Applied Materials offers better equipment for finding chip defects

Applied Materials Korea CEO Park Gwang-sun makes a presentation during a press event on Feb. 13 at Grand InterContinental Seoul Parnas in Gangnam District, southern Seoul. [APPLIED MATERIALS]

Applied Materials has introduced new chip equipment designed to better detect defects in semiconductors to target chipmakers focused on high-performing chips.

The Santa Clara, California-based chip equipment maker said Monday that its latest electron beam (eBeam) imaging tools using a new technique called cold field emission (CFE) can identify the defects of wafers down to a 1 nanometer.

The tools, named SEMVisioin and PrimeVision, is the world’s first eBeam equipment deploying the CFE technique, an advancement from conventional eBeam tools based on thermal field emission.

“The new tools will be capable of detecting and imaging nanometer-scale, buried defects to speed the development and production of advanced chips manufacturing with Gate-All-Around (GAA) as well as higher-density dynamic random access memory chips and 3D NAND memories,” said Martin Lee, managing director at Applied Materials.

GAA is a transistor technology used in Samsung Electronics 3 nanometer chips.

Asked whether Applied Materials supplies its eBeam tools to Samsung Electronics, Lee declined to comment, only adding that the company’s eBeam product line made $400 million in revenue.

The equipment maker expects that demand for the inspection equipment will keep on increasing as chipmakers look for more precise review tools for their advanced chips where more transistors are crammed onto smaller dies.

In line with the trend, Applied Materials will build a research center in Korea, although the size of investment and location have not been decided.

“We are planning to build a research center to support our clients more seamlessly,” said Applied Materials Korea CEO Park Gwang-sun during a press conference Monday.

Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are among the biggest clients for Applied Materials with Korea-based companies accounting for 17 percent of its sales last year.

Its manufacturing facilities are primarily based in Austin, Texas and Singapore. The sites are responsible for producing about 80 percent of Applied Materials’ equipment products.

BY PARK EUN-JEE [park.eunjee@joongang.co.kr]