PlanEx Secures 3D Optical Technology for Glass Substrate Inspection and Measurement, Begins Commercialization

PlanEx, an optical inspection and metrology startup led by CEO Jisu Hwan, has secured 3D optical technology capable of inspecting and measuring the entire surface and inner walls of Glass Substrate TGV (Through Glass Via) and has begun full-scale commercialization of the technology. According to the company, Glass Substrate is a material being developed by global semiconductor companies as a next-generation AI semiconductor packaging substrate, and it falls under next-generation semiconductor packaging materials.

The technology PlanEx has secured is designed to reduce inspection of the inner walls of large-area Glass Substrate from several hours to just minutes, enabling it to keep pace with mass production line speeds. It is also designed to detect microcracks at sub-micrometer levels, and the company has secured numerous patents related to the core principles behind the technology.

The TGV process for Glass Substrate is a key step that forms tiny holes in the glass to transmit signals, with several million holes created per substrate. Microcracks on the inner walls of these holes may be invisible at first, but can spread through plating, heat treatment and other processes, potentially causing defects across the entire substrate. In particular, if defects are discovered after chip mounting, expensive semiconductor chips must also be discarded. In mass production, therefore, detecting microcracks early and without omission in the initial process is considered a critical task, and whether microcracks can be detected early determines the yield of Glass Substrate mass production.

PlanEx says existing inspection technologies could handle high-speed, full inspection of hole surfaces, but inner-wall observation technologies were limited to sampling inspections of some targets because of low processing speed. It also says there had been no case of an inner-wall defect inspection technology being applied on mass production lines at production speed.

To address this, PlanEx said it solved the problem with its proprietary optical design. By combining precision illumination technology, the company says it can rapidly acquire 3D information on holes without mechanical scanning, and it can distinguish and detect cracks on inner walls that had been obscured by surface reflections by depth without depth-direction focus shifts or repeated imaging. The company also said defect inspection and hole size and shape metrology can be performed with a single optical system, and while existing customers had been running inspection and metrology on separate pieces of equipment, a single optical system could ease equipment burdens for customers.

PlanEx said it ranked first in a performance evaluation of optical inspection technology conducted by the world's largest mobile manufacturer and is expanding its solution supply to mass production lines. The company said it applied the optical design capabilities accumulated while developing and supplying existing 2D inspection solutions to this 3D technology, expanding into the Glass Substrate sector.

PlanEx is currently conducting technical validation with a company specializing in TGV processing. The company plans to pursue supply of its solution to Glass Substrate customers starting next year, and as a mid- to long-term policy, it intends to expand the same optical technology to fine-structure inspection in semiconductor back-end processes.

CEO Jisu Hwan said that because glass has light-transmitting properties and strong surface reflectivity, quickly identifying internal defects optically is the most difficult challenge. He added that once Glass Substrate enters mass production, many customers are likely to show interest in the company’s technology, which can perform full inspection down to the inner walls.

Source: TECHWORLD · Kim Gyeong-ju
Original: https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=407956

References

• https://www.epnc.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=407956