ISMI workshop provides 'real life' implant equipment solutions for next generation device manufacturing

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Device manufacturers gathered to explore 'real life' ion implantation equipment solutions for next generation device manufacturing at ISMI’s Implant Equipment Workshop on April 20-21 in Boston, MA. The workshop is a part of the 2010 ISMI Installed-base Equipment Series.

In this workshop, ISMI brought together integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), alternate source providers, and experts on implant source gases, metrology and beam design to discuss key productivity and cost issues associated with ion implant equipment.

Through sharing real fab experiences, including best-known-methods, participants determined critical equipment issues, and benchmarked equipment performance metrics on maintenance, equipment engineering, and parts challenges.

“The productivity of an implanter is important to the bottom line, and innovative implant technologies, in particular, are crucial for meeting the needs for finer fabrication, higher integration densities, and faster speeds in next-generation semiconductor devices,” said Tres Greenwade, ISMI project manager and workshop chair.

“Our workshop attendees received real-time feedback on top equipment issues and benchmark equipment performance metrics, and went back to their companies with tangible solutions to several specific installed-base implant equipment challenges.”

Highlights from ISMI’s Implant Equipment Workshop include the following:

* Data-driven sessions which provided feedback on equipment performance.
* Ranked critical issues which were shared between device manufacturers and relevant OEMs.
* Updates on critical equipment productivity challenges for current and next generation processes, and on design challenges of next generation equipment.
* Participant reports on “Golden Nuggets” of productivity and cost-cutting methods that can be readily applied in fabs of various wafer sizes, on topics ranging from implanter dedication and implant source cross contamination to new arc chambers.

The cost of new semiconductor fab equipment and the challenges of device leakage, shallow junction creation, and device shrinkage are pushing the limits of Moore’s Law. ISMI will host a series of Installed-base Equipment workshops throughout 2010, each focused on improving productivity and reducing costs in a particular tool type.

The Implant Equipment Workshop is the second in this series; the Thermal Equipment Workshop, which took place in Austin, TX on March 23-25, reviewed top thermal issues in Furnace and RTP equipment.