Industries today are accelerating efforts to increase efficiency in energy use while pursuing higher functionality and further scaling. R&D investments have increased to achieve the innovation of materials in such areas as semiconductor devices, metals, resins, and new materials. In this respect, accurate and speedy data acquisition and analysis capabilities are required in microscopy. Microscopes are expected to provide higher performance and versatility. Previously the existing models of OPTELICS® HYBRID were mainly used for R&D and quality assurance applications, but more recently the scope of applications has expanded to production processes as well. As such, there has been a significant increase in demand for automated wafer transfer, automated measurement, and automated inspection.

OPTELICS® HYBRID⁺ introduces a longer-lasting LED light source and high-resolution Z scale to meet new market needs on the foundation of OPTELICS® HYBRID series, which embodies high performance and multi-functions. Its "measurement assist" offers three distinct functions for higher ease of use. The first of these functions, "LM diagnosis," chooses the best measurement method and eliminates the need for high skills and experiences for measurement method determination and parameter setting. The second one, "filter assist," assists the setting of pre-process such as noise filtering. The third one, "LM adviser," advises the setting of pass/fail criteria to be applied to measurement data. Using these new functions, OPTELICS® HYBRID⁺ can choose optimum settings without relying on expert's skills and experiences, offering significantly higher operation efficiency for users.

OPTELICS® HYBRID⁺ also introduces "AI inspection," newly developed automated inspection software that incorporates machine learning and deep learning. It expands the microscope's scope of applications from non-patterned substrate defect inspection to patterned device defect inspection. It also enables the classification of defects captured during inspection and significantly widens the area of applications in the inspection field. Furthermore, the new model offers hardware options including automated wafer transfer, newly developed high-NA objective lens, which enables measurement at higher accuracy, and Xθ stage. A wide range of software options are also available to meet various customer needs.