Everything else is OK but KLA. Advantest cannot replace KLA. Unfortunately KLA has a near monopoly on optical scatterometry for semiconductor QC and the only other company making it is Onto Innovation which is also US based. Everyone else (Chinese companies and Japanese companies like Hitachi) use CD-SEM which is much more expensive and requires vacuum handling i.e. loadlocks, pumps, vacuum grade materials, which imposes high cost and lowers throughput. You get much more detailed information from CD-SEM but that info is often unnecessary for QC alone.
So no KLA means what for the near term?
Nothing on existing lines as optical CD doesn't have wear components. Lower throughput on new lines to match CD-SEM throughput.
28nm node optical measuring device was completed 2-3 months ago, I have posted on twitter, even 90nm lithography machine they also make 28nm chip... long term future they will be stable, i'm looking forward to next year they will reorganize their optical valleys, and instrumentation will be the main target
Well, Shanghai Jihnce and RSIC offer Optical metrology equipment probably using a technique similar to KLA for thin film measurement and CD measurement, IDK for overall QC control. So is good opportunity to break through that monopoly.
Holy crap, this is amazing. I've always thought that nanoscale optical metrology was something out of reach for Chinese companies. To me optical CD is kind of like black magic because it isn't something you can directly understand, there's a ton of assumptions and theory behind it.
Its seem like some kind black magic, for measuring the thickness of a film is easier, in the lab is just checking the reflection in a color scale, but for measuring 3d structures is I guess is more complicated and more computational power is needed. Looks like KLA is using pretty advance technology to map the wafer but I still think is a pretty close technique to what Chinese companies are using.
