Scanning electron microscope to detect semiconductor production defects

Scanning electron microscope to detect semiconductor production defects

An agreement to apply scanning-electron-microscope technology to detect defects in advanced semiconductor devices has been reached by KLA Instruments (San Jose, CA) and Samsung Electronics (Seoul, Korea). As part of the effort, Samsung will install a KLA inspection system on an advanced wafer-fabrication line. With integrated-circuit design features becoming smaller, scanning-electron-beam inspection is necessary to locate manufacturing defects. Previously, such technology was not viable for large-area wafer inspection because of slow image-acquisition rates, on the order of a thousand times slower than KLA`s technology.