Applied Materials, Inc. announced a new defect review tool to help leading semiconductor manufacturers continue to push the boundaries of chip miniaturization. The SEMVision™ H20 combines the industry’s most sensitive electron beam technology with advanced AI image recognition to better and faster analyze nanoscale defects buried in the world’s most advanced semiconductor chips.
Electron beam imaging has long been a key tool for inspecting extremely small defects that cannot be identified by optical techniques. Its ultra-high resolution allows the analysis of tiny defects hidden within billions of nanoscale circuit patterns. Traditionally, wafers are first optically scanned to identify potential defects, and then an electron beam is used to more precisely characterize the defects. However, with the advent of the “angstrom era,” where the smallest features on chips are only a few atoms in size, it has become more difficult to distinguish between real defects and false positives.
At today’s most advanced nodes, optical inspection produces much denser defect maps, increasing the number of defect candidates available for e-beam review by a factor of 100. This creates a growing need among process control engineers for defect review tools capable of analyzing exponentially larger samples while still maintaining the speed and sensitivity required for high-volume manufacturing.
“Our new SEMVision H20 system enables the world’s leading semiconductor manufacturers to better distinguish signal from noise in the massive amounts of data generated by their inspection tools,” said Keith Wells, group vice president, Imaging and Process Control, Applied Materials. “Combining advanced AI algorithms with the high speed and high resolution of our breakthrough e-beam technology, the system quickly identifies the tiniest defects buried deep within 3D device structures, providing faster, more accurate inspection results to improve factory cycle times and yields.”
Applied Materials’ new e-beam technology is essential for creating the breakthrough advanced 3D architectures that will support logic chip manufacturing at the 2nm node and beyond, including new Gate-All-Around (GAA) transistors, high-density DRAM and 3D NAND memory. Applied Materials’ defect review system, the SEMVision H20, is being adopted by leading logic and memory manufacturers for the latest technology nodes.
SEMVision H20 leverages two key innovations to deliver highly accurate defect classification and processing speeds that are more than three times faster than the current state of the art.
Next-Generation CFE Technology: Applied’s cold field emission (CFE) technology is a breakthrough electron beam imaging technology that can identify extremely small buried defects with sub-nanometer resolution. CFE operates at room temperature and delivers more electrons in a narrower beam, improving nanoscale resolution by up to 50 percent and imaging up to 10 times faster than traditional thermal field emission (TFE) technology. The SEMVision H20 is the second generation of Applied’s CFE technology, delivering faster throughput while maintaining the industry’s highest sensitivity and resolution. Faster imaging allows for greater coverage on each wafer and reduces the time required to collect a given amount of data by one-third.
Deep Learning AI Image Model: SEMVision H20 leverages deep learning AI capabilities to automatically distinguish true defects from false defects. Applied Materials‘ proprietary deep learning network is continuously trained on data from semiconductor manufacturers’ fabs to classify defects into voids, residues, scratches, particles and many other defect types for more accurate and efficient defect characterization.
Applied Materials’ SEMVision product family is the world’s most advanced and widely deployed electron beam review tools.
The new SEMVision H20 extends this leadership, combining next-generation CFE technology with advanced AI models to enable faster and more accurate defect analysis, helping semiconductor manufacturers accelerate chip development and bring e-beam technology closer to mass production.
SOURCE: PRTimes
