Highlights
-- Test & Measurement World, 2/1/2010 2:00:00 AM
Wafer-inspection system detects macro defects
Microelectronic device manufacturers can use the Iris wafer-inspection system from SemiProbe to detect flaws in the wafer circuit pattern as well as contamination or process damage. Depending on the choice of optics, the Iris inspection system is able to identify defects as small as 3 µm.
The system is suitable for examining optical components, double-sided devices, photovoltaics, MEMS, and other microelectronic devices. Iris can find visual defects such as probe marks, thru-silicon vias, bumps, incomplete etch, scratches, large-scale contamination, and passivation. Configurations are available for performing manual visual inspection or automated inspection.
Once a defect is identified, its failure code is noted on the wafer map. Wafer maps are fully exportable in a variety of formats for offline analysis or downstream processing. www.semiprobe.com.
Halcon Embedded runs on the Beagle Board
MVTec Software reports that it has taken initial performance measurements with its Halcon Embedded 9.0 machine-vision library running on the Beagle Board using Ångström Linux as the operating system. The Beagle Board single-board computer is based on the OMAP35x processor from Texas Instruments.
From the results of its tests, MVTec said that image-processing algorithms such as filtering or blob analysis can be performed on the Beagle Board running Halcon in milliseconds. The company added that subpixel-precise measurements are possible in less than 1 ms. www.halcon.com.
Market for image sensors dips in 2009, should rebound in 2010
By Ann R. Thryft, Contributing Technical Editor
Research firm Strategies Unlimited has predicted that once final figures for 2009 are available, the overall market for image sensors worldwide will show a decline for the first time since 1997, when the company began tracking this market. Although growth is expected to return in 2010, revenue will increase at a lower, single-digit rate compared to the double-digit revenue growth the market experienced over the last decade, said Tom Hausken, director of the firm’s photonics and compound semiconductors research.
Unit shipments of the image sensors used in machine vision will generally follow the same curve, said Hausken. In 2008, shipments of machine-vision image sensors grew only 8% to 256,000 units compared to the 238,000 units that shipped in 2007. For 2009, Hausken expected a 30% drop from 2008 figures to 179,000 units. He predicted shipments of 188,000 units in 2010, an increase of only 5%.
Hausken called the 30% drop in growth in 2009 “huge,” and said it was due primarily to the global recession. Although the 30% decline last year is not as big a drop as, for example, the decline in shipments of semiconductor manufacturing systems, it’s larger than the drop in cellphone shipments, which only took a 10% hit, said Hausken. “Going forward, we see about 5% to 11% growth over the next few years starting in 2010 in unit shipments of these sensors. Since machine vision is still expanding, this is a common growth rate for that business.”
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