New Centralized Hub Supports up to Eight Sensors for Precise, Repeatable, Non-Contact Temperature Measurement inSpace-Constrained Semiconductor Equipment
Advanced Energy Industries Inc. (Nasdaq: AEIS), a global leader in highly engineered, precision power conversion, measurement and control solutions, today launched the new Centra™ Smart Hub at SEMICON West in San Francisco.
The Centra Smart Hub, combined with Advanced Energy’s new Remote Smart Sensors (RSS), enables more accuratewafer-temperature measurementand real-time temperature control for many lamp-heatedSi and SiC thermal processes, such as rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and Epitaxial (Epi) growth.
The result is a comprehensive, customizable solution that delivers industry-leading performance, with up to a 40% improvement in accuracy over other standard solutions when measuring at either 3.3 um or 5.2 um and at temperatures up to 1700°C. This is a critical leap for new and emerging semiconductor manufacturing processes, leading to increased throughput, process uniformity, and product quality.The Centra Smart Hub includes embedded ECAT and Ethernet protocolsto integrate into today’s leading system architectures for faster time-to-market and new applications.
“Advanced Energy’s new Centra Smart Hub and Remote Smart Sensors deliver industry-leading performance to meet today’s process requirements along with a new architecture for semiconductor processing systems,” said Juergen Braun, Executive Vice President of Plasma Power at Advanced Energy. “The Centra Smart Hub enables temperature measurement for Si and SiC processes to help fabs improve wafer-to-wafer repeatability and thermal uniformity for higher yields.”
Many of theseprocessesrely oninfrared (IR)lampheating,which can challenge traditional pyrometers, many of which operate in the short- and near-IR measurement wavelengths. The strong thermal signal from IR lamps can “flood” or saturate traditional near-IR pyrometers, making them unsuitable for wafer measurement. For this reason, measuring at a different wavelength can avoid the strong IR signal produced by the lamps and reduce its effecton the detected temperature.
Centra’s hub-and-spoke architecture has been optimized for semiconductor chambers.The Centra Smart Hub is placed in an instrument rack and connected to the RSS. The RSS is installed directly on the chamberand provides multiple measurement points across the waferinambient temperatures of up to 60°C.
See product specifications and more information here.
