Enabling yield at 45nm: Managing process variability

摘要

With the industry moving toward manufacturing at the 45nm half-pitch, new strategies that go beyond the Bossung curve, first introduced in 1977, are required to ensure manufacturability. The issues emerging now are that the time to reach final yield has been growing with each generation, and the plateau yield value at maturity has been steadily declining, with systematic pattern-related defects primarily responsible on both accounts. Also, the number of variables influencing thernfidelity of pattern transfer is increasing, and the interaction between them is leading to vanishingly small or negative margins.