At a glance
| Booth | I2022 |
| Country | TW |
| Website | www.oxinst.com |
Company profile
Oxford Instruments provides high-technology products and services to industrial companies and scientific research communities, with a stated purpose of helping customers address challenges connected with a greener economy, increased connectivity, improved health and advances in scientific understanding. Its capabilities are organized across business units within Materials and Characterisation and Research and Discovery activities, spanning fabrication, characterisation, imaging, analytical measurement and the creation of specialised research environments down to molecular and atomic scales. Materials and Characterisation develops products and solutions for fabricating and characterising devices down to the atomic scale, while Asylum Research focuses on Atomic Force Microscopy and NanoAnalysis provides tools for materials characterisation and sample manipulation at the nanometre scale. Magnetic Resonance provides benchtop NMR spectroscopy and time-domain NMR relaxometry solutions for research and quality control, and WITec covers Raman, Atomic Force Microscopy and Scanning Near-field Optical Microscopy. Within Research and Discovery, Andor Technology develops and manufactures high-performance scientific digital cameras, microscopy systems and spectrographs for academic, industrial and government applications, while Imaris develops interactive microscopy image-analysis software focused on 3D and 4D imaging. Plasma Technology supplies etch and deposition processing equipment and solutions; NanoScience supplies dilution refrigerators and ultrahigh magnetic-field environments for quantum technologies, nanotechnology research, advanced materials and nanodevice development; and X-Ray Technology manufactures x-ray tubes, power supplies and integrated x-ray sources. Oxford Instruments supports semiconductor work across fabrication, failure analysis, inspection and process control, with product families that include microscopy, spectroscopy, x-ray, deposition and etch tools as well as training, application and product support, spares, upgrades and service arrangements. Its semiconductor activities include work with ROHM Semiconductor on 200 mm GaN device production, with Coherent Corp. on indium-phosphide fabrication, and with AOI on indium-phosphide optoelectronic device manufacturing. For compound-semiconductor production, Oxford Instruments describes itself as a supplier of plasma etch and deposition systems used by semiconductor device manufacturers, backed by process experience for production and by global service and support with 24/7 service contracts available. Its production offering covers applications including 2D materials, augmented reality, biomedical devices, failure analysis, HBLEDs, MEMS and sensors, infrared sensors, lasers, microLEDs, power devices, quantum technology, RF devices and VCSELs.
Exhibits
The semiconductor offering includes a high-throughput Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) system for large-scale manufacturing of advanced devices including GaN power devices, with emphasis on uniformity, conformality and low cost per wafer. A versatile plasma etch, deposition and Atomic Layer Etching (ALE) platform supports high-volume processes for InP and GaAs optoelectronics, GaN and SiC power devices, microLEDs, sensors and MEMS, with process control and uniformity aimed at consistent results. Ion beam etching and ion beam deposition are available for slanted and blazed grating work, with open-load, single-substrate load-lock and cassette-to-cassette hardware configurations and application-specific specifications intended to support repeatable processing. Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy systems provide elemental analysis and mapping for semiconductor process monitoring, quality control and failure analysis, with resolution, speed and reliability positioned for rapid analysis. The portfolio also includes non-destructive, label-free chemical characterisation with high spectral and spatial resolution for materials and life-science applications without sample preparation. For III-V laser manufacturing, Oxford Instruments applies plasma processing to materials including InP and GaAs/AlGaAs and offers etch and deposition processes for InP lasers and VCSELs, including masking, passivation, mesa and isolation steps using PECVD, ICP etching and RIE. Its InP laser process addresses components operating at high frequencies and a stated achievable wavelength range of 1100 to 2000 nm for fibre-optic communications, while its VCSEL manufacturing approach targets electro-optical performance and yield for applications including 3D sensing. For VCSEL structures, the stated process capabilities include non-selective GaAs/AlGaAs etching with smooth sidewalls and no notching at individual layers, together with highly precise mesa-depth control using an ultra-low-footing process and fully automated endpoint control. Related production systems named for these laser and optoelectronic processes include PlasmaPro 100 Cobra ICP RIE Etch, PlasmaPro 100 PECVD, Atomfab ALD, FlexAL ALD, PlasmaPro 100 RIE and PlasmaPro 100 Polaris ICP RIE. For microLED manufacturing, the portfolio combines etch, ALE, ALD and ion-beam technologies, with named solutions including PlasmaPro 100 Cobra ICP RIE Etch, PlasmaPro 100 ALE, Atomfab ALD and Ionfab Ion Beam for a display technology characterised by high brightness, contrast and dynamic range with low power consumption. For augmented-reality devices, ICP etching, RIE and Ion Beam Etching can handle wafers up to 200 mm for high-volume production, and cluster configurations can use a vacuum-transfer robot for mask-etching and AR-coating modules. PlasmaPro 100 process modules provide a 200 mm platform with single-wafer and multi-wafer batch capability, combining throughput, precision and uniformity with smooth vertical profiles and etch surfaces for markets including GaAs and InP laser optoelectronics, microLEDs and metalenses, SiC and GaN power electronics or RF, MEMS and sensors. The Ionfab IBE system is configured for uniformity on 200 mm wafers, and its ion-beam technology and grid design are used to form standard 45° gratings with processing capability for materials including Si and SiO2. For wide-bandgap devices, the application range covers SiC and GaN power devices and RF devices; the material set is associated with high-power and high-frequency applications, while GaN HEMTs are identified for uses including electric cars and base-station communications. For 2D-material fabrication, the listed materials include graphene, MoS2, hBN and WS2, with applications such as FETs, batteries and filters and with CVD and ALD process routes represented in the system portfolio. The PlasmaPro 100 Nano CVD/PECVD system supports high-temperature deposition of nanostructured materials and silicon-based thin films, with a substrate electrode that can be heated to 1200˚C, showerhead gas injection, solid or liquid precursor delivery, an automatic load lock and plasma-enhancement options for lower-temperature deposition, conversion, functionalisation and chamber cleaning. Its ALD capabilities include atomic-layer thickness control, wafer sizes up to 200 mm with typical uniformity below ±2%, step coverage in high-aspect-ratio structures, conformal coating, low pin-hole and particle levels, low-damage and low-temperature processing, reduced nucleation delay and support for a wide range of materials and processes. For semiconductor failure analysis, Atomic Force Microscopy can be combined with techniques such as scanning microwave impedance microscopy, Kelvin probe force microscopy and conductive AFM to study electrical properties ranging from I-V curves to dopant-concentration maps down to 1014 atoms/cm3, using platforms including Cypher and MFP-3D. Sample preparation for failure analysis is described as requiring repeatable processing typically below 30 minutes per sample, with 3 or 5 nm nodes requiring specimen thickness below 20 nm; OmniProbe 400 uses piezo-driven motion for repeatable positioning at the 10 nm scale and concentric rotation for advanced preparation geometries. For die deprocessing, plasma-assisted etch tools remove oxides, nitrides and polymides while avoiding lifting or damaging metallisation, and the flexible FA tool is described as enabling die deprocessing up to 10 times faster than the previous process. Ultim Extreme EDS is used to obtain elemental information at 10 nm resolution on bulk semiconductor devices under SEM imaging conditions, while Ultim Max TEM detectors use AZtecTEM for quantitative analysis at high resolution. Magnetic-force microscopy supports direct imaging of magnetic-domain structure in disk media and other magnetic devices, and the MFP-3D Infinity AFM with variable-field module is positioned for analysis of recorded bits and read/write transducers. Inspection and process-control capabilities include nanoindentation for mechanical characterisation of thin films, AFM tools on the MFP-3D and Cypher families for nanoscale electrical characterisation, and AZtecFeature workflows for detecting and characterising large numbers of particles over large sample areas. The device-manufacturing portfolio is built around plasma etching by RIE, ICP RIE, IBE and ALE and plasma deposition by PECVD, ICP CVD, CVD, IBD and ALD, covering the Etchfab, Depfab, Ionfab and Atomfab technology groupings. Oxford Instruments states that its compound-semiconductor production systems are used for volume manufacturing and that its accumulated plasma etch and deposition experience exceeds 500 combined years. Production-system formats include 200 mm and multi-wafer batch processing designed to provide uniformity, high throughput and low cost of ownership across multiple technologies. The production applications extend from virtual-reality technology to electric vehicles, alongside compound-semiconductor markets represented elsewhere in the portfolio by lasers, microLEDs, power devices, RF devices and sensor technologies. Support for production users includes service-support packages, process solutions, remote support, upgrades and software, spares, service information and technical training at introductory, intermediate and advanced levels plus specialist modules. The wider semiconductor product list also includes Cypher VRS1250 high-speed AFM, Jupiter XR AFM, Ultim Extreme, Ultim Max, PlasmaPro 800 RIE, PlasmaPro 80 ICP RIE, Symmetry S3, iX05, NMT04, i04, Jupiter 5000 Series Radiation Shielded X-ray Tube, AZtecOne, C-RED 3, CB1 UV, Wave Spectrometer and AZtecWave.
Capabilities and products
- atomic force microscope manufacturing
- benchtop NMR and TD-NMR relaxometry
- Raman, AFM and scanning near-field optical microscopy
- scientific digital cameras, microscopy systems and spectrographs
- 3D/4D microscopy image analysis software
- dilution refrigerators and ultrahigh magnetic field environments
- x-ray tubes, power supplies and integrated x-ray sources
- high-throughput atomic layer deposition (ALD) systems
- plasma etch, deposition and ALE platforms
- ion beam etching (IBE)
- energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) systems
- non-destructive label-free chemical characterisation
- nanoindentation mechanical characterization