Patent ID: 6841403

Claim:
A method for processing detected defect data comprising: a step of generating a defects distribution on a semiconductor substrate in order to investigate the cause of the defects by processing detected defect data obtained by inspecting semiconductor substrates processed until a predetermined sub-process, with an inspection equipment, for defects or suspected defects occurred to the semiconductor substrates in a fabrication line consisting of a plurality of sub-processes arranged in sequence, each sub-process being performed by one or a plurality of manufacturing equipments; a step of quantitatively evaluating defect features of the defects distribution on a semiconductor substrate generated by said step of generating a defects distribution; a step of generating data of the defect features quantitatively evaluated by said step of quantitatively evaluating defect features for the manufacturing equipments that processed the semiconductor substrates and the sub-processes that applied to the semiconductor substrates; and a causation inferring step of evaluating cyclicity of the defect features data for the manufacturing equipments that processed the semiconductor substrates and the sub-processes that applied to the semiconductor substrates, generated by said step of generating data, thereby inferring a causal manufacturing equipment that caused the defects.