The SENTRY HCM is the latest addition to Metara's portfolio
of in-line chemical metrology tools that already includes the SENTRY CCM,
which monitors copper electroplating and cobalt bath chemistries, and the
SENTRY TCM, which monitors benign chemistries for trace contaminants. When
combined, this broad tool family offers semiconductor manufacturers a powerful
technology solution that enables the safe and rapid detection of process
contamination at the earliest possible time. Shipment of the first system
has already occurred.
At the heart of the system is Metara's proprietary In-line
Mass Spectrometry (ILMS) technology, featuring an innovative electrospray
time-of-flight mass spectrometer. This core engine has the ability to
perform the sensitive, high-resolution measurement of anions and cations
required for accurate process control and contamination detection. It is
a proactive method that speedily determines the root cause and severity
of a problem and allows for prompt corrective action before yield is threatened.
Finally, to facilitate the speedy and simple interpretation of data, the
system is also equipped with an advanced spectral data analysis engine which
automatically applies peak fitting algorithms to the spectral to generate
easily understood graphical results.
The SENTRY TCM is the semiconductor industry’s first automated trace
contamination metrology tool that meets rigorous manufacturing demands
for inline, real-time, chemical metrology. The SENTRY TCM provides
fully automated 24x7 measurement of contamination to parts-per-trillion
(ppt) levels in UPW, DHF, SC-1, SC-2, H2O2, IPA and other commonly used
process solutions. The tool enables the identification and measurement
of molecular and organic contamination, as well as metallics. Its
innovative design enables self-calibration, making the tool immune to instrumentation
drift and highly robust for production metrology applications. The
ability to measure organics provides a major opportunity for yield improvement
and excursion avoidance that is often neglected due to the lack of existing
in-fab measurement methods.
The SENTRY CCM brings the power of mass spectrometry
to the analysis of semiconductor process plating solutions. The tool provides fully
automated, 24x7, direct quantitation of the inorganic matrices, organic
additives and organic additive breakdown products present in semiconductor
process chemistries. Traditionally considered solely a lab process,
mass spectrometry has long been deployed as the analytical technique of
choice for identifying and quantifying components in complex mixtures. Metara
has bolstered this powerful analytical technique with automated sample
preparation hardware as well as custom data analysis software, bringing
to market a real-time, fully operator-unattended metrology tool capable
of performing closed-loop process control on semiconductor plating baths.
