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The importance of lithography and etching machines for making chips is self-evident, but it is also impossible to make cores without quality control equipment. Just like the medical equipment such as CT, color ultrasound and biochemical analyzer, semiconductor quality control equipment is also a tool for chip "physical examination", collectively referred to as semiconductor testing equipment.

On May 19 this year, China Science and Technology Flying Test Co., Ltd. listed on the board, and its main business was semiconductor testing and measurement equipment with a localization rate of only 2%. On the first day of listing, it increased by 189.62% over the issue price, indicating that semiconductor quality control equipment will no longer be an invisible race track.

In this article, you will learn what the concept of semiconductor quality control equipment refers to, the overall development of semiconductor quality control equipment at home and abroad, and the way out for domestic equipment manufacturers.

Fu Bin, author

Li Tuo (Editor)

1. The concept of semiconductor detection which is easy to be confused, as a broad expression of semiconductor quality control, the industry is confused. Strictly speaking, semiconductor quality control is divided into three processes: testing, measurement and testing, and the technologies referred to are also different.

Inspection: detection of characteristic structural defects on the wafer surface or circuit to prevent the process performance of the finished chip from being affected, such as particle contamination, surface scratches, open short circuit, etc.

Metrology: a quantitative description of the structure size and material properties of a wafer circuit, such as film thickness, key dimensions, etching depth, surface morphology, etc.

Test: refers to the performance confirmation of semiconductor components that have been manufactured, which is a kind of electrical and functional testing. [2]

The equipment corresponding to the above three processes are called semiconductor testing equipment, semiconductor measuring equipment and semiconductor testing equipment respectively. In addition, in addition to the testing equipment of the process, there is also a third-party testing company for chip failure analysis in the design and verification stage, which is sometimes referred to as detection, which is easy to be confused. [3]

The position of quality control equipment in the semiconductor industry chain [2] quality control determines the yield of chip production, integrated circuit production process is complex, only the previous process has hundreds of processes, quantitative change leads to qualitative change, the defects of each process will be magnified to several times or even dozens of times over time, so only to ensure that there are no defects in each process in order to ensure the performance of the final product.

In other words, with each step of production, the semiconductor quality control equipment is used to check the production situation. According to the different production links, semiconductor quality control is divided into front channel test, middle channel test and back channel test.

Front inspection: also known as process inspection, oriented to wafer manufacturing, checking whether the processing parameters of wafer manufacturing processes such as lithography, etching, film deposition, cleaning, CMP, etc., meet the design requirements or have defects affecting yield, and are biased towards physical inspection.

Mid-channel detection: a new concept for advanced packaging, quality control of wafer manufacturing links such as rewiring structure, bumps and silicon through holes by non-contact means such as optics.

Post-testing: oriented to wafer testing (CP,Circuit Probing, also known as mid-test) and finished product testing (FT,Final Test, also known as final testing) to check whether the chip performance meets the requirements, biased towards electrical performance testing. [4]

The position of the front test, the middle test and the back test in the industry chain, mapping? fruit shell hard technology 2, two completely different status quo from the global semiconductor manufacturing equipment market, 15% to 20% of the money is spent on quality control equipment. In terms of market segmentation, testing equipment, measuring equipment and testing equipment account for 48%, 6% and 46% of the global quality control equipment market, respectively, while forming completely different front-line testing and post-test markets. [5]

Front test and back test involve specific equipment and market share (based on the latest traceable data), mapping, fruit shell hard science and technology reference materials, Zhongke Flying Test prospectus [2], future semiconductor [6] difficult to build testing and measurement equipment errors of several nanometers, size changes, particles or image errors, will cause the chip not to work properly, if the yield of each process loses 0.1%. The final yield will be reduced to 36.8% [7]. Testing and measuring equipment, as the two major equipment of front inspection, can effectively control the manufacturing process and increase the output.

Measuring equipment: used to measure transparent / opaque film thickness, film stress, doping concentration, key size, lithography registration accuracy, etc. The corresponding equipment is divided into ellipsometer, four probes, atomic force microscope, CD-SEM, OCD-SEM, thin film measurement, etc.

Testing equipment: used to detect wafer surface defects (including foreign body defects, bubble defects, particle defects, etc.), divided into bright / dark field optical image defect detection equipment, non-pattern surface detection equipment, macro defect detection equipment, etc. [2]

The classification of previous testing equipment and the situation of major manufacturers [8] there are three basic points for testing and measuring equipment: first, the scan must cover the entire wafer and ensure that the defect density approaches zero after hundreds of process steps. Second, the scanning speed must be fast enough, otherwise it is difficult to feedback the real situation of the manufacturing process in time, generally within a few minutes to an hour, to check the entire wafer in a few minutes, you need a data rate of more than 1010 pixels per second. Today, most advanced systems often use parallel reading hundreds of pixels to ensure the transmission rate. Third, the testing and measurement system must be fully automated and run 24 hours a day, while preventive maintenance is carried out at least every three months. [9]

In the technical route, detection and measurement are divided into three types: optical detection, electron beam detection and X-ray measurement. The three technologies have their own advantages in sensitivity, throughput and other parameters, and the application scenarios are different. At the same time, the three technologies can be applied to all advanced processes below 28nm (the dividing line between mature and advanced processes).

