{"id":1779,"date":"2021-12-29T13:11:56","date_gmt":"2021-12-29T13:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/?post_type=novanta_tech_paper&#038;p=1779"},"modified":"2026-10-19T15:21:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T15:21:11","slug":"semiconductor-electronics-inspection","status":"publish","type":"novanta_tech_paper","link":"https:\/\/novanta.com\/precision-manufacturing\/resources\/whitepapers\/semiconductor-electronics-inspection\/","title":{"rendered":"Semiconductor Electronics Inspection"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2 id=\"h-technical-paper-overview-nbsp\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Technical Paper Overview&nbsp; <\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h3 id=\"h-wafer-surface-analysis-detecting-defects-with-laser-solutions-catching-a-wafer-defect-early-depends-on-a-laser-that-holds-steady-power-and-beam-quality-24-7\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Wafer Surface Analysis: Detecting Defects With Laser Solutions<\/strong> <em>Catching a wafer defect early depends on a laser that holds steady power and beam quality 24\/7.<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Semiconductor wafers are inspected for surface defects at every stage of manufacturing, and at least three times: when the wafer is created, at incoming quality control at the chip plant, and during and after development of the microchips. Any surface defect renders a chip unusable, so many of these inspections use lasers for their measurement precision and resolution. Laser light is rapidly scanned across the wafer&#8217;s surface or edge with a high-speed polygon scanner, and any deviation in the reflected light indicates a defect.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This white paper covers what that demands of the laser: long lifetime, maintenance-free operation, passive water-free cooling, controlled speckle patterns, exceptional beam quality, zero power fluctuation, and the resolution to image ever-smaller features. It then shows how Laser Quantum&#8217;s axiom LE addresses them: a 12 W air-cooled laser that avoids the liquid cooling widely prohibited in this application, with a customized bandwidth profile for the inspection&#8217;s speckle pattern, active noise suppression, and integrated power feedback.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Key takeaways include:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Why wafers are inspected at least three times, and why one surface defect can make scrapping a wafer early cheaper than running it through the rest of the process<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How laser wafer inspection works: a high-speed polygon scanner sweeps the beam across the wafer surface or edge, and changes in the reflected light flag defects<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The seven laser requirements that make deployment hard: long lifetime, maintenance-free operation, passive water-free cooling, controlled speckle, exceptional beam quality, zero power fluctuation, and smaller-feature imaging<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Why air cooling matters: liquid cooling is widely prohibited in this application, and the axiom LE delivers 12 W without it<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What a customized bandwidth profile, active noise suppression, and integrated power feedback add: a speckle pattern tuned to inspection and a beam specification that holds with no power fluctuations, plus remote maintenance and service access<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Download the full white paper for the complete list of laser requirements, the three-stage wafer inspection process, and a closer look at how the axiom LE&#8217;s air-cooled design, customized speckle profile, and integrated power feedback support 24\/7 wafer inspection. Then talk to an application engineer about the laser your inspection system needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Technical Paper Overview&nbsp; Wafer Surface Analysis: Detecting Defects With Laser Solutions Catching a wafer defect early depends on a laser that holds steady power and beam quality 24\/7. Semiconductor wafers are inspected for surface defects at every stage of manufacturing, and at least three times: when the wafer is created, at incoming quality control at [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":342,"featured_media":4447,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"card_thumbnail_id":0,"show_table_of_content":true},"class_list":["post-1779","novanta_tech_paper","type-novanta_tech_paper","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v28.1 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AI Chip Packaging &amp; Semiconductor Inspection | Novanta<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Learn how laser-based inspection supports AI chip packaging quality, complementing laser dicing and semiconductor laser processing on the line.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, 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