25 July 2013

Park Systems introduces AFM system targeting semiconductor manufacturing

Park Systems Corp, headquartered in Suwon, Korea, has introduced the Park NX-HDM, a fully automated automatic defect review and sub-angstrom surface roughness atomic force microscopy (AFM) system for device substrates and disk media. Currently, around 90% of Park’s AFM sales are to the hard disc manufacturing market, but with the launch of this new system the firm is actively pursuing business from the semiconductor industry. 

The NX-HDM sets a new standard in automatic defect review AFM technology, says the firm, by increasing throughput up to 1000% and offering a 30% higher success rate than prior systems; analyzing, identifying and scanning media for all wafer sizes up to 150mm.

“For researchers working with hard disk media and other flat substrates, the process of identifying nanoscale defects is time consuming with conventional tools, hindering throughput. The Automatic Defect Review (ADR) speeds up and improves the way it identifies, scans and analyzes defects in substrates and media,” said Sang-il Park, CEO and chairman. “Beta test runs with Park NX-HDM demonstrate a 10x increase in throughput for defect review in an automated process when compared with more traditional manual methods of defect review. Moreover, we perfected the remapping and defect identification algorithm, and the success rate of the new NX-HDM is 30% higher than its previous generation, XE-HDM.”

Park NX-HDM for HDD, LED, solar, and general semiconductor device industries, speeds up the automatic defect review for media and substrates. The survey scan, zoom-in scan, and analysis of imaged defect types are automated with wide range of automated optical inspection (AOI) tools. In addition, True Non-Contact Mode, combined with the industry’s lowest noise floor, provides accurate and reliable measurements for the sub-angstrom surface roughness of diverse media and substrates, says the firm.

The Park dual servo system with two symmetric, low-noise position sensors are incorporated on each axis of the XY scanner to retain a high scan orthogonality for wide scan ranges and sample sizes. The secondary sensor corrects and compensates for non-linear and non-planar positional errors caused by a single sensor.

“There has never been a metrology tool capable of providing accurate and reliable measurements for the sub-Angstrom roughness of the substrate surfaces,” said Ryan Yoo, vice president of Global Sales and Marketing. “By delivering the industry’s lowest noise floor of less than 0.5Å, Park NX-HDM can acquire accurate, repeatable, and reproducible sub-angstrom roughness measurements for the flattest substrates and media.”

Tags: AFM

Visit: http://www.parkAFM.com