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The corrosion of ceramic chamber parts causes particles in plasma etching process, so that the production yield and the overall equipment effectiveness (OEE) at LSI mass production line are decreased. We have developed magnesium oxide (MgO)-based ceramics whose corrosion resistance in reactive plasma is higher than conventional ceramic materials. In this study, we have prepared a shower-head-type electrode by using MgO-based ceramics, and demonstrated that the number of particles generated from the electrode is much lower than that generated from a conventional electrode made from aluminium oxide. The MgO-based ceramics contributes to improvement of the production yield and the OEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In modern semiconductor manufacturing, one type of measured particle count data contains excess zeros, and the ratio of zeros in the measurements is usually larger than 50%. This type of particle count sample data cannot be well modeled by popular defect models such as Poisson, zero-inflated Poisson, generalized zero-inflated Poisson, and Neyman and Gamma-Poisson models. In this paper, a threshold-Poisson model was proposed to describe the particles with excess zero counts, and the method for parameter estimation was developed. Via comparison with those popular models by using 15 measured samples, it showed that the measurements are better modeled by the threshold-Poisson model. A control chart called threshold-c control chart was proposed and the control limits were derived. A reasonable minimum sample size for constructing control chart was also discussed based on simulations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aerosol deposition (AD) method is technique for forming high density ceramic films on substrate material surface at room temperature. The yttrium oxide films formed by the AD method (AD-Y2O3 films) have been developed as plasma resistance coating used for the plasma etching equipment. In recent years, plasma eroded particles from chamber components of the etching devices are regarded as a serious issue that they reduce the semiconductor device yield rate. AD-Y2O3 films which have excellent plasma resistance can reduce the eroded particles in the plasma etching equipment and greatly have contributed to manufacturing high integrated semiconductor devices. In this paper, the plasma erosion behavior of AD-Y2O3 films were investigated compared with sintered Al2O3, sintered Y2O3 and thermal splayed Y2O3 in order to clarify the reason why AD Y2O3 films were superior as plasma resistance material. The plasma etching rates of AD-Y2O3 films were not significantly different from other samples. It was assumed that the etching rates were dependent on the chemical stability to fluorine plasma of material. On the other hand, the surface roughness difference before and after plasma exposure of AD-Y2O3 films were much smaller than other samples. It was assumed that the surface roughness difference is dependent on the crystalline size of material. The structure of AD-Y2O3 films, which had high density and nano-crystalline structure, were eroded homogeneously and smoothly. It suggests AD-Y2O3 films do not generate large eroded particles and are superior to reduce the eroded particles in the etching devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particle trap wafers were applied to ArF immersion lithography to reduce the immersion-related defectivity. Interfacial free energy (γA-particIe) and work of adhesion (WA-particle) between particle trap wafers and particles in immersion water explain the potential of trapping particles by the particle trap wafers. It was found that the treated SiCN chemical vapor deposition wafer performed well as a particle trap wafer and can help defect reduction in immersion lithography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]