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Business News KLA-Tencor Adds Quantox and Ultrapointe Synergy in film measurement KLA-Tencor added to its broad range of product offerings with the acquisition of Quantox from Keithley Instruments in November 1998. The acquisition helps KLA-Tencor meet the increasing challenges of monitoring and controlling gate oxides as the semiconductor industry continues to push toward 0.13 µm device technology and beyond. The Quantox tools monitor charge contamination in dielectrics using a non-contact capacitance voltage (CV) technique without the use of MOS-CAP structures. Monitoring charge contamination is critical in IC manufacturing where failure to do so can result in yield or binning loss, decreased field reliability and increased device failure. “Quantox tools are the leading contamination monitoring products for materials such as iron and copper. We
also find a very strong synergy between their ability to determine the electrical characteristics of films and the optical measurement capabilities of KLA-Tencor products,” said Gary Bultman, vice president and general manager of KLA-Tencor’s Film and Surface Technology Division. Enhanced defect review and classification KLA-Tencor acquired the assets of the Ultrapointe subsidiary of Uniphase, including inventory for the Confocal laser Review Station (CRS) product in January 1999. The CRS, which is used to analyze defects on silicon wafers during the semiconductor manufacturing process, has been the market leader in optical defect review for the past two years. According to Scott Landstrom, vice president and general manager of KLA-Tencor’s Defect Review and Classification Division, “Bringing the
The Quantox System.
system directly into the product portfolio allows us to better focus our resources in supporting CRS customers worldwide.” The CRS system will be linked with KLA-Tencor’s family of other leading inspection products, including IMPACT automatic defect classification (ADC) technology, which has already been adopted by 18 of the top 20 semiconductor manufacturers worldwide.
SEI Level 2 Software Capability Achieved KLA-Tencor reached an important milestone early in 1999, becoming the first semiconductor equipment company to reach Level 2 on the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) five level Capability Maturity Model for Software (SW-CMM). By working to attain this level, the company's Reticle and Photomask Inspection Division was able to deliver higher quality software on schedule and at lower costs. An internal survey conducted over the past three years showed that implementing the processes used to reach Level 2 have raised the division's customer satisfaction rate for software
quality nearly 40 percent. According to SEI, a federally funded research and development center sponsored by the U.S. Department of Defense, the SW-CMM has become a defacto standard for assessing and improving software processes. "With the increasing dependence on automated defect inspection and analysis, software quality is becoming a crucial differentiator between systems," said Harvey Wohlwend, program manager for software improvement at SEMATECH.
critical role in helping to meet schedule commitments and reduce the number of software defects reported by customers during beta testing. "Since comprehensive analysis capabilities are key components in KLA-Tencor's yield management solutions, developing software that meets customer needs has been and continues to be one of our critical initiatives across all divisions," said Robert Rubino, chief technical officer for software at KLA-Tencor.
For KLA-Tencor, this progression in software quality has already played a Spring 1999
Yield Management Solutions
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