rus
E + H Metrology GmbH (Karlsruhe, Germany) traces its history back to 1968, when Wilfried Eichhorn and Thaddaeus Hausmann have founded the Eichhorn + Hausmann OHG, which was engaged in development linear capacitive distance sensors for machinery. In 1978, the company introduced its first measurement system for the semiconductor industry. In 2008, E + H Metrology has got the modern brand name. Currently, about 80% of the company's turnover is generated from metrology solutions for the semiconductor industry and related industries. Peter Michel, Metrology Manager at E + H Metrology, told us about metrology tools.
Mr. Michel, what tasks should metrology tools help to perform?
Our metrology solutions are applied at all stages of production of semiconductor wafers and also help to control the deposited films. Geometrical and electric parameters, including thickness, TTV, flatness, warp/bow, waviness, roughness, resistivity, p/n-dotation are measured. Accordingly, the main users of our tools are the manufacturers of wafers and chips. In addition to conventional microelectronics, our customers work in areas such as production of LEDs, MEMS, photovoltaics. We also supply metrology systems under the OEM partnership with manufacturers of process equipment.
In the nearly 40 years of operation in the semiconductor industry, a unique experience is accumulated, which we gladly share with our customers, helping them to find optimal solutions of the most complex challenges. The effectiveness of our systems is evidenced by the fact that they are used by almost all the leading manufacturers of wafers and semiconductor components. More than 2 thousand of our metrology systems are installed worldwide.
What are the key benefits of your metrological tools?
The strengths of our products are the good cost benefit ratio through low product costs, low operating costs and very long lifetime. It should be noted that we develop all the basic elements of the devices: mechanical components, sensors and software. The non contact capacitive, current and optical sensors are used for measurements. The wafer is fixed during the measurement, which ensures high accuracy. The use of sensor systems minimizes the measurement time.
We have developed a wide range of devices, allowing to solve any metrological tasks in the area of production and research and development. Systems for 50 mm up to 450 mm wafers are available, including solutions for the control of special materials, such as glass, quartz, sapphire and silicon carbide. Wafers can be loaded into the device both manually and using various automated systems.
What software is offered with devices?
The main operating software that supports all major E+H tool types is MX-NT. It calculates and displays the measured parameters of the wafer, enables flexible recipe based jobs and provides structured storage of data using MS SQL Server or MS Access data base engines.
We have also developed the Waferstudio visualization and data analysis software, which can be used with not only our devices but also can easily import data from many different metrology tools. Waferstudio allows to analyze the results of the measurements of wafers of different shapes, including rectangular, which are used in photovoltaics, as well as to model the processes on the basis of previously obtained data.
What are areas of new develop-
ments?
We pay great attention to the improvement of sensors, in particular develop an optical system with nanometer resolution, which will allow to control the quality of semiconductor wafers at new levels of technology development. I am confident that our systems will always be in demand around the world, including Russia, where we see good prospects for the development of microelectronics and related high-tech industries.
Interview: Dmitry Gudilin
Our metrology solutions are applied at all stages of production of semiconductor wafers and also help to control the deposited films. Geometrical and electric parameters, including thickness, TTV, flatness, warp/bow, waviness, roughness, resistivity, p/n-dotation are measured. Accordingly, the main users of our tools are the manufacturers of wafers and chips. In addition to conventional microelectronics, our customers work in areas such as production of LEDs, MEMS, photovoltaics. We also supply metrology systems under the OEM partnership with manufacturers of process equipment.
In the nearly 40 years of operation in the semiconductor industry, a unique experience is accumulated, which we gladly share with our customers, helping them to find optimal solutions of the most complex challenges. The effectiveness of our systems is evidenced by the fact that they are used by almost all the leading manufacturers of wafers and semiconductor components. More than 2 thousand of our metrology systems are installed worldwide.
What are the key benefits of your metrological tools?
The strengths of our products are the good cost benefit ratio through low product costs, low operating costs and very long lifetime. It should be noted that we develop all the basic elements of the devices: mechanical components, sensors and software. The non contact capacitive, current and optical sensors are used for measurements. The wafer is fixed during the measurement, which ensures high accuracy. The use of sensor systems minimizes the measurement time.
We have developed a wide range of devices, allowing to solve any metrological tasks in the area of production and research and development. Systems for 50 mm up to 450 mm wafers are available, including solutions for the control of special materials, such as glass, quartz, sapphire and silicon carbide. Wafers can be loaded into the device both manually and using various automated systems.
What software is offered with devices?
The main operating software that supports all major E+H tool types is MX-NT. It calculates and displays the measured parameters of the wafer, enables flexible recipe based jobs and provides structured storage of data using MS SQL Server or MS Access data base engines.
We have also developed the Waferstudio visualization and data analysis software, which can be used with not only our devices but also can easily import data from many different metrology tools. Waferstudio allows to analyze the results of the measurements of wafers of different shapes, including rectangular, which are used in photovoltaics, as well as to model the processes on the basis of previously obtained data.
What are areas of new develop-
ments?
We pay great attention to the improvement of sensors, in particular develop an optical system with nanometer resolution, which will allow to control the quality of semiconductor wafers at new levels of technology development. I am confident that our systems will always be in demand around the world, including Russia, where we see good prospects for the development of microelectronics and related high-tech industries.
Interview: Dmitry Gudilin
Readers feedback
