II-VI Inc of Saxonburg, PA, USA says that the Advanced Materials Division of its Performance Products Segment in Pine Brook, NJ, has purchased a SICA88 SiC inspection & analysis tool made by the Lasertec Corp of Tokyo, Japan, for installation at II-VI's silicon carbide (SiC) substrate manufacturing facility in Starkville, MS, USA.
"This purchase enables II-VI to gather data to further its already state-of-the-art SiC substrate technology," says II-VI Advanced Materials' general manager Dr Gary Ruland. "The SICA88 provides advanced sensitivity and analysis capabilities that II-VI can utilize to improve the quality of our SiC substrates," he comments. "The addition of the SICA88 in our production line will allow II-VI to find and analyze substrate and surface defects more efficiently and effectively, in order to enhance our defect reduction efforts, provide customer support to enable higher device yields, and to continue advancing our ongoing efforts to make SiC-based devices more cost effective. In addition, the SICA88's new photoluminescence capability will enable us to detect other defects important to our epi and device customers such as substrate stacking faults," Ruland continues.
"SICA is designed to help fab engineers accelerate yield improvements by providing high-sensitivity, high-throughput defect inspection and highly accurate on-the-fly defect classification along with a fully automated defect review feature," says Hirokazu Seki, general manager of Lasertec's Technology Department. "SICA enables SiC substrate and device manufacturers to take corrective action sooner and improve their yields more quickly. The tool's user interface provides an intuitive graphical method for creating inspection recipes, further increasing its ease of use for automated reporting," he adds. "Lasertec will continue to pursue the development and advancement of defect inspection technologies in order to facilitate the further enhancement of power device quality and productivity."
