Ein scharfes Hyperspektral-Auge für die Chipproduktion
Press release Fraunhofer IWS Dresden / March 14, 2023
“DIVE imaging systems” Spins off from Fraunhofer IWS in Dresden
Precise two-dimensional analysis of high-tech layers in microelectronics, battery factories or even in the automotive sector approaches within reach. A measuring system developed at the Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS facilitates this by integrating hyperspectral sensor technology, artificial intelligence and special illumination techniques into a high-performance, highly flexible inspection system. A team of researchers from Fraunhofer IWS establishes “DIVE imaging systems GmbH”, a BMWK-funded spin-off company, to commercialize this promising technology.
DIVE (short for “Digital Vision Experts”) will initially focus on the semiconductor industry. In this industry, the founders Dr. Philipp Wollmann, Dr. Wulf Grählert, Oliver Throl, and Livia Szathmáry strive to help ensuring stable processes, increasing yields, and saving resources. By no means was the choice of location random: “Dresden is predestined for our spin-off,” emphasizes Philipp Wollmann. “Important players in microelectronics are concentrated here in a metropolitan area. In order to further develop our technology in the best possible customer-oriented way, we enjoy the shortest distances in this city and can also identify further partners with the successive expansion of the already existing network.”
The founders think not only of customers from the semiconductor industry. In perspective, the quartet wants to establish its innovative DIVE technology for the inspection and analysis of surfaces and layers broadly in different industries. Of the numerous scenarios, rapid areal layer thickness measurement, the detection and localization of the smallest form defects or impurities represent only a fraction of the possibilities.
About DIVE:
DIVE imaging systems GmbH, a Fraunhofer IWS spin-off, defines a new class of machine vision for surface and layer inspection. DIVE’s “hyperspectral vision devices” synergistically combine the advantages of classical imaging with spectroscopic analysis of chemical-physical properties, including artificial intelligence-based data analysis. These innovative inspection systems enable users to “see” and objectively evaluate previously hidden properties of surfaces and coating systems. DIVE technology automates quality control, reduces inspection time and increases manufacturing quality.