Canon FPA-5520iV i-line Stepper Lithography System

The Canon FPA-5520iV, introduced in 2016, is an i-line stepper lithography system specifically designed for advanced packaging and Fan-Out Wafer-Level Packaging (FOWLP). It is primarily positioned for back-end-of-line (BEOL) processes—focusing on thick-resist patterning and the handling of warped wafers—rather than the fine-pitch patterning required for front-end-of-line (FEOL) semiconductor manufacturing.

The system features an i-line (365nm) light source, a standard resolution of ≤1.0μm, a numerical aperture (NA) of 0.15–0.18, an exposure field of 52×34mm, an overlay accuracy of ≤150nm, and a throughput of at least 160 wafers (300mm) per hour. Its core value lies in its adaptability to the reconstructed wafers used in FOWLP: it employs flexible vacuum chucks and an enhanced suction system to manage significant wafer warpage, while wide-field alignment optics enable automatic alignment even when dies exhibit large-scale positional offsets. Compared to its predecessor, the FPA-5510iV, the system’s high-intensity illumination optics offer an approximately 30% increase in light intensity, resulting in up to a 20% boost in throughput for thick-resist exposure processes.

The platform’s capabilities have been continuously expanded through various options: the HR option (2018) improved resolution to 0.8μm, meeting the requirements for high-density redistribution layers (RDL) and micro-bump patterning; the LF option (2021) enabled a large 52×68mm single-exposure field; and the LF2 option (2022) further extended this by utilizing a four-shot stitching technique to achieve a 100×100mm ultra-large exposure field with 0.8μm resolution—a solution tailored for the mass production of large-format packages used in 2.5D/3D heterogeneous integration.