The EVG-NT series from EV Group is a suite of mask aligners, wafer-to-wafer (W2W) bond aligners and measurement systems developed to address increased demand for higher precision alignment accuracy of today’s feature-dense packages. It reportedly offers alignment accuracy in the range of 1&#181m down to 0.1&#181m, enabling the manufacture of advanced MEMS, compound semiconductor, silicon-based power, 3D IC, and nanotechnology devices. The series is composed of the following mask aligners, a W2W bond aligner, and an alignment measurement system. ‘

The EVG620NT and EVG6200NT mask aligners handle substrate sizes from less than 5mm up to 150mm and from 3″ up to 200mm, respectively. They feature a granite base, active vibration isolation, and linear motors to meet higher precision and throughput requirements. Built upon EVG’s flexible and versatile aligner platforms, they allow for scaling between R&D efforts to volume manufacturing in a simple one-to-one process transfer from manual mode to full automation.

The SmartViewNT wafer-to-wafer bonder’s high-precision alignment stage comprises top- and bottom-side microscopes to reportedly achieve alignment accuracies of <1&#181m. This bond aligner handles W2W, backside, and infrared transparent alignment. Initial results for W2W alignments reportedly demonstrated <0.3&#18m face-to-face alignment accuracy, eliminating the need for post-processing steps such as generating backside alignment keys and double-sided polishing. In a side-by-side comparison to its predecessor, alignment accuracies increased by more than 60%, 300%, and 40% respectively for SmartView, backside, and transparent alignments.

The EVG40NT alignment measurement system is designed to perform highly accurate non-destructive alignment accuracy measurement of single- and double-sided structured wafers, as well as bond interfaces, overcoming limitations of conventional double-view microscope and infrared systems. This flexible tool provides an unlimited number of measurement points across the wafer surface. Compared to the previous generation, the NT series’ throughput improves up to five fold, reportedly offering 200-300 measurements per hour. EV Group St. Florian, Austria; www.evgroup.com