Nextin is preparing to launch its new inspection equipment for 3D NAND.
The company had co-developed the kit with Intel but will not be supplying them to the US chip giant, sources said.
However, Nextin had won a supply deal with a South Korean memory chipmaker, they said.
The equipment, called IRIS, is used to check the bottom of 3D NAND for defects.
3D NAND stacks cells that are connected through a vertical channel hole that passes through them.
This meant that conventional optical equipment had challenges checking for defects near the bottom of the chip.
Nextin’s equipment combines near-infrared and through-focus scanning optical microscopy (TSOM) technologies.
Near-infrared has lower resolution compared to ultraviolet but has longer wavelengths that allow the equipment to check deeper.
TSOM takes multiple shots in a variety of focuses that allows the equipment to find the common defects shown in the shots.
Nextin had developed the equipment with Intel which had planned to use it on its Optane memory solutions, which it announced that it would end in July.
