3D Visualization of nano scale Height Data

An Interview with Jeff Davis, Nanometrics Inc.

Jeff Davis is a Software engineer at Nanometrics Inc. in the Hillsboro, Oregon, USA office. He works on the software support for the UniFire 7900 product line.

ILNumerics: Please tell us about nanometrics!

Nanometrics is a leading provider of advanced, high-performance process control metrology and inspection systems used primarily in the fabrication of semiconductors and other solid-state devices, such as data storage components and discretes including high-brightness LEDs and power management components. Nanometrics’ automated and integrated metrology systems measure critical dimensions, device structures, overlay registration, topography and various thin film properties, including film thickness as well as optical, electrical and material properties.

ILNumerics: Which applications are you currently working on?  

Our Hillsboro, Oregon office works on software support for the UniFire 7900 product line. The UniFire 7900 provides high-precision lithography metrology for high-volume semiconductor IC manufacturers. This fully automated tool delivers critical dimension (CD), overlay, and film thickness in one measurement. In the back end of the line (BEOL), for redistribution layer (RDL) and under bump metallization (UBM) patterning, Nanometrics' 3D measurement technique provides repeatable critical dimensioning of the most challenging within-die product structures.

ILNumerics: Which tools have you been using so far and what made you look for alternatives?

The optical hardware used in this product is based on technology from Zygo Corp. The Unifire 7900 product used to be owned by Zygo and was bought by Nanometrics. The software we work on is written in C++ and C# .NET 4.5  as a Windows Forms application. It utilizes several 3^rd Party components. We have looked at Digital Surf and JUMP from SAS for visualization for offline analysis of data. But none of them fits our needs. So we decided for the ILNumerics 3D controls.

ILNumerics: Which parts of the product are now supported/improved by ILNumerics?

Our intent is to integrate ILNumerics into this software to allow a 3D visualization of height data in a surface plot. That would work like the Syncfusion diagram does.

ILNumerics: What value are you getting out of ILNumerics today? Did utilizing ILNumerics change the development process and if ‘yes’: how?