Nova Measuring Instruments
Ltd. (NASDAQ: NVMI) provider of leading edge stand-alone metrology and the
market leader of integrated metrology solutions to the semiconductor process
control market, today announced the launching of MatMaker(TM), a Product-Driven
Materials Characterization package which revolutionizes one of the most critical
elements of Optical CD measurement. Last week the Company announced all time
record orders for its stand-alone Optical CD product and the addition of the
MatMaker(TM) Package is intended to further solidify the Company's position
in the market.
Spectral Optical CD technologies need material optical properties (spectral
n&k) to interpret the optical spectrum into a profile measurement. Until
today the industry standard was to measure material properties on blanket wafers,
layer by layer, a process that takes from days to more than a month, well in
advance of actual Scatterometry application development. In addition to the
obvious drawbacks of significant plan-ahead and time investment, this method
could not account for material changes that occur during wafer processing, changes
that affect material properties and the accuracy of the final measurement.
Nova's novel technology eliminates this step-by-step method. It capitalizes
on proprietary breakthrough algorithms for enhancing the sensitivity of Scatterometry
measurements, directly utilizing Scatterometry targets on the product wafer
to determine the optical properties of the various constituent materials together
with the geometrical profile parameters. Multiple film depositions on blanket
wafers are no longer needed as a prerequisite for Scatterometry applications
development, and any and all process-induced changes to materials optical properties
can now be uniquely and accurately captured inside the Scatterometry model.
"At advanced technology nodes we see a rapid increase in Optical CD deployment
and CD-SEM replacement" said Gabi Seligsohn, President and CEO of Nova.
"This new technology, based on software algorithms and tools refined by
our applications developers for the past 10 years, changes the way spectral
Optical CD is deployed in fabs, significantly reducing application development
time and cost while at the same time increasing the measurement accuracy. I
see our new technology as a driver to further proliferation of Nova's Optical
CD solutions not only to existing users of Optical CD but also to areas deploying
other types of metrology".
The MatMaker(TM) Package is available as an option to the latest version of
NovaMARS Applications Development Software.