There are three technical routes of testing and measurement, tabulation, fruit shell hard science and technology reference, Chinese science and technology flying test prospectus [2] with the deepening of the development of the semiconductor industry, testing and measurement equipment has gradually kept up with the pace, and the development of the industry can be divided into two stages. The first stage is the increasing demand for sensitivity and repeatability, followed by the rising cost of monitoring wafers; the second stage is the demand for reliability and ease of use, at the same time, the chipmaker's pursuit of performance-to-price ratio, the pressure is constantly passed back to the manufacturer. Looking ahead, the two devices have the following trends:

Measuring equipment: thin film measurement has developed from simple single-layer thickness measurement to multi-layer thickness and refractive index measurement. At the same time, film quality and stoichiometry have become as important as film thickness control. With the increase of wafer size, the industry puts forward more requirements for its economic benefits, accuracy and system matching. The future trend is to monitor the processing parameters in the processing cavity, not the film characteristics. The electron microscope, which can only be active in the research field because of its high resolution, low speed and point scanning, has also begun to be used in specific defect inspection, such as measuring the critical size of the photoresist centerline space array. [9]

Testing equipment: from the 300mm wafer, and then to the process nodes that are approaching the limit, the requirements for the sensitivity, throughput, repeatability and automation of the detection system have long been different in the past, with the critical size gradually shrinking, the sensitivity requirements will only become higher and higher, in contrast, high sensitivity testing costs are extremely high, which is a reality that the industry has to face [10]. In the future, new device structure (GAAFET), new materials (graphene, carbon nanotubes, molybdenum disulfide, etc.) and new chip morphology (neural mimicry calculation) will bring more problems to the testing equipment, while machine learning, deep learning and sub-wavelength imaging technology are potential subversive technologies. [11]

The research and development of semiconductor testing and measurement equipment is difficult and expensive, but the market space is not as large as the middle and lower reaches of integrated circuits or chips, and the growth rate is relatively stable. According to the data, the global semiconductor measurement equipment will increase from US $7.3 billion in 2021 to US $13.3 billion in 2031, with a compound annual growth rate of 6.2%. At the same time, the global concentration of this field is extremely high, with KLA, Applied Materials and Hitachi accounting for 50.8%, 11.5% and 8.9% of the global market, respectively. [12]

Global market pattern of semiconductor testing and measurement equipment in 2020 [2] the localization rate of semiconductor testing and measurement equipment in China is very low, and the localization rate of semiconductor testing and measurement equipment in China is about 2% in 2020. Klei Semiconductor, Applied Materials and Hitachi occupy 54.8%, 9.0% and 7.1% of China's testing and measurement equipment market, respectively. While China's overall market accounts for about 27.4% of the global market, it is estimated that the market scale of China's testing and measuring equipment will reach 32.6 billion yuan in 2023. [13] [14]

From a patent point of view, China attaches great importance to semiconductor testing technology and has launched market competition. Smart Bud data show that using semiconductor testing as keyword search, there are 3210 patents in 170 countries, with a total value of US $109148100.

In terms of the trend of semiconductor testing patents and the life cycle of intelligent bud technology, semiconductor testing technology has been concerned since 1957. From 1957 to 1975, the relevant patent applications have been in single digits, and the degree of technical attention is not high. From 1976 to 2001, the number of applications and applicants increased year by year, which can be regarded as the budding period of technology. From 2002 to 2022, the number of relevant patent applications remains at 100,132 per year, and the market attention remains stable. combined with various factors, it is expected that the number of patent applications will increase slightly in the next two years.

In terms of technology source countries, Japan, China, the United States, South Korea and Germany rank in the top five in the field of semiconductor testing, accounting for 39.43%, 15.26%, 15.22%, 8.7% and 6.84%, respectively.

Semiconductor detection technology source country / region ranking, map source wisdom bud throughout the five bureau flow map, Japan and the United States semiconducting testing technology-related patents are relatively good, while China is concentrated in the domestic, lack of sea patents.

From the perspective of patent applicants in the field of semiconductor testing, Klei and Hitachi's patent reserves are substantially ahead of the rest of the market. Toshiba, Panasonic, Mitsubishi, Hamamatsu Photon, Samsung Electronics, General Electric, Sumitomo heavy Machinery, Renesa, Nippon Electric, Yokogawa Motor and other companies are also very active in the field of semiconductor testing patents.

