10-10/11 :: October/November 2010

nanotimes

Companies Facts

inspection systems are superior in this promising market to conventional techniques. NanoFocus has already developed the first business solutions and made improvements in terms of resolution and speed. The µsprint sensors are perfectly equipped to comply with future advances in the semiconductor industry, medical technology and the solar industry. Next to the µsurf- and µscan-technologies, µsprint is the third and more manufacturing support related product line of NanoFocus. The new technology has been successfully integrated in all levels of the Company. Both in terms of space and personnel, the developer and manufacturer of industrial mea- suring technology has expanded capacities in R&D, production, consultation and service. In order to provide service to existing customers, particularly in the Southern German region, NanoFocus has opened an additional representative office with service and consultation staff in the Munich Technology Center.

For NanoFocus, the acquisition and integration of the µsprint series, which is based on confocal technolo- gy, means a major step into the direction of produc- tion and inline-control, an emerging trend in measu- ring technology.

With the costs for the acquisition already recovered, partner management for µsprint is now being intensi- fied. Cooperation agreements in the medical techno- logy sector have already been signed, and further ne- gotiations of possible collaborations are taking place with partners that are each technologically leading in their particular niche markets. Additionally, the first business solutions, µsprint solar (solar industry) and µsprint semicon (semiconductors), have been develo- ped in cooperation with key customers.

The µsprint technology has proven to be an opti- mal solution for the inspection of micro weld joints, edge inspection on solar or semiconductor wafers, or bump inspection in the electronics sector. An equipment order from a renowned Asian electronics company for their production shows that the product µsprint is the first choice of manufacturers in the booming semiconductor market because of its high resolution and speed.

In the electronics sector, with ever more complex multimedia applications, the packaging density of electronic components is rapidly increasing through so-called flip-chip assembly or 3D-packaging. The superiority of the µsprint technology compared to classical measuring methods like photogrammetry, fringe projection or triangulation is most evident here. NanoFocus offers an excellent product for fu- ture applications in the semiconductor sector which are bound to become more challenging.

On the basis of a target-actual list NanoFocus has de- veloped a 20-step roadmap, in cooperation with key customers, for the further development of the µsprint technology.

“We are making significant further developments of the µsprint sensors today, in order to account for the needs of our customers and their markets in the future,” explains Jürgen Valentin, Chief Technologi- cal Officer and management board spokesman. “In particular the increases of resolution and speed are crucial points in further expanding our technological leadership in growing future markets like semicon- ductors, the solar industry, and medical technology.”

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