Research accomplishments at the University of Arizona SEMATECH Center of Excellence for contamination/defect assessment and control

The Arizona SEMATECH Center of Excellence (SCOE) was established in May of 1988, is funded by SEMATECH and contractually monitored by the Semiconductor Research Corporation (SRC). The SCOE is engaged in research in a broad front to understand and control contamination which causes yield limiting defects in submicron ULSI circuits. Sandia National Laboratory personnel are integrated with UA personnel in the SCOE research. The focus of the research is on contaminants, both particulates and homogeneous or distributed, which originate in, are caused by, or are transported and deposited by process gases and chemicals or process equipment. Further, the work involves investigating the mapping from contaminants and contaminant levels to degradation of device properties. The resulting degradation in device properties can then be used to estimate the effects of such contaminants for submicron processes and circuits. Results achieved during the four years of the SCOE´s existence are described in this paper