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How Machine Vision Applications in Semiconductor Manufacturing Boosts Quality Control

Manufacturing semiconductors is a complex process consisting of wafer fabrication, photoresist coating, lithography, etching, ion implantation, and other processes. Incorporating machine vision in semiconductor manufacturing helps with faster chip production, boosting the efficacy and precision of operations and giving manufacturers a competitive advantage.

Introduction to Machine Vision in Semiconductor Manufacturing

Semiconductor manufacturing refers to how integrated circuits (IC) built into modern electronic devices are made. Many modern conveniences, including computers, wouldn't have been possible without integrated circuits.

Wafer creation, circuit construction, and packaging are three major stages in the fabrication process. Once raw materials such as silicon or compounds for the fabrication process have been sourced, gasses like oxygen, nitrogen, and argon, amongst other chemical reactions, are used to create the correct environment that will shape the semiconductor's electrical properties.

To cut a wafer into chips or dies, equipment like dice machines are utilized. Probing machines are used to test how well-functioning individual chips are before packaging. Grinders and edge-shaping tools are other equipment used.

When manufacturing these chips, all the parts that make up the semiconductor must be properly assessed for factors such as alignment, defects, and traceability. Inspection precision is even more critical in modern and sophisticated integrated circuits. This is why machine vision applications in semiconductor manufacturing play a key role.

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Importance of Quality Control in Semiconductor Manufacturing

To speed up production times, IC manufacturers need systems for alignment, defect, and traceability inspections. Three top benefits of machine vision in semiconductor manufacturing include:

Alignment

Silicon wafers, which form the foundation of ICs, need to be manufactured and placed on top of each other in layers. Every single layer must align precisely. The orientation of a wafer notch, the tiny cut intentionally made on the edge of a silicon wafer for alignment purposes, is then checked. Using traditional inspection systems is slow and bulky, especially when it comes to accurately detecting a notch when it comes to transparent wafers.

KEYENCE vision systems with built-in AI help improve silicon wafer alignment due to the advanced and proprietary functions it features. The AI capability is a deep learning tool that trains on a large data set of images to accurately recognize dots on even transparent wafers.

Defect Detection

Catching defects early during production helps improve the production line yield rate per wafer by minimizing manual inspection and rework. Because wafers are stacked, each layer must be inspected before being deposited on the other to identify defects.

Without accurate inspection systems, classifying real defects from allowable cosmetic flaws becomes challenging, leading to rework and waste. Accurate defect detection and cost savings are other reasons to use machine vision in semiconductor quality control efforts.

Identification and Traceability

Wafers, wafer carriers, dies, lead frames, integrated circuits, and other semiconductor components can be counterfeited. These components carry alphanumeric characters (for tracking and a human-readable format) and identification codes (for identification and a machine-readable format). Instead of using conventional methods to read codes and characters, vision systems make decoding easy and error-free even when codes are damaged or are difficult to read.

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Common Quality Control Challenges

Like many other production processes, manufacturing semiconductor components comes with its own set of unique challenges.

Yield

The complexity of the manufacturing process makes achieving a high yield, i.e., more good chips per wafer produced, challenging. Fortunately, accurate defect detection helps identify and eliminate defective wafers, helping maximize the percentage of good chips.

Contamination

Chemicals and foreign materials can contaminate wafers during production. Even the tiniest of particles can cause defects, leading to malfunctions of produced circuits.

Environmental Factors

Accurate temperature must be maintained to achieve consistency in the production of every part that goes into integrated circuits.

Wafer Inspection

Using the wrong inspection systems can make wafer inspection difficult. The inspection system used must identify cracks, contamination, and scratches while making allowance for cosmetic flaws.

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Machine Vision Applications in Semiconductor Manufacturing

The use of machine vision helps in semiconductor fabrication. Vision systems can check for wafer alignment, detect a wide range of defects, and enable accurate identification and tracing of wafers and chips.

However, using vision products that can perform inline 3D inspection provides significant benefits to the production of wafers, chips, and PCBs. By identifying defects early in the production process, these vision systems can reduce scrap rates and improve yields.

3D machine vision is also used in semiconductor manufacturing to improve defect detection. 3D vision systems create three-dimensional data, including depth profiles, which help uncover voids, undercuts, and delamination. Traditional 2D inspection systems fall short in this area.

Line scan technology is also used in semiconductor production. These cameras are especially useful because they can perform accurate inspection of defects and contamination even on uneven surfaces.

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Transform Your Semiconductor Manufacturing with KEYENCE AI-Powered Vision Systems

KEYENCE AI vision systems for the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industry help enhance operations. Our AI-powered vision system uses deep learning techniques to improve defect detection accuracy, read codes for traceability, and alignment checking. It can train on extensive image data to learn what is classified as defects and what is permissible as cosmetic flaws.

Our vision systems also enable high-speed and accurate inspections of various semiconductor components. A 64-megapixel camera can capture the entire PCB in one image shot, enabling simultaneous semiconductor inspections such as product measurement and differentiation.

To learn more about how our AI-powered vision can bring benefits to semiconductor manufacturing, contact us today.