Michael G. McIntyre

Intentional defect array wafers: their practical use in semiconductor control and monitoring systems

In the competitive world of semiconductor manufacturing today, control of the process and manufacturing equipment is paramount to success of the business. Consistent with the need for rapid development of process technology, is a need for development wiht respect to equipment control including defect metrology tools. Historical control methods for defect metrology tools included a raw count of defects detected on a characterized production or test wafer with little or not regard to the attributes of the detected defects. Over time, these characterized wafers degrade with multiple passes on the tools and handling requiring the tool owner to create and characterize new samples periodically. With the complex engineering software analysis systems used today, there is a strong reliance on the accuracy of defect size, location, and classification in order to provide the best value when correlating the in line to sort type of data. Intentional Defect Array (IDA) wafers were designed and manufacturered at International Sematech (ISMT) in Austin, Texas and is a product of collaboration between ISMT member companies and suppliers of advanced defect inspection equipment. These wafers provide the use with known defect types and sizes in predetermined locations across the entire wafer. The wafers are designed to incorporate several desired flows and use critical dimensions consistent with current and future technology nodes. This paper briefly describes the design of the IDA wafer and details many practical applications in the control of advanced defect inspection equipment.