Yasuo Matsuoka

Hot Spot Management with Die-to-Database Wafer Inspection System

We constructed hot spot management flow with a die-to-database inspection system that is required for both hot spot extraction accuracy and short development turn-around-time (TAT) in low k1 lithography. The die-to-database inspection system, NGR-2100, has remarkable features for the full chip inspection within reasonable operating time. The system provided higher hot spot extraction accuracy than the conventional optical inspection tool. Also, hot spots extracted by the system could cover all killer hot spots extracted by electrical and physical analysis. In addition, the new hot spot extraction methodology employing the die-to-database inspection system is highly advantageous in that it shortens development TAT by two to four months. In the application to 65nm node CMOS, we verified yield improvement with the new hot spot management flow. Also, the die-to-database inspection system demonstrated excellent interlayer hot spot extraction from the viewpoint of LSI fabrication.