After formal closing of its recent acquisition of Karmiel (Israel) based Pixer Technology Ltd., Carl Zeiss SMT's Semiconductor Metrology Systems division (SMS) presents its market-leading suite of closed-loop product solutions at Semicon Europa (Stuttgart, Germany) and SPIE/BACUS Photomask Symposium (Monterey, CA).
“We are pleased to announce that the acquisition of Pixer Technology has formally been closed and that we have initialized the integration of operations, R&D and product lines into SMS”, said Dr. Oliver Kienzle, Member of the Board of Carl Zeiss SMT’s SMS Division. “For the first time, we will be able to display our enlarged product solutions portfolio for photomask qualification, metrology, repair and critical dimension control (CDC). With increasing sophistication in optical lithography such as immersion lithography and double patterning, we understand that mask makers are facing tighter mask specifications, in particular for critical dimension uniformity and overlay”, explained Kienzle and continued: “With the recent Pixer Technology acquisition we have further strengthened our technology portfolio and are able to offer our customers comprehensive solutions to match these challenges.” For example, the tighter CD uniformity requirements can be achieved post-mask manufacturing by the revolutionary CDC200 system. With the resulting increased process window in the lithography process, IC manufacturers are able to increase their end-of-line yields and reduce their manufacturing costs.
Pixer Technology has developed unique yield enhancement technologies for photomasks in semiconductor production, currently reflected in two product lines: CDC200 is the industry’s first on-the-fly, integrated solution for high-resolution Critical Dimension Control (CDC), enabling both Mask Makers and IC Manufacturers to control local CDs (Critical Dimensions), as well as to significantly improve upon global and local CD Uniformity across masks and wafers during lithographic operations. The second product line, Galileo, enables high speed measurement and mapping of DUV transmission degradation on production masks with sensitivity to transmission changes of 0.1%. Designed for mapping production masks in the Fab to identify yield and CDU degradation issues such as haze, it can be additionally utilized for both quartz and MoSi coated blanks.