Patent ID: 8285414

Claim:
A method for evaluating a performance of a machine tool while manufacturing microelectronic devices comprising: generating at least one heat map having rows that correspond to sensors implemented in said machine tool, columns that correspond to recipe steps representing a process used to fabricate said microelectronic devices and cells at the intersection of said rows and said columns; assigning each row of said heat map to a sensor; assigning each column of said heat map to a recipe step; using at least one sensor for obtaining trace data of a recipe step while manufacturing at least one microelectronic device; analyzing the obtained trace data to determine a level of operational interest found in the obtained trace data; assigning a score to the trace data that indicates the determined level of operational interest; associating the score with a corresponding cell of the heat map; and accessing said score in said cell for evaluating the machine tool performance, said accessed score representing a measurement mismatch or measurement drift as compared to identically operating machine tools.