If you want to be a player in the process tool business you have to make each generation of equipment smaller, more affordable and higher performance than the one before. For Nanometrics, small system size and higher performance were the keys to acceptance for their thin film measurement instrument… and MicroE Systems' Mercury™ encoders made it possible. According to Blaine Spady, Nanometrics' director of automation products, "Mercury's small size and high precision were critical to the success of our 9010DUV."

With massive fixed costs, profitability in the semiconductor business is based on developing and sustaining enormous production volumes. So, after the 300mm wafer, what's the next big idea in productivity? Integrated metrology to maximize yields. It's the measurement of critical parameters for each wafer in process rather than the measurement of a representative sample within a wafer lot. The rationale is obvious; if you catch a problem early you reduce scrap and increase productivity.

The Nanometrics 9010DUV thin film measurement station. Its speed and performance were significantly
enhanced by using the Mercury 3000 programmable encoder in multiple axes.

Enter Nanometrics with its model 9010DUV thin film measurement station. It had to meet the basic performance challenges: it had to be smaller, it had to be less expensive, it had to be better than ever, and it had to function as an integral part of the process tool (integrated metrology). In other words, it had to deliver outstanding performance and occupy minimal real estate.

According to Spady, "That's where the miniature Mercury 3000 programmable encoder made our product a reality. The tiny 8.4mm tall sensor fit easily into our custom stage design. Mercury's high bandwidth enabled extremely fast point-to-point speed, and its high precision allowed the motion system to drive directly to the measurement site with fewer position alignment procedures. All in all, MicroE Systems was the only encoder supplier to give us everything we needed in a single encoder platform."

The Mercury 3000 programmable encoder was easily reprogrammed to operate at the optimal resolution for each axis of motion.
No other encoder offers designers such flexibility and performance.

Encoder programmability was another benefit of the Mercury 3000 system.
Nanometrics' thin film measurement instrument has 3 axes of motion: X, Y and theta. And each axis has a different resolution requirement. "Mercury made our lives and our inventory mix simpler because we can program one model encoder to meet the resolution requirement for each axis of the instrument. What's more, the same sensor works for linear and rotary applications. So a single Mercury encoder met all of our needs." Spady asserted.

The Mercury 3000 programmable encoder is easy to program using its exclusive
SmartPrecision™ encoder setup software. Users can not only program resolution in integer
steps, they can monitor encoder operation in real time and perform powerful
diagnostic procedures.

SmartPrecision™ software displays Lissajous data plots of the raw and corrected signal.

SmartPrecisionl™ software displays position vs. velocity data plots.


SmartPrecision™ software displays signal strength over position data plots.

The final element in the encoder selection process was a willingness on the part of the supplier to modify their standard product to Nanometrics' exact requirements. According to Spady, "MicroE Systems Rapid Customer Response Team and Applications Engineering expertise exceeded our expectations. The company went the extra mile to modify their standard encoder so we could optimize our overall system performance and minimize its footprint. The bottom line, MicroE Systems is a supplier with superior products and outstanding OEM support."