Oct 5 2007
Nanometrics Incorporated, a leading supplier of advanced metrology equipment to the semiconductor industry, today introduced its newest equipment and software products for optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology, a vital need in improving the manufacturability of advanced semiconductor device designs. The new NanoStation system is a remote analysis station incorporating the latest generation rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA)-based OCD software.
The NanoStation features state-of-the-art multi-core CPU technology and Nanometrics’ advanced ADAP scatterometry modeling software. It enables process engineers to utilize the full power of OCD measurement technologies, including both normal incidence reflectometry (NI-OCD) and spectroscopic ellipsometry (SE-OCD) methods, and quickly transfer data between Nanometrics’ standalone and integrated platforms – Atlas, FLX and 9010 Series systems. Nanometrics has already begun shipping its new NanoStation systems.
“Increased OCD capability is a critical component to an advanced process control (APC) strategy that will help ensure that future semiconductor designs become reality through lower device costs,” said David Doyle, director of product marketing at Nanometrics. “Faster validation of structural models and implementation of robust OCD measurement recipes improves statistical process control of key yield-impacting parameters. It reduces time-to-yield, thus lowering device costs.”
“Our latest OCD software release has been designed to provide significant advancements in 3-D profile modeling for complex structures required for 45nm and 32nm technology,” added Doyle. “The flexibility of both turnkey and software-only solutions enables cost of ownership benefits and ease of deployment to our customers.”