Patent ID: 6885977
Filing Date: 2005-04-26
Classification: G06F,H01L

Abstract:
1. A method for determining a response to a wafer manufacturing process problem, the method comprising the steps of: generating a wafer map signature corresponding to a wafer that contains defect attributes associated with a wafer manufacturing process; retrieving one or more stored wafer map signatures from a database, wherein each of the one or more stored wafer man signatures include a description of process tools and/or equipment that the wafer was exposed to prior to signature capture; matching said wafer map signature with said one or more stored wafer map signatures from said database; calculating a conditional probability distribution of a process tool type or a determined wafer defect type based on the wafer map signature to be identified; and combining the calculation with a wafer map signature similarity metric to arrive at a probabilistic recommendation of the wafer manufacturing process to be corrected.