Meanwhile, Applied, the world's largest chip-equipment vendor, has also entered the photomask cleaning equipment sector with the introduction of a system that claims to enable damage-free reticles. The product is geared to attack the so-called and dreaded "haze effect" on the mask.

The move into the mask inspection business has been expected. As reported last month, Applied (Santa Clara, Calif.) has been quietly selling a mask inspection tool, dubbed Aera2. One customer, Intel Corp., has procured the machine for its captive mask shop, according to reports.

The Aera2 combines several parts of the process--such as inspection, aerial imaging simulation and review--on the same platform, at two times the throughput over machines from the king in the business: KLA-Tencor.

In fact, Applied hopes to dethrone KLA-Tencor, the big player in the photomask inspection world. For years, KLA-Tencor monopolized photomask inspection, considered the most expensive part of the mask-making process. That company, which recently rolled out a new mask inspection line, reportedly charges some $30 million or so for each tool, analysts said.

Over the years, a number of companies have entered the mask inspection business in hopes of knocking KLA-Tencor off its perch. But all of the new entrants have failed or went under, leaving KLA-Tencor in the envious position of being the sole vendor in a critical market.

Now, however, KLA-Tencor appears to be getting some new and viable competition--finally. Japan's NuFlare Technology Inc. has begun to field a mask inspection product and is making a dent in the market. And now, Applied has entered the mask inspection market, which was estimated to be a $464 million business in 2007, according to Gartner Inc. (Stamford, Conn.).

"There is a huge need for a second supplier," said Mark Wagner, general manager of the Mask Inspection Division within the Process Diagnostics and Control unit within Applied. Part of that division resides in Rehovot, Israel, which is where Applied developed the machine.

"The pull for a good solution is tremendous," he told EE Times.

Applied claims it has a competitive advantage over KLA-Tencor, which uses more conventional mask inspection techniques. Based on an off-wavelength 257-nm source, KLA-Tencor's so-called TeraScan tools enable defect detection at the 45-nm node and beyond, by using die-to-die and die-to-database inspection modes.

KLA-Tencor's TeraScan machines are primarily targeted for the mask shop. Earlier this year, KLA-Tencor rolled out a trio of next-generation, mask inspection systems, dubbed the TeraFab. These mask inspection systems are aimed for wafer fabs, which are now scrambling to qualify and inspect incoming masks for contaminants.

The new TeraFab systems are based on the company's STARlight2 technology. STARlight2 detects crystal growth and progressive defects on production photomasks-"a critical class of yield killers that impact device performance and reliability, according to KLA-Tencor.

On Monday (April 14), KLA-Tencor introduced its latest mask inspection technology, called Wafer Plane Inspection (WPI). This is a technology said to find all defects on a mask and also shows the defects that will print on the wafer. Geared for 32-nm mask defect challenges, WPI operates up to 40 percent faster than previous inspection systems, potentially reducing costs.

Using the TeraScanHR mask inspection platform, advancements in software algorithm and image computing technologies allow users to access three distinct inspection planes: reticle, aerial and wafer.

''32-nm-generation mask inspection increasingly requires multiple inspection modes to identify all defects,'' said Harold Lehon, vice president and general manager of KLA-Tencor's Reticle and Photomask Inspection Division. ''With the TeraScan HR and its WPI capability, mask-makers and chip makers can now use their inspection system to find all defects of interest, and also accurately distinguish which mask defects are likely to transfer to the printed circuit on the wafer."