Nearfield Instruments B.V., has launched "Lightning Mode," a new feature for QUADRA, a high-throughput atomic force microscopy (AFM) metrology system for advanced semiconductor devices. QUADRA is now fully qualified and deployed for high-volume manufacturing (HVM).
QUADRA is a high-throughput, in-line scanning probe metrology system with multi-miniaturized AFM head architecture to enable on-device, nondestructive 3D metrology. It accelerates time-to-yield and HVM yield optimization and control in memory (VNAND, DRAM, HBM) and logic processes, including high-aspect-ratio structures as well as hybrid bonding applications and (high-NA) EUV resist structures.
"QUADRA, combined with the new Lightning Mode, boosts productivity with a more than 160-fold increase in image acquisition speed when benchmarked against existing state-of-the-art automated AFM systems," said a company spokesperson. "The extremely high throughput of QUADRA, along with its accuracy, enables customers nondestructively to determine lot-to-lot, wafer-to-wafer and intra-wafer process variations in full 3D with high wafer and lot coverage."
"Hybrid bonding is a critical technology to support the future demands for computational power, which is driving more chip stacking and increased data transmission; more efficient energy consumption in multichip systems is a key," said Hamed Sadeghian, CEO, Nearfield Instruments. "Hybrid bonding plays a crucial role in artificial intelligence (AI) chip systems, both in 3D packaging and new-generation high-bandwidth memory (HBM) manufacturing. However, it comes with additional complexity to 3D packaging and chiplets, increasing the importance of angstrom-level, nondestructive metrology with the capability of not only die-to-die, but also pad-to-pad metrology, which has historically demonstrated limited throughput over the more conventional techniques like AFM. QUADRA is transforming semiconductor production metrology, and especially now with our new Lightning Mode-the only metrology system capable of providing highly accurate, in-line, non-destructive 3D measurements with extremely high throughput on advanced technology nodes."
For more information contact:
Nearfield Instruments
info@nearfieldinstruments.com