Patent ID: 6542830
Filing Date: 2003-04-01
Classification: G01N,G01R,H01L

Abstract:
A process management system including a plurality of inspection apparatuses for inspecting defects, each defect located at a defect location, on a wafer or a chip, said plurality of inspection apparatuses being connected through a communication network, each of said plurality of inspection apparatuses being arranged in manufacturing processes, an inspection information and an image information which are obtained from said plurality of inspection apparatuses being collected to construct a data base and an image file said system comprising:means for classifying the defects by combinations of elements characterizing the defects based on the inspection information and the image information which are obtained from said plurality of inspection apparatuses, comparison means for comparing each defect location with a malfunction location obtained from yield analysis data, the malfunction location being a location at which a defect will result in a malfunction, and display means for displaying results of the comparison.