However, patent concentration has declined year by year since 2017. In the past two decades, the concentration of semiconductor testing has exceeded 50% in 2006, 2010, 2013 and 2017, reaching 57.5%, 51.85%, 65.81% and 65.38%, respectively, and has dropped to 27.97% by 2022.

According to the ranking analysis of semiconductor testing applicants, Kelvin Measurement and Control, Chinese Science Flying Test, Changxin Storage, Yiyun Electronics, Lianxun equipment and other domestic new entrants have been more active in recent years, and the follow-up performance is worthy of attention.

According to the analysis of new entrants in semiconductor testing, the field of patents for semiconductor measurement is not as lively as the field of testing. Smart Bud data show that in 170 countries, there are 27 patents with a total value of 2487600 US dollars (US $). Of these, China won 47.62% of the related patents, followed by the United States (33.33%) and South Korea (9.52%). The main enterprises include Klei, Shanghai Precision Test Semiconductor, Ambrose Technology, Changxin Storage, Star Technology, Zhenxin Semiconductor, Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and so on.

Semiconductor measurement applicant ranking analysis, the source of wisdom bud lack of high-end test equipment in the industry, packaging and testing are mostly classified into one field, namely closed testing (Semiconductor assembly and test manufacturing,ATM), the process includes slicing, chip loading, bonding, plastic packaging, flanging, electroplating, printing, rib cutting and molding, appearance inspection, finished product testing, packaging and shipping, etc. [15]

Relative to the testing and measuring equipment interspersed between each process, the test equipment is interspersed before (wafer testing) and after (finished product testing) of the packaging process.

To put it simply, before the chips are cut from the wafers engraved with the circuit, the various parameters are tested, and then packaged into a chip like a sausage, and then the performance of the chip is tested again.

The testing equipment includes three kinds of testing machine (Tester), probe table (Prober) and sorting machine (Test Handler). No matter it is wafer testing or finished product testing, the test chip needs to connect the chip pin with the functional module of the testing machine (the function of the probe table and the sorting machine), and then input the signal to the chip through the testing machine, and detect the output signal. [16]

Among the three kinds of testing equipment, the market of testing machine is larger, and the technical barrier is higher, not only that, customers also put forward higher and higher requirements for testing accuracy, response speed, storage capacity, collection and analysis capacity, application customization, platform extensibility and so on. [17]

The specific process of integrated circuit production and testing [17] Semiconductor testing equipment can be divided into three development stages: 1990 ~ 2000, is the functional era, the process technology is concentrated in 0.8 μ m ~ 0.13 μ m, the chip carries more and more functions, and the traditional test platform is gradually eliminated; 2000 ~ 2015 is the era of efficiency, with the development of technology from 0.13 μ m to 14nm, the demand for parallel testing expands, 4-station and 8-station testing become standard. From 2015 to now, it is a new era, when the process process enters 3nm, when simple chip testing is only a basic function, and more complex features such as trim (fine tuning) become standard, these functions can effectively reduce design time and improve product yield. [7]

Semiconductor closed test is the earliest manufacturing link of transformation in our country. So far, it has become a relatively mature link in the integrated circuit industry chain of our country. As early as 2010, China has achieved sales of 63.2 billion yuan in packaging and testing, and its output value once accounted for more than 70% of the total output value of China's integrated circuit industry [15]. In 2020, the market scale of semiconductor test equipment in China has reached 9.14 billion yuan, and it has become the largest semiconductor sales market in the world for many years. [18]

Although it seems to be prosperous, the domestic market share of the actual core testing machine is relatively low. By looking at the public bidding information of Changdian Science and Technology, a domestic closed test manufacturer from 2015 to now, the testing machine is mainly overseas head manufacturers.

In 2019, the combined global market share of the two leading companies, Teradyne of the United States and Advantest of Japan, reached 90%, accounting for nearly 91.2% of the domestic market for testing equipment. In addition, manufacturers such as Cohu, Agilent and Xcerra of the United States have also been in the top position for a long time. In contrast to the domestic market, Huafeng Measurement and Control accounts for only 6.1% of the domestic market share, while Changchuan Technology accounts for 2.4%. [19]

In comparison, Edwin and Terrida entered the semiconductor testing field as early as the 1960s and 1970s, while China started relatively late, so the product line is single, focusing on analog / hybrid testing machines, while overseas manufacturers dabble in SoC testing machines, storage testing machines and analog / hybrid testing machines.

In terms of probe platforms, Tokyo Electron and Accretech account for 73 per cent of the world, while two Taiwanese companies, Fittech and MPI, account for most of the remaining market share. [19]

Domestic and foreign equipment manufacturers ATE test machine comparison [19] patent point of view, Japan established a very high patent wall, the domestic is also breaking through this wall. Smart Bud data show that semiconductor testing is used as a keyword search for 7057 patents in 170 countries, with a total value of US $127781900.

