UV Curing Technologies for Emerging Applications
As the industry approaches the 45nm technology era, UV curing is emerging as a fundamentally enabling technology for a wide range of established and potential applications for the front and back end of line, including:Low- k dielectric curing, pre-metal dielectric (PMD) curing, shallow-trench isolation (STI) curing, charge neutralization/non-volatile memory (NVM) reset, transistor annealing/charge trap removal, and stress modification of silicon nitride.
With over 20 years of UV experience, Axcelis has the expertise to guide you in understanding how UV curing can be used to improve your processes and device yields. Moreover, Axcelis' knowledge base continues to grow in all areas through our working relationships with leading-edge chip manufacturers, suppliers and research institutions throughout the industry.
Proprietary UV light source
At the heart of Axcelis' UV curing technology is our proprietary, high-intensity, microwave-driven UV light source. We believe that every curing application is better served by a UV source that is tailored to the need. That's why Axcelis continues to form collaborations throughout the industry to bring the benefits of UV curing to an expanding range of materials and processes.
Microwave-driven, UV bulbs
A key element of Axcelis' light source technology is our electrodeless UV bulb. As leaders in UV curing, Axcelis designs and manufactures our own bulbs and optical systems in house. This means we can tap into a broad UV spectrum and improve processes by the tuning the light source to address the specific needs of a targeted application.
One platform, three configurations
No matter where you are in the move to smaller linewidths, Axcelis has a UV curing technology available to improve your process. We offer three configurations - RapidCure FC, RapidCure CE and RapidCure PS - to give you the flexibility to cover a range of film curing , charge erase and photostabilization applications. Every system in the RapidCure family is built on the same technology foundation that has made Axcelis the leader in UV curing, with over 2,000 systems shipped worldwide.