From Glass Wafer to Facial Recognition: SMART EFEM (Equipment Front-End Module) at Work Inside Bühler Leybold Optics’ HELIOS
Aussonne, France, September 2026
Unlocking a phone with a glance depends on an infrared sensor that can tell a human face from everything else in the room. Behind that sensor sits an optical filter built from up to 1,000 coating layers, some as thin as 5 nanometers, deposited onto a wafer under vacuum. That’s the job of HELIOS, the coating system from Bühler Leybold Optics. Getting each wafer in and out of that process without damage or contamination is the job of RECIF Technologies’ SMART EFEM.
Glass wafers, a different set of rules
HELIOS coats glass wafers destined for advanced photonics applications, including the sensors behind facial recognition. Glass behaves differently from silicon on a handling line, and coating adds another layer of difficulty: beyond surface composition, the deposition process introduces thermal and mechanical stress that warps and bows the wafer, altering its physical geometry. Simultaneously, the newly deposited material changes the surface roughness, and by extension, the coefficient of friction. Robot end-effectors must not only remain chemically and physically compatible with the top coating. But the tool’s velocity profiles must also adjust dynamically to accommodate these shifts in grip, surface texture, and wafer flatness. Detection becomes equally challenging, as sensors must now adapt to a wider range of optical signatures and wavelength behaviors across wafers. High-volume production doesn’t leave room for compromise on any of those points.
Where RECIF Technologies’ SMART EFEM comes in
That combination of contact sensitivity and evolving detection requirements led RECIF into the project. As explained by Yanick Gil, Sales Manager, in the video: “RECIF Technologies has developed a new sensing technology to ensure a safe handling and a reliable detection of these glass coated wafers.”
Unlike RECIF’s wafer sorters, which run stand-alone or integrated into a stocker, the SMART EFEM is built to interface directly with a process tool, in this case HELIOS itself. Inside the EFEM, RECIF’s robot with Advanced Contact Technology (ACT) aligns and places each glass wafer into the coating chamber.
Two technologies, one production step
Optical coating and wafer handling solve different problems, but in high-volume production they only work if both hold up at the same time. As Bühler’s team puts it: “RECIF & Bühler have complemented each other very well in this project. Together, we bring top notch optical coating into high volume production, improving uptime, facilitating production and securing yield in this highly critical step.”
Bühler Leybold Optics released a video this summer walking through how HELIOS and the SMART EFEM work together on the production line, from wafer loading to the finished optical filter.
About BÜHLER Leybold optics
Bühler Leybold Optics supplies thin-film vacuum coating technology, with more than 160 years of heritage in developing and manufacturing high-precision deposition systems for a broad range of industrial applications.
Headquartered in Alzenau, Germany, with additional production facilities in Raleigh (USA) and Beijing (China), the company employs over 300 people worldwide and has operated as part of the Swiss Bühler Group since 2012.
Its HELIOS and SYRUSpro vacuum coating platforms deposit stacks of up to 1,000 layers, with individual thicknesses as low as 5 nanometers and tolerances below 0.5%, serving 24/7 production environments across wavelengths from deep UV to infrared.
For media inquiries:
Bühler Leybold Optics
Siemensstraße 88,
63755 Alzenau, Germany
Email: leyboldoptics@buhlergroup.com
Web: buhlergroup.com/leyboldoptics
About RECIF Technologies
RECIF Technologies is a French specialist in automated wafer handling for the semiconductor industry, with over 40 years of experience designing and manufacturing wafer handling equipment for highly sensitive fabrication environments. The COMPACT Sorter delivers clean and safe handling in a footprint of roughly 1 sqm, saving up to 40% in floor space compared to the market average. The SMART Range, including the SMART EFEM, offers the same clean and safe handling and is designed for advanced nodes and heterogeneous substrate handling.
Part of the Accuron Technologies Group, RECIF is based near Toulouse, France, with additional operations in Taiwan and the United States.
For media inquiries:
RECIF Technologies
SERENIS BAT 4
1, rue Virginie Guyot
31840 Aussonne, France
Email: contact@recif.com
Web: reciftech.com
