Economic evaluation of the SDS(R) gas source for ion implantation

Models have been developed which can be used to calculate the economic advantages of using SDS gas sources. The models use input data on the number of implanters in use, type of dopant sources, the number of species changes per day, the average amount of time required to service the implanter, and the value of each hour of ion implanter time. The models first use this data to determine how much additional production time would be available if SDS sources were used and then calculate the amount of money which would be saved per month. The models were based on cost of ownership concepts developed by SEMATECH and were refined using input from SDS source users around the world. Examples based on data from several individual fabs are presented which show uptime increases of more than 6% and several million dollars per year per fab site.