will be needed - further driving the need for an SOI inspection solution.
