Endura XP: enabling high 300 mm semiconductor productivity and reliability for manufacturing excellence

The Endura XP is Applied Materials' next-generation 300 mm metal deposition system optimized for high volume production. The system combines a new Factory Interface (FI) with two vacuum wafer handling robots controlled by modern system software. With the Endura XP, chipmakers are able to operate advanced wafer processing sequences (e.g. copper deposition on low x dielectric) with high wafer throughput for low-cost, high yield semiconductor manufacturing. This paper outlines the challenges and requirements for the development of the Endura XP system for optimizing productivity with high throughput and reliability.