Wunstorf, Germany 2001-05-08. phoenix|x-ray Systems + Services, a manufacturer of ultra high resolution X-ray technology for the global electronics and semiconductor industries, recently completed the development of a “nanofocus” X-ray tube. This new tube technology provides a 500 nanometers (0.5 microns) lateral resolution for phoenix|x-ray X-ray systems, which is a remarkable step, migrating the company’s products into the submicron region. This is the result of a dedicated development-project for a customer, which had been started in August 2000 and has been finished successfully in May 2001. All employees of the research & development and the applications departments worked in unison to achieve this outstanding result within such a short time. Now all phoenix|x-ray open tube X-ray systems may be equipped with either a microfocus or a nanofocus tube, depending on the customer requirement.
“Many defects such as fine bond wire cracks or tiny voids that occur in flip chip solder balls of merely 25 microns in diameter can only be displayed at this extremely high resolution but, moreover, the nanofocus technique makes all kinds of high-magnification X-ray applications easier“, states Dr. Holger Roth, senior applications engineer, after the evaluation of the nanofocus-tube. „It has been worth-while to push the technique to the physical limits“. In combination with the recently launched high-contrast|detector which multiplies the contrast of the X-ray image, phoenix|x-ray now offers the „non plus ultra“ for image resolution and detail detectability in all three dimensions.
“The nanofocus resolution together with the renowned stability of the phoenix|x-ray tubes“, adds Dr. Stefan Becker, sales d irector of phoenix|x-ray, “is also a considerable progress for high-resolution computer-tomography”.