Process Control entails monitoring and adjusting a lithography process to achieve the desired output. Quality management in nanofabrication necessitates extensive data acquisition at the nanoscale through automated SEM imaging and wafer-scale metrology with high precision. The key to efficient lithography process control is seamlessly integrated patterning preparation, setting of consecutive measurement routines, correlated CAD-based navigation on patterned wafers, and lithography systems ready for feedback loops. Prototyping requires flexible methods for metrology, handling various sample sizes, and compatibility with fab protocols to ensure efficient lab-to-fab transitions.
Over 40 years of experience in nanofabrication ensures precision and reproducibility
Seamlessly integrated solutions for automated imaging, wafer-scale metrology, and defect inspection
Dedicated expertise supports efficient process control
Benefits
Faster and more precise than analytical SEM
Stage positioning and image scanning with nanometer accuracy and focus control on wafer scale enables automatic and reproducible acquisition of large, accurate datasets, which is the key for process control.
More versatile than CD-SEM
Flexible implementation of various process control tasks on different sample sizes supports research, rapid prototyping, and lab-to-fab transition in system solutions, all for a fraction of the cost of a CD-SEM.
Large area imaging for 2D / 3D structural analysis
Generation of large-area images by stitching adjacent SEM images with excellent placement accuracy based on an interferometer-driven stage allows multilayer sample analysis, including image-to-CAD conversion as an option.
When the sum becomes more than its parts
Methods
Enabling process control
01
CAD-based navigation
With excellent placement based on an interferometer-driven stage.
02
User-defined position list
For imaging and metrology on just a few sites to thousands of locations.
03
Measuring large datasets
Recipe-based and automated operation.
04
Structural analysis
Large area imaging for 2D and 3D structural analysis.
05
Applications
Process window characterization, tool monitoring, run-to-run control, defect review, and more.
Features
Unlocking productivity
Precise, repeatable measurements across 6-inch wafers enabled by laser-interferometer driven stage and laser-assisted height sensor: < 10 nm local positioning accuracy, < 300 nm global accuracy, focus control.
Cutting-edge FE-SEM columns with fast state-of-the-art SE/BSE imaging, in combination with in-field distortion and focus corrections, enable calibrated large-area SEM imaging with high absolute accuracy and excellent image contrast.
Matching nanofabrication and process control tools in both hardware and system software enables efficient feed-forward and feed-back loops for faster time to result.
Applications of process control solutions
Key factors for SEM process control
Local placement accuracy
< 10 nm
Global placement accuracy
< 300 nm
Data points per wafer
1 to ∞
Process control applications
Critical point inspection
Process characterization with DOE
Gauge capability and precision
Characterization of complex metasurfaces
If you want to know more about RAITH’s developments regarding Process Control solutions, please contact us directly
