Patent ID: 7908581

Claim:
An information management and tracking system for managing and tracking artifact data relating to the development of a process, the system comprising: a data management component; a process design unit configured to store data relating to a process design; a development tracking unit configured to store data relating to a process development, including said artifact data which includes data relating to development experiment parameters, results, and products; and a back annotation unit configured to receive process data and to provide the process data to the development tracking unit, wherein: the data management component is configured to control the process design unit, the development tracking unit, and back annotation unit such that the data received and stored therein is accessible in a linked manner that allows a user to obtain data from each unit and to view links between units; the data management component is further configured to add meta data to the artifact data to enable linked viewing and searching thereof; and the system is configured to manage data associated with a semiconductor manufacturing process development.