TOKYO, JAPAN-- Tokyo Electron Limited (TEL; Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO, President: Tetsuro Higashi) announced that the company will commence sales of the Trias SPA, a plasma processing system capable of high-speed radical oxidation processing for 200mm and 300mm wafers.

Since gate electrodes for leading-edge logic circuits and DRAM devices at 65nm process or smaller consists of metal, reducing heat treatment temperatures in following process is essential in semiconductor production. Also, as semiconductor devices are made even smaller, the demand for low thermal budgets in heat treatment is growing steadily. It has not been possible, however, to reduce heat treatment temperatures sufficiently, given the conventional process of forming thermally-oxidized films. Furthermore, with flash memory, the thermally grown tunnel oxide film reaches the limits of their reliability. There are high hopes for a radical oxidation process capable of forming high quality oxidized films at low temperatures to resolve these issues.

Based on the Radial Line Slot Antenna (RLSA) microwave plasma developed for semiconductor processes by Professor Tadahiro Ohmi at Tohoku University, the Trias SPA uses the unique Slot Plane Antenna (SPA) plasma generating technology established by TEL, after long years of cultivating plasma technology. Using plasma that has both a high density and a low electron temperature, this technology enables the generation of high concentrations of oxygen radicals. The high concentrations of oxygen radicals can then be used in the formation of high-quality oxidized films at temperatures below 400C.

TEL commenced sales of the Trias SPA as a thin-film oxidizing/nitriding system for the formation of gate insulators for leading-edge logic circuits in December of 2001, receiving high praise from many users. The company has been introducing it for mass production assembly lines as well. By supporting high power in the antenna and a portion of the chamber in the high-speed radical oxidizing Trias SPA, the company has just succeeded in increasing radical density in the SPA chamber, enabling the oxidation of high-grade thick films, between 35 and 150. The oxidized films formed by the high-speed radical oxidizing Trias SPA can achieve a higher degree of reliability than thermally-oxidized films. As a result, there is interest in using them for tunnel oxide in flash memory. In addition, the oxidation by high-speed radical oxidizing Trias SPA is not dependent on crystal orientation, making it possible to apply it aggressively to devices with regard to corner oxidation in Shallow Trench Isolation (STI) as well. Furthermore, the technology enables extremely excellent oxidation processes with small levels of gate bird's beak, while holding down WO3 sublimation in the selective oxidation process for poly-metal gates by utilizing the properties of low-temperature treatment.

The Trias SPA is a single-wafer process system, and can contribute to shortening turnaround time (TAT) in LSI chip production. Based on TEL's Trias 300mm single-wafer platform, the design of the Trias SPA is itself based on the 200mm/300mm bridge tool concept, so that it is possible to not only provide high levels of reliability and productivity but also convert 200mm/300mm production without affecting process performance. The high-speed radical oxidizing SPA chamber can be field-upgraded from the conventional SPA chamber.