Chip Manufacturing

Front-End Defect Inspection

Front-End Defect Inspection
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KLA-Tencor’s front-end defect inspection tools cover the full range of yield applications within the IC manufacturing environment, including incoming wafer qualification, reticle qualification, research and development, and tool, process and line monitoring. Patterned and unpatterned wafer defect inspection tools find particles, pattern defects and electrical issues on the front surface, back surface and edge of the wafer, allowing engineers to detect and monitor critical yield excursions. Fabs rely on our high sensitivity reticle defect inspection tools to ensure that reticles are defect-free thereby preventing reticle defects from printing on production wafers. The defect data generated by our defect inspection tools is compiled and reduced to relevant root-cause and yield-analysis information with our suite of data management tools. By implementing our front-end defect inspection tools and analysis systems, chipmakers are able to take quick corrective action, resulting in faster yield improvement and better time to market.

Patterned Wafer Inspection Tools

  • 29xx/28xx: Broadband optical defect inspection tools
  • Puma Family: Laser-based optical defect inspection tools
  • eS800: Electron-beam defect inspection tools
  • 8900: High-speed brightfield/darkfield optical defect inspection tool

Macro and Edge Inspection Tools

  • VisEdge Family:  Wafer edge defect inspection, metrology and review tools
  • LDS: Macro defect inspection tools
  • IRIS: Infrared defect inspection tools and review station

Unpatterned Wafer Inspection Tools

  • Surfscan SPx: Wafer defect inspection tools for process tool qualification and monitoring using blanket films and bare wafers
  • SURFmonitor: Surfscan module for inspection of low-contrast defects

Reticle Inspection Tools

  • TeraFab Series: Photomask inspection tools allowing IC fabs to qualify incoming reticles and inspect production reticles for contaminants

Data Management Tools