Bruker AXS, the market leader in X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) instrumentation, is pleased to announce that SEMATECH, the global consortium of semiconductor chip-makers, has ordered the Bruker X-ray tools D8 FABLINE™ and D8 DISCOVER™ for the X-ray metrology site at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering (CNSE) of the University at Albany. This new suite of equipment provides SEMATECH's metrology program at CNSE's Albany NanoTech Complex with lab-to-fab X-ray metrology development capability to address the challenges of advanced semiconductor process control and new materials characterization.
D8 FABLINE X-ray metrology tool from Bruker AXS (Photo: Business Wire)
The D8 FABLINE provides fully automated handling of 300mm wafers under Class 1 clean room conditions. It provides a wide spectrum of techniques, such as rapid X-ray reflectivity (XRR), grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GID), and high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) in order to facilitate advanced process development and control on strained devices and high-K thin films, as well as materials characterization for future generation technology nodes.
The D8 DISCOVER is a multi purpose X-ray diffraction platform, designed for high performance materials research and methodology development. The system features the state-of-the-art technology, including the capability to perform in-plane grazing incidence diffraction (IP-GID). New methodologies developed on this laboratory platform will be directly portable to the D8 FABLINE tool to facilitate implementation in the fabs.
Dr. Brad Thiel, CNSE Associate Professor of Nanoscience and Director of SEMATECH's Advanced Metrology Development Program at the UAlbany NanoCollege, said, “The purchase of Bruker's state-of-the-art XRD systems, combined with the R&D capabilities and know-how of both SEMATECH and CNSE, will bring significant benefits to nanoelectronics manufacturers by pinpointing device failures and improving advanced process control. The addition of these cutting-edge tools provides enhanced resources at CNSE's Albany NanoTech to support the critical needs of our global corporate partners and the nanoelectronics industry.”
Dr. Assunta Vigliante, Bruker AXS Business Development Manager for Semiconductor Solutions, commented: “We are pleased and proud to be working with SEMATECH on X-ray metrology solutions for future technology nodes. Since SEMATECH represents many of the leading worldwide semiconductor manufacturers, this is an important opportunity for Bruker to enable innovation and provide broad support for the global semiconductor industry. As X-ray metrology becomes an important technology in the semiconductor industry, Bruker is committed to providing reliable world-class solutions for the industry's analytical and metrology challenges. We look forward to a long-term collaboration.”.