Recent semiconductor development has been suffering from the continuously increased time for yield ramp-up and the increased cost due to the several challenges in manufacturing process coming from the device scaling as well as 3D stacking. In addition, the difficulty of process monitoring also leads to the increased cost because of the increased failure rate of the device. Despite of impressive advancements in metrology and inspection field, metrology issues keep growing over the device generations, while cost of the operation is getting worse due to the increased equipment price and lower throughput. Now, the metrology techniques reached physical limitations for using the next-generation semiconductor products based on nanoscopic 3D structures. In particular, reliably covering and monitoring the various process splits in the R&D fab becomes very challenging due to the lack of non-destructive 3D measurement technology. Without an innovative in-fab metrology solution, current monitoring technique must be relying on the destructive analysis, those are time-consuming and expensive. In this presentation, I will highlight these challenges and explore the needs for developing the innovative, non-destructive 3D in-fab metrology solution.
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