ASML ships first multi-beam inspection tool for 5nm

ASML is one of the big names in the semiconductor industry. This Dutch company makes the tools that are used by Intel, TSMC, Samsung, and others to manufacture cutting-edge chips. In recent years, the company managed to bring its EUV technology to maturity and now AnandTech reports that ASML has shipped its first multi-beam inspection tool for 5nm. The new eScan1000 moves a single beam scanning process into a nine-beam scanning process, which can increase the throughput by as much as 600% for in-line defect inspection applications. The tool is suitable for current processes, including 5nm, and beyond.

The company explains that the new eScan1000 tool contains an electron optics system that splits a primary beam into multiple beamlets, while also collecting and processing the results from these secondary beamlets. The tool has limited crosstalk to sub-2% to maintain imaging quality, and uses a high-speed mode to increase the overall throughput, and new computational hardware acceleration to process the data from the beamlets quicker than before. The tool is also available at a range of beam currents, assigning it for both physical defect inspection and voltage contrast inspection. ASML promotes the fact that it has a proprietary database that excels in defect detection capabilities, spotting defects missed by more traditional metrology methods.

The first ASML eScan1000 system was shipped to a "Silicon Valley customer" in the past week for initial testing and qualification at a customer site.