Leading Semiconductor Manufacturers in Asia Adopt NVD Inspection Solution from Qcept Technologies for 3X-nm Memory and Logic Production

ATLANTA, March 21, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Qcept Technologies Inc. today announced that two of the world's largest semiconductor manufacturers, which are headquartered in Asia, have purchased and installed ChemetriQ® 5000 non-visual defect (NVD) inspection systems from Qcept Technologies.  Providing NVD inspection on both patterned and unpatterned wafers, the ChemetriQ 5000 can be used for a wide range of tool and line monitoring applications to increase yield learning rates and enable higher sustainable yields.  

One customer purchased multiple ChemetriQ 5000 systems for monitoring 3X-nm-design-rule memory and logic product wafers.  The second customer purchased a ChemetriQ 5000 system to monitor 3X-nm-design-rule memory wafers.  The systems will be used at the customers' production fabs for multiple applications, including post-cleaning inspections, reactive ion etch process monitoring and wet cleans process monitoring.

"We're extremely pleased with the rapid adoption that our ChemetriQ 5000 system has experienced during the past quarter," stated Bret Bergman, CEO of Qcept Technologies.  "Leading semiconductor manufacturers are recognizing the growing importance of NVD inspection in ensuring optimal device yields and are turning to Qcept to help enhance their yield management strategies.  We look forward to working with these and other customers to help solve their NVD challenges, improve their yields and increase their fab profitability."

At 3X-and-smaller design nodes, improvements in semiconductor device performance are being driven as much by new materials and device structures as by traditional lithographic shrinks.  These new materials and structures require extremely precise control of wafer cleaning and surface preparation—making these processes increasingly critical components of device yield.  With wafer cleaning and surface preparation the most repeated steps in the fab—up to 100 times per wafer—there are many opportunities for a sub-optimal cleaning process to cause significant yield loss at these advanced design nodes. 

The ChemetriQ 5000 platform provides rapid, full-wafer, inline detection of NVDs caused by sub-optimal cleans—such as organic and inorganic residues, metallic contaminants and process-induced charging—which can lead to significant yield loss and are undetectable by optical inspection systems.  It accomplishes this by employing an innovative, non-destructive technology that detects work function variations on the wafer surface.  Enhanced detection algorithms and tighter positional accuracy further augment the performance of the ChemetriQ 5000 to capture a variety of NVDs on both patterned and unpatterned wafers.

About Qcept Technologies Inc.:

Qcept Technologies delivers wafer inspection solutions for non-visual defect (NVD) detection in advanced semiconductor manufacturing.  Qcept's ChemetriQ® platform is being adopted in critical processes for inline, non-contact, full-wafer detection of such NVDs as sub-monolayer organic and metallic residues, process-induced charging, and other undesired surface non-uniformities that cannot be detected by conventional optical inspection equipment.  More information can be found at www.qceptech.com.

ChemetriQ is a registered trademark of Qcept Technologies Inc.  All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Qcept Technologies Inc.