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Identifying causes of semiconductor production yield loss

  • US 5,971,586 A
  • Filed: 03/18/1996
  • Issued: 10/26/1999
  • Est. Priority Date: 04/21/1995
  • Status: Expired due to Fees
First Claim
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1. A method of identifying causes which reduce yield of a manufacturing process, said process producing wafers containing semiconductor circuitry and involving multiple processing steps including a first specific process step which potentially introduces particulate deposits on wafers, comprising the steps of:

  • detecting a number and location of particulate deposits on a wafer prior to and subsequent to said first specific process step, and determining therefrom a number and locations of particulate deposits introduced during said first specific process step;

    electrically testing semiconductor circuitry in a plurality of locations of said wafer subsequent to said first specific process step, and identifying locations of said wafer which contain faulty circuitry;

    correlating the locations of particulate deposits introduced during said first specific process step to the locations of said wafer containing faulty circuitry subsequent to said first specific process step; and

    determining, from said correlating, a first measure of reductions in yield of said manufacturing process caused by particulate deposits introduced during said first specific process step relative to other causes of reductions in yield.

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