SBIR Phase I: Full surface angstrom-level contamination and defect detection on thin glass samples

小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是提高玻璃半导体加工和封装的产量和降低成本。该项目开发了一种新的光学扫描技术，用于高通量、全表面的玻璃面板检测。玻璃在半导体加工、封装和AR/VR(增强/虚拟现实)应用中的应用越来越多，预计未来几年全球玻璃晶片市场将大幅增长。然而，几乎所有的过程控制工具都是为检查硅而不是玻璃而设计的。目前玻璃检验的痛点包括检测透明表面上原子大小的有机污染物，区分超薄玻璃顶面或底面的污染，检测玻璃上的微小颗粒，以及检测玻璃块内的内部缺陷。这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)第一阶段项目开发了一种创新的扫描偏振成像技术，能够对亚纳米薄膜涂层和缺陷进行快速、全面的表面扫描和成像。在这个第一阶段项目中，100毫米视野的全表面检测能力将允许增强/虚拟现实、高频和生物医学设备的制造商和生产商对基板进行来回检查，并通过在整个制造过程中对其基板进行采样来执行过程监控。与其他薄膜缺陷测量系统相比，该技术提供与形状无关的全表面扫描(与椭圆偏振法、光学或傅立叶变换红外显微镜等当前技术提供的点检相反)、检测玻璃上小至5埃的薄膜缺陷，以及在薄玻璃基板上的顶面/底面区分能力。这些综合能力在玻璃上的微小颗粒或薄膜污染可能导致下游步骤失败和最终产品有问题的行业中至关重要。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to improve yield and reduce the costs of glass-based semiconductor processing and packaging. The project develops a novel optical scanning technology for high throughput, full surface inspection of glass panels. Glass is increasingly finding application in semiconductor processing, packaging, and AR/VR (augmented/virtual reality) applications, with the global glass wafer market expected to increase significantly in the next few years. However, nearly all process control tools are designed to inspect silicon rather than glass. Current pain points in glass inspection include detecting atomic-sized organic contamination on transparent surfaces, distinguishing contamination on the top or bottom surface of very thin glass, detecting microscopic particles on glass, and detecting internal defects within a glass block. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project develops an innovative scanning polarization imaging technology to enable rapid, full surface scanning and imaging of sub-nanometer film coatings and defects. The full-surface inspection capability with a 100-mm field of view in this Phase I project will allow manufacturers and producers of augmented/virtual reality, high frequency, and biomedical devices to perform incoming inspections of the substrates and perform process monitoring through the sampling of their substrates throughout the fabrication processes. Compared to other thin-film defect measurement systems, this technology offers shape-independent full surface scanning (as opposed to spot checks provided by current technologies such as ellipsometry, optical or Fourier-transform infrared microscopy), detection of film defects as small as 5 angstroms on glass, and top/bottom surface distinction capabilities on thin glass substrates. These combined capabilities are critical in industries where small particulate or film contamination on glass can lead to failure of downstream steps and a faulty final product.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.