Terahertz automated IC packaging inspection system

By Peter Clarke

http://www.electronics-eetimes.com/news/terahertz-automated-ic-packaging-inspection-system-0

TeraView Ltd. (Cambridge, England), a pioneer of systems based on the terahertz frequency electromagnetic waves is introducing an automated IC packaging inspection system at Semicon West.

Building on the success of the EOTPR 2000, which has been used in laboratories for fault isolation and manual inspection, the EOTPR 5000 is an automated IC packaging inspection system for the detection of weak or marginal interconnect quality in high volume manufacturing environments.

TeraView was founded in 2001 as a spin off from Cambridge University and Toshiba Research Europe and has worked over the subsequent years to identify market opportunities for the use of terahertz technology. Electro Optical Terahertz Pulse Reflectometry (EOTPR) is a time domain reflectometry system that has been developed by TeraView and Intel.

The EOTPR 5000 is able to detect sub-optimal conditions such as "head-in-pillow" structures on solder balls that may not be detected by electrical continuity testing.

"This product will be the first terahertz system ever to be deployed in a mass production environment.  It will be deployed to detect weak or marginal interconnects in the advanced IC packages which no other testers or inspection equipment can detect, said Don Arnone, TeraView CEO, in a statement.

TeraView said it will start beta testing of the EOTPR 5000 at an IC manufacturer's site in Asia soon to demonstrate it is fit for 24 by 7 manufacturing and units ill be available for customers early in 2017.

As well as cooperating with Intel on the development of EOTPR TeraView has received financial backing from Samsung.