Projection optics design for tilted projection of fringe patterns

Abstract

A challenge in the semiconductor industry is 3-D inspection of the miniaturized solder bumps grown on wafers for direct die-to-die bonding. An inspection mechanism proposed earlier requires the projection of a binary fringe grating to the inspected surface from an inclined angle. For high speed and accuracy of the mechanism, the projection optics has to meet these requirements: (1) it allows a tilt angle between the inspected surface and the projector's optical axis; (2) it has a high bandwidth to let high-spatial-frequency harmonics contained in the binary grating pass through the lens and be projected onto the inspected surface properly; (3) it has a high modulation transfer function; (4) it has a large field of view; and (5) it has an adequate depth of field that matches the depth range of the inspected surface. In this paper, we describe a projection optics design, consisting of a fringe grating and several pieces of spherical lens, that addresses the requirements. To reduce the lens aberrations, the grating is laid out with an angle chosen specifically to make the grating, the lens, and the average plane of the inspected surface intersect in the same line. Performance analysis and tolerance analysis are shown to demonstrate the feasibility of the design. © 2008 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers.