New ion implant tool from Applied for finFET and 3-D IC fab
Date: 30/06/2014
To help semiconductor IC makers to increase the production yield at deeper nodes such as 14 nm and 16nm and address yield issues such as variability and device performance, Applied Materials has made available a new ion implant semiconductor manufacturing equipment called Varian VIISta 900 3D system medium-current ion implantation tool. This tool supports both FinFET and three-dimensional NAND Flash memory chip fabrication at deep nodes. Ion implant technology is used to dope and deposit on silicon and other semiconductor material. FinFET and 3D NAND flash requires more deposit and etch process along with lithography steps. These days ion implant equipments are increasingly used for fabricating >2x node silicon devices. Ion beam not only alter the chemical, electric or optic properties of the hit material but can also be more effectively used for physical changing too.
The VIISta 900 3D system is improved in offering better beam angle precision, beam shape accuracy and higher dose and uniformity control, according to Applied.
This equipment is designed to perform at same level of precision during process repeats. This system uses unique hot implant technology and triple magnet architecture for higher yield.
Gary Rosen, vice president and general manager of Applied's Varian Semiconductor Equipment business unit said: VIISta 900 3D ion implantation tool provides purest, most precise implants available for improved device performance and yield.
The key strengths of this equipment as per Applied Material is its SuperScan 3 technology utilizes the tool's unique beam shape control to support customized wafer dose patterning by delivering accurate, precise dosing for virtually any desired pattern. SuperScan 3 corrects for non-implant process variations to improve device performance and yield for 3D devices. These capabilities together with productivity improvements and the system's high throughput provide customers significant cost-of-ownership benefits, says Applied Materials.
VIISta 900 3D tool is also suggested for doping the photodiode and logic layers of CMOS image sensors.
Samsung Electronics has announced a new solid state drive family made using 3D vertical NAND V-NAND flash memory technology. We don’t know whether Samsung has used Applied's equipment. But this type of ion equipment if not the same are mostly in the production floor of mega fabs.
Author: Srinivasa Reddy N
