Altatech Semiconductor Receives Order for AltaSight® 300-mm Wafer Inspection System from Soitec's SOI Substrate Facility in Singapore

MONTBONNOT, France, Dec. 8, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Altatech Semiconductor S.A. has received an order for its AltaSight® 300 full-wafer inspection system from Soitec (Euronext Paris), the world's leading supplier of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and advanced solutions for the electronics and energy industries.

Capable of detecting and classifying defects on the frontside, backside and edges of substrates, the AltaSight system is scheduled for delivery by the end of January to Soitec's 300-mm SOI wafer facility.

"AltaSight gives us a complete, integrated inspection solution that is compatible with fully automated defect-analysis tools," said Paul Boudre, COO of Soitec. "It's the only tool that can capture specific bare wafer defects during front, back and edge inspection, and this tool has been designed for the right cost of ownership."

The AltaSight 300 platform conducts holistic, 360-degree inspection in a single wafer pass, enabling high throughput of 100 300-mm wafers per hour. Altatech Semiconductor's patented phase-shift illumination technology generates topographical maps with nanometer resolution. In addition, a global light-absorption analyzer measures the amplitude of multiple wavelengths of light to locate any non-topographical defects. Ultrafast dark-field technology is used to inspect each wafer's surfaces for particles and scratches, while the company's patented EyeEdge® optical sensors search for defects along a wafer's edge. The compiled data is analyzed to pinpoint and classify all defects, then used to produce a comprehensive wafer map in less than 25 seconds.

"With its ability to fully inspect wafers' surfaces and internal crystalline structures, AltaSight is ideally suited to address the needs of engineered-substrate suppliers such as Soitec," said Jean-Luc Delcarri, president of Altatech Semiconductor. "Since we began our partnership with Soitec, AltaSight's detection and classification capabilities, reliability and throughput have been demonstrated over thousands of substrates."

About Altatech Semiconductor S.A.

Incorporated in 2004, Altatech Semiconductor manufactures wafer inspection and analysis, liquid-vaporization CVD, and inkjet nanoprinting equipment at its headquarters facility near Grenoble and France's epicenter of microelectronics production. Led by a management team with more than 30 years of experience in the semiconductor equipment industry, the company is focused on helping customers to achieve the fastest design-to-market cycle times for products serving the emerging semiconductor, MEMS and nanotechnology markets. For more information, visit www.altatech-sc.com.

SOURCE Altatech Semiconductor S.A.