Patent ID: 8707221

Claim:
A method comprising: identifying a design specification for a circuit assembly comprising a plurality of circuit components, each circuit component of the plurality of circuit components being populated in the circuit assembly according to the design specification; for each of the plurality of circuit components: identifying a set of component attributes corresponding to the circuit component according to an attribute database; assigning a set of possible defects as a function of the set of component attributes, wherein the set of possible defects is associated with a predicted frequency of occurrence, wherein the predicted frequency of occurrence of at least one defect of the set of possible defects is a function of a manufacturing process used to populate the circuit component; calculating a first predicted defect frequency of occurrence for the circuit component as a function of a preferred manufacturing process for use in populating the circuit component in the circuit assembly; and calculating a second predicted defect frequency of occurrence for the circuit component as a function of an alternate manufacturing process for use in populating the circuit component in the circuit assembly; calculating a first yield prediction for the circuit assembly as a function of a first combination of the first and/or second predicted defect frequencies of occurrence of the plurality of circuit components; and calculating, using a processor, a second yield prediction for the circuit assembly as a function of a second combination of the first and/or second predicted defect frequencies of occurrence of the plurality of circuit components, the second combination being different from the first combination.