Examination of process parameter variations

Chapter 3 presents an overview on the sources of variations in the manufacturing process. Section 3.1 deals with the so-called Front-End Of Line (FEOL) variations that refer to the variations on the device level. Besides the extrinsic variability that is caused by the imperfections of the manufacturing process, the intrinsic variability due to atomic-level differences is gaining importance. At the nanoscale level, even an uncertainty of a few atoms may adversely affect the parameters and the behavior of microelectronic devices. Some details are going to be figured out in the first section of this chapter.