INSPAD: a system for automatic bond pad inspection

A method of detecting probe mark defects in semiconductor bond pads is presented that uses digitized images of color Polaroid photographs from an optical microscope. INSPAD inspects the bond pads in a magnified IC circuit image taken after the electrical testing stage. These are: probe marks must not extend beyond pad boundaries such that they damage glassivation; scratches on the bond pads must not exceed 50% of the bond pad width; and the probe marks must not exceed 25% of the bond pad area. Three types of commonly used bond pad geometries have been addressed. Morphological filtering is performed on the bond pad, to isolate and identify the major probe mark regions. Inspection of each pad takes approximately 2 to 3 s on an Apollo DN-4000 workstation which makes it suitable for real-time applications