The P3 boasts high sensitivity to incremental changes in focus and exposure to provide stepper/scanner focus management, enabling partial SEM replacement.

The Nikon P3 integrated back-side inspection capability with real-time correlation to front-side defects ensures that the backside of the wafers will be free of defects prior to the photolithography process, ensuring that backside defects do not create an un-flat exposure surface leading to focus and exposure problems on the front-side of the wafer. The back-side inspection capability ensures rapid detection of contamination such as surface particles, residues, scratches, contamination, or damage caused by equipment chucks and pallets to prevent them from being spread throughout the fab.

• Pattern Profile Management — Line Width Roughness and Line Edge Roughness monitoring using Nikon exclusive PER optics down to the 55-nm node for high level of sensitivity comparable to SEM

• Exclusive TLEX technology for Unsurpassed VIA/Hole process inspection

• Ready for 55nm technology node

• Every wafer and entire surface inspection with high sensitivity to defocus errors to catch sudden litho cell problems

• High throughput of 180 wafers/hour, enabling 100% wafer and lot inspection

• Low false alarm rate

• Full host of web based analysis tools to help reduce manufacturing costs and time to market, ultimately leading to higher yields

In addition to the ADC function, users can specify their own rework criteria for each process. Adjusting the threshold of the defect criteria in the recipe provides automatic rework judgments in wafer and lot units.