Ultra-fast crystal orientation on display at CS International 2025

by Jürgen Alizoti, Friday, 28th March 2025

At the heart of semiconductor manufacturing are single-crystal substrate materials with carefully controlled composition. Across the steps in the process in creating these materials, from seeding and crystal growth to grinding, cutting, polishing, and final control, fast and precise crystal orientation control is critical for cost-efficient production.

X-ray diffraction (XRD) is a proven analytical method for materials research and quality control, offering highly precise and accurate lattice orientation measurements. However, the traditional method of orientation using rocking curves at different azimuthal angles can take up to 10-20 minutes to produce results on small off-orientations. Depending on the number of samples, this can add up to sizable delays in your throughput.

With Malvern Panalytical’s Crystal Orientation range, you can find not only the tilt of the main axis but also all in-plain directions in as fast as 10 seconds – without compromising on precision. This method enables control of each individual wafer at a throughput of up to 1 million wafers per automated wafer tool per year, at a single point per wafer.

Discover the range of solutions
Our instruments can measure almost any single crystal shape, such as wafers, ingots, boules, and pucks. This makes them well-designed for industrial applications like manufacturing, research purposes, and quality control.

DDCOM acquires reliable results more than 100 times faster than the traditional methods with additional time savings, due to its bottom-up measurement geometry. This versatile instrument utilizes an air-cooled X-ray tube and portable design to ensure lower running costs and maximum convenience.
The SDCOM is a cutting-edge top surface measurement tool in a compact package. Offering high accuracy, non-destructive testing capabilities, and fast analysis times, SDCOM is able to precisely determine the complete lattice orientation of single crystals in just one measuring rotation.
Omega/Theta is a fully automated, three-axes X-ray diffractometer that combines precision and speed for determining crystal lattice orientation. This reliable partner features process accessories like barcode readers and mapping tables.
The Wafer XRD 200 and 300 offer high-capacity wafter metrology for crystal orientation and recognition of wafer ID, flat/notch and wafer edge shape.
XRD/OEM is a compact, fully integrable crystal orientation measurement head for automated in-line orientation and handling of ingots, boules, and pucks.