Patent ID: 7494829

Claim:
A method, comprising: identifying a plurality of sample semiconductor chips that fail a production test as a result of subjecting the plurality of sample semiconductor chips to a stress inducing process; identifying at least one correlation between variations in a first sample parameter and variations in a second sample parameter, the first and second sample parameters associated with the plurality of sample semiconductor chips; identifying as a statistical outlier chip any of a plurality of production semiconductor chips that pass the production test and that further do not conform to a parameter constraint generated based upon the at least one correlation identified and further based upon data associated with at least some of the plurality of production semiconductor chips that pass the production test; segregating the statistical outlier chip from the plurality of production semiconductor chip; identifying a plurality of correlations between a plurality of parameters associated with the plurality of sample semiconductor chips; ranking the plurality of correlations; and identifying the at least one correlation based at least in part on the ranking.