Data processing method and apparatus to determine killer ratio based on a variety of defect types

• US 6,496,788 B1
• Filed: 04/06/2000
• Issued: 12/17/2002
• Est. Priority Date: 04/14/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: NEC Electronics Corporation (Renesas Electronics Corporation)
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Kikuchi, Hiroaki
• Primary Examiner(s): Sherry, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): PERT, EVAN T
• Application Number:
  US09/544,284
• Time in Patent Office: 985 Days
• Field of Search: 438/14, 324/765, 700/121, 702/179, 702/180, 702/181, 702/182, 702/183
• US Class Current: 702/181
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/10 Complex mathematical operations function generation by table look-up G06F1/03; evaluation of elementary functions by calculation G06F7/544
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 17/18 for evaluating statistical data , e.g. average values, frequency distributions, probability functions, regression analysis forecasting specially adapted for a specific administrative, business or logistic context G06Q10/04

Abstract

When a killer ratio resulting from a specified defect is calculated from die research data including the number of defects and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies, the die research data is classified based on the number of the specified defects present on a die to calculate a killer ratio for each of a plurality of the classified groups, from which a killer ratio in the case of one specified defect is calculated for each of the groups. The killer ratio for each of the groups is weighted in accordance with the number of the specified defects to calculate one killer ratio as the average value of the weighted killer ratios, thereby calculating one killer ratio which reflects the effect of the number of the specified defects present on a die.

Claims

1. A method of processing data comprising the steps of:

previously registering die research data including at least a number of defects for each type and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies divided from a single wafer;

receiving type selecting data for selecting a specified defect which is a defect of one type;

retrieving the die research data corresponding to the specified defect with the input type selecting data;

classifying the retrieved die research data based on a number of the specified defects present on a die;

calculating a killer ratio for each of a plurality of groups of the classified die research data;

calculating a killer ratio in a case of one specified defect for each of the groups from the calculated killer ratio for each of the groups;

weighting the calculated killer ratio for each of the groups in accordance with the number of the specified defects; and

calculating one killer ratio as an average value of the weighted killer ratios for the respective groups.

2. A method of processing data comprising the steps of:

previously registering die research data including at least a number of defects for each type and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies divided from a single wafer;

receiving type selecting data for selecting a specified defect which is a defect of one type;

retrieving the die research data corresponding to the specified defect with the input type selecting data;

classifying the retrieved die research data based on a number of the specified defects present on a die;

detecting, from the classified die research data, a number of dies T_i with i specified defects, a number of dies T_Gi with i specified defects and a favorable manufacturing result, and a total number of specified defects N′

present in the wafer; and

calculating a killer ratio KR′

resulting from the specified defect as follows;

3. A method of processing data comprising the steps of:

previously registering die research data including at least a number of defects for each type and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies divided from a single wafer;

receiving type selecting data for selecting a specified defect which is a defect of one type;

retrieving the die research data corresponding to the specified defect with the input type selecting data;

classifying the retrieved die research data based on a number of the specified defects present on a die;

detecting, from the classified die research data, a total number of dies T present in the wafer, a number of dies T′

with the specified defect, the number of dies T_G with a favorable manufacturing result, a number of dies T_G′

with the specified defect and a favorable manufacturing result, a number of dies T_i with i specified defects, a number of dies T_Gi with i specified defects and a favorable manufacturing result, and a total number of specified defects N′

present in the wafer; and

calculating a killer ratio KR₁′

resulting from the specified defect as follows;

4. A data processing apparatus comprising:

data storing means for previously registering die research data including at least a number of defects for each type and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies divided from a single wafer;

data input means for receiving type selecting data for selecting a specified defect which is a defect of one type;

data retrieving means for retrieving the die research data corresponding to the specified defect from said data storing means with the type selecting data input to said data input means;

data classifying means for classifying the die research data retrieved by said data retrieving means based on a number of the specified defects present on a die; and

first calculating means for calculating a killer ratio for each of a plurality of groups of the die research data classified by said data classifying means.

5. The data processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising second calculating means for calculating a killer ratio in a case of one specified defect for each of the groups from the killer ratio for each of the groups calculated by said first calculating means.

6. The data processing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising third calculating means for

calculating one killer ratio as an average value of the killer ratios for the respective groups calculated by said second calculating means.

7. The data processing apparatus according to claim 6, wherein said third calculating means weights the killer ratio for each of the groups in accordance with the number of the specified defects when it calculates one killer ratio as the average value.

8. The data processing apparatus according to claim 7, wherein said third calculating means assigns a heavier weight to the killer ratio in a group with a larger number of the specified defects.

9. The data processing apparatus according to claim 8, wherein said third calculating means weights the killer ratio in accordance with a ratio of a total number of the specified defects present on a single wafer to a total number of the specified defects for each of the groups.

10. The data processing apparatus according to claim 4, further comprising:

data extracting means for extracting dies with no specified defect from the die research data retrieved by said data retrieving means;

correction generating means for generating corrected data which reflect effects of types of defects other than the specified defect from the die research data extracted by said data extracting means; and

result correction means for correcting the killer ratio with the corrected data generated by said correction generating means.

11. The data processing apparatus according to claim 5, further comprising:

data extracting means for extracting dies with no specified defect from the die research data retrieved by said data retrieving means;

correction generating means for generating corrected data which reflect effects of types of defects other than the specified defect from the die research data extracted by said data extracting means; and

result correction means for correcting the killer ratio with the corrected data generated by said correction generating means.

