Periodic Reporting for period 2 - WARM (Wide Angle and Resolution Metrology)
Reporting period: 2023-10-01 to 2024-09-30
The miniaturization of the integrated circuit (IC) transistor and flat panel display (FPD) pixels requires more surface geometry measurements. The existing high-volume manufacturing (HVM) metrology technologies can only increase resolution by increasing the measurement time.
Foundries require more wafer geometry measurements and, using current commercial systems, the problem can only be solved by adding more units of the existing metrology equipment to the fab. This approach would add huge costs for the purchase of extra tools and reduce the precious space for production.
Moreover, European public authorities (EU, national, regional, local authority) are concerned about the loss of sovereignty over the crucial supply of semiconductors. They expect European companies to provide competitive advantages (mainly transferred from research) to compete globally.
WOOPTIX proposes a disruptive Wave Front Phase Imaging (WFPI) patented technology that measures the phase component of a beam of light (wavefront sensor) with a naked sensor, reaching a resolution in orders of magnitude higher than other wavefront sensors.
When implemented as a tool to measure the wafer geometry in-line during the manufacturing process, this novel technology provides higher resolution measuring the full 300mm silicon wafer geometry less than 1s. Unlike state-of-the-art solutions, a single system from Wooptix can serve all the wafer geometry needs for a 5nm fab.
Foundries require more wafer geometry measurements and, using current commercial systems, the problem can only be solved by adding more units of the existing metrology equipment to the fab. This approach would add huge costs for the purchase of extra tools and reduce the precious space for production.
Moreover, European public authorities (EU, national, regional, local authority) are concerned about the loss of sovereignty over the crucial supply of semiconductors. They expect European companies to provide competitive advantages (mainly transferred from research) to compete globally.
WOOPTIX proposes a disruptive Wave Front Phase Imaging (WFPI) patented technology that measures the phase component of a beam of light (wavefront sensor) with a naked sensor, reaching a resolution in orders of magnitude higher than other wavefront sensors.
When implemented as a tool to measure the wafer geometry in-line during the manufacturing process, this novel technology provides higher resolution measuring the full 300mm silicon wafer geometry less than 1s. Unlike state-of-the-art solutions, a single system from Wooptix can serve all the wafer geometry needs for a 5nm fab.
Within the 24 months on EIC program, WOOPTIX has realized the implementation of a complete lab and fab tool, achieving related goals in mechanics, optics, electrics, electronics, assembly, and data analytics developed in coordination with a system-engineering approach and reaching the precision of 3.16 nm measuring a 300 wafer in a fully automated fab tool The method has been validated by ASML which outcomes have been published in a co-shared paper.
Requirements analysis and overall system architecture design have been leading to the general high-level engineering design with the purpose of deeply defining specific systems areas with mechanical CAD, Optics Zemax models, Electrical & electronic CAD and Executable Software Code.
At lower level, it has been Design and implemented the Mechanical Stability Frame with Vertical Wafer Holder, Design the lens holders, camera holders, linear stage holder, vibration isolation (bread board), grounding of the system (the frame needs to be grounded so close collaboration with electrical engineer on where to have direct contact to the frame and where to apply paint). It also included the design of an electronics rack for where the electronics boxes from the electrical engineer will be placed. The mechanical design has also to be done in close collaboration with the optical engineers as the lens locations and camera locations designed into the system at very specific locations determined by Zemax simulations.
The custom lens has been designed and simulated to work with each specific sensor and wafer setup. Software engineering has been dedicated to the implementation of algorithms and the graphical user interface. There are specific algorithms implemented on how to calculate roughness and nanotopography.
The assembly and testing went through the big challenge of installing the large lens, calibrate the system, which involves small adjustments to the lens orientation and the camera location, while taking a lot of images using a standard mirror surface instead of a silicon wafer. The testing by running standard samples and known samples (silicon wafers, or FPDs we have run in the past with known data sets) and stakeholders sample has provides repeatability and reproducibility results.
The final implementation of new the vertical clamped frame in the fab tool allowed to reach a precision of 3.16 nm.To check the repeatability of the system, according to semiconductor repeatability standards, the measurements have been repeated 30 times, calculating peak-valley and RMS values.
Requirements analysis and overall system architecture design have been leading to the general high-level engineering design with the purpose of deeply defining specific systems areas with mechanical CAD, Optics Zemax models, Electrical & electronic CAD and Executable Software Code.
At lower level, it has been Design and implemented the Mechanical Stability Frame with Vertical Wafer Holder, Design the lens holders, camera holders, linear stage holder, vibration isolation (bread board), grounding of the system (the frame needs to be grounded so close collaboration with electrical engineer on where to have direct contact to the frame and where to apply paint). It also included the design of an electronics rack for where the electronics boxes from the electrical engineer will be placed. The mechanical design has also to be done in close collaboration with the optical engineers as the lens locations and camera locations designed into the system at very specific locations determined by Zemax simulations.
The custom lens has been designed and simulated to work with each specific sensor and wafer setup. Software engineering has been dedicated to the implementation of algorithms and the graphical user interface. There are specific algorithms implemented on how to calculate roughness and nanotopography.
The assembly and testing went through the big challenge of installing the large lens, calibrate the system, which involves small adjustments to the lens orientation and the camera location, while taking a lot of images using a standard mirror surface instead of a silicon wafer. The testing by running standard samples and known samples (silicon wafers, or FPDs we have run in the past with known data sets) and stakeholders sample has provides repeatability and reproducibility results.
The final implementation of new the vertical clamped frame in the fab tool allowed to reach a precision of 3.16 nm.To check the repeatability of the system, according to semiconductor repeatability standards, the measurements have been repeated 30 times, calculating peak-valley and RMS values.
There are many reasons why the WOOPTIX solution will succeed. First, the technological advantages of using the Wave Front Phase imaging (WFPI) system for silicon wafer and FPD geometry from Wooptix have been proven through numerous publications. Second, in high-volume manufacturing (HVM) speed and reliability are critical. No other system in the marketplace is even near the short measurement time and the simplicity of the system makes it highly reliable and easy and fast to service. Third, the use of mainly conventional commercial parts in addition to the simplicity makes it a cheaper system to build compared to what manufacturers are facing. Fourth and last, for geopolitical reasons the global semiconductor community is strategically searching for an option to the few actual market solutions to ensure redundancy in their semi equipment supply chain.