tag: wafer inspection

Moving Defect Detection And Classification To The Edge
By Ed Sperling - 29 May, 2026 - Comments: 0

The number of defects detected through inspection is exploding at each new process node. There are now millions of defects being identified on each wafer, but only a fraction of those can cause problems. Prasad Bachiraju, senior director of business development at Onto Innovation, talks about the different types of images being captured using different illumination modes at different touch poin... » read more

A Clear Advantage: Precision Glass Carrier Inspection For AI And HPC Markets
By Jason Lin - 13 Jan, 2026 - Comments: 0

If you’ve been following the evolution of advanced packaging, you know that the industry is pushing boundaries like never before. From high-performance computing to industry-upending AI devices, the demand for smaller, faster, and more powerful chips is driving innovation at every level. One of the unsung heroes in this transformation: Glass carriers. These carriers are becoming essential ... » read more

Operator Shortage? Intelligent Machine Vision Can Give More And Better Wafer Inspection
By Errol Akomer - 20 Nov, 2025 - Comments: 0

Right now, wafer manufacturers are having serious problems in finding and retaining operators. And they're desperately looking for ways to keep their fabs running effectively. Fortunately, machine vision can offer a smart solution. To see how it works, let’s first look at the basic fab workflow and check out some opportunities for improvement… How to improve ADI In a typical fab, after... » read more

Stop The Drip-Drip-Drip Of Intermittent In-Line Wafer Defects And Increase Your Yields
By Errol Akomer - 23 Oct, 2025 - Comments: 0

Full-blown process excursions that affect every wafer are comparatively easy for fabs to detect and fix. However, “onesie-twosie,” lower-volume excursions can go unresolved for months or even years. Some process engineers call them "slow moving excursions.” And over time, those low-volume defects can add up to significant yield losses. Ignoring a problem Some intermittent process excurs... » read more

Grouping Complex Wafer Defect Patterns Into Meaningful Clusters (Oregon State Univ., Micron)
By Technical Paper Link - 15 Oct, 2025 - Comments: 0

A new technical paper titled "DECOR: Deep Embedding Clustering with Orientation Robustness" was published by researchers at Oregon State University and Micron Technology. Abstract "In semiconductor manufacturing, early detection of wafer defects is critical for product yield optimization. However, raw wafer data from wafer quality tests are often complex, unlabeled, imbalanced and can conta... » read more

Lightweight AI Techniques For Automated Inspection of Silicon Wafers (Fraunhofer)
By Technical Paper Link - 03 Oct, 2025 - Comments: 0

A new technical paper titled "Towards efficient wafer visual inspection: Exploring novel lightweight approaches for anomaly detection and defect segmentation" was published by researchers at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS. Excerpt "AI has made significant strides in unsupervised anomaly detection and supervised defect segmentation, yet its application to wafer inspection remains underexplored. T... » read more

Increasing Semiconductor Device Reliability Requires Adding More Wafer Inspection
By Errol Akomer - 18 Sep, 2025 - Comments: 0

Some industry sectors such as automotive and medical continue to push for higher and higher reliability levels; however, many fabs are having difficulties achieving them. Current inspection regimes still allow too many defects to pass through and escape to the field – primarily because of time and expense issues. Too much wafer is still left uninspected One fundamental problem is the amount... » read more

How Guardbanding Of Inline Wafer Defects Can Improve Chip Reliability Insurance
By Errol Akomer - 21 Aug, 2025 - Comments: 0

Partially defective, marginal die can still be functional enough to pass final electrical test. Some of these “walking wounded” chips get past final testing, but in the customer's end product, under ongoing stress, they may fail. This is a particularly serious issue with automotive, medical and other customers who demand maximum long-term device reliability. The semiconductor industry ha... » read more

Marginal Wafer Defects Can Slip Past Electrical Testing
By Errol Akomer - 24 Jul, 2025 - Comments: 0

Final electrical test remains one of the best ways to assess a circuit’s ultimate viability. But we know that, unfortunately, even 100% end-of-line electrical testing of semiconductor wafers will not guarantee that chips will not fail in the field. Certain non-killer but marginal wafer defects can still slip through electrical testing if they have sufficient electrical connectivity, even thou... » read more

Full Wafer Inspection for Voltage Contrast Systematic Defects Using High-Throughput Point Scan
By PDF Solutions - 10 Jul, 2025 - Comments: 0

Abstract: A next generation system and methodology for high-throughput e-beam hot spot inspection is described. Rather than capturing images of each hot spot, just a single pixel centered on the signal node of each hot spot is collected and used to assess if the hot spot is defective or not. This innovation results in a very substantial savings in time per hot spot, and therefore a tremendous ... » read more

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