3,822 technical terms and definitions
PLD, user-configurable logic, PAL CPLD FPGA, custom logic without custom chip, reconfigurable chip
A programmable logic device is a chip whose logic function can be configured by the user after manufacture, rather than being fixed when the chip is made, giving designers a way…
projection lithography, photolithography, mask projection, contact printing replacement, wafer exposure
A projection aligner is a photolithography machine that transfers a mask pattern onto a wafer by projecting an image of the mask through a lens system onto the wafer's surface…
contact printing mask damage, catadioptric optics working gap, projection lithography reference diagram
The Working Gap That Ended Mask-Wafer Contact Perkin-Elmer's Micralign (1973) — what the gap looks like, and what it bought in yield and mask life One contact event compounds…
projection lithography, projection lithography 1973
Confront Contact Printing's Mask-Damage Problem The original 1957-era photolithography process pressed the mask directly against the photoresist-coated wafer during exposure…
perkin elmer micralign, projection lithography 1973
Name Defect Generation and Yield Loss From Contact Every contact exposure risked transferring a defect two ways at once: a particle on the wafer could scratch the mask, and a flaw…
catadioptric optics, projection lithography 1973
Introduce Projection (Non-Contact) Alignment as the Fix The fix that defined this generation of lithography was to stop touching the mask to the wafer at all, and instead project…
non contact exposure, projection lithography 1973
Define the Mask-to-Wafer Working Gap Removing physical contact meant introducing a deliberate working gap between the mask and the wafer, with an optical system filling that gap…
mask lifetime, projection lithography 1973
Name Perkin-Elmer and the Micralign System (1973) Perkin-Elmer introduced the Micralign system in 1973 as the production-ready answer to contact printing's defect…
lithography yield, projection lithography 1973
Explain the Reflective (Catadioptric) Optical System Micralign used a catadioptric optical design, combining reflective mirror elements with refractive lens elements rather than…
projection lithography, projection lithography 1973
Explain Why Reflective Optics Avoided Chromatic Aberration Chromatic aberration is the blurring that happens when an optical system focuses different wavelengths of light…
perkin elmer micralign, projection lithography 1973
Detail 1:1 Imaging and the Scanning Slit Micralign projected the mask pattern onto the wafer at 1:1 scale, meaning the image on the wafer was the same size as the pattern on…
catadioptric optics, projection lithography 1973
Quantify Micralign's Throughput Advantage Over Contact Aligners Contact aligners had to handle each wafer carefully to control contact force and avoid damaging either the mask…
non contact exposure, projection lithography 1973
Quantify Mask-Lifetime Extension From Eliminating Contact A contact-printing mask wore out through repeated physical contact, accumulating scratches and embedded particles until…
mask lifetime, projection lithography 1973
Quantify Wafer Defect Reduction and Yield Improvement Removing the contact-driven scratch-and-transfer defect mechanism directly reduced the number of pattern defects printed onto…
lithography yield, projection lithography 1973
Trace Micralign's Adoption Across the Industry Chipmakers evaluating Micralign against their existing contact-printing lines weighed the new system's higher throughput, extended…
projection lithography, projection lithography 1973
Explain Resolution Limits of Projection Scanning Systems Even without the defect problems of contact printing, Micralign's optical system still had a finite resolution limit, set…
perkin elmer micralign, projection lithography 1973
Quantify Alignment Accuracy Gains Over Contact Methods Contact aligners relied on direct mechanical registration between mask and wafer, which was limited by how precisely…
catadioptric optics, projection lithography 1973
Describe Micralign Model Generations and Refinements Perkin-Elmer did not stop at the original 1973 Micralign design, and refined successive models with improvements…
non contact exposure, projection lithography 1973
Quantify the Economic Impact on Cost per Good Die Cost per good die, not cost per wafer exposed, was the metric that actually determined whether switching to projection…
mask lifetime, projection lithography 1973
Name Competing Non-Contact Approaches Considered Projection was not the only non-contact idea explored to solve contact printing's defect problem; proximity printing, which held…
lithography yield, projection lithography 1973
Explain Why Reduction Steppers Eventually Succeeded Micralign Micralign's 1:1 scanning projection design solved the contact-defect problem, but as device features kept shrinking…
projection lithography, projection lithography 1973
Name Projection Alignment as the Ancestor of Modern Steppers Every modern projection stepper used in semiconductor production today still relies on the same foundational idea…
perkin elmer micralign, projection lithography 1973
Close by Naming the Modern Exposure Lineage Without Retelling This series has covered the 1973 shift from contact printing to projection alignment and exposure, anchored…
proximity lithography, mask gap, contact printing, diffraction limit, shadow printing
Proximity printing is a photolithography method in which the mask is held a small distance above the wafer during exposure rather than pressed directly against it, a compromise…
metrology
Ptychography is a computational imaging technique that recovers both the amplitude and phase of a transmitted wave by scanning a coherent probe across overlapping positions…
off axis illumination lithography, source mask optimization, dipole quadrupole illumination
Pupil Fill and Illumination Source Shape A lithography scanner's illumination doesn't have to fill its pupil uniformly, and for anything near the resolution limit, it shouldn't.…
