Nanometrics intros next gen NanoCD suite

MILPITAS, USA: Nanometrics Inc., a leading supplier of advanced process control metrology equipment, has released its latest NanoCD Suite of solutions for optical critical dimension (OCD) metrology. The new NanoCD Suite Version 2.0 greatly enhances the power of OCD analysis for the most demanding process control applications.

The NanoCD Suite Version 2.0 is composed of key components enabling scalable fab-wide OCD metrology solutions, including the NanoGen, NanoMatch, NanoStation, and NanoDiffract. The suite offers industry-proven modeling methods, as well as a next-generation run time engine, comprehensive offline analysis tools and an intuitive user interface for structure definition and modeling. The NanoGen enterprise class server includes scalable resources that can be deployed and shared between numerous users and systems across the NanoCD Suite environment.

Each component of the NanoCD Suite is designed to take full advantage of the inherent connectivity between Nanometrics’ wide metrology product portfolio, including standalone Atlas XP and Atlas-M systems for wafer and reticle metrology, as well as the IMPULSE/9010 integrated metrology product portfolio. When combined with the NanoCD Suite, Nanometrics systems have the broadest scatterometry metrology solution for today’s semiconductor factories.

“By continually extending our modeling and analysis performance with innovative application methods, we enable our customers to actively control their most critical processing steps,” commented Nagesh Avadhany, Vice President of Applications at Nanometrics. “Additionally, demand for applications support is growing beyond traditional CD measurements and now includes measurements on complex structures including films, coatings, epitaxial fill and post-CMP metal damascene structures. Many customers are applying our NanoCD technology for measurements in every sector of the fab, including thin film, CMP, advanced lithography and etch applications on complex 32nm and 22nm node test structures.”

Enhancements in NanoDiffract allow users to control their process based on measurements of key parameters directly on DRAM, Flash, and SRAM cells. This measurement capability, along with new development tools, enable process engineers to optimize their metrology recipe and determine sensitivity even before initial wafers are processed. This highly optimized workflow for OCD applications development results in much faster time to results leading to rapid production deployment, higher productivity and lower cost of ownership.