Watchdog system having data differentiating means for use in monitoring of semiconductor wafer testing line
First Claim
1. A machine-implemented watchdog system for monitoring the operations of one or more units of final wafer sort (FWS) test equipment, where each unit of FWS test equipment participates as part of one or more FWS test stations in FWS testing of plural dice provided on each of a supplied plurality of wafers from a given production lot of wafers, said FWS testing being for verifying high-level functionality of the tested dice, wherein each FWS test station outputs for each wafer tested by said test station, a corresponding block of raw result data indicative of which dice tested as functional or not, said system comprising:
- (a) receiving means for receiving respective blocks of raw result data from each respective test station, each received block of raw result data indicating FWS test results obtained by the respective test station for a respectively tested wafer;
(b) differentiating means for adding to each received block of raw result data, additional information signals, said additional information signals enabling the sorting of the blocks of raw result data according to one or more predefined sorting criteria, the combination of each block of raw result data and the correspondingly added additional information signals defining differentiable result data; and
(c) storing means for storing the differentiable result data.
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Accused Products
Abstract
In a final wafer sort (FWS) testing facility, the raw log-out data that is output by FWS test stations is augmented with additional differentiating data to thereby produce differentiable log-outs that can be sorted according to a variety of criteria including: product number or product family, time of test, specific wafer, specific production lot, intra-reticle site number, machine operator, and the specific swappable units of equipment that participated in the FWS testing. The differentiable log-outs are stored in a database and are periodically accessed by an automatic watchdog system that tests for exception conditions calling for immediate or long-term response. Corresponding alarm signals and trend reports are automatically generated and distributed to responsible personnel and/or reactive machine-systems as appropriate. The alarm distribution mechanism includes automatic paging of personnel by wireless beeper and/or e-mail. Immediate response alarms include exception conditions detected for accumulated bin counts on a per-wafer or per-lot basis. Long term alert reports include those that detect increased error rates and possible wear down of replaceable probe cards.
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Citations
47 Claims
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1. A machine-implemented watchdog system for monitoring the operations of one or more units of final wafer sort (FWS) test equipment, where each unit of FWS test equipment participates as part of one or more FWS test stations in FWS testing of plural dice provided on each of a supplied plurality of wafers from a given production lot of wafers, said FWS testing being for verifying high-level functionality of the tested dice, wherein each FWS test station outputs for each wafer tested by said test station, a corresponding block of raw result data indicative of which dice tested as functional or not, said system comprising:
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(a) receiving means for receiving respective blocks of raw result data from each respective test station, each received block of raw result data indicating FWS test results obtained by the respective test station for a respectively tested wafer; (b) differentiating means for adding to each received block of raw result data, additional information signals, said additional information signals enabling the sorting of the blocks of raw result data according to one or more predefined sorting criteria, the combination of each block of raw result data and the correspondingly added additional information signals defining differentiable result data; and (c) storing means for storing the differentiable result data. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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23. A computer-readable data storage apparatus storing differentiable result data obtained from one or more final wafer sort (FWS) test stations, said data storage apparatus including:
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(a) first means storing raw result data obtained from one or more final wafer sort tests run by respective ones of the FWS test stations on a corresponding one or more wafers; and (b) second means storing wafer-identifying data identifying each unique wafer from which a correspondingly stored portion of said raw result data was produced. - View Dependent Claims (24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32)
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33. A machine-implemented test system comprising:
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(a) collecting means for collecting blocks of raw log-out data from a respective one or more test stations; (b) data differentiating means for adding differentiating information to each of the collected blocks of raw log-out data and for thereby producing differentiable log-out data, said differentiable log-out data being structured to enable differentiation of each of said blocks of raw log-out data according to one or more predefined sorting criteria; (b) sorting means for sorting through the differentiable log-out data in accordance with one or more of said predefined sorting criteria and for thereby defining one or more groups of differentiated log-out data; and (c) exception-condition detecting means for testing the one or more groups of differentiated log-out data against exception-conditions defined by a respective one or more exception-condition defining modules and for initiating a respective one or more exception-handling responses upon detection of the satisfaction of a respective one or more of said exception-conditions. - View Dependent Claims (34, 35, 36)
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37. A machine-implemented managing system for managing operations of a final wafer sort (FWS) testing facility having one or more test stations, said managing system comprising:
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(a) first storage means for automatically collecting and storing blocks of differentiable log-out data obtained from respective testing of one or more wafers by a respective one or more of the FWS test stations, said differentiable log-out data being differentiable according to a plurality of predefined sorting criteria including product type and date of testing; (b) second storage means for storing exception-definitions; (c) sort-and-query means, operatively coupled to the first and second storage means, for automatically sorting through the stored, differentiable log-out data in accordance with one or more of said predefined sorting criteria, for thereby defining one or more groups of differentiated log-out data corresponding to the predefined sorting criteria, for automatically testing the one or more groups of differentiated log-out data against the stored exception-definitions, and for automatically detecting satisfaction of a respective one or more of said exception-conditions by the tested one or more groups of differentiated log-out data. - View Dependent Claims (38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45)
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46. A machine-implemented method for reviewing test result data obtained from testing by one or more final wafer sort (FWS) test stations of wafers from one or more production lots, said method comprising the steps of:
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(a) obtaining raw test result data from each test station indicating raw test results for a respectively tested wafer; (b) adding to the raw test result data additional data for distinguishing the obtained raw test result data according to a plurality of sorting criteria, said sorting criteria including time of test and the identity of test equipment participating in the production of the raw test result, said adding step producing differentiable test result data; and (c) storing the differentiable test result data in a machine-readable storage means.
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47. A machine-implemented watchdog system for monitoring the operations of one or more units of final wafer sort (FWS) test equipment, where each unit of FWS test equipment participates as part of one or more FWS test stations in FWS testing of plural dice provided on each of a supplied plurality of wafers from a given production lot of wafers, said FWS testing being for verifying high-level functionality of the tested dice in accordance with one or more predefined test procedures, wherein the tested dice are associated with specific product lines, wherein each FWS test station is operated under supervision of an identifiable operator, and wherein each FWS test station outputs for each wafer tested by said test station, a corresponding block of raw result data indicative of which dice tested as functional or not, said system comprising:
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(a) a receiving unit for receiving raw result data from each respective test station the received raw result data indicating FWS test results obtained by the respective test station for a respectively tested wafer; and (b) a differentiating unit for adding to the received raw result data, additional information signals, said additional information signals enabling the sorting of the raw result data according to one or more predefined sorting criteria; wherein said predefined sorting criteria include use of one or more of the following sort-keys; (c.1) the product line of the tested dice; (c.2) the lot of the tested dice; (c.3) the operator responsible for supervising the testing of the dice; (c.4) the time of the testing of the dice; and (c.5) the test procedure used in the testing of the dice.
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Specification