AUTOMATED WAFER DEFECT INSPECTION SYSTEM AND A PROCESS OF PERFORMING SUCH INSPECTION
First Claim
1. An automated system for inspecting a substrate such as a wafer in any form including whole patterned wafers, sawn wafers, broken wafers, and wafers of any kind on film frames, dies, die in gel paks, die in waffle paks, multi-chip modules often called MCMs, JEDEC trays, Auer boats, and other wafer and die package configurations for defects, the system comprising:
- a wafer test plate;
a wafer provider for providing a wafer to the test plate;
a visual inspection device for visual inputting of a plurality of known good quality wafers during training and for visual inspection of other unknown quality wafers during inspection;
an illuminator for providing short pulses of light to each of the unknown quality wafers during movement between the wafer and the visual inspection device; and
a microprocessor having processing and memory capabilities for developing a model of good quality wafer and comparing unknown quality wafers to the model.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An automated defect inspection system has been invented and is used on patterned wafers, whole wafers, broken wafers, partial wafers, sawn wafers such as on film frames, JEDEC trays, Auer boats, die in gel or waffle packs, MCMs, etc., and is specifically intended and designed for second optical wafer inspection for such defects as metalization defects (such as scratches, voids, corrosion, and bridging), diffusion defects, passivation layer defects, scribing defects, glassivation defects, chips and cracks from sawing, solder bump defects, and bond pad area defects.
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Citations
20 Claims
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1. An automated system for inspecting a substrate such as a wafer in any form including whole patterned wafers, sawn wafers, broken wafers, and wafers of any kind on film frames, dies, die in gel paks, die in waffle paks, multi-chip modules often called MCMs, JEDEC trays, Auer boats, and other wafer and die package configurations for defects, the system comprising:
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a wafer test plate; a wafer provider for providing a wafer to the test plate; a visual inspection device for visual inputting of a plurality of known good quality wafers during training and for visual inspection of other unknown quality wafers during inspection; an illuminator for providing short pulses of light to each of the unknown quality wafers during movement between the wafer and the visual inspection device; and a microprocessor having processing and memory capabilities for developing a model of good quality wafer and comparing unknown quality wafers to the model. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. An automated method of inspecting a semiconductor wafer in any form including whole patterned wafers, sawn wafers, broken wafers, and wafers of any kind of film frames, dies, die in gel paks, die in waffle paks, multi-chip modules often called MCMs, JEDEC trays, Auer boats, and other wafer and die package configurations for defects, the method comprising:
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training a model as to parameters of a good wafer via optical viewing of multiple known good wafers; illuminating unknown quality wafers with an illuminator, the illuminator configured to provide flashes of light to each of the unknown quality wafers during movement of the wafer; and inspecting the unknown quality wafers using the model. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. An automated system for inspecting a substrate such as a wafer in any form including whole patterned wafers, sawn wafers, broken wafers, and wafers of any kind on film frames, dies, die in gel paks, die in waffle paks, multi-chip modules often called MCMs, JEDEC trays, Auer boats, and other wafer and die package configurations for defects, the system comprising:
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a wafer test plate; a wafer provider for providing a wafer to the test plate; a camera for capturing still images of a moving wafer; an illuminator for providing strobe illumination to the moving wafer; and a controller for comparing pixel data for unknown quality wafers to a model of a good quality wafer. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification