Over 200 attendees participated in FSI’s Knowledge Services™ Seminar Series - EMEA held in May 2008 in Israel, Italy, France and Germany. Several customer-authored presentations credited FSI cleaning technologies with contributing to significant manufacturing yield gains. In the presentations, FSI customers, including STMicroelectronics, Numonyx B.V., Tower Semiconductor LTD., Qimonda AG, and CEA Leti, described advanced processes enabled by FSI’s innovative cleaning products and presented data documenting yield gains in a variety of production applications.

All of the presentations addressed specific applications of critical importance in the current semiconductor manufacturing environment. For example in the paper on low temperature annealing of nickel-platinum (NiPt) salicides, one customer showed how FSI tools enable processes that are otherwise difficult or impossible to integrate into production. The customer-to-customer nature of FSI’s Knowledge Services Seminars ensures the information exchanged provides practical value for the audience. Topics addressed in the presentations include:

• Cobalt salicide formation with lowest defectivity and lowest residual Co on nitride spacers enabled by FSI's high-temperature, fresh-dispense SPM process.
• Low-temperature NiPt silicide formation for shallow junctions enabled by FSI's HCl-free selective metal stripping process.
• W Metal Gate compatible PR stripping with FSI's high-temperature sulfuric acid and dilute peroxide blending.
• Low-cost all-wet PR stripping using FSI ZETA^® Spray Cleaning System with ViPR™ technology.
• Lowest defectivity critical cleans with FSI MAGELLAN^® Immersion Cleaning System in-situ blended dilute chemicals and STG^® drying technology.
• Defect removal for DRAM manufacturing with FSI ANTARES^® System cryogenic aerosol technology.

CDs of the May 2008 conference presentations are available to FSI customers and may be ordered through the FSI website here.