BusinessWire
April 05, 2006 03:00 AM US Pacific Timezone

Accent Debuts Scatterometry Acceleration Tool - Matchbox(TM); Advancing CD Metrology for 65nm Device Production and Beyond

BEND, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 5, 2006--Accent Optical Technologies (www.accentopto.com), a leading supplier of lattice engineering and photolithography process control tools, today announced the release of Matchbox(TM), the latest component of their CDS Accelerate suite. Matchbox is a highly advanced computation engine that enhances the productivity of scatterometry-based CD and profile metrology systems for semiconductor equipment and manufacturing control applications.

The comprehensive library approach of grating diffraction signature matching ensures the highest measurement precision and reliability. Today's more advanced devices require ever finer profile resolution which, in turn, places more exacting demands on the matching process. This is especially true for measurement-intensive scatterometry applications like stepper and scanner qualification for gate length uniformity. Matchbox addresses this requirement by managing and processing this function in parallel to signature acquisition by the CDS200 systems.

Implementation of Matchbox methodology improves the cost of ownership and offers a rapid return on investment by increasing the metrology throughput by up to 20%, meaning an immediate "zero-footprint" capacity expansion over a fleet of tools in the fab. Additionally, Matchbox hardware and software solutions maximizes the metrology tool utilization and gives the user greater flexibility in sampling strategy, line balancing and/or using multiple libraries.

Matchbox, with its scalable architecture, allows future upgradeability as computation demands increase and with wider adoption of more complex bi-periodic (3-D) applications.

David Doyle, Product Marketing Manager for Accent said, "Leading semiconductor manufactures are seeking CD metrology solutions with one second MAM time (Move-Acquire-Measure) and computation time can be a significant portion of the MAM budget for complex multi-parameter problems. Maximizing metrology tool throughput enables greater sampling and improves the robustness of lot-to-lot or wafer-to-wafer control in high volume manufacturing."

"Anticipating future product configurations and metrology requirements, our Matchbox platform permits our customers to explore even more of the data-rich diffraction space. Mining this space efficiently is essential to maximize decorrelation of measurement parameters beyond the 65nm technology node and to minimize total measurement uncertainty (TMU)," stated Doyle.

Matchbox is compatible with the PCM3 and the CDS200, Accent's library generation and metrology systems.

For sales or product information, please visit our website at www.accentopto.com, call 541-322-2500 (US), +44 1904 715500 (UK) or email sales@accentopto.com.

About Accent

Accent Optical Technologies (www.accentopto.com) is a leading supplier of process control systems for silicon and compound semiconductor manufacturers worldwide. The company's legacy dates back over 300 years to its optical instrument manufacturing roots in York, England. Accent specializes in photolithography process control tools, providing industry-leading performance of overlay, critical dimension, and profile metrology to top-tier device manufacturers. Accent is also a major provider of lattice metrology tools, supplying process characterization and control tools to advanced semiconductor industries including those using strained silicon, SOI, or advanced epitaxial layers for high performance logic, wireless communications, optoelectronics, and high brightness LEDs