ICOS Vision Systems Introduces BWI-2300, A Stand Alone Bumped Wafer Inspection Machine, At SEMICON Taiwan 2001.

Business & Technology Editors

HEVERLEE, Belgium--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 18, 2001

The Company will also Demonstrate its New Tape Carrier Package

Inspection Machine and the Latest Version

of its CI-8450 Component Inspector

ICOS Vision Systems Corporation N.V. (NASDAQ and NASDAQ Europe: IVIS), a world leader in vision solutions, today announced that it is demonstrating its new BWI-2300, new FTI 1200 MP tape carrier packaging inspection machine and the latest version of its CI-8450 component inspector at the SEMICON Taiwan 2001 trade show.

SEMICON Taiwan is being held in Taipei, Taiwan between September 17 and September 19. ICOS is exhibiting its products at booth 1318 at the Taipei World Trade Center.

"By introducing these new products ICOS is broadening its addressable market and expanding its range of offerings to both existing and potential customers," said Jos Verjans, president and chief executive of ICOS. "With the BWI-2300, an essential tool for wafer fabrication process management and yield enhancement, we are entering an emerging market segment of the semiconductor industry, the bumped wafer market. With the FTI 1200 MP, which performs fully automated tape carrier package inspection, we are penetrating the emerging segment of the market for tape carrier package inspection. Finally, we are continuing to enhance the functionality and speed of the CI-8450, our fully automatic component inspector product line.

"We remain committed to investing in product development to meet our customers' requirements for continuous productivity improvements and to introducing new products that meet the demand for emerging applications of machine vision solutions."

BWI-2300

Specifically designed for the fully automated bump metrology measurement and defect detection of bumped wafers up to 300mm, the BWI-2300 system's capabilities include flip chip and wafer level chip scale packages. Its inspection algorithms put the inspection intelligence in the system, where it should be, thereby enabling very reliable inspection results with a close to zero overkill. In contrast, other systems rely heavily on operator intervention to re-inspect results after system inspection.

With an unmatched footprint of 1.155m x 1.010m, the BWI-2300 offers a compact and accurate bumped wafer inspection at high throughputs that delivers a rapid return on investment. It is equipped with an industry-standard robot that transfers the wafer from the wafer cassettes to the inspection station. In addition, the BWI-2300 simultaneously measures the bumps in 2D and 3D in a one-step process using a powerful combination of 2D and 3D inspection technologies and performs the active die inspection. Finally, the BWI-2300 provides for a wide range of bump inspections such as bump coplanarity, bump height, bump width, bump position and bump pitch. Defect detection includes missing bumps, bump deformation, and defects on the active die area.

The BWI-2300 has a user interface that takes full advantage of the latest release of ICOS' Man Machine Interface (MMI), allowing for easy system set-up and machine operation; it comes with a wide range of statistical process control (SPC) tools including wafer maps and histograms of summary data and individual measurements; and it utilizes ICOS' new, high-performance DSP-based MVS6000 board for inspection image analysis.

FTI 1200 MP

The FTI 1200 MP performs a fully automated optical inspection of Tape Carrier Packages (TCP), components that are placed on tape and are often used in LCD monitors and detects an extensive range of lead defects, pattern defects, resin defects and solder resist defects. It is powered by ICOS' high-performance vision engine based on TMS(TM) signal-processor technology, which uses super high-resolution cameras and multi-color light emitting diodes (LEDs) for illumination.

As a final step in TCP assembly, the FTI 1200 MP offers improved quality compared to human inspection. It is a stand-alone machine with winders for loading and unloading TCP reels and a fully automatic camera-based optical inspection system that includes a verification microscope and a punching unit for marking bad parts. The inspection results are documented in a detailed reel report including counters for all part classes and detailed defect descriptions.

The user interface integrates machine control and inspection set-up on a single monitor screen which allows for real-time control of the machine status and all machine functions, and for easy and efficient changeovers.

CI-8450

The CI-8450 has a newly developed dual pick and place head, which significantly increases throughput. There are three independent inspection stations that perform full inspection of a wide range of semiconductors such as Gull Wing, J-lead, BGA/CSP and leadless devices. These are: (1) the 3D STEREO/ Lead Inspection Module Station for 3D lead or ball inspection and between-balls inspection; (2) the Bottom Inspection Station for inspecting the bottom mark and bottom surface of the packages and the contacts of leadless devices which also looks for burrs and slivers on the complete lead length of Gull Wing devices; and, (3) the Top Inspection Station that checks the top mark and the top package surface of the device and looks for burrs/slivers on the package edge. The CI-8450 is also available with a taper in which case the Top Inspection Station is used for final in-tape inspection.

Discover these and other exciting new ICOS developments at SEMICON Taiwan, Taipei World Trade Center, booth No. 1318, Taipei, Taiwan.

ICOS is a leading worldwide developer and supplier of machine vision and inspection solutions primarily for use in the back-end semiconductor manufacturing and electronic assembly industries. The Company's two- and three-dimensional inspection products are used worldwide to inspect integrated circuits at various stages of their manufacturing process and to align electronic components and printed circuit boards. The Company has three product lines: board-level products to be integrated in die-bonding equipment and in pick-and-place machines, system-level products to be integrated in testhandlers, molding equipment, trim-and-form equipment, marking systems and tape-and-reel equipment as well as for applications in other sectors such as the automotive sector and finally stand-alone component inspection systems. ICOS' headquarters are located in Heverlee, Belgium and it has sales and support offices in Japan, in the USA, Singapore, Hong Kong, Korea and Taiwan. The German subsidiary is, besides its sales and support function, also active as an R&D center.

ICOS Vision Systems Corporation N.V. can be found on the World Wide Web at www.icos.be