KLA-Tencor Announces New Teron™ SL650 Reticle Inspection System

MILPITAS, Calif., May 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, KLA-Tencor Corporation (NASDAQ: KLAC) announced the Teron™ SL650, a new reticle quality control solution for IC fabs that supports 20nm design nodes and beyond. With 193nm illumination and multiple STARlight™ optical technologies, the Teron SL650 provides the sensitivity and flexibility required to assess incoming reticle quality, monitor reticle degradation and detect yield-critical reticle defects, such as haze growth or contamination in patterned and open areas. In addition, the Teron SL650's industry-leading production throughput supports the fast cycle times required to qualify the increased number of reticles associated with advanced multi-patterning techniques.

"For IC manufacturers, understanding the reticle state is a central component of patterning process control as changes in reticle quality can have a devastating impact on every wafer printed," said Yalin Xiong, Ph.D., vice president and general manager of the Reticle Products Division (RAPID) at KLA-Tencor. "With the Teron SL650, our team has incorporated state-of-the-art reticle inspection technologies on a compact platform suitable for the IC fab, producing a reticle quality control system with advanced sensitivity, high productivity and extendibility for future nodes. By monitoring incoming reticles for critical defects and identifying progressive defects and changes to the mask pattern during production, our Teron SL650 can help chipmakers protect device yield, performance and cycle time."

The Teron SL650 supports a mix of reticle types within the fab by using STARlightSD™ and STARlightMD™ to produce superior defect capture and comprehensive inspection coverage on single- and multi-die reticles, respectively. Chipmakers can also use the innovative STARlightMaps™ technology to track reticle degradation over time and identify CD, film thickness, anti-reflective coating and other variations across the reticle—changes in reticle quality that can affect the lithographic process window or pattern printing. Moreover, the Teron SL650 is EUV-compatible, enabling early collaboration with IC manufacturers on in-fab EUV reticle inspection requirements.

Multiple Teron SL650 reticle inspection systems have been installed at foundry, logic, and memory manufacturers worldwide where they are being used for incoming quality check and re-qualification of reticles used in advanced IC manufacturing. To maintain the high performance and productivity demanded by leading-edge production, the Teron SL650 systems are backed by KLA-Tencor's global comprehensive service network. More information on the Teron SL650 reticle inspector can be found on the RAPID IC Fab Series product page.

About KLA-Tencor:
KLA-Tencor Corporation, a leading provider of process control and yield management solutions, partners with customers around the world to develop state-of-the-art inspection and metrology technologies. These technologies serve the semiconductor, LED and other related nanoelectronics industries. With a portfolio of industry-standard products and a team of world-class engineers and scientists, the company has created superior solutions for its customers for more than 35 years. Headquartered in Milpitas, Calif., KLA-Tencor has dedicated customer operations and service centers around the world. Additional information may be found at http://www.kla-tencor.com (KLAC-P).

Forward Looking Statements:
Statements in this press release other than historical facts, such as statements regarding the expected performance of the Teron SL650 reticle inspection system; the extendibility of the Teron SL650 reticle inspection system to future technology nodes; trends in the semiconductor industry and the anticipated challenges associated with them; expected uses of the Teron SL650 reticle inspection system by KLA-Tencor's customers; and the anticipated cost, operational and other benefits realizable by users of the Teron SL650 reticle inspection system, are forward-looking statements, and are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on current information and expectations, and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in such statements due to various factors, including delays in the adoption of new technologies (whether due to cost or performance issues or otherwise), the introduction of competing products by other companies or unanticipated technological challenges or limitations that affect the implementation, performance or use of KLA-Tencor's products.

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SOURCE KLA-Tencor Corporation