Evolution of anisotropic crack patterns in shrinking material layers

Anisotropic crack patterns emerging in desiccating layers of pastes on a substrate can be exploited for controlled cracking with potential applications in microelectronic manufacturing. We investigate such possibilities of crack...

The Process of Plasma Chemical Photoresist Film Ashing from the Surface of Silicon Wafers

At present, the research for finding new technical methods of treating materials with plasma, including the development of energy and resource saving technologies for microelectronic manufacturing, is particularly actual.In order to improve the efficiency of microwave plasma chemical ashing of photoresist films from the surface of silicon wafers a two-stage process of treating was developed. The idea of the developed process is that wafers coated with photoresist are pre-heated by microwave energy. This occurs because the microwave energy initially is not spent on the excitation and maintenance of a microwave discharge but it is absorbed by silicon wafers which have a high tangent of dielectric losses. During the next step after the excitation of the microwave discharge the interaction of oxygen plasma with a pre-heated photoresist films proceeds more intensively. The delay of the start of plasma forming process in the vacuum chamber of a plasmatron with respect to the beginning of microwave energy generation by a magnetron leads to the increase of the total rate of photoresist ashing from the surface of silicon wafers approximately 1.7 times. The advantage of this method of microwave plasma chemical processing of semi-conductor wafers is the possibility of intensifying the process without changing the design of microwave discharge module and without increasing the input microwave power supplied into the discharge.

Infrared Laser Confocal Microscopy: Fast, Flexible, Cost-Effective Inspection and Metrology Tool for Microelectronic Manufacturing

Microelectronics and semiconductor wafer manufacturing are among the fastest evolving technology industries today. Wafer sizes typically are 200 mm to 300 mm while critical dimensions are shrinking to 0.09 μm and smaller. As the size of discrete devices continues to be reduced while device density increases, the need for fast, accurate, flexible metrology and inspection tools in the microelectronics industry grows.Back in the early 1980's, semiconductor inspection was performed primarily by brightfield optical microscopes and with automated detection tools. The adaptation of automated detection tools led to the systematic control of increasingly smaller defects. The smallest detectable defect using these automated tools fell to below the 0.30-micron mark during the 1990's.