LONDON – Applied Materials Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) has announced its Varian VIISta Trident ion implantation, which it describes as the most advanced single-wafer high-current ion implanter.
The machine has been trialed during the development of 20-nm processes and is the "machine of record" with all major foundries, the company said.
Trident delivers precise dose and angle control and key to the performance is its proprietary dual-magnet ribbon beam architecture for enhanced low energy performance. The system's Energy Purity Module virtually eliminates high-energy species that can "smear" the critical transistor channel and lead to increased current leakage and degraded performance.
Integrated cryogenic technology enables production implants as low as -100°C, providing superior process control for transistor matching. This is particularly vital for making embedded SRAM cells for on-chip cache memory, where the six or eight transistors that make up each cell must be precisely matched to enable reliable switching at the low operating voltages required for mobile computing.
"A typical advanced logic chip requires as many as 60 implant steps, including co-implant and precision materials modification applications - many of which are critical to device performance. The precision of our VIISta Trident technology is vital to helping our customers achieve profitable yields on their leading-edge designs," said Bob Halliday, vice president and general manager of Applied's Varian business unit, in a statement.
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