Rudolph Technologies (NASDAQ:RTEC) announced today it has provided an edge inspection tool to lithography system provider ASML Holding NV (ASML) (Euronext Amsterdam, NASDAQ: ASML) to help characterize wafer defects originating from process control issues at The wafer edge and accentuated by the immersion lithography process.
The Rudolph tool will be used to maximize immersion lithography productivity. The work to characterize the defects of interest will
be done at ASML's headquarters in Veldhoven, The Netherlands, and will utilize Rudolph's All-surface Inspection System, including the E25
™ edge, the AXi
™ topside, and the B20
™ backside wafer inspection stations.
The E25™ Edge Inspection System uses multiple color cameras along with a novel optics design to capture detailed wafer bevel images. The system uses a recently-enhanced algorithm to create a defect-free surface model—then uses this model to find defects based on their size, color, intensity and location.