KLA-Tencor Launches KLARITY® LED Defect Analysis System and ICOS® WI-2220 LED Wafer Inspector to Help Manufacturers Reduce Costs

MILPITAS, Calif., Jan. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, KLA-Tencor Corporation (Nasdaq: KLAC), the world's leading supplier of process control and yield management solutions for the semiconductor and related industries, introduced KLARITY® LED—an automated analysis and defect data management system for light-emitting diode (LED) yield enhancement—and the new, scalable ICOS® WI-2220—a wafer inspection tool designed specifically for LED defect inspection that assists LED device makers in lowering their production costs, while increasing LED device reliability.

"The industry's current consensus estimates state that by 2013 the LED market will be growing at a compound annual growth rate of 25 percent or higher," said Jeff Donnelly, group vice president, Growth and Emerging Markets at KLA-Tencor. "Today's LED device makers are challenged with increasing performance at a lower cost, while supporting the industry's aggressive growth rate. With proven reliability and ease-of-use, KLA-Tencor's comprehensive portfolio of LED defect inspection and analysis solutions is designed to enable tighter process control and overall yield improvements for LED production at decreased cost per lumen."

KLARITY LED:  Defect Analysis and Data Management System for LED Yield Enhancement

Based on the industry-leading KLARITY Defect product for integrated circuit manufacturing, the new KLARITY LED provides a high performance solution for LED device makers, including automated in-line scan analysis for the entire fabwide manufacturing process. The LED industry is evolving from traditional tool-centric manual defect checks, with automated optical inspection only at the end-of-line stage, towards adopting sophisticated fabwide process control and defect analysis with in-line inspection. As a result of front-end to back-end connectivity, KLARITY LED delivers faster excursion detection and root-cause analysis than prevailing industry methods to enable effective decision making, thus helping reduce the impact of materials risk and improve yields. With KLARITY LED, KLA-Tencor introduces to LED device makers an advanced in-line alternative solution for automated defect analysis of LED production processes, and an option to more efficiently share performance and reliability data within their organization for faster yield learning, while replacing existing labor-intensive manual report generation methods.

Designed to help LED device makers accelerate yield learning cycles and prompt immediate corrective action, KLARITY LED includes:

• Automated analysis (intelligent statistical process control excursion and baseline monitor)—supports faster time-to-corrective action with automated knowledge-based reports, extensive drill-down capability and practical decision flow analysis that previously required expert intervention and interpretation
• Advanced Defect Source Analysis—automates the process of root cause analysis for defect sources providing flexible graphical analysis of common and adder defects
• Proprietary Spatial Signature Analysis —identifies spatial signatures, tracks dynamic signature count and leverages stack wafer signatures to identify the root cause for faster detection and corrective action
• Defect image review—provides wafer map point and click access, as well as an image gallery, allowing device makers to validate classification and defect transition commonality identification and rapidly generate automated reports
• Repeater defect detection—identifies repeat defects across an individual wafer, as well as from wafer to wafer

KLARITY LED complements KLA-Tencor's wafer inspection systems—including the new ICOS WI-2220—to provide an enhanced LED-specific portfolio solution for high return on critical LED inspection investments.

ICOS WI-2220: Scalable Defect Inspection and Improved Cost of Ownership in LED Process Control

The ICOS WI-2220's automated optical inspection capabilities help LED device makers realize increased yields and reduced production costs. With the ICOS WI-2220, device makers can automate inspection of smaller die sizes that inhibit manual inspection, and for larger die sizes that require rapid corrective action to limit costly materials risk. The new system allows defect inspection of whole and diced wafers up to 200mm, with macro inspection sensitivity in the pre- and post-dice inspection (i.e. front- and back-end) of LED wafers.

Compared to similar products on the market today, the ICOS WI-2220 provides sensitivity to critical defects—while minimizing noise introduced by process variations—and offers outstanding over and underkill performance (die misclassification) at high inspection speed.  The new system also offers low-image distortion, advanced optic filtering, rule-based binning (RBB) for real-time auto defect classification, and advanced metrology capabilities at high inspection throughput as a result of new proprietary inspection and data processing technology. This enables increased yields in the manufacturing process through yield base line improvement, excursion control as well as improved dispositioning in outgoing quality control inspections.

The ICOS WI-2220 works in conjunction with the Candela LED unpatterned wafer inspection system to provide comprehensive, yield-improving inspection coverage to the front-end of the line, including analysis for disposition, defect reduction and excursion control. Furthermore, the ICOS WI-2220 is upgradable to the ICOS WI-2250 for flexible configurations.

KLA-Tencor's integrated LED portfolio of the ICOS WI-Series wafer inspectors, the new KLARITY LED yield management system, and the Candela systems will be showcased at LED Korea 2011, held in conjunction with Semicon Korea, on January 26-28, 2011 in the Coex Convention and Exhibition Center in Seoul. All tools are backed by KLA-Tencor's global, comprehensive service network. For more information, please visit www.kla-tencor.com.

About KLA-Tencor: KLA-Tencor Corporation, a leading provider of process control and yield management solutions, partners with customers around the world to develop state-of-the-art inspection and metrology technologies. These technologies serve the semiconductor, data storage, LED, photovoltaic, and other related nanoelectronics industries. With a portfolio of industry-standard products and a team of world-class engineers and scientists, the company has created superior solutions for its customers for more than 30 years. Headquartered in Milpitas, California, KLA-Tencor has dedicated customer operations and service centers around the world. Additional information may be found at www.kla-tencor.com. (KLAC-P)

Forward Looking Statements:

Statements in this press release other than historical facts, such as statements regarding the expected performance of the KLARITY LED, ICOS WI-2220 and Candela systems; future developments and trends (including projected growth rates and changes in process control and defect analysis techniques) in the high brightness light emitting diode industries (and the anticipated challenges and costs associated with them); expected uses of the KLARITY LED, ICOS WI-2220 and Candela systems by KLA-Tencor's customers; and the anticipated cost, operational and other benefits realizable by users of the KLARITY LED, ICOS WI-2220 and Candela systems, are forward-looking statements, and are subject to the Safe Harbor provisions created by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are based on current information and expectations, and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those projected in such statements due to various factors, including delays in the adoption of new technologies (whether due to cost or performance issues or otherwise), the introduction of competing products or alternative technologies by other companies, and unanticipated technological challenges or limitations that affect the implementation, performance or use of KLA-Tencor's products.

SOURCE KLA-Tencor Corporation