Laser Polarimetric Imaging of Surface Defects of Semiconductor Wafers, Microelectronics, and Spacecraft Structures

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