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Programmatic/Technical Accomplishments
Final wafers delivered for SRM 5000 overlay standard.
Twenty two Standard Reference Material (SRM) 5000 overlay wafers are now available for sale. MEL staff designed a series of these overlay wafers in collaboration with Sematech and several leading international semiconductor manufacturers. It is expected that these calibrated wafers will help semiconductor manufacturers in quantifying and characterizing their own metrology tools. The range of calibrated offsets on this wafer will allow the user to investigate scale errors on their tools in addition to establishing traceability. The close collaboration with the industry in the development of this SRM has ensured relevant target designs and uncertainty requirements viewed as very stringent by the semiconductor manufacturers.
Beta versions of the overlay wafers were used in several benchmarking studies and by leading US manufacturers. The SRM 5000 has two types of overlay targets that are calibrated, frame-in-frame (FF) and bar-in-bar (RR). The total measurement uncertainty (k=2) for these overlay (OL) targets, on OL offsets ranging from 0 nm to 125 nm, varies from 3 nm to 5 nm.
Contact: Rick Silver, 301 975 5609
First Execution-Interoperable Process Model Adopted
The Object Management Group (OMG) recently adopted the Business Process Definition Metamodel (BPDM). BPDM was supported major business process tool vendors, service providers, and users, including International Business Machines, Deere, Lockheed Martin, Electronic Data Systems, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, Lombardi Software, and U.S. General Services Administration. BPDM is a tool that can be used to help companies choreograph tasks of multiple groups needed to design, produce, and sell products. There exist a variety of process models and process modeling notations in industry. BPDM will allow groups to map their information flow to a common model and thus facilitate communication among themselves. MEL researcher Conrad Bock contributed to this standard by introducing execution interoperability for the first time in an adopted process model, using advanced metamodeling techniques to ensure compatibility with the Process Specification Language (PSL). Execution-interoperable process models execute the same way for all parties interchanging the model.
Contact: Conrad Bock, 301 975 3818
Interactions
Successful NEW SPIE Conference on Nanomanufacturing
The new SPIE Conference entitled “Instrumentation, Metrology and Standards for Nanomanufacturing (SPIE Conference 6648) was held in San Diego, for the first time, as part of the SPIE Optics and Photonics 2007 meeting. MEL’s Michael Postek was the Chair of the conference and the Program Committee is composed of Kevin Lyons (MEL), Richard Silver (MEL) Stephan Stranick (CSTL) and representatives from SEMATECH, National Science Foundation, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), Semiconductor Research Corporation, University of Tennessee and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. The topics of instrumentation, metrology and standards needs for nanomanufacturing were discussed in two sessions and interoperability, instrument integration and information management were included in two sessions. Capping the conference was a panel discussion organized by Mark Hoover of NIOSH on Environmental Health and Safety monitoring and metrology organized by NIOSH. This conference will be continued at the SPIE Optics and Photonics meeting in 2008. Anyone interested in participating in next year’s event is welcome to contact the Conference Chair or Program Committee.
Michael T. Postek, 301 975 2299
MEL Presents a Series of Lectures in Singapore
MEL researcher Rick Silver was invited to present a series of lectures on various metrology techniques developed at NIST used primarily in semiconductor manufacturing and next generation nanomanufacturing. The lecture material spanned nearly three days and covered several techniques used or developed at NIST including optical techniques for overlay and critical dimension metrology, as well as recent developments in optical methods for defect inspection. The material presented covered recent developments in atom-based dimensional metrology and the use of intrinsic length scales for metrology applications. Rick presented material on behalf of the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) metrology effort as well. The audience including several staff members from the Singapore Institute of Metrology as well as numerous metrology experts from the large semiconductor manufacturing community in Singapore. The presentations are a part of the Singapore effort to bolster international collaborations in semiconductor and related metrologies.
The presentations and course material focused primarily on optical methods developed in MEL. The new Scatterfield technique was described in detail and its applications for improved optical modeling were presented. A section covered several aspects of overlay metrology and leadership elements by NIST in the overlay community were included. Sections on optical defect inspection and the limits of optical critical dimension scatterometry were presented as well as an in depth discussion on optical modeling and requirements and challenges in achieving accuracy in optical modeling and optical measurements.
Contact: Rick Silver, 301 975 5609
MEL Co-chairs International SPIE conference on Optical Modeling
MEL researcher Rick Silver helped lead a very successful international conference on optical modeling for metrology. This was an excellent forum and gathering of several international experts to discuss and advance optical models and their application to metrology. Rick presented a paper titled “Model-based Analysis of the Limits of Optical Metrology with Experimental Comparisons.” This paper presented a summary and analysis of a study on optical modeling for critical dimension metrology. The paper focused on two primary elements: 1) the comparison, stability, and validity of multiple electromagnetic scattering models and 2) a series of model-to-experiment comparisons. A part of the study covered important improvements in model-to-theory agreement obtained using NIST’s new Scatterfield microscopy technique, which has enabled evaluation of previous unquantified errors. The Scatterfield microscopy technique allows a researcher to step or scan an aperture in a conjugate back focal plane of the objective lens enabling illumination of a narrow cone of incident plane waves at a given primary angle of incidence. A series of angle resolved images or intensity data was obtained for each angle of illumination and the use of this data in improving modeling for optical metrology measurements was shown.
Contact: Rick Silver, 301 975 5609
Recognition
MEL’s Kulvatunyou and Ivezic Receive AIAG 2007 Outstanding Achievement Awards
NIST associates, Boonserm Kulvatunyou and Nenad Ivezic each received the 2007 Automotive Industry Action Group (AIAG) Outstanding Achievement Award for their leadership and technical contributions to the AIAG Advanced Technologies for Interoperability of Heterogeneous Enterprise Networks and their Application (ATHENA) Validation demonstration, which was based on the Inventory Visibility and Interoperability supply chain integration scenario. AIAG is a unique not-for-profit consortium of retailers, automakers, suppliers, service providers, academia and government organization that works collaboratively to streamline industry processes and business practices. This is Nenad’s second year in a row to be recognized for his outstanding contributions toward integrating the automotive supply chain.
Contact: Albert Jones, 301 975 3554 |
