Thomas Morgenstern

Maturity assessment of 300-mm etch equipment

Oxide and dielectric etch, polysilicon etch, and metal etch, in situ strip and stand-alone ash processes for 300mm wafers were developed on a tool ste in SEMICONDUCTOR300 and tested for robustness using a 0.25(mu) 64Mb DRAM device. The process recipes were developed from reference scaled-up recipes. The oxide and dielectric etch tools used magnetically-enhanced reactive ion etching. They polysilicon etch tool chambers were high density plasma configurations. The metal etch tools used high-density plasma chambers and have an in-line resist strip module to prevent corrosion. Stand-alone ash tools were used for all other photoresist strip processes. For each application, at least two 300mm tools from different suppliers were tested. This paper discusses process and tool interactions affecting operational robustness and stability. Process and hardware evaluations were also done during extensibility testing using smaller linewidth features.

Evaluation techniques for 300-mm equipment

As the semiconductor industry begins its transition to its next wafer size threshold of 300mm, several key factors are becoming significant. Solving the problems surrounding these factors is critical to achieving a 30-40 percent cost savings over 200mm wafer integrated circuit manufacturing. These problematic areas involve automation, equipment readiness, and process performance. 300mm factories will differ from 200mm versions due to the automation level, lot size choices, and factory sizing targets in terms of wafer starts. This paper discusses these areas from data acquired at SEMICONDUCTOR300 in processing a 0.25 micrometers 64Mb DRAM device. Current performance is discussed for each semiconductor manufacturing tool functional group. These data include performance cost of ownership, on automation and computer integrated manufacturing, and process capability.