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Product Briefing Outline: Rudolph Technologies has updated its ‘NSX’ Series wafer inspection system, which now includes ‘WaferWoRx’ probing process analysis. The NSX Series can now identify the root cause of probe test failure mechanisms, providing faster problem resolution and improved yield performance. WaferWoRx technology came from the acquisition of Applied Precision’s Semiconductor Division in 2007.

Problem: There is a need to streamline the approach to probing process analysis. What was once an off-line, one-off procedure that required extra time and equipment is now part of a high-throughput in-line system that can be used to identify the root cause of the failure and accelerate its resolution.

Solution: The NSX System detects probe marks and generates location and size information as well as other parameters. WaferWoRx converts what has been a manual and time-consuming process of gathering scrub data from various tools, correlating the data, and then sifting through for trends to an automated data collection and analysis completed in a single step. WaferWoRx further enhances the process, breaking the overall probing error into its core components (prober, probe card, setup), enabling rapid problem resolution. It can also pre-qualify test cells without risk to production wafers and evaluate the readiness of the probing process for advanced technologies such as multi-DUT and high pin count probe cards. Finally, probe card performance can be tracked to predict the need for maintenance, thereby extending card life and maximizing card availability while avoiding the yield losses that can occur when a card fails during use.

Applications: Probing process analysis to identify the root cause failures.

Platform: The NSX Series provides fast, repeatable, advanced macro inspection to detect defects created during wafer manufacturing, probing, bumping, and dicing or through general handling. Macro defects (0.5 micron and larger) can have a major impact on the quality of a microelectronic device and the yield of the manufacturing process. The NSX uses high speed optical microscopy to identify defective probe marks. This same optical characterization data from a well-designed sample of probe marks serves as the input to the WaferWoRx analysis module for processing and further identification of the error components. The WaferWoRx probe process analysis capability is available now on the NSX Series, and can be ordered as an upgrade for the NSX 100, NSX 105 or NSX 115 models.

Availability: February 2009 onwards.