Chipmetrics is expanding its Area-Selective Deposition test chip portfolio with ASD-2, a new multi-material test chip platform designed to help semiconductor process teams evaluate selective deposition on advanced metal–dielectric surfaces.
Building on the foundation of the ASD-1 test chip, ASD-2 introduces a more flexible approach to ASD process development: a variable material stack that can be tailored to customer requirements. The new platform is designed for researchers and process engineers working with selective ALD, CVD, and other thin-film deposition processes where nucleation behavior, selectivity, and growth mechanisms depend strongly on the interaction between deposited films and underlying surface materials.
Right: ASD-2 test chip Schematic 3D view.
At the heart of ASD-2 are high-resolution alternating material lines embedded into a planar silicon surface using Chipmetrics’ patented V-groove technology. The structures are designed to bring multiple relevant material interfaces onto a single, metrology-ready test chip, enabling process teams to evaluate area-selective depositions on metallic or dielectric structures with improved statistical confidence.
The first ASD-2 configurations will become available in August, with the standard off-the-shelf material stack to be finalized closer to launch. In parallel, Chipmetrics will offer custom ASD-2 material stack options, allowing customers to define metal–dielectric combinations aligned with their own process roadmaps. This enables ASD-2 to serve both as a ready-to-use evaluation chip and as a flexible development platform for emerging selective deposition schemes.
The ASD-2 datasheet describes alternating metallic and dielectric line structures, including candidate materials such as tungsten, titanium nitride, molybdenum, silicon dioxide, and silicon nitride, with narrow line structures of approximately 100 nm width, surface planarity below 5 nm, and chip sizes including 15 mm × 15 mm, 7.5 mm × 15 mm, and 7.5 mm × 7.5 mm. Blank reference chips are also available to support optical and other measurements on larger film areas.
“Area-selective deposition is becoming an increasingly important capability for advanced semiconductor manufacturing,” said Thomas Werner, Head of Wafer Business at Chipmetrics. “With ASD-2, we are giving customers a more adaptable way to study selectivity across material systems that reflect their own integration challenges. It is a natural extension of our ASD-1 platform and complements our broader metrology chip offering by bringing material-stack flexibility into a controlled, analysis-ready test structure.”
ASD-2 complements Chipmetrics’ existing metrology chip portfolio by offering a dedicated platform for ASD process learning, benchmarking, and development. Its planarized surface supports surface analysis and thin-film metrology, while the large patterned areas are designed for reliable statistical process evaluation. Delivery options include single chips, 200 mm wafers, pocket wafers for customer-side assembly, and pre-assembled chips on pocket wafers.
Customers interested in ASD-2, including custom material stack configurations, can contact Chipmetrics to discuss requirements and request a quotation.
Availability: August
Product: Chipmetrics ASD-2 Area-Selective Deposition Test Chip
Use cases: ASD process development, selective ALD/CVD evaluation, metal–dielectric selectivity studies, nucleation and growth mechanism analysis, thin-film metrology support.
