The electronics industry is driven by the trend for more GOPS (Giga-Operations per Second) per mm3. This requires smaller technology nodes in wafer manufacturing, a drive to advanced packaging, as well as back-end inspection of the smaller interfacing components like micro-bumps, distribution layers, etc.
The smaller nodes result in more details that require visual inspection and metrology. At the same time the inspection throughput of the inspection tools needs to remain the same or increase when looking at the surface area that needs to be inspected. Furthermore, it is desired to reduce the number of false positives and negatives. The actual inspection task thus becomes more challenging.