Trikon sees high-density memory opportunities for Flowfill
Infineon Technologies recently invested in Trikon's Planar 300 Flowfill system for the deposition of inter-metal dielectrics for DRAM products. According to Trikon, Infineon demonstrated that Flowfill's gap-fill and planarisation capability enabled them to eliminate entire dielectric CMP steps resulting in significant cost reductions. One other DRAM manufacturer has evaluation equipment in-house and others IC producers are performing external assessments.
According to TrikonÕs director of marketing, David Butler, apart from one notable exception, DRAM makers continue to use the traditional aluminium metallisation along with dielectric gap-fill processes. This, Butler says, is because the performance benefits of copper are not so relevant to the memory sector.
"The factor that limits the available market for us is the size of the trench - Flowfill becomes more compelling as aspect ratio rises," says Butler. "As nodes shrink we expect opportunities for Flowfill to increase as incumbent technologies such as high-density plasma (HDP) or sub-atmospheric chemical vapour depostion (SACVD) start to have problems filling the narrow gaps. The situation now at geometries at or just below 90nm is that Flowfill is gaining some traction for mainly cost reasons, where the degree of planarity we can offer means lower CMP burden compared to the more established competition."
