Specific Process Knowledge/Characterization/KLA-Tencor Surfscan 6420

The content on this page, including all images and pictures, was created by DTU Nanolab staff, unless otherwise stated.

Feedback to this page: click here

The KLA-Tencor Surfscan 6420 has has been decommisioned in April 2023 and replaced with the Particle Scanner Takano.

KLA-Tencor Surfscan 6420

The KLA-Tencor Surfscan (at the place in California where it was refurbished).

The KLA-Tencor is a surface analysis instrument for detecting, couting and sizing of particles, i.e. light point defects. A broad range of particles size from 0.15 µm to greater than 3 µm can be measured on a polished silicon surface with or without or epitaxial layers. The particle contamination in thin films like nitride, oxide and polymer or resist layers can also be inspected. The system will remove small surface roughness, so it will not count as particle contaminations.

The system is mainly being used for quality control of the PECVDs and LPCVD nitride furnaces in the cleanroom.

Users will have to contact the responsible persons (the Thin Film group), if they want to make some particle measurements.

Surfscan 6420

Process information

Acceptance test results

Overview of the performance of the Surfscan 6420 and some process related parameters

Purpose		Detecting, counting and sizing of particles (light point defects)
Performance	Particles size	0.15 µm to > 3 µm
	Througput	Up to 100 wafer per hour (200 mm)
	Repeatbility	Within 1%, 1σ (mean count > 500, 0.204 µm diameter latex spheres)
Process parameter range	Process Temperature	Room temperature
Substrates	Batch size	1-25 100 mm wafers 1-25 150 mm wafers 1-25 200 mm wafers (the loader has to be changed)
Substrates	Substrate materials allowed	Silicon Thin layers of oxide, nitride and polymer/resist