Rudolph's Yield Management System Software Expands Adoption in Advanced Packaging
Rudolph Technologies, Inc has announced that it has received a multi-fab order for its Discover Enterprise Yield Management System (YMS) software from one of the world's top three-dimensional (3D) memory device makers. Discover YMS software is a leading yield management solution, traditionally used in front-end semiconductor manufacturing, which has been continually adopted for advanced packaging applications in the back-end. The software was delivered in the third quarter of 2015.
"This multi-fab order is a result of our long-term investment in adding advanced packaging analytic capabilities to Discover YMS software," stated Thomas Sonderman, vice president and general manager of Rudolph's Software Business Unit. "Discover YMS software allows our customers to improve the precision and yield of stacked die. Its ability to analyze the big data sets generated from wafers that may each have millions of bumps was a key factor in winning this significant order."
In the advanced packaging space, bumps are used for both functional electrical interconnect and structural connections to interposers, devices or packaging components. Ever smaller packages, used by the mobility and Internet of Things markets, drive the need for smaller bumps with higher densities. These shrinking geometries and the added complexity of 3D stacking require the ability to perform advanced analytics on bump metrology. Discover YMS software permits customers to take advantage of complex binning strategies to improve device performance and end-of-line yields. It helps control the advanced packaging process by rapidly analyzing the bumps to identify defective die with out-of-specification bump metrology values. The huge data volumes consist of over 20 million bumps, each with 10 or more attributes. This translates to over 200 million data values or attributes per wafer. Discover YMS software was specifically designed to handle these massive data sets, quickly and efficiently.
Mike Plisinski, Rudolph's executive vice president and chief operating officer, added, "As manufacturers have increased the amount of data they collect both within a factory and across multiple factories, we have focused on leveraging our software solutions to transform that data into actions that reduce cost and improve yields. Specific to packaging, these software solutions, especially when partnered with Rudolph inspection and metrology equipment, allow customers to intelligently collect and analyze data to drive die disposition."
