Expansion of Inspection Solutions for Nanometer-Scale Micro-Defects

Expansion of Inspection Solutions for Nanometer-Scale Micro-Defects

CCS Inc. (Headquarters: Kamigyo-ku, Kyoto; President: Hiroyuki Onishi) has launched the 'Differential Interference Unit' and 'Pupil Division Polarization Unit' for image processing inspection, expanding its inspection solutions effective for nanometer-scale micro-defects on items such as semiconductor wafers and glass substrates.

In recent years, the rapid spread of generative AI has led to a surge in semiconductor demand, resulting in the expansion of the inspection-related market for semiconductor manufacturing processes. Consequently, as semiconductor devices become increasingly miniaturized, there is a growing need for more advanced inspection capabilities on the manufacturing floor.

Micro-defects generated during semiconductor manufacturing processes, such as steps, scratches, waviness, inclination, and warpage, have been difficult to detect with conventional lighting, cameras, and lenses, requiring expensive specialized equipment such as white-light interferometric microscopes.

However, these dedicated pieces of equipment often have narrow fields of view due to specifications tailored to specific high-magnification lenses and require time-consuming vertical movement during measurement, posing significant challenges for manufacturing sites.

To solve these issues, CCS has developed optical units that use original optical designs to observe nanometer-scale micro-defects over a wide field of view in a single image capture. This allows for significant reductions in inspection time while maintaining high-resolution imaging.

The newly launched 'Differential Interference Unit,' suitable for observing minute steps and scratches, and the 'Pupil Division Polarization Unit,' suitable for observing gradual waviness, inclination, and warpage, can be used for various inspections, including semiconductor wafers and glass substrates used in semiconductor manufacturing.

Product Lineup

### Differential Interference Unit This unit visualizes minute steps and scratches by observing the 'interference' caused by the phase difference of reflected light from two slightly different points. Due to CCS's original optical design, it can acquire brighter images with a wider field of view than the differential interference microscopes used in conventional inspections, while highlighting the visual difference between flat surfaces and surfaces with steps.

### Pupil Division Polarization Unit Using a unique polarizing element, this unit visualizes minute waviness, inclination, and warpage by capturing the inclination of the workpiece surface as changes in polarization. While conventional white-light interferometric microscopes face the challenge of long inspection times due to multiple measurements made while moving in the vertical direction, this 'Pupil Division Polarization Unit' requires no vertical movement and can acquire a wide field of view image in a single capture, thus reducing inspection time.

About Inspection Solutions for Micro-Defects Both the 'Differential Interference Unit' and the 'Pupil Division Polarization Unit' are compatible with C-mount cameras and allow customization of lens magnification, enabling them to meet a wide range of applications based on the customer's inspection environment and requirements. Furthermore, imaging tests for these products can be performed at our testing rooms. In our testing rooms, we provide support not only for camera selection but also for image processing to emphasize visual differences, making discrimination easier.

With the development of these products, CCS will further broaden the range of inspection solutions effective for micro-defects and establish its position as an 'indispensable solution vendor' for manufacturing companies worldwide.