PARALLEL PLATES SOFTWARE CODE (PLATES 3.0) Sandia National Laboratories (SNL) offers to license its copyrighted software code, PLATES 3.0, for use in integrated circuit process equipment, such as CVD and plasma etch reactors which use a showerhead configuration. PLATES 3.0 provides equipment operators and designers the ability to predict and correct particle contamination in actual IC process equipment. The code is geared toward engineers who have hands-on knowledge of process equipment, and runs on PC computer platforms which are readily available. It can thus be a valuable reference and diagnostic aid for process tool-owners. The ability to produce microelectronics devices without particle contamination is essential for production of devices currently being designed with smaller feature sizes and larger total area. The industry is reaching the limit where the particles which must be eliminated are smaller than the detection threshold of current sensors and in concentrations too low to sample. The inability to detect and sample particles requires numerical simulation to predict particle behavior. PLATES 3.0 accepts geometry, operating conditions, and particle starting location either for an existing reactor or a proposed, improved system as input; and provides the fraction of particles which will deposit on the wafer as output. Furthermore, PLATES 3.0 gives the user the absolute and relative strengths of forces controlling particle motion and the terminal velocity of particles subject to each of these forces. The code assumes a single wafer-showerhead type reactor configuration, and only requires the user to specify the dimensions of selected features in a particular reactor. Using the menu driven input in PLATES 3.0, the geometry can be input in 5 minutes or less, and the actual run can be performed in under 5 minutes on a PC. For cases where the reactor configuration is not a single wafer-showerhead geometry (e.g., diffusion furnaces) the terminal velocity and relative force strength data provided by PLATES 3.0 will still be useful in improvingcontamination performance. PLATES 3.0 improves on general purpose computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes by providing information faster, at less expense, and to a wider audience of potential users.. By building in the geometric features which define a single wafer showerhead reactor, PLATES 3.0 requires only a few geometric and process parameters be specified. Lower contaminant levels result in higher production yields and better overall utilization of capital equipment. Requests for license from single-site non-exclusive, up to and including exclusive rights will be considered. For further information, please respond by mail or fax to Joanne Trujillo at: Sandia National Laboratories, MS 1380, P.O. Box 5800, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87185-1380; FAX: 505-843-4163, not later than December 23, 1997. Please indicate the date and title of this CBD notice. E-MAIL: Joanne Trujillo, jmtruji@sandia.gov.

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