21 January 2011

KLA-Tencor launches KLARITY LED defect analysis system and ICOS WI-2220 LED wafer inspector

Process control and yield management solutions provider KLA-Tencor Corp of Milpitas, CA, USA has launched KLARITY LED — an automated analysis and defect data management system for LED yield enhancement — and the new, scalable ICOS WI-2220 — a wafer inspection tool designed for LED defect inspection that helps LED makers to lower production costs while increasing device reliability.

“The industry’s current consensus estimates state that by 2013 the LED market will be growing at a compound annual growth rate of 25% or higher,” says Jeff Donnelly, group VP, Growth and Emerging Markets. “Today’s LED device makers are challenged with increasing performance at a lower cost, while supporting the industry’s aggressive growth rate,” he adds. “With proven reliability and ease-of-use, KLA-Tencor’s comprehensive portfolio of LED defect inspection and analysis solutions is designed to enable tighter process control and overall yield improvements for LED production at decreased cost per lumen.”

Based on the KLARITY Defect product for integrated circuit manufacturing, the KLARITY LED includes automated in-line scan analysis for the entire fabwide manufacturing process. The LED industry is evolving from traditional tool-centric manual defect checks, with automated optical inspection only at the end-of-line stage, towards adopting sophisticated fabwide process control and defect analysis with in-line inspection. As a result of front-end to back-end connectivity, KLARITY LED delivers faster excursion detection and root-cause analysis than prevailing industry methods to enable effective decision making, helping to reduce the impact of materials risk and improve yields, KLA-Tencor claims.

With KLARITY LED, KLA-Tencor introduces to LED device makers an in-line alternative solution for automated defect analysis of LED production processes, and an option to more efficiently share performance and reliability data within their organization for faster yield learning, while replacing existing labor-intensive manual report generation methods, the firm adds.

Designed to help LED device makers accelerate yield learning cycles and prompt immediate corrective action, KLARITY LED includes:

• Automated analysis (intelligent statistical process control excursion and baseline monitor), which supports faster time-to-corrective action with automated knowledge-based reports, extensive drill-down capability and practical decision flow analysis that previously required expert intervention and interpretation;

• Advanced Defect Source Analysis, which automates the process of root cause analysis for defect sources providing flexible graphical analysis of common and adder defects;

• Proprietary Spatial Signature Analysis, which identifies spatial signatures, tracks dynamic signature count and leverages stack wafer signatures to identify the root cause for faster detection and corrective action;

• Defect image review, which provides wafer map point and click access, as well as an image gallery, allowing device makers to validate classification and defect transition commonality identification and rapidly generate automated reports;

• Repeater defect detection, which identifies repeat defects across an individual wafer, as well as from wafer to wafer.

KLARITY LED complements KLA-Tencor’s wafer inspection systems — including the new ICOS WI-2220 — to provide an enhanced LED-specific portfolio solution for high return on critical LED inspection investments, the firm claims.

The ICOS WI-2220’s automated optical inspection (AOI) capabilities aim to help LED device makers to realize increased yields and reduced production costs, allowing them to automate inspection of smaller die sizes that inhibit manual inspection, and of larger die sizes that require rapid corrective action to limit costly materials risk. The new system allows defect inspection of whole and diced wafers up to 200mm, with macro inspection sensitivity in the pre- and post-dice inspection (i.e. front- and back-end) of LED wafers.

KLA-Tencor claims that, compared to similar products on the market, the ICOS WI-2220 provides sensitivity to critical defects — while minimizing noise introduced by process variations — and offers outstanding over- and under-kill performance (die misclassification) at high inspection speed.

The new system also offers low image distortion, advanced optic filtering, rule-based binning (RBB) for real-time auto defect classification, and advanced metrology capabilities at high inspection throughput as a result of new proprietary inspection and data processing technology. This enables increased yields in the manufacturing process through yield base line improvement, excursion control as well as improved dispositioning in outgoing quality control inspections, the firm claims.

The ICOS WI-2220 works in conjunction with the Candela LED unpatterned wafer inspection system to provide comprehensive, yield-improving inspection coverage to the front-end of the line, including analysis for disposition, defect reduction and excursion control. The ICOS WI-2220 is also upgradable to the ICOS WI-2250 for flexible configurations.

KLA-Tencor’s integrated LED portfolio of the ICOS WI-Series wafer inspectors, the new KLARITY LED yield management system, and the Candela systems will be showcased at LED Korea 2011, held in conjunction with Semicon Korea in the Coex Convention and Exhibition Center in Seoul (26–28 January). All tools are backed by KLA-Tencor’s global service network.

Tags: KLA-Tencor LED defect analysis system LED wafer inspector

Visit: www.kla-tencor.com