Modular metrology tools for productivity enhancement in wafer fabs

Integrated metrology helps to reduce costs by decreasing the number of monitor wafers and by reducing the risk of wafer loss. For these reasons, there is an increasing demand for solutions which help to interface process control tools to manufacturing equipment in a cost-effective way. In this paper different measurement strategies are compared. A modular design of metrology tools is proposed enabling equipment vendors and sensor manufacturers to fast and easily integrate various metrology tools.