Vibration Sensor Helps Diffusion Furnace Team identify Vibration Sources to Increase Wafer Yield

WILSONVILLE, OR, July 08, 2011 (Press-News.org) Shaped like a wafer, WaferSense Auto Vibration Sensors (AVS) can travel along an entire wafer path, collecting, recording and displaying exact vibration exposure. Placed either in standard cassettes, wafer stockers or in wafer boats that typically held 150 wafers in the 200 mm fab, the AVS moved through the entire diffusion tool, monitoring three-axis accelerations and vibrations at stocker locations with fans both on and off. Using Bluetooth technology, the wireless sensor provided wireless real-time data on tool vibration as it moved through the semiconductor process.

With companion software displaying data on a GUI, engineers were able to overlay vibration fingerprints and analyze vibration data. The diffusion furnace team ultimately identified excessive fan vibrations in wafer storage locations closest to the fans that caused wafers in these areas to "walk", resulting in wafer handling problems and higher defects. Once identifying the cause of the wafer defects, engineers corrected wafer storage cassettes to prevent wafers from walking. The AVS' data logging capabilities allowed the fab to establish new preventative maintenance requirements and process control standards for both the tools and engineers.

Detailed information on CyberOptics' WaferSense products Auto Vibration Sensors is available online at http://www.cyberopticssemi.com/products/wafersense/avs or by contacting sales at (503) 495-2200 for more information.

CyberOptics Semiconductor develops automated products that seamlessly measure critical parameters in semiconductor fabrication processes and equipment. The company's pioneering WaferSense line includes wireless metrology devices for vibration, leveling, gapping, teaching and sensing airborne particles in semiconductor process equipment. The company is the largest producer of reflective wafermapping sensors and a leading provider of frame grabber machine vision boards under its HAMA Sensors and Imagenation brands. CyberOptics Semiconductor is a subsidiary of CyberOptics Corp. (Nasdaq:CYBE), one of the world's leading providers of process yield and throughput improvement solutions for the electronic assembly and semiconductor fabrication industries. For information, visit http://www.cyberopticssemi.com/, e-mail CSsales@cyberoptics.com or call 800-366-9131.