Electro Scientific Industries, a leading provider of world-class photonic and laser systems for microengineering applications, today announced that its NWR Division has fully qualified the industry's first Real-Time Dynamic AutoFocus Scribing Solution, the AccuScribe 2150, at a key customer in Taiwan. The innovative automated solution, the latest addition to the AccuScribe 21xx platform, has surpassed standard production scribing quality for High-Brightness Light-Emitting Diode (HBLED) manufacturing. The system is expected to ship before the end of ESI's first fiscal 2009 quarter.
"With new HBLED process control requirements becoming more critical to produce higher brightness and higher yielding devices, our customers require new solutions to meet these challenging processes,' noted Pei Hsien Fang, vice president of ESI's NWR Division. "Our new AccuScribe 2150 Dynamic AutoFocus system utilizes a novel, cutting-edge technology to control the optimal focus positions of the sample surface, irrespective of wafer shape. This automated platform enables increased production capacity at the best possible CoO to the customer, and allows us to enter previously unattainable markets."
Under a Joint Development Program, ESI's NWR Division worked together with the HBLED manufacturer in Taiwan to qualify this advanced, production-worthy scribing technique, displacing tools-of-record. This specialized, automated technique for precision-controlled focus scribing enables shorter cycle-times and reduces scribing yield failures in the production environment. Without this critical process control capability, HBLED manufacturers generally experience reduced system utilizations as operators continuously have to manually monitor their production processes.
About the AccuScribe 21xx Series
The AccuScribe 21xx series is the latest industry-leading scribing platform unleashed by ESI's NWR Division. It provides the greatest innovation to HBLED scribing available in the market today. The AccuScribe 2150 retains the highest alignment success rate, positioning accuracy, throughput, and Automated-Partial-Wafer solution in the industry. By utilizing the latest existing high-performance UV DPSS laser technology, the 2150 also supports 100-mm wafer capability. The pioneering technology enables real-time focus tracking across wafer substrates compensating for wafer process variations and surface topography changes. This, in turn, increases singulation yield and eliminates detrimental scribing device failures.
About ESI, Inc.
ESI is a pioneer and leading supplier of world-class photonics and laser systems that help its microelectronics customers achieve compelling yield and productivity gains. The company's industry-leading, application-specific products enhance electronic-device performance in three key sectors — semiconductors, components and electronic interconnect — by enabling precision fine-tuning of device microfeatures in high-volume manufacturing environments. Founded in 1944, ESI is headquartered in Portland, Ore. More information is available at www.esi.com.
