The FPD industry today is facing challenges to meet the market demand for higher resolution displays used for high-definition smartphone displays and 4K and 8K TV sets. Patterns on large photomasks are shrinking fast, and yield critical defects on mask blank are getting smaller. Traditionally, mask blank manufacturers have employed visual inspection for quality assurance, but it is no longer a viable method for the large mask blank inspection. The industry now needs a highly reliable alternative that enables the high-sensitivity automated defect inspection and classification.

Lasertec has developed LBIS as a successor to LB79, released in 2008, to address the need for high-sensitivity mask blank inspection. LBIS incorporates a new optical design to achieve high sensitivity and high throughput. It also offers automated defect review and classification as a standard feature. LBIS is expected to play a key role in blank quality enhancement and mask yield improvement.