Reducing Quality Escapes in Semiconductor Manufacturing
During final wafer test and sort, each die is allocated to a specific bin to either be scrapped or used in a product. This process creates a direct trade-off between quality and profitability. A die that is incorrectly scrapped impacts profits while a die that is incorrectly shipped impacts quality and brand reputation. Every semiconductor operation must balance these two errors within their test and wafer sort process, which requires a quality decision process based on data:
- Wafer Maps—Heat maps to understand the location of failures on a given wafer
- Stacked Wafer Analysis—Aggregated wafer results to identify hotspots and patterns of failing die
- Die Genealogy Data—Connected data for each die including pass/fail outcomes, parametric data, and wafer/lot identification
NI Lifecycle Solution for Semiconductor Quality Shield
- The NI Lifecycle Collect, Detect, and Act solution framework implemented by NI OptimalPlus can monitor and resolve yield issues in near real-time.
- Wafer data pipelines Collect, transform, and tag wafer test results into a unified data format that allows for continuous analytics and insights about wafer results
- An advanced set of wafer visualizations and analytics tools Detect patterns and anomalies, to ensure the delivery of only high-performance semiconductor devices to customers
- Outlier Detection capabilities with a comprehensive library of algorithms and advanced correlations further Detect across distributed manufacturing operations to identify bad dies more consistently
- Actions to retest or scrap units based on accurate predictions of quality risk create a true Quality Shield against quality escapes going to customers.
Solution Advantages
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Achieves up to two percent overall yield improvement by ensuring bad devices are discarded and that all good devices make it to market
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Meets customers’ zero-defect goals with a strong Quality Shield built on escape prevention, outlier detection, RMA analytics, and more
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Accelerates root-cause analysis of quality problems to continuously improve on quality metrics and manufacturing results
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Provides a library of prebuilt rules that monitor test operations and pinpoint equipment- or test-related issues that could cause bad parts to ship
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Connects returned units to production data to quickly determine the root cause of the failure and conduct historical analysis to find systemic issues in manufacturing
Build Your Solution with the NI Ecosystem
NI offers a variety of solution integration options customized to your application-specific requirements. You can use your own internal integration teams for full system control or leverage the expertise of NI and our worldwide NI Partner Network to obtain a turnkey solution.
The NI Partner Network is a global community of domain, application, and overall test development experts working closely with NI to meet the needs of the engineering community. NI Partners are trusted solution providers, systems integrators, consultants, product developers, and services and sales channel experts skilled across a wide range of industries and application areas.
NI Enterprise Solutions provide architecture and applications that improve product lifecycle performance. NI service teams offer dedicated data science, engineering, and project management resources to guide users through complete data mapping and focused deliverables for successful solution deployment. Talk to your NI representative about service options while learning more about NI Enterprise Solutions.
An NI Partner is a business entity independent from NI and has no agency or joint-venture relationship and does not form part of any business associations with NI.