Apr 03, 2002 San Jose, CA
Leveraging its strong position in the optical probe market, Schlumberger Semiconductor Solutions here today announced a new focused ion beam (FIB) IC modification tool that could dramatically reduce chip costs and product design cycles.
The new IDS OptiFIB, code-named the "Florence Project," is a FIB tool designed for front- and backside modification, analysis and editing for current and future integrated circuits, said the company. The new tool is geared for complex chips, including seven-metal layer devices featuring copper-interconnects, low-k dielectrics, and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technologies, according to Schlumberger Semiconductor.
The tool is also faster than competitive systems in the market, said Michel Villemain, vice president and general manage of the Probe Systems product group at Schlumberger Semiconductor. The San Jose-based supplier of automatic test equipment (ATE) is part of French oilfield services giant Schlumberger Ltd.
"We can do a backside edit on a complex chip in less than two hours," Villemain explained. "In comparison, it takes from eight hours to two days to perform these functions on a competitive tool," he said.
"The value with this tool is productivity, which is key to product design cycles," he added in a recent interview with SBN at the company's headquarters here.
The OptiFIB is geared for IC prototyping applications in the laboratory and other settings. The tool is designed to validate and then modify or edit a chip design before it moves into a production fab. This, in turn, prevents semiconductor makers from constantly revising their blank photomask sets in the IC manufacturing process, thereby saving cost and time, according to Villemain.
"With mask sets crossing the $1 million mark, our customers demand increased confidence in design changes before committing them to the fab," he said. "However, most of them give up on circuit edits, as previous solutions considerably extend the time it takes to produce working prototypes," he added.
The new tool expands the company's efforts in the e-beam and optical-probe tool business. In fact, ATE pioneer Schlumberger Semiconductor claims to be the leader in these markets in terms of worldwide market share.
The OptiFIB itself features an in situ alignment that "combines ion and photon optical microscopes into a single coaxial microscope," the company said. This architecture not only increases productivity, but it also eliminates the blind navigation problems associated with traditional tools.
The tool has an FIB resolution size of 3-to-5-nm and an overall beam placement accuracy of less than 0.1-micron at the 100-nm (0.10-micron) node. The tool also has a high-working distance from the FIB to the chip of some 14-mm.
It also has a low beam current of below a picoamp, said Ted Lundquist, marketing manager of the Probe Systems product group at Schlumberger Semiconductor. End-point detection is also very precise on the tool, he added.
The tool also provides a selective copper etch solution that leaves no re-deposition or signs of corrosion. A variety of options -- including a motorized wafer stage, mechanical micro-probes, and tilt stage -- provides multiple configurations for the tool.
It also captures images of a wafer via a CCD camera on the host platform, which is based on a workstation from Sun Microsystems Inc. The IDS OptiFIB is now available.
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