News Article
Cascade Microtech's multifunctional probe system wins CS Award
Cascade Microtech, an expert at enabling precision measurements of integrated circuits at the wafer level, has announced that its BlueRay DS Probe system won Compound Semiconductor magazine's Metrology, Test and Measurement Award during a presentation at the Compound Semiconductor Europe Conference held in Frankfurt, Germany on March 22, 2011.
The 2011 Compound Semiconductor Industry Awards recognise success and development along the entire value chain of the compound semiconductor industry from research to completed device, focusing on the people, processes and products that drive the industry forward. Products are rated on the following: significance of products in industry, competitive advantage of products in their industry, product innovation in terms of unique or revolutionary technology, product acceptance in the market place, and potential of a product to become an industry standard.
The BlueRay DS is a universal platform for a multitude of applications in semiconductor test such as LED, MEMS, and optical devices, which allows testing double-sided substrates typically performed in a laboratory with the ability to meet the throughput and reliability requirements of a production environment. The novelty of the BlueRay DS is that it allows customers to utilise test instrumentation up to 100 mm in size below the substrate.
For LED characterisation, where other competitive systems only have a fibre to collect light of the device under test (DUT), the BlueRay DS can hold an entire 4" integrating sphere. In combination with the precise motorised holder, the accurate positioning of the instrumentation can get extremely close to the DUT.
This opportunity opens a new window into test setups never possible before, and existing tests can reach a new dimension of measurement accuracy in a production environment. With the BlueRay DS, Cascade has transitioned double-sided probing into the production test process, becoming the first company to offer a modular wafer probing solution that grows with the process requirements of the development lab to the production fab.
"Compound Semiconductor is proud of the CS Industry Awards and the overwhelming response from the compound semiconductor industry," said Richard Stevenson, Editor. "We feel it is important to highlight the technological achievements within the industry. These categories and products represent key areas of innovation in the chip manufacturing process."
"We are honoured to be recognised by the readers of Compound Semiconductor magazine for our product innovation and the significance of the BlueRay DS to the semiconductor industry," said Michael Burger, president and CEO, Cascade Microtech.
"Receiving the Metrology, Test and Measurement Award confirms we are addressing the technology requirements of the future, while helping customers reduce their cost-of-test with products that can seamlessly transition from the engineering lab to the production fab."
The BlueRay DS is a universal platform for a multitude of applications in semiconductor test such as LED, MEMS, and optical devices. Testing backside-emitting LED is now possible. The prober can be equipped with an integrating sphere or fibre assembly to collect and measure the light at the backside of the substrate.
This allows higher measurement accuracy compared to a setup using reflected beams. Inspecting transparent and semi-transparent substrates requires a light source below the specimen. The test of a MEMS device, for example a semiconductor microphone, requires stimulation by noise and measurement of the electrical response on top. The BlueRay DS provides the platform to execute such tests even in a high-volume production environment. The wafer prober is designed to grow with the production demand. The BlueRay DS is modular and can be expanded step by step from the development lab to the production fab.
