Contact: John Blair, john.blair@nist.gov
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: NIST 97-16
June 24, 1997
Contact: John Blair NEW MEASUREMENT
(301) 975-4261 CAPABILITIES TO SUPPORT
john.blair@nist.gov NEXT GENERATION OF MICROCHIPS
The Commerce Department's National Institute of Standards and
Technology, the Energy Department's Sandia National Laboratories and
the private sector's SEMATECH have developed a new measurement tool to
support the future manufacture of faster, more powerful microchips than
can be built currently.
The proposed reference material, now being evaluated by a
private-sector consortium of 13 semiconductor manufacturers and
metrology tool companies, can be used by U.S. chipmakers to calibrate
their own microchip measuring equipment for accurate assessments of
features as tiny as 1/1,000th the width of a human hair.
"That dimension meets the semiconductor industry's requirements for
the next several generations of integrated circuits," said Michael
Cresswell of the Semiconductor Electronics Division in NIST's
Electronics and Electrical Engineering Laboratory.
Made of a single-crystal silicon film, the proposed reference material's
geometric regularity and perfection offer flat, smooth surfaces ideal
for comparative measurement of the incredibly tiny "critical dimensions"
(known as CDs) of transistors that make up microchip integrated
circuits. It is anticipated that, unlike current technologies,
measurements of the same feature using equipment calibrated by the
proposed RM will remain consistent no matter what metrology method is
used.
Current metrology reference materials, created by photo patterning and
plasma etching polycrystalline films, are not perfectly uniform.
Distortion or variability in measurements becomes severe when the
feature being measured falls beneath 0.35 micrometer (about 1/300th the
width of a human hair). Additional problems occur when measurements are
made using different techniques.
NIST's Semiconductor Electronics Division established a Single-Crystal
CD-Reference Materials Consortium in response to numerous requests to
evaluate a prototype of the reference material. Sample test chips have
been distributed to the 13 consortium members: Advanced Micro Devices
Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.; Benchmark Technologies Inc., Lynnfield, Mass.;
Digital Semiconductor Inc., Hudson, Mass.; IVS Inc., Concord, Mass.;
Keithley Instruments Inc., Cleveland, Ohio; KLA Instruments, San Jose,
Calif.; Lucent Technologies Inc., Murray Hill, N.J.; Nanometrics Inc.,
Sunnyvale, Calif.; Opal Inc., Santa Clara, Calif.; Optical Specialties
Inc., Freemont, Calif.; Photronics Inc., Brookfield, Conn.; Renishaw
PLC, Wotton-under-Edge, United Kingdom; and VLSI Standards Inc., San Jose,
Calif. Under the terms of a cooperative research and development
agreement, each member will make a minimum of 20 measurements on
segments of the chips. Comparative measurements will be made
concurrently with conventional metrology methods: low-cost electrical
techniques, optical transmission microscopy, scanning electron
microscopy and atomic force microscopy.
Consortium members also promise to assess the commercial utility of
the prototype reference samples and to suggest design and fabrication
enhancements that eventually could lead to the development of a
traceable-to-NIST Standard Reference Material.
Testing results will be reviewed by the consortium at a meeting
during the July 14-18, 1997, SEMICON West 97 trade show and conference
in San Francisco, Calif. A positive evaluation of the prototype
reference material would support strongly its establishment by
semiconductor manufacturers as an SRM standard for critical dimension
metrology.
The reference material's development is part of NIST's National
Semiconductor Metrology Program. The NSMP is designed to meet the
highest priority measurement needs of the semiconductor industry as
expressed by the industry-led National Technology Roadmap for
Semiconductors.
An agency of the Commerce Department's Technology Administration,
NIST promotes economic growth by working with industry to develop and
apply technology, measurements and standards.
News and general information on the Semiconductor Electronics Division is
available at http://www.eeel.nist.gov/semiconductor.