Patent ID: 6658361
Filing Date: 2003-12-02
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
A method for determining an effective fatal defect count based on defects in a plurality of inspected integrated circuits, the method comprising:(a) acquiring defect information related to defects in the inspected integrated circuits, (b) assigning defect weight values to each of the defects based on the defect information, where the defect weight values are in N number of defect weight value ranges, including a lowest defect weight value range and highest defect weight value range, (c) for each integrated circuit, determining a heaviest defect, which is the defect on each integrated circuit having a highest defect weight value, (d) determining a total number T(n) of the heaviest defects having a defect weight value within each defect weight value range n, for n equals one to N, (e) for n equals one to N, determining a weighted total defect count TW(n) by weighting the total number T(n) for each of the defect weight value ranges according to a weighting function which approaches zero at the lowest defect weight value range and approaches one at the highest defect weight value range, and (f) determining the effective fatal defect count by summing the values of TW(n) for the N number of defect weight value ranges.