Extending Moore's Law through advances in semiconductor manufacturing equipment

Abstract

Summary form only given, as follows. After more than thirty years of effectiveness, associated benefits to the electronics industry and several false alarms, it appears that Moore's Law is again threatened with derailment. These threats are in the form of a convergence of three waves which requires major necessary changes relating to: a) lithography below 0.13 /spl mu/m, which involves printing and aligning at submicron wavelength dimensions with new unproven lasers/lens systems; b) Cu/low-/spl kappa/ interconnect technology, which is facing major challenges in achieving commercially viable yields; and c) 300 mm wafer size conversion, which requires an extensive retooling of the entire industry. These enabling changes are overlaid on increasingly aggressive cost/quality requirements on the semiconductor fabs as the electronics industry evolves into the post-PC, Internet era. The author reviews some of the cutting edge work being done in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment area, including extendability/reuse of existing installed base for multiple generations, improved BKM's (Best Known Methodologies) and integrated process modules.