Microlithography Cluster

FSI International's Polaris 2500 Microlithography Cluster provides a combination of process performance, small footprint and high throughput. The cluster, when linked to a stepper, provides the shortest overall litho cell length of any system in the industry. Twelve bake, chill and prime stations are packaged in a single module; spinners are stacked as well. There is no need for stepper interface handling mechanisms that take up space in conventional track designs. FSI engineers have further reduced the cluster's effective footprint by optimizing the design to reduce length.

The thermal process stations are packaged in six bake/chill and prime/chill pairs vertically stacked in a single module. This increases the capacity of the central handling system so that a single robot can support over 90 wph for DUV processing. System throughput can be increased to 150 wph by adding another handler.

Critical-dimension control has been improved through enhancements to the cluster's Dynamic Dispense process. Coat uniformity, bake temperature uniformity and environmental control have also been improved. The pairing of thermal stations further increases the consistency of process-to-process timing. Coupled with the advanced scheduling algorithms, the Polaris Cluster meets the rigorous timing requirements of 193- and 248-nm DUV processing.

Multiple process flows can be run simultaneously, eliminating the need to empty the cluster between cassettes with different process flows, for example, an ARC (anti-reflective coating) and non-ARC flow. Process development and test wafers can run simultaneously with production in the same cluster. Polaris 2500 Cluster modules are designed to accommodate 300-mm-capable process stations without growing in size, and the modularity of the cluster platform means that POLARIS Cluster sub-systems don't need to be redesigned or scaled up for 300-mm processing.

FSI International, Inc., 322 Lake Hazeltine Drive, Chaska, MN 55318-1096. Tel: 612-448-5440. Fax: 612-448-2825.