INDUSTRY NEWS

Art versus science

It wouldn't be too farfetched to assert William Reents believes that particle detection technology needs fewer Michelangelos and more Leonardo da Vincis. "Right now the particle detection part of the semiconductor manufacturing process is an art, and this approach would make it a science," says the scientist of his new invention.

A member of Bell Labs' process and chemical engineering research department, Reents has devised a novel inspection tool that detects particles 0.001 µm, sizes them, and determines their composition. Still under development, the tool holds bright promise for chipmakers desperately searching for in situ instruments capable of detecting particles <0.2 µm on submicron-linewidth devices. In lab demonstrations Reents' instrument has detected particles between 0.001 and 0.9 µm. Analyzing them in a gaseous phase, the tool pulls particles from a vacuum chamber during processing. The instrument detects up to 10 particles per second using a high-intensity pulse laser that strikes the particles and breaks them into charged atoms and molecules. The accelerating pieces strike a detector that records their weights and charges, then instantaneously determines each particle's composition and size.

Reents is adapting his scientific masterpiece to detect particles in the atmosphere. The instrument could also perform trace analysis of particles in ultrapure liquids, he says.

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