The semiconductor industry is poised for extraordinary growth in the years to come, and innovation is at the core of it. Innovation requires collaboration across industry partners.  Ideas are only as good as their impact, and ultimately, our customer collaborations are about turning constellations of ideas into new technologies customers can use to drive their products forward. Events like SPIE Advanced Lithography + Patterning create an amazing forum for the industry to come together to share challenges and breakthroughs – and brainstorm ideas that drive innovation.   By Ahm ..read more

Part II of this series on integrated circuit (IC) substrates focuses on six yield-critical challenges ICS manufacturers should tackle to enhance their competitiveness, drive higher yield rates and position themselves as leaders in the semiconductor industry.  Three key trends are currently impacting the yield of advanced IC substates: first, IC substrates (ICS) are getting thicker, with more and more layers; second, the substrates are getting larger to support more complicated packaging integrations; and third, the dimensions are reducing on features like the lines and spaces. As ICS fe ..read more

The electronics industry’s quest for higher performance and greater speed continues to intensify, driving growing complexity in front end semiconductor chip architecture. Demand for denser connections, in turn, creates new and evolving requirements for its connecting substrates.  “Through KLA’s comprehensive portfolio of direct imaging, automated optical inspection, automated optical shaping, metrology, UV laser drilling, inkjet and additive printing, chemistry process control, and software solutions, IC substrate manufacturers can maximize yield and reliability throughout the fabricat ..read more

Dicing takes place near the end of the semiconductor process flow. At this point the silicon wafer is finally turned into individual chips, or die, traditionally by means of a saw or laser. (Check out the first article in our Plasma Dicing 101 series, which compares traditional dicing methods such as blade and laser to plasma dicing). “Plasma dicing has gained acceptance within the semiconductor industry as a viable solution versus blades or lasers, particularly as chips get smaller, thinner and more complex.” Richard Barnett, director, Etch Product Management Bumped die singulated using pla ..read more

As flat panel display (FPD) technologies continue to advance, KLA unveiled its first manufacturing facility in South Korea to better serve strategic customers in the Asia-Pacific region.  The new plant in Cheonan, Chungcheongnam-do will align the production of KLA’s automated optical inspection (AOI) systems with South Korea’s premier FPD fabricators’ immediate needs for high-speed, high-precision inspection solutions that enhance yield and reduce waste.    FPD technologies like OLED and microLED are continuing to advance as the industry pursues greater display performance ..read more

In the biomedical industry, many different types of devices such as sensors, monitors, prosthetics, drug delivery systems and implants are used both inside and outside the human body. “KLA Instruments has a growing portfolio of optical and stylus profilers, thin-film measurement systems and nanoindenters to help the medical design community increase yield and time-to-market. Whether measuring the roughness of a surface, determining the thickness of a coating, profiling the surface properties of a new material or conducting nanomechanical testing, we offer multiple metrology solutions to ..read more

Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) are miniaturized systems that can be challenging to make and are relatively fragile. Often smaller than 1 millimeter, MEMS are built into components found in the electronics, automotive, medical and communications industries. “As the name implies, MEMS involves the interaction of electrical and mechanical movement on a micro level. MEMS devices generally contain some freely moving mechanical part like a cantilever or membrane whose movement is induced by an electrical input or whose mechanical movement causes an electrical output.” David Springer, researc ..read more

Semiconductors chips – the heart of our modern electronic devices – are built atop a technology first introduced 75 years ago today: the transistor. In concert with our peers throughout the technology industry – including IEEE and the Electron Devices Society – KLA celebrates the innovation of John Bardeen and Walter Brattain whose lab demonstration of a point-contact transistor on Dec. 16, 1947, changed the course of modern electronics. The transistor, later refined and cultivated by William Shockley at Bell Labs, was considerably more reliable and efficient than the legacy vacuum tubes commo ..read more

What is the toughest problem you ever solved? For a team of engineers and scientists in KLA’s metrology division, the toughest problem they faced involved work on our Axion® T2000 X-ray metrology system. This team harnessed the power of X-rays, refined AI (artificial intelligence)-based algorithms and developed patented technologies to produce a fab-ready system that measures high-aspect ratio memory device features with unprecedented resolution, accuracy, precision and speed. The resulting Axion T2000 discovers the small 3D shape anomalies that can impact advanced 3D NAND and DRAM performance ..read more

KLA’s new Axion® T2000 metrology system harnesses the power of X-rays to measure the complex vertical structures that form advanced memory chips. With a wavelength much shorter than visible light, X-rays can pass through objects with little absorption, allowing them to “see” inside visually opaque or very thick objects without damaging them. These properties make X-rays useful for commonplace applications, such as medical diagnoses and airport security screening. Likewise, X-rays are used for metrology applications in chip manufacturing, where it has become necessary to “see” inside vertical m ..read more