Production-proven, process control system for high-volume semiconductor manufacturing

The BedeMetrix™-F was the first production-proven, fully-automated in-line X-ray diffraction and reflectivity metrology system for high-volume semiconductor manufacturing. For epitaxial thin films, its High-Resolution X-ray Diffraction (HRXRD) capability provides strain, composition, relaxation and thickness measurements that are both accurate and precise. The tool provides critical characterization and metrology for strain engineering and has been proven in-field since the 90 nm technology node. Additionally, classical X-ray Reflectivity (XRR) provides thickness, roughness and density measurements on a range of amorphous, polycrystalline and crystalline films with thickness from 1 nm to 1μm . XRR based measurements are not sensitive to the materials microstructure and have both sub-atomic accuracy and precision. The polycrystalline X-ray Diffraction (XRD) capability is useful as a process development and excursion technique with application across a range of thin films.