MINNEAPOLIS (Mar. 14, 2005) -- FSI International, Inc. (Nasdaq: FSII) today announced the development of a new nickel-platinum strip process designed to help IC manufacturers implement salicide formation at the 65-nm technology node. FSI has developed the PlatNiStrip™ process using the FSI ZETA® Spray Cleaning System and has partnered with leading IC makers to demonstrate the process on 65-nm pilot line devices. This low-cost process can be implemented with industry standard chemicals on a standard ZETA System.
IC manufacturers originally focused on using nickel silicide for salicide formation at the 65-nm node. However, nickel silicide may not have sufficient thermal stability to withstand the temperatures of full integration in all cases. Researchers have discovered that adding a small amount of platinum (approximately 5 percent) can significantly increase the thermal stability of the resulting silicide film. Traditional approaches to stripping nickel, such as sulfuric acid-hydrogen peroxide solutions, are not effective in stripping platinum, resulting in a platinum residue on the wafer.
FSI’s new PlatNiStrip™ process, a point-of-use blended acid solution can strip both nickel and platinum without residues and with high selectivity to silicide, oxide and nitride, enabling the integration of nickel-platinum silicide film.
“This process builds on FSI’s long successful history in metal stripping for salicide formation,” said Don Mitchell, FSI chairman and CEO. “Over 20 leading IC makers use FSI’s batch spray cleaning systems in high volume manufacturing for salicide metal stripping applications. By continuing to expand our process capabilities, we ensure customers reap the benefits associated with our tools’ ability to extend over several technology nodes.”
The ZETA System is inherently suited for this application because its proprietary chemical mixing and delivery technology ensure consistent etch rates and selectivity. The result is stable and reliable process performance.
The ZETA System includes fully automated configurations for 200- and 300-mm wafer sizes and semi-automated configurations for 200- and 150-mm wafer sizes. The ZETA System is proven for a wide range of applications, including FEOL resist strip and post-ash clean, BEOL post-ash clean, salicide strip, wafer bumping and wafer reclaim. The system uses centrifugal spray technology; wafers undergo dry-in, dry-out processing in a closed, nitrogen-purged chamber. FSI's versatile chemical delivery technology prepares the chemicals at controlled composition and temperature and delivers them directly onto the wafers. ZETA 200 and ZETA 300 Systems are priced from $1.0 to $2.8 million.
FSI International Inc. is a global supplier of surface conditioning equipment technology and support services for microelectronics manufacturing. Using the Company’s broad portfolio of cleaning products, which include batch and single-wafer platforms for immersion, spray, vapor and CryoKinetic technologies, customers are able to achieve their process performance, flexibility and productivity goals.
The Company’s support services programs provide product and process enhancements to extend the life of installed FSI equipment, enabling worldwide customers to realize a higher return on their capital investment.
FSI maintains a Web site at http://www.fsi-intl.com.