Patent ID: 7698012

Claim:
A computer-implemented method of measuring at least one manufacturing characteristic for at least one wafer from a lot of wafers processed by a process control system, comprising: providing information representative of a set of candidate points to be measured by the process control system on the at least one wafer from the lot of wafers; executing, by the process control system, a plan for the lot of wafers for performing measurements on the at least one wafer to measure the at least one manufacturing characteristic, the plan defining the measurements to be made responsive to the set of candidate points; detecting, by the process control system, that one of a plurality of events indicating a change in a manufacturing process occurs while processing the lot of wafers, or that a lack of one of the plurality of events occurs while processing the lot of wafers, the plurality of events comprising an occurrence of a fault in a processing device used to process the lot of wafers, and an occurrence of a variation in a measurement of a previously measured wafer from the lot of wafers; determining, by the process control system while processing the lot of wafers, whether to measure the at least one wafer from the lot of wafers based on the detected event or lack of the event; and adjusting the plan, by the process control system while processing the lot of wafers, to measure the at least one wafer from the lot of wafers and to refrain from measuring the at least one wafer from the lot of wafers based on the detected event or lack of the event.