Robert F. Hainsey

Recent advances in laser micromachining for semiconductor and microfluidic applications

Recent advances in fiber amplified lasers, modelocked technology, and harmonic conversion not only have enabled improvements in traditional micromachining applications but also have opened the door for laser processing in new areas. This paper will review recent work with UV diode-pumped solid state lasers, picosecond lasers and master oscillator fiber power amplifier systems in processing semiconductor, metal, dielectric and polymer materials for such diverse applications as memory repair, microfluidics, solar cells, and MEMS.Recent advances in fiber amplified lasers, modelocked technology, and harmonic conversion not only have enabled improvements in traditional micromachining applications but also have opened the door for laser processing in new areas. This paper will review recent work with UV diode-pumped solid state lasers, picosecond lasers and master oscillator fiber power amplifier systems in processing semiconductor, metal, dielectric and polymer materials for such diverse applications as memory repair, microfluidics, solar cells, and MEMS.

Ultraviolet laser repair of advanced semiconductor memory devices

Summary form only given. Fabrication of semiconductor memory devices, including dynamic random access memory (DRAM) and static random access memory (SRAM), relies upon laser repair. Laser repair of memory involves the single pulse severing of fuses to enable decoders to address redundant memory cells, thereby improving the wafer-level yield of useful die. The development of next generation memory devices, such as 1 gigabyte (GB) DRAM will utilize fuse sizes of less than 500 nm on link pitches of 1500 nm and smaller and utilize Cu and Al fuses. Current laser memory repair systems employ Q-switched diode-pumped Nd:YLF and Nd:YVO/sub 4/ lasers operating at 1.047 /spl mu/m and 1.343 /spl mu/m, respectively. Systems operating in the infrared are expected to encounter difficulty in repairing devices at this scale due to wavelength-induced spot size limitations. To overcome these difficulties, we have recently demonstrated the extension of laser memory repair to the ultraviolet region and at link severing rates as high as 20,000 Hz.