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Keithley
Partners with Stratosphere Solutions to Enable Advanced Process
Characterization at Sub-65nm
Partnership delivers silicon-proven interoperable solution
to drive parametric yields higher
Cleveland, OH - February 11, 2008 - Keithley
Instruments, Inc. (NYSE:KEI), a leader in solutions for emerging
measurement needs, announces a partnership with Stratosphere
Solutions, Inc. (Sunnyvale, CA), a provider of innovative
parametric yield improvement solutions for integrated circuit
manufacturers. Keithley's partnership with Stratosphere Solutions
will address advanced process development and monitoring using
an Array TEG (test element group) technology.
Parametric process variation at the sub-65nm
level is posing significant challenges to design and test
engineers as IC manufacturers seek to produce ever-smaller
devices. The semiconductor industry is seeing a rapidly growing
need for monitoring extremely sensitive production processes
in order to optimize IC performance without sacrificing yields.
Keithley and Stratosphere Solutions will work together to
provide mutual customers with a unique characterization infrastructure
that includes high volume, high throughput, and reliable parametric
measurements using Keithley's Series S600 Parametric Testers
and StratoPro™ IP to ensure customer success.
"As semiconductor technology pushes
the upper limits of device miniaturization to nano-scale levels,
measurement technology must not only keep pace but even lead
manufacturers' ability to build and test these devices,"
explained Mark Hoersten, Keithley vice president, business
management. "As a leader in semiconductor test technology,
Keithley looks forward to collaborating with leading players
in the industry to create innovative solutions for the most
advanced customer applications."
"We are excited to be working with Keithley
to deliver innovative, out-of-the-box, interoperable solutions
that connect best-in-class tools, critical for our industry."
said Prashant Maniar, Chief Strategy Officer, Stratosphere
Solutions, Inc. "As technology advances to 45nm and below,
more and more customers face the challenge of ramping parametric
yield. Our tightly integrated, silicon-proven solution is
a linchpin in empowering customers to drive parametric yield
higher, reduce the cost of ramping parametric yield, accelerate
test time, and improve ROI."
Keithley's Series S600 Parametric Testers
help fabs and wafer foundries reduce their cost of test by
being adaptable to changing device technologies. Their ability
to be repurposed as very minimal cost DC, RF, and array TEG
testers provides capital equipment reuse and therefore lowers
the cost of test. The latest in the Series S600, the Model
S680, combines, in a single test system, parallel testing
capability, high DC sensitivity, femtoamp-level resolution,
and RF s-parameter measurements up to 40GHz. This provides
the industry's highest throughput and a lower cost of ownership
for measurements at the 65nm node and beyond.
Array TEG structures, like Stratosphere's
award-winning StratoPro product suite, are increasingly becoming
mission-critical for characterizing semiconductor processes
as geometries shrink below 65nm. Leading edge semiconductor
companies desire a de facto standard product, StratoPro, which
delivers thousands of times higher density for the same silicon
area, highest resolution measurements, and improved overall
test integrity.
StratoPro™, a Parametric ActiveMatrix™
silicon IP platform, empowers fab and fab-lite customers to
characterize with high accuracy, within-die statistics of
electrical parameters and their variability. Customers choose
the 65nm and 45nm silicon-proven StratoPro platform, because
it provides 10 to 1000x greater test structure density, performs
very high resolution measurements, and, coupled with the Keithley
tester platform, provides significant improvement in test
time. Fab customers use StratoPro™ during early process
development, yield ramp, and production monitoring. Fab-lite
customers use the solution to characterize design-style dependent
process variations.
About Stratosphere Solutions
Stratosphere Solutions, Inc. is the leading provider of an
innovative parametric yield improvement solution including
a silicon-proven IP platform and modeling applications empowering
customers to reduce impact of variability on performance and
parametric yield. Its customer base includes leading worldwide
semiconductor companies building products utilizing processes
from 130nm to 45nm. For additional information, visit www.stratosol.com.
About Keithley Instruments, Inc.
With more than 60 years of measurement expertise, Keithley
Instruments has become a world leader in advanced electrical
test instruments and systems from DC to RF (radio frequency).
Our products solve emerging measurement needs in production
testing, process monitoring, product development, and research.
Our customers are scientists and engineers in the worldwide
electronics industry involved with advanced materials research,
semiconductor device development and fabrication, and the
production of end products such as portable wireless devices.
The value we provide them is a combination of precision measurement
technology and a rich understanding of their applications
to improve the quality of their products and reduce their
cost of test.
For More Information. For more information on Keithley's parametric
testers or any of its semiconductor test equipment, visit
www.keithley.com/products/semiconductor or contact the company
at:
Telephone: 800-688-9951
440-248-0400
FAX: 440-248-6168
E-mail: publisher@keithley.comInternet: www.keithley.comAddress:
Keithley Instruments, Inc.
28775 Aurora Road
Cleveland, OH 44139-1891
Products and company names listed are trademarks or trade
names of their respective companies.
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