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Product Briefing Outline: Olympus Integrated Technologies America (Olympus-ITA), a subsidiary of Olympus Corporation of Japan has launched the Model AL3300 optical inspection and defect review system for full top, edge, bevel and back side inspection of 300 millimeter wafers.

Problem: Complete wafer defect inspection is becoming increasingly relied upon as wafer edge, bevel and back side contamination has an impact on front-side defect levels, especially at the sub-90nm node. High-throughput inspection and diagnosis is required to prevent significant yield hits from all sides of the wafer.

Solution: The bevel inspection uses a continuous angle adjustment for best imaging and defect detection. It provides a throughput up to 180 wafers per hour in a small, flexible configuration footprint that can be configured to match any factory floor layout. Macro observation can be done under various illumination wavelengths to see macro defects such as contaminations, scratches, resist problems, film thickness variations, etc. A macro camera can automatically capture 1X images of the wafer. Macro inspection includes both front side and back side (back center and edge) in a single wafer pass. Micro inspection allows the operator to view the wafer under a range of magnifications and imaging techniques that include bright field, dark field, Nomarski (DIC), confocal, and high resolution DUV and DUV confocal. Defect review can be added to the systems in a manual mode where the operator classifies in-line or off-line using a fast and convenient image gallery. Defects are imaged, stored and classified, the defect data is stored in a common format and can be uploaded to the user's yield management database.

Applications: Macro observation of wafer front and back sides, micro inspection, edge inspection, full bevel inspection including 3.5mm of the top and backside edge, automated image capture, defect review and wafer sorting.

Platform: The system includeS a variety of visible light imaging methods using Olympus Universal Infinity Systems' (UIS) infinity corrected optics for superior imaging and resolution. The system can also integrate Olympus' 248nm patented Deep-UV Air Gap optics to increase the optical resolution to 80nm. The AL3300 is fully GEM300 compliant for seamless integration into the user's automated factory. The load ports (FOUP or FOSB) are available in rear or front load configurations.

Availability: July 2006 onwards.