Cognex, a supplier of machine vision systems and wafer readers to the semiconductor industry, announced at SEMICON Japan the In-Sight 1820 vision-based wafer pre-aligner. Utilising proprietary Cognex NotchMax alignment technology, the 1820 vision system provides precise non-contact measurement of wafer position and orientation that is faster and more accurate than comparably priced mechanical systems.
The In-Sight 1820 determines wafer position and orientation in less than half a second, while mechanical pre-aligners must typically spin wafers for several seconds. NotchMax, the newest member of Cognex industry-leading PatMax family of geometric pattern finding technologies, aligns wafers with a center position accuracy of +/- 15μm and an orientation accuracy of +/- 0.05 degrees. More accurate pre-alignment saves fine alignment steps inside a process tool to boost throughput.