SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATICALLY CORRECTING FOR ROTATIONAL MISALIGNMENT OF WAFERS ON FILM FRAMES

摘要

Automatically correcting for rotational misalignment of a wafer improperly mounted on a film frame includes capturing an image of portions of the wafer using an image capture device, prior to initiation of a wafer inspection procedure by an inspection system; digitally determining a rotational misalignment angle and a rotational misalignment direction of the wafer relative to the film frame and/or a set of reference axes of a field of view of the image capture device; and correcting for the rotational misalignment of the wafer by way of a film frame handling apparatus separate from the inspection system, which is configured for rotating the film frame across the rotational misalignment angle in a direction opposite to the rotational misalignment direction. Such film frame rotation can occur prior to placement of the film frame on the wafer table, without decreasing film frame handling throughput or inspection process throughput.

主权项

1. A system for handling wafers mounted on film frames, comprising:
a wafer table providing a wafer table surface configured for securely retaining film frames thereon; a wafer inspection system having a first image capture device configured for performing an inspection procedure upon a wafer mounted on a film frame and retained by the wafer table surface; a second image capture device configured for capturing at least one image of portions of the wafer mounted on the film frame; a processing unit configured to analyze the at least one image of portions of the wafer mounted on the film frame to determine a rotational misalignment angle and a rotational misalignment direction of the wafer relative to the film frame or a field of view of the first image capture device or the second image capture device by executing program instructions that perform image processing operations upon the at least one image; and a film frame handling apparatus configured for transporting the film frame on which the wafer is mounted to the wafer table surface and configured for rotating the film frame to correct for any rotational misalignment of the wafer relative to the film frame, the first image capture device, and/or the second image capture device.