Applied Materiald

The Nokota system expands the Applied Materials suite of electrochemical deposition systems with a high-productivity wafer-level packaging tool that delivers best-in-class performance for the full range of plating steps used in diverse packaging schemes. These range from flip chip and wafer-level chip-scale packages to 2D and 3D fan-out, 2.5D interposer designs, and through-silicon via. Systems are available for 150mm, 200mm, and 300mm operation, and for simultaneous processing of 150mm200mm and 200mm300mm wafers. Copper, tinsilver alloy, nickel, gold, tin, and palladium are the metals most commonly used, although others can be accommodated.

The ALTA 4700plus system provides cost-effective patterning of binary masks and phase shifting masks (PSM), supporting fast turnaround and shortened design cycles. High NA optics and a DUV laser produce the sharply focused beams needed to write photomask patterns with high resolution and tight dimensional control. Improved stage control enhances pattern placement accuracy, enabling precise matching between the masks in a set. The second-level alignment system provides the tight overlay needed to produce advanced PSM masks, which are used in greater numbers as wafer lithography is pushed to its limits. The non-exposing alignment light uses the same optical path as the exposure beam, avoiding baseline offsets and ensuring stable production performance.

Equipped with a new lithography-grade lens, the Aera4 system demonstrates improved signal-to-noise for both standard high-resolution applications and aerial inspection, making it the tool of choice for 1x nm technology nodes and for early-production EUV mask inspection. The system performs highly sensitive mask inspection, as required for double- and quadruple-patterning lithography technologies, while maintaining a very low false alarm rate.

The Applied Aeris™-G system is a pre-pump plasma abatement solution that uses less energy by treating the actual process gas volume—a smaller and more concentrated volume than what is treated by post-pump abatement units. The plasma dissociation combined with the low volume of nitrogen in the Aeris-G chamber during abatement minimizes NOx emissions to near zero. The Aeris-G unit operates "on-demand, " further reducing operating costs compared to energy-hungry, continuous operation post-pump abatement.

The groundbreaking Applied Centris platform clusters up to eight process chambers – six etch and two plasma clean chambers. A high-speed transfer robot enables the processing of up to 180 wafers per hour – making the system nearly twice as fast as competing alternatives. The two plasma clean chambers, which remove post-etch halogen residues, are incorporated into the vacuum loadlocks. This unique innovation enables an unprecedented number of etch processing chamber locations and doubles the capacity of traditional silicon etch systems.

As semiconductor scaling has continued, increasingly rigorous requirements for precision and uniformity in chip fabrication have propelled the first comprehensive redesign of the silicon etch chamber in over a decade. The resulting Applied Centris Sym3 system delivers world-class cross-wafer uniformity with unprecedented within-chip feature control in critical etch applications for high-volume manufacturing at the 1x10nm node and beyond.