New tool eliminates critical dimension variation on silicon wafers

Lithoptek LLC announced the release of the CD Optimizer (CDOP) semiconductor processing tool at the 2023 SPIE Advanced Lithography Conference in San Jose, CA. The CD Optimizer has been demonstrated to reduce systematic variations of CD (improving CD uniformity, or CDU) on silicon wafers by as much as a factor of four. CD, or critical dimension, is the size of the smallest features in an integrated circuit.

Extensive testing of the tool was performed in the fully-equipped 200 mm wafer fab of MIT Lincoln Laboratory. Daniel Pulver, who leads the laboratory’s Microsystems Prototyping Foundry stated: “MIT Lincoln Laboratory has collaborated with Lithoptek through a CRADA for more than two years now. We are pleased with the opportunity to work closely with this small company on innovative solutions which are expected to tighten the distribution of CD, a critical parameter in our process. We have demonstrated nanometer-scale tuning to compensate for downstream etch non-uniformity.”