Hysitron ATI 8800
Hysitron ATI 8800
Bruker’s Hysitron ATI 8800 nanomechanical metrology equipment enables companies to efficiently monitor the mechanical reliability of their products by rapidly identifying unexpected process changes though quantifiable variations in the measured mechanical properties and/or interfacial adhesion values. Nanomechanical metrology enables rapid identification of process variations to improve yields, increase product reliability, validate new processes, decrease time to market, and minimize operating costs. Measurements are fully automated with the ability to continuously monitor thin film modulus, hardness, and interfacial adhesion in a high-volume manufacturing environment.
Industry-Leading Nanoindentation
A small force is applied to a diamond probe with a well-known geometry while the probe displacement into the material’s surface is continuously monitored. The resulting load-depth curve is the “mechanical fingerprint” of the material and is used to quantitatively calculate the mechanical properties.
Nanoindentation is applicable to every material used in the device manufacturing process. Modulus and hardness measurements are highly sensitive to changes in material composition, porosity, and thickness.
Nanoscratch Adhesion
A linearly increasing normal force is applied to the thin film as the scratch probe is translated in the lateral direction. As the probe approaches the film/substrate interface, the applied stress by the translating probe causes interfacial adhesion failure.
Nanoscratch is a fast and repeatable in-fab technique to monitor the interfacial adhesion of thin films. A 1:1 correlation can be made between nanoscratch adhesion results and four-point bend tests.
Thin Film Mechanical and Adhesion Uniformity
The ATI 8800 provides highly localized mechanical property and interfacial adhesion measurements that enables the ability to quantitatively measure variations in different regions of the wafer.
Process Monitoring
Rapid advances in technology require that the majority of new products are developed using new materials and modified processes. With each new material, process, or thickness it is not possible to refer to the reliability achievements of previous devices. Given the current and future materials and thicknesses being used, there is very little room for error.
Continuous statistical sampling of the nanomechanical properties of deposited films yields great knowledge of process drift and structure changes, traditionally requiring several slower metrology tools to identify the problems.