Inspection can be done manually by an operator using a microscope, or it can be performed by sophisticated equipment that utilizes vision recognition (VR) software.

Inspection looks for defects that would either prevent the device from operating correctly or pose a reliability concern for long term operation. Defects can be divided into two major categories: fabrication and mechanically-induced (by mishandling) defects. The extent to which any defect may be acceptable would be defined by the appropriate criteria selected to fit the application environment. There are many different inspection criteria, but the most common one is MIL-STD-883, Method 2010. This method provides two levels of inspection targeted for the applications environment; one, high reliability and the other for space/ultra-high reliability. The inspection standard defines the equipment to be used for the inspection, magnification ranges, what defects to look for and quantifies the amount of any particular defect that is acceptable.

Chip Supply employs a highly qualified staff of inspectors who receive an initial 80 hours of training before being certified to inspect. We also have three grades of inspectors, depending on their skill level and re-certify all of them on a 6-month cycle.

In addition to our manual capability, Chip Supply uses an automatic vision machine. This machine compares each die to a perfect die and then presents detected anomalies to an inspector for final determination.