Methods and apparatus for data analysis

• US 20050278597A1
• Filed: 02/07/2005
• Published: 12/15/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 05/24/2001
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: In-Depth Test LLC (Acacia Research Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Test Advantage Incorporated (Boston Semi Equipment, LLC)
• Inventors: Scott, Michael J., Miguelanez, Emilio, Buxton, Paul, Gorin, Jacky, Tabor, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 7,356,430 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 714/738
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/2894 Aspects of quality control [QC] G01R31/31718 takes precedence; program control for QC G05B19/41875
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/31707 Test strategies methods for generation of test sequences G01R31/318371
• CPC Class Codes: G01R 31/318314 Tools, e.g. program interfaces, test suite, test bench, simulation hardware, test compiler, test program languages simulation software G01R31/318357; emulators G06F11/261
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/1112 Bit addressing, handling
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2223/02 Indirect monitoring, e.g. monitoring production to detect faults of a system
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0229 knowledge based, e.g. expert systems; genetic algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0278 Qualitative, e.g. if-then rules; Fuzzy logic; Lookup tables; Symptomatic search; FMEA
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0294 Optimizing process, e.g. process efficiency, product quality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 11/273 Tester hardware, i.e. output processing circuits G06F11/263 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/2433 Single-class perspective, e.g. one-against-all classification; Novelty detection; Outlier detection
• CPC Class Codes: G11C 29/56 External testing equipment for static stores, e.g. automatic test equipment [ATE]; Interfaces therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 22/20 Sequence of activities consisting of a plurality of measurements, corrections, marking or sorting steps

Abstract

A method and apparatus for data analysis according to various aspects of the present invention is configured to automatically identify a characteristic of a component fabrication process guided by characteristics of the test data for the components.

Claims

1. A test system, comprising:

a tester configured to test a set of components and generate test data for the set of components; and

a diagnostic system configured to receive the test data from the tester and automatically analyze the test data to identify a problem in a process for fabricating the components, wherein the diagnostic system is configured to recognize a pattern in the test data and match the recognized pattern with the problem.

2. A test system according to claim 1, wherein the diagnostic system includes a classifier configured to classify the pattern using an evolutionary algorithm.

3. A test system according to claim 2, wherein the evolutionary algorithm includes a particle swarm optimization algorithm.