Bloomington, Minnesota–August Technology Corp., a supplier of inspection solutions to the microelectronics industry, today introduced a complete solution for automated inspection of 300mm wafers designed to meet the unique and challenging needs of 300mm processing. The tool is built on the inspection capabilities of the company’s NSX Series and integrates advanced automation solutions from industry-leading key suppliers.

“Working in close partnership with customers and suppliers, we have developed a production-ready 300mm inspection solution that is i300I compliant and ready for deployment in fully automated, high-volume, 300mm manufacturing environments,” says Bill Smeaton, August Technology’s 300mm program manager. “This tool is capable of running multiple wafer sizes without mechanical changeover, which is important for manufacturing environments scaling new or existing processes from 200mm to 300mm, and for foundry and contract manufacturing environments where frequent wafer size changes are a common practice.”

“The industry’s transition to 300mm technology is quickly emerging and many of the major semiconductor manufacturers are ramping up for 300mm production, or have announced plans for 300mm fabs,” says Dan Nelson, NSX Series product manager. “August Technology’s solution combines automated 300mm wafer handling, factory hardware, and software interface capabilities with the inspection technology of the NSX, and provides device manufacturers with a complete high-speed inspection solution for 300mm production.”

August Technology’s 300mm solution is a dual loadport configuration with an optional secondary user interface for bulkhead mounting in bay and chase facilities. Optional SMIF capability and custom configurations are also available. Depending on specific application requirements, the company reports that throughputs of up to 43 300mm wafers per hour can be achieved.