Autoprobe (silent)

Year Published: 1970s

Creator: cobilt-division

Description: "Autoprobe (silent)" is a vintage industrial promotional film from the Cobilt Division, a company that designed and produced automatic equipment for fabricating and processing semiconductors. The video opens with a classic film countdown leader followed by a mirrored title card, then cuts to a blue title slide announcing "THE COBILT DIVISION — DESIGN AND PRODUCTION OF AUTOMATIC EQUIPMENT FOR FABRICATING AND PROCESSING SEMICONDUCTORS." The film then proceeds to showcase the Autoprobe™ machine itself, first presenting a wide external shot of the beige-and-black tabletop unit, followed by a detailed tour of its control panel — bristling with knobs and switches labeled THETA, Z DRIVE, METRIC/INCH, X AXIS, Y AXIS, FLAT ANGLE, ALIGN/CHECK, AUTO/MANUAL, SET UP/RUN, INITIALIZE, PROGRAM DELAY, and more, with a hand using a pencil as a pointer to highlight each feature. The film then transitions into color footage, showing a female laboratory technician loading a semiconductor wafer onto the machine's vacuum chuck and peering through the microscope eyepiece to align it. Subsequent close-up shots reveal the internal XY precision stage mechanism with its lead screws and motorized axes actively stepping the wafer into position. The most visually striking sequences show extreme macro footage: first the wafer sitting on the heated chuck with a glowing red indicator light, then an awe-inspiring through-the-lens view of fine tungsten probe needles converging to make electrical contact with the tiny bonding pads on individual integrated circuit dies laid out in a grid across the wafer. The film closes with views of the stage automatically indexing across multiple wafers, demonstrating the machine's automated, unattended operation capability, before fading out to blank white film leader — the classic end of a 16mm industrial reel.

Online Copy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBy7zRROzeE

Metadata Source:YouTube