Capacity increase for existing Varian EHP220 and EHP500 implanters

Wafer throughput is of great importance to the semiconductor production facility. The problems of financial and spatial considerations magnified by aging fabs and industry downturns are directing focus to improving existing capacity and away from purchasing new tools. Wafer handler hardware upgrades, software upgrades, and improved operation procedures were implemented on three Varian EHP-220 implanters and one EHP-500 implanter to achieve higher capacity. This was accomplished without adversely affecting implant process parameters, tool uptime, or product uniformity. This paper presents two stages of improvements along with the data for corresponding increase in tool capacity and retention of tool and process reliability.