Leading foundry selects Nova optical CD for 22/32nm

REHOVOT, ISRAEL: Nova Measuring Instruments Ltd, a provider of leading edge stand-alone metrology and the market leader of integrated metrology solutions to the semiconductor process control market, announced that its NovaT500 and NovaMARS have been selected as the metrology solution of record for both the 22nm and 32nm technology nodes, at one of the world's leading foundries.

The selection defines Nova as the sole provider of Stand Alone Optical CD metrology for both back end and front end of line applications including Lithography, Etch, CMP and advanced thin film applications. The Company expects to receive several stand alone tool orders in the coming quarters.

"The selection of Nova's metrology solution by one of the world's technology leaders is clear recognition of the technology leadership we have attained in the stand alone Optical CD market over the past few years. Our solution was evaluated against competing technologies over the past 12 months in the most advanced and challenging development environments and was able to cope with the most complicated next generation applications across several key areas of the fab", commented Dr. Boaz Brill, VP Technology Development at Nova.

"Winning the support of this particular customer, who is known as a technology leader and an industry benchmark, is of huge strategic value to the Company. With this third major foundry win we further expand our reach into this growing segment, an area where most capital spending is expected to continue in the coming years", commented Gabi Seligsohn, President & CEO at Nova.

The NovaT500 provides extremely high throughput of 250 Wafers Per Hour (13 measurement sites). Based on Nova's patented Normal Incidence Spectral Reflectometry, the NovaT500 redesigned optics improve metrology precision by 30 percent over current generation NovaScan 3090Next.

This flexible platform allows up to three Measurement Units to be installed on the same tool, providing an easy and cost effective path to upgrades as well as adding other metrology capabilities as they become available. Combined with NovaMARS, advanced application development software, the NovaT500 has the ability to measure fine profile parameters on complex 3D test structures as well as in the device.

Nanometrics bags multiple orders for Atlas XP and NanoGen

MILPITAS, USA: Nanometrics Inc., a leading supplier of advanced process control metrology systems used primarily in the manufacturing of semiconductors, solar photovoltaics and high-brightness LEDs as well as advanced wafer-scale packaging, announced that is has received an order for multiple Atlas XP metrology systems equipped with NanoCD capability.

The systems are expected to be qualified in the third quarter of this year at a leading semiconductor manufacturer. The systems will be installed with Nanometrics’ scalable NanoGen cluster computing solutions to enable analysis of the most critical and complex process steps in an advanced technology node, supporting both film thickness and optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology.

“The challenges of leading edge semiconductor manufacturing methods have pushed many conventional technologies aside and require that the measurement of thin film thickness, profiles and device geometries occur directly on complex structures,” commented Bill McGahan, Director of OCD Technology Development at Nanometrics.

“Additionally, the rapidly changing process environment necessitates a system and software solution to support robust recipe development. By combining the full NanoCD suite, including our NanoDiffract software, NanoGen cluster computing solutions and Atlas XP metrology systems, our customer has a path to accurate and precise process monitoring in a dynamic and rapidly evolving development line.”

With this deployment, Nanometrics now has OCD solutions in every segment of the fab including lithography, etch, chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) and thin film deposition, and across all device types including logic, DRAM, flash memory, and magnetic heads spanning the 65nm to 22nm nodes.