Veeco Instruments Inc., announced today that its new InSight(TM) 3D Automated Atomic Force Microscope (3DAFM) Platform has been accepted by a key global semiconductor customer for Critical Dimension (CD) Reference Metrology for Optical Proximity Correction (OPC) modeling. The InSight 3DAFM provides highly accurate, non-destructive, high-resolution three-dimensional (3D) measurements of critical 45nm and 32nm semiconductor features, coupled with the speed to qualify as a true fab tool. Veeco also announced that it received a new order for the system from a leading semiconductor device manufacturer based in Korea.
Mark Munch, Ph.D., Executive Vice President, Veeco Metrology, commented, “We are pleased that this customer, one that is known as a leader in Reference Metrology, has accepted the tool for this demanding application. The InSight 3DAFM provides the best available accuracy for OPC Metrology, reducing residual measurement error and improving OPC cycle times. This can significantly improve time to market on advanced semiconductor devices and reduce process development costs. We are also gratified that a key semiconductor device customer has chosen the InSight for a production-based gate CD metrology application at 45nm and below.”
“Industry leaders such as Sematech have highlighted the need for improved OPC Metrology due to the limitations of current CD metrology tools,” stated Paul Clayton, Vice President, Veeco’s Automated AFM Business. “During the beta period, InSight 3DAFM was subject to extensive testing on a variety of OPC related structures such as lines, vias and line and space ends. Our customer’s excellent results demonstrated that InSight has the lowest measurement uncertainty of any CD metrology tool.”