12. The data processing apparatus according to claim 6, further comprising:

data extracting means for extracting dies with no specified defect from the die research data retrieved by said data retrieving means;

correction generating means for generating corrected data which reflect effects of types of defects other than the specified defect from the die research data extracted by said data extracting means; and

result correction means for correcting the killer ratio with the corrected data generated by said correction generating means.

13. The data processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising:

data extracting means for extracting dies with no specified defect from the die research data retrieved by said data retrieving means;

correction generating means for generating corrected data which reflect effects of types of defects other than the specified defect from the die research data extracted by said data extracting means; and

result correction means for correcting the killer ratio with the corrected data generated by said correction generating means.

14. The data processing apparatus according to claim 8, further comprising:

data extracting means for extracting dies with no specified defect from the die research data retrieved by said data retrieving means;

correction generating means for generating corrected data which reflect effects of types of defects other than the specified defect from the die research data extracted by said data extracting means; and

result correction means for correcting the killer ratio with the corrected data generated by said correction generating means.

15. The data processing apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising:

data extracting means for extracting dies with no specified defect from the die research data retrieved by said data retrieving means;

correction generating means for generating corrected data which reflect effects of types of defects other than the specified defect from the die research data extracted by said data extracting means; and

result correction means for correcting the killer ratio with the corrected data generated by said correction generating means.

16. A data processing apparatus comprising:

data storing means for previously registering die research data including at least a number of defects for each type and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies divided from a single wafer;

data input means for receiving type selecting data for selecting a specified defect which is a defect of one type;

data retrieving means for retrieving the die research data corresponding to the specified defect from said data storing means with the type selecting data input to said data input means;

data classifying means for classifying the die research data retrieved by said data retrieving means based on a number of the specified defects present on a die; and

killer ratio calculating means for detecting, from a plurality of groups of the die research data classified by said data classifying means, a number of dies T_i with i specified defects, a number of dies T_Gi with i specified defects and a favorable manufacturing result, and a total number of specified defects N′

present in the wafer and calculating a killer ratio KR′

resulting from the specified defect as follows;

17. A data processing apparatus comprising:

data storing means for previously registering die research data including at least a number of defects for each type and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies divided from a single wafer;

data input means for receiving type selecting data for selecting a specified defect which is a defect of one type;

data retrieving means for retrieving the die research data corresponding to the specified defect from said data storing means with the type selecting data input to said data input means;

data classifying means for classifying the die research data retrieved by said data retrieving means based on a number of the specified defects present on a die; and

killer ratio calculating means for detecting, from a plurality of groups of the die research data classified by said data classifying means, a total number of dies T present in the wafer, a number of dies T′

with the specified defect, a number of dies T_G with a favorable manufacturing result, a number of dies T_G′

with the specified defect and a favorable manufacturing result, a number of dies T_i with i specified defects, a number of dies T_Gi with i specified defects and a favorable manufacturing result, and a total number of specified defects N′

present in the wafer, and calculating a killer ratio KR₁′

resulting from the specified defect as follows;

18. An information storage medium for storing software readable by a computer as programs which causes said computer to execute:

storing die research data including at least a number of defects for each type and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies divided from a single wafer;

receiving type selecting data for selecting a specified defect which is a defect of one type;

retrieving the die research data corresponding to the specified defect with the input type selecting data;

classifying the retrieved die research data based on a number of the specified defects present on a die;

calculating a killer ratio for each of a plurality of groups of the classified die research data;

calculating a killer ratio in a case of one specified defect for each of the groups from the calculated killer ratio for each of the groups;

weighting the calculated killer ratio for each of the groups in accordance with the number of the specified defects; and

calculating one killer ratio as an average value of the weighted killer ratios for the respective groups.

19. An information storage medium for storing software readable by a computer as programs which causes said computer to execute:

storing die research data including at least a number of defects for each type and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies divided from a single wafer;

receiving type selecting data for selecting a specified defect which is a defect of one type;

retrieving the die research data corresponding to the specified defect with the input type selecting data;

classifying the retrieved die research data based on a number of the specified defects present on a die;

detecting, from the classified die research data, a number of dies T_i with i specified defects, a number of dies T_Gi with i specified defects and a favorable manufacturing result, and a total number of specified defects N′

present in the wafer; and

calculating a killer ratio KR′

resulting from the specified defect as follows;

20. An information storage medium for storing software readable by a computer as programs which causes said computer to execute:

storing die research data including at least a number of defects for each type and manufacturing result pass/fail for each of a plurality of dies divided from a single wafer;

receiving type selecting data for selecting a specified defect which is a defect of one type;

retrieving the die research data corresponding to the specified defect with the input type selecting data;

classifying the retrieved die research data based on a number of the specified defects present on a die;

detecting, from the classified die research data, a total number of dies T present in the wafer, a number of dies T′

with the specified defect, a number of dies T_G with a favorable manufacturing result, a number of dies T_G′

with the specified defect and a favorable manufacturing result, a number of dies T_i with i specified defects, a number of dies T_Gi with i specified defects and a favorable manufacturing result, and a total number of specified defects N′

present in the wafer; and

calculating a killer ratio KR₁′

resulting from the specified defect as follows;