24 companies across eight categories were honored at the SPIE Prism Awards gala evening on February 1 during the Photonics West trade show in San Francisco.
One of them was Precitec Optronik, winner in the Test and Measurement category for its Flying Spot Scanner (FSS) 310.

“That our Flying Spot Scanner 310 has won at this year’s Prism Awards ceremony is a special distinction for us,” says Jean-Francois Pichot, Precitec Optronics Sales Director. “We’re convinced that this innovative scanner will bring customers a competitive advantage in measurement, inline inspection and quality control. It’s rightly been referred to as a silent revolution in the world of semiconductor metrology’.” 

Innovation in photonics
The SPIE Prism Awards recognize “industrial innovation in photonics”, a description that certainly fits the Flying Spot Scanner 310. In a single scan it can measure the total thickness variation (TTV), bow and warp of an entire 12-inch wafer and detect any voids – in as little as 10 seconds per wafer for standard applications.

Unique features
The FSS 310 uniquely combines OCT with wide field-of-view scanning and solves the issue of ultra-precise measuring systems normally working very slowly and being extremely expensive. This scanner’s flexible and fast-moving measurement point within a wide field of view enables non-contact ROI inspection in much reduced cycle times – with no comprises on accuracy. The FSS 310 can also significantly boost productivity in semiconductor production by enabling a throughput of over 300 wafers per hour (including handling time). The key to such speed is its in-built scanning system which allows the long paths of linear axes to be replaced by short rotary movements. This significantly reduces measuring times and does away with the need for a precision axis.

Broad range of applications
Another key benefit is that the FSS 310 allows measurements from just one side of a wafer. It penetrates all the commonly used semiconductor materials (apart from metal) and can even measure objects behind or on the rear side of a wafer. This flexibility is also evident in the broad range of applications the FSS 310 is suitable for. When combined with devices from the Precitec CHRocodile® 2 IT family, the FSS 310’s fully variable scan trajectories, which the user can program, enable thickness and distance measurements of, for example, Si, doped Si, GaAs and SiC wafers. The FSS 310 can also measure the thickness of semiconductor component coatings (e.g. partial foliation of wafers) as well as measuring the bow of individual dies on wafers prior to further processing.

SPIE Prism Awards
“The 2023 Prism Award finalists represent the most innovative technologies and developments in the optics and photonics industry,” said SPIE CEO Kent Rochford. The annual gala celebration of the Prism Awards was again staged by SPIE, the international society for optics and photonics that has been bringing engineers, scientists, students, and business professionals together to advance light-based science and technology since 1955.