"As automated inspection has brought frontside macro defects under greater control, chip manufacturers have become aware of the increasing significance of defects on the edge and backside surfaces of the wafer," said Ardy Johnson, vice president of marketing for Rudolph. "Our customers have documented significant reductions in defectivity and measurable increases in yield from the detection, correlation, diagnosis and correction of edge and backside defects in their most advanced processes."

According to Johnson, customers have seen yields improve by as much as 10 percent from the baseline. Rudolph claims that the integrated inspection approach enables defects created on the backside and edge of the wafer to be clearly identified as frontside defects after process steps encourage transfer. Sourcing the defects has thus been improved, eliminating more detailed lab analysis and the time associated. 

"Edge and backside defects pose unique challenges, and the key is being able to correlate data from all surfaces and all processes to extract significant, actionable information," said Johnson.