Surface Defect Imaging of Semiconductor Wafers, Microelectronics, and Spacecraft Structures

The purpose of this study is to present novel optical imaging techniques, based on all active Muller matrix optical polarimetric principles, for efficient detection, inspection and monitoring of semiconductor and microelectronic components, and spacecraft structure. The experimental results of this study indicate that the polarimetric imaging techniques are highly efficient in detecting defects on semiconductor structures when compared to nonpolarimetric techniques