Job Description
Primary Duties & Responsibilities
- To be responsible for wafer back-end processes like dicing, sorting, top/bottom/facet AOI, frame creation, tape/detape, wafer/frame cleaning, etc.
- Monitors process performance using SPC, inspection yield, defect pareto, false-call/escape metrics, and equipment health indicators; maintains process control and responds to excursions.
- Maintains especially AOI/dicing/sorting stepwise yield and investigates defect excursions, nuisance defects, false rejects, and defect escapes; develops and implements corrective and preventive actions.
- Develops, characterizes, optimizes, and releases process recipes for semiconductor laser facet inspection, including lighting, focus, image acquisition, inspection regions, thresholds, algorithms, and defect classification criteria.
- Develops and maintains control plans, OCAPs, inspection specifications, defect libraries, golden samples, acceptance criteria, and recipe change-control documentation.
- Plans and executes engineering experiments, gauge studies, correlation studies, and capability analyses to improve defect detection sensitivity, repeatability, reproducibility, and discrimination between true defects and cosmetic variation.
- Correlates process results with manual microscope inspection, downstream electrical/optical test, reliability results, and failure analysis to validate inspection effectiveness and reduce risk of defect escapes.
- Drives continuous improvement activities to reduce scrap and reinspection, improve process capability and throughput, reduce cycle time and cost, and increase automated disposition where technically justified.
- Partners with Equipment Engineering and suppliers to troubleshoot image quality, motion, optics, illumination, software, recipe, and hardware issues and to support qualification of equipment upgrades or new inspection capability.
- Supports new product introduction and process changes by defining inspection requirements, establishing baseline defect signatures, qualifying recipes, and completing process readiness documentation.
- Trains Process Technicians, Operators, and Engineers on facet inspection methods, AOI/dicing/sorting recipes, defect classification, reaction plans, and proper handling of inspected material.
- Collaborates with Operations, Equipment Engineering, Process Integration, Design, Quality, Reliability, Failure Analysis, and Supply Chain to achieve business unit and organizational objectives.
Education & Experience
Required Minimum Education: 4 year college degree (Bachelor or Equivalent)
Expected Minimum Years of Related Experience: 2+ years
- A bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science, Physics, Optics/Photonics, Computer Engineering, or a closely related science or engineering major and at least 2 years of relevant experience in semiconductor, optoelectronics, precision inspection, machine vision, or automated manufacturing; or a Master or PhD degree in a related field without industry experience.
- Experience with semiconductor laser devices, GaAs/InP processing, optical microscopy, machine vision, or automated optical inspection is preferred.
Skills
- Working knowledge of semiconductor wafer/device processing, engineering practices, and manufacturing process control.
- Deep Knowledge of automated optical inspection (AOI), machine vision, optical microscopy, image acquisition, lighting, focus, and defect detection concepts.
- Ability to develop and optimize recipes, thresholds, regions of interest, defect classifiers, and acceptance criteria for high-volume manufacturing.
- Knowledge of engineering statistics including SPC, DOE, process capability, measurement system analysis, gauge R&R, correlation, and hypothesis testing.
- Ability to analyze inspection images and large defect datasets, build paretos and trend analyses, and distinguish true process defects from inspection artifacts or nuisance calls.
- Experience with semiconductor laser facets, cleaved/coated optical surfaces, GaAs/InP devices, or optoelectronic manufacturing is preferred.
- Strong structured problem-solving skills and ability to lead root-cause analysis and corrective actions across process, equipment, material, and inspection contributors.
- Good written and oral communication skills, including clear technical documentation and cross-functional communication.
- Fluency in MS Office suite and JMP or other statistical analysis software; experience with AOI software, image analysis tools, SQL/Python, or manufacturing data systems is a plus.
- Working Conditions
- Work in a class 100/1000 clean room for extended periods as required by manufacturing support activities.
- Wear full cleanroom attire (smock, mask, gloves, etc.) and follow material-handling requirements for semiconductor devices.
- Work with and/or around manufacturing equipment, optical inspection systems, illumination sources, and chemicals used in semiconductor processing in accordance with site EHS procedures.
- Physical Requirements
- Stand for up to 4 hours at a time
- Lift up to 16-30 Pounds
- Push/Pull up to 16-30 pounds
- Sit for up to 4 hours at a time
- Safety Requirements
- All employees are required to follow the site EHS procedures and Coherent Corp. Corporate EHS standards.
- Quality and Environmental Responsibilities
- Depending on location, this position may be responsible for the execution and maintenance of the ISO 9000, 9001, 14001 and/or other applicable standards that may apply to the relevant roles and responsibilities within the Quality Management System and Environmental Management System.