business & strategy, integrated device manufacturer, IDM, foundry neutrality, competitor trust, customer IP protection, capacity allocation, manufacturing as a service, fabless customer
A pure-play foundry manufactures chips for other companies without designing or selling any competing end products of its own — it makes money purely from manufacturing, never…
semiconductor purity, nine nines, 9N purity, electronic-grade polysilicon, Siemens process, ultrapure water, cleanroom contamination
Purity, in semiconductor manufacturing, is the fraction of a material that is the intended element, and it is quoted in nines: 99.9999999 percent, nine nines, usually written 9N…
physical vapor deposition, what is pvd, sputtering, magnetron sputtering, ipvd, ionized pvd, evaporation
Physical vapor deposition is how a fab lays down most of its metal. A solid source material is physically knocked or boiled into a vapor inside a vacuum chamber, and that vapor…
physical vapor deposition chamber, pvd vacuum system, pvd base pressure, pvd chamber pressure, pvd chamber shields, pvd shield kit, pvd chamber seasoning, pvd chamber clean, pvd chamber particles, pvd chamber contamination, pvd chamber matching
A PVD chamber is a coupled vacuum, plasma, material-source, transport, wafer-handling, and contamination-control system. The film is determined not only by target power…
deposition modeling conformal coverage in physical vapor deposition (pvd) processes, deposition modeling conformal, modeling conformal coverage, conformal coverage physical, physical vapor
Deposition: Modeling conformal coverage in physical vapor deposition (PVD) processes Introduction & Motivation Deposition: Modeling conformal coverage in physical vapor deposition…
pvd simulation, physical vapor deposition modeling, sputter deposition modeling, pvd step coverage modeling, sputter transport model, pvd profile simulation, ionized pvd modeling, pvd deposition modeling, sputter step coverage model
PVD modeling is the calculation of where sputtered or evaporated atoms come to rest, and at the roughly 5 mTorr pressure a physical-vapor-deposition chamber runs, the mean free…
physical vapor deposition, sputtering basics
PVD process (physical vapor deposition) is a family of thin-film fabrication methods where solid source material is physically converted to vapor-phase species in vacuum…
qfn, packaging
Quad flat no-lead is the leadless surface-mount package with exposed perimeter pads on four sides and optional bottom thermal pad - it combines compact size, strong electrical…
qfp, packaging
Quad flat package is the leaded package with gull-wing terminals on all four sides for higher pin count in perimeter-lead architecture - it is a long-standing package choice…
production, post-PM qual, new tool qualification, process change qual, periodic requalification, monitor wafer, particle wafer, dual sign-off, production resume gate
A qualification run processes a specific set of test wafers through a tool, immediately after a preventive maintenance event or a process change, specifically to verify the tool's…
production, tool qualification, process qualification, product qualification, AEC-Q100, regulatory documentation, customer sign-off, qualification efficiency, requalification trigger
Qualification wafers are the physical test wafers processed specifically to generate documented proof that a tool, process, or product actually meets its specifications…
metrology
Quantification Limit (LOQ — Limit of Quantification) is the lowest concentration of an analyte that can be measured with acceptable accuracy and precision — higher than…
dot, semiconductor, technology, nanocrystal, optoelectronics, bandgap
Quantum Dot Semiconductor Technology is nanoscale semiconductor crystals (2-10 nm) exhibiting quantum confinement effects, enabling bandgap tuning via size and applications…
secure, semiconductor, cryptography, post-quantum, key, distribution
Quantum Secure Semiconductor is semiconductor devices and chips implementing quantum-safe cryptographic algorithms and quantum key distribution, protecting against future quantum…
Grand Capstone: Quantum EDA, Quantum PDKs, Layout Synthesis, DRC and LVS, and Multi-Physics Verification 1. The missing abstraction layer Classical integrated circuit design works…
transmon qubit design, josephson junction qubit, qubit coupling resonator, quantum processor layout, dolan bridge
Superconducting qubits and transmon architectures constitute the premier solid-state quantum computing platform fabricated using semiconductor cleanroom techniques on…
Quantum Chip Theory, Transmon Architectures, and Circuit Compilation Overview A superconducting quantum processor is a lumped-element circuit that has been persuaded to behave…
Silicon Quantum-Dot Spin Qubits and Exchange Gates A semiconductor spin qubit stores quantum information in the orientation of a single electron spin confined by electrostatic…
Integrated Quantum Photonic Chips, Pair Sources, and HOM Interference 1. Photons as quantum information carriers Integrated quantum photonics prepares, transforms, and measures…
qubit fabrication, silicon qubit, superconducting qubit, cryo-CMOS, transmon
Superconducting qubits and transmon architectures constitute the premier solid-state quantum computing platform fabricated using semiconductor cleanroom techniques on…
silicon spin qubit, superconducting qubit fabrication, qubit yield semiconductor, cryogenic semiconductor, transmon
Superconducting qubits and transmon architectures constitute the premier solid-state quantum computing platform fabricated using semiconductor cleanroom techniques on…
spin qubit silicon, singlet triplet qubit, exchange interaction qubit, silicon qubit error rate
Silicon Quantum Dot Spin Qubits is the solid-state quantum computing platform using electron spins confined in silicon quantum dots — manipulated via electrostatic gates…
Active Learning for Quantum Device Fabrication Active Learning for Quantum Device Fabrication Introduction Active Learning for Quantum Device Fabrication is an engineering…
Anomaly Detection for Quantum Device Fabrication Anomaly Detection for Quantum Device Fabrication Introduction Anomaly Detection for Quantum Device Fabrication is an engineering…