Semiconductor Manufacturing | Manufacturing | Applications

Overview

Semiconductors are utilized in a variety of electronic products, from household appliances to social infrastructure, and their performance is constantly evolving. Semiconductor manufacturing processes are built on a foundation of stringent quality control. Quality inspections for each of these processes not only guarantee product quality but also greatly impact the productivity of each piece of manufacturing equipment. There is a growing need to speed up image inspections to improve the productivity of semiconductor manufacturing equipment. In turn, this raises expectations of improved image sensor performance, as these sensor devices are key to machine vision, and as process rule miniaturization accelerates year by year.

Applications

Flaw inspections

Resist Coating Monitoring

Positioning

Wire bonding

Flaw inspections

Semiconductor manufacturing involves precision inspections to detect minute contaminants and pattern defects occurring in wafer and photomask production processes. Ultraviolet light has a short wavelength and is easily scattered by even the slightest unevenness on the surface of an object. UV image sensors leverage this property to detect microscopic defects on the wafer surface. Sony’s high-definition UV image sensor IMX487 is capable of high-precision inspections thanks to its high sensitivity and low noise performance.
However, any contaminants or defects inside the wafer can be checked by penetrating the wafer using using SWIR image sensors. The IMX992 and IMX993 specifically offer the industry’s highest level of resolution for SWIR image sensors,*1 so they can be utilized to detect even subtler defects and to effectively inspect wide areas in one imaging session.

In addition, for manufacturing lines where the inspection objects move at high speeds, the IMX927 Series is ideal for imaging, as it provides both a high resolution of 105 MP and a high speed of 100 fps. This enables high-precision and blur-less inspection images to be delivered in real time, contributing to improved inspection precision and shorter inspection times.

*1) Among industrial SWIR image sensors based on a compound semiconductor using InGaAs (indium gallium arsenide). According to research by Sony (as of November 2023).

Resist Coating Monitoring

In the resist coating process of semiconductor manufacturing, cameras monitor the inside of the nozzle while applying photoresist to the rotating wafers. However, with conventional cameras, exposure adjustment cannot keep up with irregular light reflections from the rotating wafers, potentially causing recognition errors due to overexposure. Instead, the Fast AE function incorporated in the global shutter image sensor IMX900 enables instantaneous exposure control for accurate recognition. This helps maintain stable image recognition even when light reflects, improving both manufacturing process reliability and production efficiency.

Demonstration simulating resist coating process:
Nozzle interior monitoring

Left (conventional method): Light reflection caused by wafer rotation makes it difficult to observe inside the nozzle.
Right (Fast AE): Instant exposure adjustment enables stable nozzle interior observation.

Positioning

The field of high-performance semiconductor manufacturing includes a process of joining wafers to wafers. As device miniaturization accelerates, the demand for alignment accuracy between wafers is increasing. Short Wavelength Infra-Red (SWIR) image sensors make it possible to observe through the silicon (Si) part of wafers, allowing positioning marks to be checked with clarity. Moreover, the high-definition image quality of these sensors allows edges to be detected with high precision, enabling accurate positioning.

Sony’s SWIR image sensors provide high-definition images, contributing to the achievement of accurate positioning. Use the 5.32-megapixel IMX992 for applications that demand particularly high precision. It can detect the edge of alignment marks with high precision, greatly improving positioning accuracy.

Global shutter image sensors are also used for positioning due to their high-definition performance. These sensors have a very good reputation for shortening process turnaround time (TAT) as well as for improved accuracy, due to high resolution, and high reliability.

Wire bonding

Wire bonding is one of the main processes in the production of semiconductor devices and it involves electrically wiring semiconductor elements to substrates. Silicon chips, the core of semiconductor products, are wired to the substrate using metal wire (bonding wire) of several tens of micrometer in diameter. High-speed, high-resolution global shutter image sensors are used to accurately and quickly carry out miniscule bonding inspections.

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