Productivity-enhanced mask inspection application for mature node coverage

Maxwel Lee; Eric Wang; Ken Yang; Colbert Lu; Elton Lin; Connie Lin; Pei-Ying Lin; Adrian Li; Dongsheng Fan

doi:10.1117/12.3034607

20 November 2024 Productivity-enhanced mask inspection application for mature node coverage

Maxwel Lee, Eric Wang, Ken Yang, Colbert Lu, Elton Lin, Connie Lin, Pei-Ying Lin, Adrian Li, Dongsheng Fan

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 13216, Photomask Technology 2024; 132162B (2024) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3034607
Event: SPIE Photomask Technology + EUV Lithography, 2024, Monterey, California, United States

Conference Poster

Abstract

With new technology development and adoption in AI, electrical vehicle, telecommunication, IoT and etc, the semiconductor industry is expected to have 8% CAGR from 2022 to 2030 [1]. As a result, design starts and corresponding photomasks are also expected to experience a significant growth. In the past a few years, the mask making industry has experienced severe capacity shortage. The mask lead time became 2 ro 3 months, which is 4 to 6 times longer than previous years. The lead time is largely limited by the challenge to increase mask supply capacity in a short time. Moreover, the obsolescence of legacy mask inspection tools makes it more difficult to support semiconductor growth in near future. The industry has been paying more effort to address the legacy tool obsolescence by offering new models or upgrades. Mask inspection tools play a critical role in mask shops and fabs in mask quality control. The mask inspection tools made in 20 to 30 years ago, such as KLA 3XX/SLF tools, are still the workhorse in our mask shop for mature node mask manufacturing. In this work, we’ve evaluated KLA’s large pixel upgrade on the existing TeraScan^TM 5XX platform. It supports all existing inspection modes including die-to-die, die-to-database and SL. We’ve demonstrated that the large pixel P186 upgrade is able to meet our sensitivity and false requirement of our mature mode manufacturing. More importantly, the upgrade provides throughput improvement to replace 3XX/SLF capability in our mask shop. Each 5XX equipped with P186 is able to replace up to two 3XX/SLF tools for our mask shop use cases.

(2024) Published by SPIE. Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.

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Maxwel Lee, Eric Wang, Ken Yang, Colbert Lu, Elton Lin, Connie Lin, Pei-Ying Lin, Adrian Li, and Dongsheng Fan "Productivity-enhanced mask inspection application for mature node coverage", Proc. SPIE 13216, Photomask Technology 2024, 132162B (20 November 2024); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3034607

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