Chip Pin Coplanarity & Chipping: DaoAI 3D ACI Replaces Manual Inspection, Optimizing Labor Costs

WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment (proprietary 3D camera + 3D morphology reconstruction/point cloud, detecting hidden solder joints/coplanarity/micron-level morphology/pores and other 2D optical blind spot defects, 2D-3D fusion) precisely reconstructs 3D morphology and applies deep learning analysis, increasing the replacement rate of manual inspection for pin coplanarity and chipping defects in semiconductor packaging to over 90%, effectively optimizing labor costs.

In the back-end processes of semiconductor packaging, pin coplanarity and chipping during the dicing process are critical defects affecting product quality and reliability. These defects directly relate to the yield of subsequent chip mounting and long-term stability. Traditionally, due to their micron-level dimensions and variable 3D morphological characteristics, the detection of such defects primarily relies on experienced manual visual inspection. However, with increasing chip packaging density and faster production line cycles, the efficiency bottleneck, inconsistency, and high labor costs associated with manual inspection are becoming increasingly prominent, posing significant obstacles to achieving production capacity improvements and zero-defect manufacturing goals. Especially for mid-sized chip packaging plants, how to effectively control labor costs while ensuring quality has become a core competitive factor.

Pain Points: Why This Hurdle Is Difficult to Overcome

Detecting pin coplanarity and chipping defects in semiconductor packaging faces multiple challenges. First, pin coplanarity deviations are often at the micron level, making it difficult for the naked eye to accurately judge height differences; chipping manifests as irregular, tiny notches, with varied shapes, depths, and positions. The minute nature of these defects makes traditional 2D optical inspection solutions prone to missed detections, especially for tiny chips at the pin root or chip sidewalls, where 2D images often lack sufficient depth information. Second, the labor cost of high-precision manual inspection remains high, and inspection results are influenced by subjective factors such as operator experience and fatigue, leading to inconsistent inspection standards across shifts and personnel, and large fluctuations in product quality. According to data from a mid-sized chip packaging plant, its manual inspection false positive rate once reached 5%, and the missed detection rate was difficult to reduce below 0.8%, severely impacting production line efficiency and customer satisfaction. Meanwhile, the high labor intensity of manual inspection and the rising costs of recruiting and training skilled inspectors have significantly increased the per-piece inspection cost. Finally, frequent product changeovers also require manual inspectors to re-adapt, increasing production line downtime. WeLinkirt deeply understands these industry pain points and is committed to providing practical solutions through advanced 3D vision technology.

From a process root cause perspective, pin coplanarity issues may stem from thermal stress during packaging, mold precision, or improper pin forming process control; chipping often results from worn dicing blades, mismatched dicing parameters, or wafer material properties. These defects often appear as blurry shadows or indistinct contour changes in 2D images, making it difficult for traditional AOI systems based on thresholds or rules to effectively distinguish between good and defective products. While manual inspection offers some flexibility, its inefficiency and high cost contradict the current trend of “zero-defect manufacturing” and “automated production” in the semiconductor industry. WeLinkirt is dedicated to addressing these challenges with its innovative 3D ACI solutions.

Technical Principles

WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment utilizes its proprietary high-precision 3D camera to achieve 3D morphology reconstruction of chip pins and dicing edges. This system employs structured light or laser triangulation principles to acquire complete point cloud data of the inspected object, thus precisely restoring its micron-level surface morphology. Unlike traditional 2D imaging which only provides planar grayscale information, WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment directly obtains pin height, tilt angle, coplanarity deviation, and chipping depth, volume, and geometric shape from 3D data. For example, for pin coplanarity detection, the system can calculate the height difference of each pin end relative to a reference plane and compare it with preset tolerance ranges, quantifying micron-level coplanarity deviations with precision. In one case, the WeLinkirt 3D ACI equipment improved the measurement accuracy of pin coplanarity deviation to ±2 microns, far exceeding the precision limit of manual inspection.

At the algorithm level, WeLinkirt's DaoAI ACI OS operating system integrates advanced deep learning algorithms for feature extraction and defect classification from 3D point cloud data. Through positive sample learning (APDT few-shot self-training), with only a small number of good samples, the system can quickly learn the 3D features of normal pins and dicing edges, accurately identifying coplanarity anomalies and chipping defects. This 3D data-based detection method effectively avoids 2D optical blind spots, significantly reducing missed detection rates. Compared to traditional AOI that relies on manually setting complex rules, WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment demonstrates stronger robustness and adaptability when dealing with various defect morphologies, and changeover time is significantly shortened. Furthermore, combined with 2D-3D fusion technology, the system can also use texture and color information from 2D images to assist in defect localization and classification, further enhancing the comprehensiveness and accuracy of detection.

