Smart Manufacturing in The Semiconductor Industry

Today, the realization and development of 5g, the Internet of things, automobiles, data center and so on are based on chips with higher performance and lower power consumption. The continuous progress of chips depends on better design, smaller transistor size, higher transistor density, innovative process architecture (FinFET, GAA), high-performance materials or better packaging strategies. 

The realization of smaller, faster and cheaper chips comes from the improvement of semiconductor manufacturing technology. In the process of semiconductor commercialization, the yield is directly related to the output, production cost and profitability of the enterprise. However, with the geometric increase of chip complexity, the continuous lengthening of the production process, and the entry of the 300mm era of the wafer, chip manufacturing has become extremely complex and precise, and the yield has become extremely challenging.

In the semiconductor industry, wafers are called "crown jewels". However, the manufacturing process of silicon wafer is complex. Any minor defect may affect the whole production process. On a 12 inch wafer, two or more impurity particles larger than 20 nm are not allowed. Wafer manufacturing process optimization and productivity improvement have been the unremitting pursuit of chip manufacturers. In fact, most companies are still using traditional manual visual inspection. In most cases, their tracking and identifying defects is time-consuming, expensive and difficult.