Advanced Litho-Enabling Technology

To pack billions of transistors on today’s most advanced microchips, manufacturers must seemingly defy the laws of physics, using complex lithography methods to print, or “pattern,” the wafer with chip features that can be a thousand times smaller than a human hair.

Applied Materials is helping chipmakers meet this significant patterning challenge with technology that extends the use of current lithography equipment for multiple chip generations.

Patterning Solutions

Applied’s patterning solutions are designed to extend customers' lithography equipment well past its existing limitations. Innovative double patterning techniques, for example, provide a cost-effective method to print twice the number of transistors in the same amount of space.

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Process Control

Extremely high densities of chip features also introduce new challenges for measurement and inspection. Applied has developed highly sophisticated metrology systems to assure patterning accuracy and inspection systems methods to detect yield-limiting defects.

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Photomask

A chip is fabricated using many separate layers of films. Each of these layers is created using a “mask” that dictates its pattern, and the accuracy of this pattern is extremely critical. Applied offers specialized etch and inspection systems to assure that the mask exactly matches chip designers' specifications.

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