Typical Application Scenarios

• **Pin Coplanarity Detection:** In QFN, QFP, BGA, and other package types, WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment can precisely measure the relative height differences of all pin ends in the Z-axis direction, ensuring good contact with the PCB board during soldering. The difficulty lies in micron-level precision requirements and the large number and dense arrangement of pins. WeLinkirt's solution builds pin models from point cloud data to directly calculate coplanarity deviation.
• **Dicing Chipping Detection:** During the chip dicing process, the edges are prone to tiny cracks or nicks. These chips can lead to reduced chip reliability or even failure. WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment can perform high-resolution 3D scans of chip edges, precisely identifying and quantifying the depth, width, and position of chips, effectively compensating for the lack of depth information in 2D images.
• **Chip Overmolding/Overflow Detection:** During the molding process, uneven overmolding or glue overflow may occur at the chip edges. WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment, through 3D morphology reconstruction, can detect the geometric dimensions and uniformity of packaging materials at the chip edges, ensuring packaging quality.
• **Micron-level Morphology Defects:** For tiny bumps, depressions, scratches, and other morphological defects on the chip surface or pins, WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment can provide high-precision 3D data, enabling the detection of defects difficult to find with traditional 2D vision.
• **Hidden Solder Joint Defects:** For hidden solder joints at the bottom of BGA and other packages, WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment, combined with technologies like X-ray or indirect judgment through external morphological features, can effectively detect defects such as cold solder joints, bridging, and insufficient solder, improving detection coverage.

Case Study

A mid-sized chip packaging plant, primarily engaged in power device and memory chip packaging, had long relied on extensive manual visual inspection for pin coplanarity and dicing chipping detection. With accelerating production line expansion and product iteration, the efficiency bottleneck of manual inspection became increasingly prominent, and recruitment and training costs remained high, leading to immense production cost pressure. Before introducing WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment, the plant had over 10 experienced inspectors dedicated to this process, requiring overtime during peak periods. Still, manual re-inspection hours accounted for over 80% of total inspection hours, and quality consistency was difficult to guarantee. To enhance automation and optimize labor costs, the plant collaborated with WeLinkirt, deploying multiple sets of 3D ACI equipment.

After deployment, WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment, with its high-precision 3D detection capabilities, quickly replaced most manual inspection tasks. Production line data shows that the system increased the detection efficiency for pin coplanarity and chipping defects by 3 times, and manual re-inspection hours significantly reduced from over 80% to approximately 20%, meaning 75% of manual inspection work was replaced by automated equipment. In terms of detection accuracy, the WeLinkirt 3D ACI equipment consistently kept the missed detection rate below <0.2% while reducing the false positive rate by 80%, greatly improving product quality stability. Furthermore, thanks to the APDT few-shot self-training feature of WeLinkirt's ACI OS, new product changeover time was reduced from several hours of manual adjustment to within 5 minutes, significantly enhancing production line flexibility and utilization. In this case, the customer, by introducing WeLinkirt's solution, not only effectively controlled labor costs but also achieved industry-leading product quality.

WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment successfully increased the manual inspection replacement rate to over 90% in semiconductor packaging, reducing manual re-inspection hours by 75%, significantly optimizing labor costs and production line efficiency.

WeLinkirt Solutions and Products

WeLinkirt's core solution for the semiconductor packaging industry is based on its proprietary DaoAI 3D ACI equipment. This equipment integrates a high-resolution 3D camera with a high-performance computing platform, enabling fast and precise 3D scanning and morphology reconstruction of critical areas such as chip pins and package edges. During implementation, the WeLinkirt team configures the optical system and optimizes detection algorithms specifically for the customer's package type and defect characteristics. Through the WeLinkirt DaoAI ACI OS operating system, customers can leverage its intuitive graphical interface and 0-code programming capabilities to quickly establish and debug defect models. Especially, the APDT positive sample/few-shot learning function allows the system to complete new product changeover configurations in just 5 minutes with only 1–20 good samples, greatly lowering customer entry barriers and maintenance costs. WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment supports 100% on-premise private deployment, ensuring customer data security and meeting the stringent data privacy requirements of the semiconductor industry.

In addition to the 3D ACI equipment, WeLinkirt also offers the DaoAI World global model as a unified AI foundation. Through semantic understanding and cross-scenario generalization capabilities, it continuously learns from production line feedback, constantly improving detection accuracy and coverage. For scenarios requiring robot collaboration, the WeLinkirt Robotics Vision system provides 6D pose recognition and bin picking capabilities, enabling deeper automation integration. These products collectively form WeLinkirt's closed-loop system for zero-defect manufacturing, from defect identification to prevention, comprehensively enabling semiconductor manufacturers' intelligent manufacturing upgrades. In practical applications, WeLinkirt's DaoAI 3D ACI equipment helped a mid-sized chip packaging plant successfully reduce manual inspection labor costs by 75%, achieving significant economic benefits and quality improvement.

Full solution for this scenario: the full inspection solution for 3D ACI Equipment

This article was generated by AI. Customer cases are simulated scenarios based on real product capabilities and figures are illustrative; see product pages for official benchmarks.