Parallel piezo aligners with fly height sensors enable faster PIC wafer testing

Designed for production scale, the platform supports parallel operation of multiple miniaturised alignment engines across a single wafer, enabling simultaneous electro-optical probing at multiple test sites to increase throughput and lower cost of test. Its compact, ATE-compatible architecture is intended to make it practical to deploy many aligners in one setup - helping EPIC manufacturers transition from sequential, lab-style alignment to high-volume, repeatable wafer-level testing.

A key new feature is FAU ranging, an interferometry-based fly-height measurement method that uses existing fibre channels - adding no extra hardware and no additional footprint - to measure fibre-to-wafer distance at the point of interest, supporting stable probing and repeatable optical coupling. PI notes that FAU ranging can also enable future approaches such as trench-based photonic edge coupling, helping save wafer real estate and reduce device costs.

"With FAU ranging, we pave the way for trench-based photonic edge coupling, saving wafer real estate, reducing device costs, and unlocking new design freedom for EPIC manufacturers," says Dr Markus Simon, Strategic Innovation and Technology Management at PI.