Category : Semiconductor equipment > Wafer test/inspection and measurement systems

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Cleveland, Ohio, March 2005 * * * Keithley Instruments, Inc. (NYSE:KEI), a leader in solutions for emerging measurement needs, announces its third generation on-wafer RF measurement capability for semiconductor parametric production process control. New to Keithley's third-generation RF Option solution is the unique ability to offer continuous, automatic, real-time monitoring of measurement quality, providing the highest quality results with the highest throughput, lowest cost of operation, and easiest use of any competitive product. In addition, Keithley's RF Option measurement capability is the only test system qualified for parametric process control by 200mm and 300mm production fabs worldwide for applications involving high-performance logic and high-performance analog IC production.

Highest Measurement Integrity
Automatic continuous monitoring of measurement integrity works by having the tester automatically detect events that would invalidate the RF calibration, and automatically trigger corrective action such as an unattended recalibration. Changes in system configuration, such as a probe card change, can be set up to trigger an unattended recalibration. There are also time-based trigger events, such as time-expired RF calibration. The final class of trigger events is measurement based. For example, while the prober is indexing to the next site, in the background the tester automatically verifies the quality of probe contact and triggers automated probe cleaning if required.

Higher measurement integrity eliminates the need for an RF specialist to manually inspect raw data curves for anomalies that would suggest questionable RF measurements. It also eliminates the high cost of re-probe and rework, making it operationally compatible with highly efficient lights-out 300mm fabs.


Highest Throughput
Keithley's RF Option, with the Model S680 SimulTest option, and appropriately designed test structures and probe cards, is the only RF test system on the market that can make simultaneous DC and RF measurements in parallel within the same probe touchdown. This yields substantially higher throughput than similar methods that perform sequential DC measurements followed by RF measurements. Furthermore, RF parameters can be extracted and de-embedded now for the first time in real time from measured s-parameters using the industry's largest RF parametric extraction library without the need for post processing, saving time and increasing throughput. In addition, combined with the Model S680 parametric test system, only Keithley has a direct-dock capability for making measurements at 40GHz. Competitive products require a manual probe card change by an RF specialist using a torque wrench followed by manual recalibration.

Keithley's RF Option solution completes an automated RF probe card change in a fraction of the time it takes for a manual change, increasing overall throughput. Automated probe-card changes also increase measurement integrity by eliminating major variability, caused by human intervention, in system-to-system variation in RF measurement results. And, because an RF specialist is no longer needed, it lowers the cost of operation. This automated probe card change capability is a new feature offered in Keithley's RF Option.

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List of all articles in this sub-category Wafer test/inspection and measurement systems

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