SAN FRANCISCO—Chip manufacturing equipment supplier KLA-Tencor Corp. Monday (April 23) launched a high-throughput review system for defect inspection and metrology for leading-edge semiconductors.
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KLA-Tencor (Milpitas, Calif.), the Circl cluster tool is suited for operation in lithography, outgoing quality control and other process modules. The tool monitors the front side, back side and edge of the wafer for defects and, in parallel, measures wafer edge profile, edge bead concentricity and macro overlay error, KLA-Tencor said.
Circl also uses an innovative approach to govern data collection, a technology that the company is calling DirectedSampling, KLA-Tencor said. The technology uses results from one measurement to trigger other types of measurements within the cluster as needed, the company said.
“Achieving yield and performance targets for advanced memory and logic devices requires very close monitoring of an exploding number of process parameters,” said Oreste Donzella, general manager of KLA-Tencor's SWIFT division, in a statement. "Our new Circl suite considers all wafer surfaces in parallel, taking the right set of measurements cost-efficiently. We believe that the power of the Circl lies in its ability to leverage several defect, inspection, metrology and review technologies in concert, to help our customers recognize and resolve excursions as they strike."