Producer^™ Pyra^™ Anneal

As CDs continue shrinking, the number of steps needed to pattern small structures is increasing, thus creating the need for treatments of multiple patterning layers. Targeted treatments modify patterning films to improve their etch selectivity in multi-patterning schemes. In addition, metal reflow techniques are becoming essential for filling high aspect ratio features. The goal is to treat the metal layer to promote void-free, larger-grained metal growth to reduce line resistance—an especially challenging effect of decreasing interconnect dimensions.

The Applied Producer Pyra thermal processing system is the newest addition to the company’s suite of anneal products. This product targets the low to mid temperature range for applications mainly in the MOL/BEOL space. The high-productivity Pyra system was specifically designed for high-volume, soak anneals, leveraging the production-proven Producer platform with its low cost of operation and uncompromised device performance.

The Pyra system’s heating capability for soak anneals is based on a resistive heater that delivers excellent within-wafer and wafer-to-wafer anneal uniformity. The Producer platform with its multiple Twin Chamber^™ technology enables cycle time improvement in R&D mode and improved productivity in high-volume manufacturing mode.