With regard to the trend of semiconductor testing patents and the life cycle of intelligent bud technology, semiconductor testing technology has attracted much attention since 1955. From 1955 to 1981, the relevant patent applications have been in single digits. From 1982 to 1993, the number of patent applications exceeded 100 in a short period of more than ten years. From 1994 to 2007, the number of patent applications and applicants increased year by year, and the market entered a budding period. At the same time, 2007 became the year with the largest number of semiconductor test patent applications in history, and then patent applications began to slow down. until now the market begins to show an upward trend. 2008 so far, the market still maintains a certain number of patent applications, the market has entered a stable period, and the next two years show a trend of growth.

In terms of technology source countries, Japan, China, the United States, South Korea and Taiwan rank in the top five in the field of semiconductor testing, accounting for 49.72%, 18.18%, 15.31%, 13.29% and 2.32%, respectively.

Semiconductor testing technology source country / region ranking, map source wisdom bud five bureau flow map, similar to the semiconductor testing field, Japan and the United States semiconductor testing technology-related patents are relatively good, while China has almost no patents to go to sea.

Judging from the situation of patent applicants in the field of semiconductor testing, Edwin's patent reserve is substantially ahead of the rest of the market. Yokogawa Electric, Mitsubishi, Samsung, Hitachi, Toshiba, Ruisa, Terida, Fujitsu, TSMC, NEC, SMIC and other companies are also very active in the field of semiconductor testing patents. In addition, from 2004 to 2017, the patent concentration of semiconductor testing has been maintained at more than 50% all the year round, while since 2018, the patent concentration has gradually reached about 30%.

According to the ranking analysis of semiconductor test applicants, in terms of domestic intelligence, new domestic entrants such as Shengdak, Changchuan Technology, Huafeng Measurement and Control, Precision testing Electronics, Zefeng Semiconductor, accelerated Technology, Muwang Intelligence, and British Platinum Scientific Instruments have been more active in recent years, and the follow-up performance is worthy of attention.

According to the analysis of new entrants to semiconductor testing, Tu Yuan, Wisdom Bud 3, equipment manufacturers need to pay more attention to different degrees of development in the field of front-end testing and post-test. Relatively speaking, the overall development of the latter test is faster than that of the previous test. However, no matter which aspect it is, there is a lack of high-end equipment in China. For the current development, we should pay attention to the following points:

A more unified view in the industry is that the low self-sufficiency rate of domestic semiconductor equipment is mainly due to the habitual purchase of foreign products by system, terminal, manufacturing and closed test manufacturers, making it difficult for local equipment to prove their actual manufacturing capacity. In this case, the communication between industry-university-research and the industry chain is the key; [20]

At present, the imbalance in the development of the industrial chain has become a fact. The road facing domestic manufacturers is not only to pursue the lowest cost, but also to constantly improve the stability, reliability and consistency of the equipment. In order to expand the application, we should constantly promote the cooperation between the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain; [7]

China's semiconductor industry started late, lack of high-skilled and highly innovative talents, insufficient talent viscosity and unreasonable talent structure, the existing talent level is difficult to support the development needs of the industry, and the general environment for the development of the domestic manufacturing industry is gradually improving. however, it is still necessary to further optimize the human resource structure; [19]

The manufacturing process of the chip still follows the route planned by Moore's Law. It can be said that the higher the transistor density, the higher the sensitivity and speed of the relevant testing, measurement and testing equipment. Whoever can find out the defects faster and non-destructively will be favored by the market, and the change of this technology will also be an opportunity for localization. Domestic production is not without opportunities at this time. Domestic manufacturers should give full play to their advantages of high performance-to-price ratio and high-quality service, and continue to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

Intermediate detection is put forward along with advanced packaging, which also includes the hot Chiplet (core particle) in the industry. When the chip approaches the 1nm limit, the industry is improving the overall performance of the chip by optimizing other processes. These new processes also put forward new requirements for testing and testing equipment. China should seize such development opportunities. [7]

Although there are many difficulties, in fact, the situation is not as bad as imagined. With the intensification of geopolitical frictions, more attention, capital, and technology have also begun to flow to semiconductor equipment manufacturers. At the same time, with various policy incentives and fund support, these manufacturers will also have more and more opportunities for trial and error.

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[18] China Business Intelligence Agency: prediction and Analysis of Product structure and Development trend of Semiconductor Test equipment in China in 2022 (figure) .2022.11.10. Https://www.askci.com/ news / chanye / 20221110/1144512017286.shtml

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This article comes from the official account of Wechat: fruit Shell hard Technology (ID:guokr233), author: Fu Bin

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