Patent ID: 8396583

Claim:
A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, comprising: collecting a plurality of manufacturing data sets from a plurality of semiconductor processes, respectively, wherein each manufacturing data set has a mean associated therewith; normalizing each of the manufacturing data sets in a manner so that statistical differences among the manufacturing data sets are reduced, wherein normalizing each of the manufacturing data sets includes shifting the mean associated with each manufacturing data set to a reference mean such that each manufacturing data set has the same reference mean; establishing a database that includes the normalized manufacturing data sets; normalizing the database in a manner so that the manufacturing data sets in the normalized database are statistically compatible with a selected one of the manufacturing data sets, wherein normalizing the database includes shifting the reference mean of each manufacturing data set to one the means that was associated with one of the manufacturing data sets prior to normalizing each of the manufacturing data sets; predicting performance of a selected one of the semiconductor processes by using the normalized database, the selected semiconductor process corresponding to the selected manufacturing data set; and controlling a semiconductor processing machine in response to the predicted performance.