How would you know that these distinctions are insignificant?Equipment suppliers have very strict requirement of components. Something of purity 99.9% vs purity 99.99% might sounds not much different, but in reality with each 9 added in the back the cost increase exponentially.
I never said insignificant, I said unquantifiable. Why are you putting words in my mouth? Where did I ever use the term insignificant?
They did not specify a number at all for many of their specifications, it is unquantifiable by definition.
What is the quantitative difference between "不锈钢超高光洁度“ vs "不锈钢超高光洁度制造”? What is the quantitative improvement in “Ra达到更低水平?” 0.1% better? 100% better?
Yes I know equipment manufacturers have strict requirement of components. There's standards for particle counting/organic leach/surface analysis for all suppliers, some also have an outgassing standard either by QMS or ASTM 595E. But those component requirements, as specified by the buyers, are not divided by process node. They're divided by component environment i.e. wet process vs. rough vacuum/gas vs. high vacuum. For instance SEMI F19 standard is irrelevant for UHV but vitally important for fluid handling components.
In addition, why did they have a timeline with times that didn't match date of first introduction of process? That is even further proof that its an internally focused document on progress, not of standards.
Can you prove that there is No distinct category of 14 nm only and 28 nm only equipment?
Sure, I absolutely can. If a more advanced process than 14 nm can use equipment from a less advanced process than 28 nm, then that proves that 28 nm and 14 nm processes can use interchangable equipment.
This paper shows 5 nm gate all around (GAA) process structures produced with 1990's PECVD equipment and 2000's ICP etch on 200 mm wafers. This equipment was built for 180 nm process which was state of the art at the time. If 180 nm equipment from 1990's can produce 5 nm GAA structures, then 28 nm and 14 nm are even more similar.
Stacked SiGe/Si structures are widely used as the units for gate-all-around nanowire transistors (GAA NWTs) which are a promising candidate beyond fin field effective transistors (FinFETs) technologies in near future. These structures deal with a several challenges brought by the shrinking of device dimensions. The preparation of inner spacers is one of the most critical processes for GAA nano-scale transistors. This study focuses on two key processes: inner spacer film conformal deposition and accurate etching. The results show that low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) silicon nitride has a good film filling effect; a precise and controllable silicon nitride inner spacer structure is prepared by using an inductively coupled plasma (ICP) tool and a new gas mixtures of CH2F2/CH4/O2/Ar. Silicon nitride inner spacer etch has a high etch selectivity ratio, exceeding 100:1 to Si and more than 30:1 to SiO2. High anisotropy with an excellent vertical/lateral etch ratio exceeding 80:1 is successfully demonstrated. It also provides a solution to the key process challenges of nano-transistors beyond 5 nm node.
Step 4: For the cavity formed in the step 3, PECVD (AMAT Producer 200 mm(Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, CA, USA )) and low-pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD) (AMAT Centura 200 (Applied Materials Inc., Santa Clara, CA, USA )) equipments were used to grow 40 nm SiN in the filling experiments.
Step 5: Finally, the prepared samples were etched in an ICP tool (TCP 9400DFM (Lam Research Inc., Fremont, CA, USA)), where a gas mixture of CH2F2/O2/CH4/Ar and a chuck temperature of 80 °C were used. The research focuses on the effects of etching process parameters on selection ratio, anisotropy (vertical/lateral etch ratio) and etch morphology.