PIEZO STAGE POSITIONING
Industry Consumer Electronics Applications Piezo Stage Measurement Type Positioning Description Positioning stages using piezoelectric stack actuators (PEA) have very high resolution. However, it is difficult to achieve precise dynamic motion tracking using traditional linear controllers such as PID due to the inherent hysteresis nonlinearity of piezoelectric materials and the phase lag associated with such controllers. Capacitance Sensors are ideal for measuring the actual piezo stage position and correcting for the inherent nonlinearity through closed loop feedback. They have the stability, bandwidth and high resolution needed to do the job. [...]
Whitepaper: The Future of Cable Testing: Why Intelligent Automation is Replacing Manual Validation GalleryWhitepaper: The Future of Cable Testing: Why Intelligent Automation is Replacing Manual Validation
Brand-Vitrek, Industry-Aerospace, Industry-Automotive, Industry-Cable Test, Industry-Compliance Testing, Industry-Consumer Products, Industry-Electronics, Industry-Government/Military, Industry-Lighting, Industry-Manufacturing, Industry-Medical, New & Press Releases, Whitepapers-Vitrek
Whitepaper: The Future of Cable Testing: Why Intelligent Automation is Replacing Manual Validation
Introduction Cable assemblies are evolving rapidly as products become more compact, more powerful, and more connected. Today’s designs often operate at higher voltages while fitting into smaller packaging envelopes, forcing engineers to balance electrical performance with limited physical space. At the same time, many assemblies now include a greater number of conductors and increasingly combine mixed signal and power paths within a single harness. Environmental demands are also rising. Cable systems may need to withstand vibration, temperature extremes, moisture, chemicals, or continuous motion depending on the application. Alongside these technical requirements, manufacturers face growing expectations for stronger quality documentation [...]
WAFER QA/QC AFTER SLICING AND POLISHING
Industry Semiconductor Applications Wafer Qa/Qc After Slicing And Polishing Measurement Type Surface Description When wafers are sliced up with wire saws, they are measured to make sure they are within the specified thickness, with minimal bow, warp, and TTV. After initial measurement, they are sorted and sent for polishing. Since polishing removes material and smoothes out the rough surfaces they need to be measured again to ensure they meet thickness guidelines and quality standards. Solution: MTI Instruments manufactures multiple systems to perform thickness measurements. From semi automated Proforma 300SA to manual wafer [...]
Automating Complex Cable Testing with the Vitrek V10X and 964i GalleryAutomating Complex Cable Testing with the Vitrek V10X and 964i
Application Notes-Vitrek, Brand-Vitrek, Industry-Aerospace, Industry-Automotive, Industry-Cable Test, Industry-Compliance Testing, Industry-Consumer Products, Industry-Electronics, Industry-Government/Military, Industry-Lighting, Industry-Manufacturing, Industry-Medical, Whitepapers-Vitrek
Automating Complex Cable Testing with the Vitrek V10X and 964i
Introduction Cable assemblies are no longer simple pass/fail products. Modern harnesses may contain dozens—or hundreds—of conductors, shielding paths, insulation systems, and termination points. Testing them manually is slow, labor intensive, and prone to inconsistency. The combination of the Vitrek V10X Hipot Tester and Vitrek 964i High Voltage Switching System creates a modern automated platform for validating cable safety and integrity with higher speed and repeatability. The Challenge Manufacturers of advanced cable assemblies are under constant pressure to improve quality while keeping production moving. Many products now use large pin-count connectors and complex multi-conductor designs that require access to numerous [...]
ABOUT WAFER BOW AND WARP MEASUREMENT SYSTEMS
Thickness Measurement for Metrology Systems ASTM F657: The distance through a wafer between corresponding points on the front and back surface. Thickness is expressed in microns or mils (thousandths of an inch). Total Thickness Variation (TTV) ASTM F657: The difference between the maximum and minimum values of thickness encountered during a scan pattern or series of point measurements. TTV is expressed in microns or mils (thousandths of an inch). ASTM F534 3.1.2: The deviation of the center point of the median surface of a free, unclamped wafer from the median [...]
Application Note: Modernizing a Legacy Military Avionics Test System with a Programmable GaGe High-Speed Digitizer
Introduction Across military and aerospace maintenance operations, many proven test systems remain in service decades after their original deployment. These systems often support critical certification procedures, validated workflows, and platform-specific compliance tests that are costly or impractical to replace. While the airframes and missions may evolve, the test infrastructure built around them often remains indispensable. The challenge arises when key instruments inside those systems become obsolete. Aging oscilloscopes, digitizers, controllers, and interface hardware can create maintenance burdens, calibration issues, and long-term support risks. Replacing them is rarely simple. In regulated or mission-critical environments, a modern instrument must not only [...]
Application Note: Improving Optical Measurements Through High-Speed Data Acquisition
Introduction Advances in optical engineering are driving the need for faster, more accurate data acquisition systems. Whether characterizing laser pulses, measuring fiber optic sensors, or analyzing highspeed optical communications, today’s photonics applications generate electrical signals that demand exceptional sampling performance and timing accuracy. While the optical source may be light, the measurement ultimately depends on capturing an electrical waveform produced by a photodiode or other optical detector. Preserving the integrity of that waveform is critical, as lost detail or timing errors can directly affect measurement accuracy, image quality, or system performance. High-speed PCIe digitizers provide the bandwidth, memory depth, [...]
Whitepaper: Choosing the Right Data Acquisition Architecture for Photonics Applications
Introduction Photonics has become one of the fastest-growing fields in engineering, enabling advances in autonomous vehicles, optical communications, medical imaging, aerospace, semiconductor manufacturing, and quantum technologies. As these systems continue to evolve, engineers are challenged to capture increasingly complex optical signals while maintaining exceptional measurement accuracy, repeatability, and timing precision. At the heart of every optical measurement system is a detector that converts light into an electrical signal. The quality of the resulting data depends not only on the detector itself, but also on the architecture used to acquire, process, and analyze that signal. Selecting the appropriate data acquisition [...]
LITHOGRAPHY OPTICS POSITION FOCUS
Industry Semiconductor Applications Photolithography Using Capacitance Sensors Measurement Type Positioning Description One specific area where capacitance systems excel is high resolution focusing of complex lens systems such as those found in atomic force microscopes, vision inspection machines and photolithography tools. In a multi-million dollar photolithography tool, high accuracy, nanometer resolution and maximum thermal stability are absolutely critical to maintain proper focus and obtain integrated circuit line widths as small as 45 nanometers. Additionally, most systems demand low power consumption and maximum heat dissipation to eliminate any adverse affects from [...]
GAAS SUBSTRATE THICKNESS MEASUREMENT
Industry Semiconductor Applications Gaas Substrate Thickness Measurement Measurement Type Thickness Description Measuring Thickness of Wafers with Different Chemistries Introduction: Silicon wafers are ordinarily highly conductive and easy to measure with standard capacitive displacement sensors (See MTI’s Proforma 300i). Measuring the thickness of GaAs wafers that have high bulk resistivity (>10k Ohm/cm) is a little more difficult because the wafers act as non-conductive insulators in a capacitive sensor’s measuring field. Fortunately, MTI has a solution to this problem. Solution: It’s possible to measure the thickness and TTV of high resistivity semiconducting wafers (like GaAs) using non-contact capacitive [...]