SAN JOSE, Calif., June 18, 2001 - KLA-Tencor Corp. (Nasdaq: KLAC) today introduced the latest addition to its family of wafer inspection tools-the Surfscan™ SP1 DLS. The Surfscan SP1 DLS is the first 300 mm inspection tool that provides brightfield, darkfield and nanotopography defect information in a single scan. It is designed to capture the widest variety of yield-limiting defects (down to 50 nm) at high throughput (up to 125 wafers per hour) to accelerate yield learning at 130 nm, 100 nm and smaller design rules. The combination of high sensitivity at high throughput with real-time defect classification makes the Surfscan SP1DLS one of the industry's lowest cost-of-ownership tools. The thorough inspection capabilities of the Surfscan SP1 DLS will enable wafer and integrated circuit (IC) manufacturers to more rapidly develop and ramp their advanced processes for the production of 100 nm and smaller devices.

As device geometries continue to shrink, the physical structure of the wafer's surface has emerged as a critical concern. Ultra-small material defects and surface micro-property variations are having a greater impact on gate dielectric integrity, which affects device performance. According to the 1999 International Technology Roadmap for Semiconductors, these increasingly critical defect issues are driving the need for greater cooperation between wafer suppliers and IC manufacturers to ensure overall IC yield loss from starting materials does not exceed one percent.

"High speed and accuracy in detecting defects as small as 50 nanometers on unpatterned tool monitor wafers are critical in achieving the low defect densities necessitated by shrinking design rules and the increasing transistor count," stated Bill Funsten, CFM manager at AMD-SDC. "KLA-Tencor's Surfscan SP1 DLS is playing a key role in meeting that challenge."

The unique architecture of Surfscan SP1 DLS is built upon the industry benchmark SP1 TBI. It enables rapid capture and characterization of critical defect types on blanket film wafers during lithography, deposition, etch and chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) processing, thereby reducing the risk to product wafers. The Surfscan SP1 DLS is available with wafer-edge handling, which allows the tool to non-destructively inspect the backside of wafers for contamination-a critical requirement for 300 mm double-sided polished wafers.

"The technologies that are needed for today's leading-edge devices, including copper and low-k materials, 300 mm wafer size and sub-wavelength lithography, all require tighter process control and faster learning rates for cost-effective implementation in production. When considering device performance and yield, defect management is just as important during the wafer fabrication process as it is during IC production," stated Bob Perlmutter, general manager of the Surfscan Division at KLA-Tencor. "Any process errors that arise during wafer production can have a significant impact on subsequent processing in the IC fab, ultimately resulting in yield loss. The Surfscan SP1DLS provides our customers with a single platform that meets their requirements for high-speed blanket wafer inspection with the low cost of ownership and high sensitivity needed to capture new and emerging defects across all process modules."

The Surfscan SP1 DLS has excellent correlation to KLA-Tencor's widely adopted Surfscan SP1 TBI, which was introduced in 1998.

KLA-Tencor is expected to begin volume production of the Surfscan SP1 DLS in July 2001.

Visit KLA-Tencor's booth, #426, at SEMICON West 2001 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, July 16-18, to learn more about this new product.


About KLA-Tencor: KLA-Tencor is the world leader in yield management and process control solutions for semiconductor manufacturing and related industries. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., the company has sales and service offices around the world. An S&P 500 company, KLA-Tencor is traded on the Nasdaq National Market under the symbol KLAC.

Contact:
Meggan Powers
Director Corporate Communications