Qual-Dep Qualification Contamination Standards

Qual-Dep Wafer and Reticle Qualification Contamination Standards Programs developed to meet your needs Deposition Services.

Qual-Dep™ Qualification Contamination Standards from MSP, a Division of TSI, are tool-specific standards which validate performance, reduce risk to acceptance, and help match/align inspection systems.

Qualifing Defect Inspection Equipment

Qualify inspection tool performance during installation in a semiconductor fab using Qual-Dep™ Qualification Wafer and Reticle Contamination Standards to confirm that the tool performs to specifications, facilitating quick acceptance by your customer. These certified standards for wafer and reticle inspection tools are exclusive for each customer, simplifying the purchasing process and providing volume pricing.

Fabricating Electronic Devices

Periodically checking inspection tool performance using Qual-Dep™ Qualification Wafer and Reticle Contamination Standards supports statistical process control (SPC) for your manufacturing operations. MSP's particle deposition consistency allows you to use multiple contamination standards to reliably match performance among inspection/metrology tools within a single fab and globally among multiple fabs.

Download our Wafer and Photomask Surface Defect Contamination Standards Brochure to learn how MSP can help improve your surface defect inspection!

Request a Quote

Product	Request a Quote
Wafer Qual-Dep™ Qualification Contamination Standards	RFQ
Reticle Qual-Dep™ Qualification Contamination Standards	RFQ

Applications

Wafer inspection tool qualification
Wafer inspection tool traceable calibration
Reticle inspection tool qualification
Reticle inspection tool traceable calibration
Inspection tool performance matching

Specifications

Triple-wrapped single wafer shipper Qual-Dep™ Qualification Contamination Standards are built to customer specifications, typically after a tool or process has been developed using Dev-Dep™ Development Contamination Standards. The same customizable attributes available for Dev-Dep™ Development Contamination Standards are also available for each deposit made on your substrate of choice:

Deposit Pattern Type
Deposit Size and Position
Particle Material
Particle Size
Particle Count

Substrates

Deposits can be made on a variety of substrates including wafers, reticles (photomasks), pellicles, and disks. Customers typically provide the reticle of their choice, but MSP also provides optical photomask blanks. MSP typically provides bare silicon wafers for deposition but will also process customer-provided wafers with films, patterns, or other proprietary specifications.

Substrate Type	MSP-Supplied Substrate Sizes	Customer-Supplied Substrate Sizes
Bare Silicon Wafer	200 mm, 300 mm	100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm, 300 mm
Glass Wafer	200 mm, 300 mm	100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm, 300 mm
Sapphire Wafer	100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm*	100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm*
SiC Wafer	N/A	100 mm, 150 mm
GaAs Wafer	N/A	100 mm, 150 mm
Film or Patterned Wafer	N/A	100 mm, 150 mm, 200 mm, 300 mm
Optical Reticle (Photomask)	6 inch x 6 inch x 1/4 inch (Blank Only)	6 inch x 6 inch x 1/4 inch (All Types)
EUV Reticle (Photomask)	N/A	6 inch x 6 inch x 1/4 inch (All Types)
Pellicle	N/A	TBD*

* Non-standard substrate, processing of which may be subject to additional fees.

Deposits

Each deposit can be customized with a number of attributes from the selections listed in the following table. Restrictions apply to some combinations of attribute selections.

Attribute	Available Options or Ranges
Pattern Type	Spot, Full, Arc, Ring
Particle Type / Material	+ PSL Spheres (Size Standards) + SiO₂ Spheres (including MSP NanoSilica™ Size Standards) + MSP Process Particles™ Suspensions (AlF₃, Al₂O₃, Ni, Ru, Si, Si₃N₄, SiO₂, Sn, Ta, Ti, TiN, TiO₂, W, Y₂O₃)
Particle Size	10 nm – 20 μm**
Particle Count	Minimum 100 particles per deposit
Pattern Width	Typically 10-30 mm; Range of Pattern Width (e.g., Spot Diameter) is dependent on Particle Size
Pattern Location	Substrate-dependent

* Non-standard patterns, processing of which may be subject to additional fees.
** All-inclusive particle size range. Restrictions apply to each particle type/material.

Wafer or Reticle Contamination Standard Base Items

The Qual-Dep™ Qualification Contamination Standard (base item) consists of one deposit on a wafer or reticle (with triple-wrap packaging) and complete documentation (Deposition Summary, Certificate of Conformance, Certificate of Calibration) for each particle size standard.

Particle Material	Standard Base Item Deposit Patterns
	10 nm to <20 nm	20 nm to 3 µm*	>3 µm to 20 µm*
PSL Spheres	Spot	Spot, Full	Spot
SiO₂ Spheres	Spot, Full	Spot, Full	Spot
Process Particles**	N/A	Spot, Full	N/A

* Particles larger than 1.6 µm are not processed with DMA technology.
** Process Particles are available in limited size ranges, which are dependent on particle material.

Additional Deposits

Individual deposits can be added to the base item to create a Qual-Dep™ Qualification Contamination Standard with virtually any number of particle deposits.

Particle Material	Additional Deposit Patterns
	10 nm to <20 nm	20 nm to 3 µm*	>3 µm to 20 µm*
PSL Spheres	N/A	Spot, Full	Spot
SiO₂ Spheres	Spot	Spot, Full	Spot
Process Particles**	N/A	Spot, Full	N/A

* Particles larger than 1.6 µm are not processed with DMA technology.
** Process Particles are available in limited size ranges, which are dependent on particle material.

200mm semiconductor wafer single shippers semiconductor photomask single shippers 300mm semiconductor wafer single shippers

Witness Wafers

To validate any wafer or reticle deposition processing (other than a 200 mm or 300 mm silicon wafer), MSP first deposits particles using the same deposition recipe on a 'Witness Wafer.' The Witness Wafer (200 mm or 300 mm) is inspected using a Scanning Surface Inspection System (SSIS) with ~35 nm sensitivity (KLA Surfscan® SP2).

Each Witness Wafer comes with a Deposition Summary, which includes SSIS inspection results (Report Only). At additional cost, the Witness Wafer can be shipped to the customer (Report & Ship).

For particle size <80 nm (PSL light-scattering-equivalent), a 300 mm Witness Wafer is recommended because 300 mm wafers generally have lower background counts at small sizes and provide better inspection signal-to-noise than 200 mm wafers. For larger particle sizes, 200 mm wafers are more cost-effective.

Wafer Inspection

MSP inspects 200 mm or 300 mm bare silicon witness wafers with particles using a Scanning Surface Inspection System (SSIS) with ~35 nm sensitivity (KLA Surfscan® SP2). Inspection results are provided in the Deposition Summary that accompanies the reticle contamination standard, including a scan image with particle size information and approximate count for each deposit.

Features & Benefits

Qual-Dep™ Qualification Contamination Standards provide several major benefits to equipment suppliers and fabs that aren't available with other standards.

Exclusivity: Qual-Dep™ Qualification Contamination Standards are sold as exclusive items with dedicated part numbers, simplifying the purchasing process and ensuring consistent specifications from order to order.
Supply Chain Integration: MSP can work with your supply chain to simplify the buying process, minimize substrate transport, and shorten the delivery time of Qual-Dep™ Qualification Reticle and Wafer Contamination Standards.
Record Management: MSP uses a record management system to control/track deposition recipe revisions, and record/monitor key particle deposition parameters for purposes of quality assurance and traceability.
Terms & Conditions: MSP will negotiate terms and conditions to your benefit including quantity, pricing, and lead time.

Surfscan is a registered trademark of KLA Corporation.