Lam Research unveils first bevel deposition solution for semiconductor manufacturing

"Building on Lam's expertise in bevel innovation, Coronus DX helps drive more predictable manufacturing and significantly higher yield."

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Lam Research has unveiled the world’s first bevel deposition solution, the Coronus DX. The wafer fabrication equipment provider’s latest launch is set to increase yield in chip production and solve challenges within the chip manufacturing industry.

Key information:

  • Lam Research has launched the world's first bevel deposition solution, which is set to increase yield in chip production.
  • The Coronus DX prevents defects and damage during advanced semiconductor manufacturing, as it deposits a proprietary layer of protective film on both sides of the wafer edge.
  • Additionally, the new technology is set to address multiple industry challenges including next-generation logic, 3D NAND, and advanced packaging applications.

Semiconductor manufacturing is continuing to become increasingly more complex, due to the number of steps in the process to build nanometer-sized devices on a silicon wafer. To combat that, the Coronus DX deposits a proprietary layer of protective film on both sides of the wafer edge in one singular step. This protective film helps prevent defects and damage during advanced semiconductor manufacturing, which increases the yield of chips whilst also allowing chipmakers to implement new leading-edge processes to produce the next-generation chips.

"In the era of 3D chipmaking, production is complex and costly," said Sesha Varadarajan, Senior Vice President of the Global Products Group at Lam Research. "Building on Lam's expertise in bevel innovation, Coronus DX helps drive more predictable manufacturing and significantly higher yield, paving the way for adoption of advanced logic, packaging and 3D NAND production processes that weren't previously feasible."

Coronus DC is also said to allow chipmakers to enable new device structures. As layers of processing are repeated, residue and roughness can appear along the wafer, which has the potential to flake off and cause defects which can lead to semiconductor device failure. Examples of where this can occur include 3D packaging applications where material from the back-end-of-line can move and contaminate future processing. Additionally, severe substrate damage on edges can occur when long wet etch processes appear in 3D NAND manufacturing. If defects cannot be removed, Coronus DX will deposit a thin dielectric layer of protection on the bevel.

"CEA-Leti applied its expertise in innovative, sustainable technology solutions to help Lam Research tackle key challenges in advanced semiconductor manufacturing," said Anne Roule, Head of the Semiconductor Platform Division at CEA-Leti. "By simplifying 3D integration, Coronus DX drives significantly higher yield and enables chipmakers to adopt breakthrough production processes."

Lam Research’s latest launch features precision wafer centring and process control, including integrated metrology, which has improved rates of repeatability and consistency during the process. By using Coronus DX, manufacturers can increase yields by 0.2% to 0.5% per etch or deposition step, leading to a potential overall wafer flow improvement of up to 5%. An example of the potential increase that manufacturers could see, is if in cases where they are running more than 100,000 wafers starts a month, they could yield millions of extra die over a year.

"Improving quality in the production process through advancements in areas such as bevel technology is essential to our ability to provide next-generation flash memory at scale to our customers," said Hideshi Miyajima (PhD), Technology Executive of Memory Process at Kioxia Corporation. "We look forward to continuing to work with Lam Research and its Coronus solutions to enable leading-edge wafer production."