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The semiconductor industry uses so many unique terms, it practically has its own language. To keep up on the latest developments, knowing that “language” can be really helpful. For instance, do you know your 3D NAND from your 3D IC? How about FEOL versus BEOL? Take our semiconductor industry vocabulary challenge below and see how you do. (HINT: Lam’s Technical Glossary can help!) We hope you have some fun, and you just might learn a few handy new words, too.

Semiconductor Industry Terms Challenge

1) Interconnect formation falls under which of the following areas of wafer processing?

A) BEOL
B) FEOL
C) LOL
D) MOL

2) 3D NAND and 3D IC are the same thing.

A) True
B) False

3) What does HAR mean?

A) Something a pirate says
B) High and rectangular
C) Hidden angle re-entrant
D) High aspect ratio

4) What does the acronym “FOUP” stand for?

A) Fab Operating Unit Process
B) Foreign Objects Under Protection
C) Front-Opening Unified Pod
D) Flatten Out Under Pressure

5) Which of the following terms are NOT used in relation to multiple patterning?

A) DPT
B) LELE
C) MSSD
D) SAQP

6) Which of the following processes uses plasma?

A) Deposition
B) Etch
C) Clean
D) A and B only
E) A, B, and C

7) All of the following are types of memory technologies: Flash, NAND, DRAM, MRAM.

A) True
B) False

8) Which of the following represents the smallest unit of measure?

A) Angstrom
B) Micron
C) Millimeter
D) Nanometer

9) The use of ALD and ALE is growing because:

A) Who can resist a good ALE?
B) They help reduce process variability for extremely small features
C) The industry is shifting to extremely small silicon wafers
D) B and C

10) Which of the following types of uniformity are important for managing yield?

A) Within a chip or die
B) Across a wafer
C) From one wafer to another wafer
D) B and C only
E) A, B, and C