tag: yield

How To Catch “Disappearing” Latent Defects
By Mike LaTorraca - 19 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

Automotive is demanding more emphasis on chip reliability. By 2020, electronic devices will account for over 35% of the manufacturing cost of an automobile, and by 2030, that number is expected to rise to 50%. Tens of thousands of cars are manufactured each day, with each car using thousands of chips — and if even one of those chips fails in the field it may have disastrous consequences: los... » read more

Improving Fab Engineering Efficiency With Autonomous Data Analytics
By Peter Barar - 19 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

During my earlier career as a process integration engineer, one of my primary responsibilities was to find yield enhancement opportunities by investigating underlying relationships between bin failures and process parameters within the fab. While performing this analysis, there were many impediments to identifying relationships among different data types: sort maps, electrical test maps, parame... » read more

Tackling Advanced Chip Manufacturing Challenges
By Christophe Begue - 10 Jun, 2025 - Comments: 0

Intel and PDF Solutions are deepening their partnership to address the growing complexity of semiconductor manufacturing at advanced nodes, according to a recent discussion between Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan and PDF Solutions CEO John Kibarian at the Direct Connect Intel Foundry event in April. During the presentation, Kibarian highlighted how the two companies have been collaborating for approxim... » read more

Need For Speed Drives Targeted Testing
By Gregory Haley - 23 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

As packaging complexity increases and nodes shrink, defect detection becomes significantly more difficult. Engineers must contend with subtle variations introduced during fabrication and assembly without sacrificing throughput. New material stacks degrade signal-to-noise ratios, which makes metrology more difficult. At the same time, inspection systems face a more nuanced challenge — how t... » read more

Why Thin Film Measurements Matter
By Laura Peters - 08 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

Semiconductor devices are becoming thinner and more complex, making thin deposited films even harder to measure and control. With 3nm node devices in production and 2nm nodes ramping toward first-silicon, the importance of precise film measurement is only growing in significance as fabs seek to maintain the performance and reliability of leading-edge devices. Whether it’s the read and writ... » read more

2025-Product Design Enhancement With Test Structures For Non-Contact Detection Of Yield Detractors
By PDF Solutions - 08 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

Abstract: Detection and monitoring of the yield loss mechanisms and defects in product chips have been a subject of extensive efforts, resulting in multiple useful Design-for-Manufacturing (DFM) and Design-for-Test (DFT) techniques. Defect inspection techniques extend optical inspection further into sub-10 nm nodes, but many buried defects are formed as a result of multi-layer 3-D interaction... » read more

Improving Manufacturing Yields With Process Control Solutions
By Jonathan Holt - 08 Apr, 2025 - Comments: 0

Even after 20 years or so, process control continues to be a confusing or misunderstood technology. A short description of process control is an accurate one—It’s a means of controlling manufacturing equipment and reducing variability to improve yields and performance of the products manufactured through that equipment. Tools like PDF Solutions Fault Detection and Classification (FDC)... » read more

Automation And AI Improve Failure Analysis
By Laura Peters - 11 Mar, 2025 - Comments: 0

When a chip malfunctions it’s the job of the failure analysis engineer to determine how it failed or significantly deviated from its key performance metrics. The cost of failure in the field can be huge in terms of downtime, recalls, damage to a company’s reputation, and more. For these reasons, chipmakers take customer returns very seriously, focusing resources to quickly get to the bot... » read more

Unlocking The Value Of Yield
By Marc Hutner - 11 Mar, 2025 - Comments: 0

Have you stopped to consider the impact of yield on your overall product cost? Of course you did, when you considered your yield targets and set your product goals. But is it good enough to stop once the goals are achieved, or should you find ways to drive additional value into your organization once production has begun? What is the value of a 1% improvement in product yield? The short answer ... » read more

Failure To Launch
By Gregory Haley - 11 Mar, 2025 - Comments: 1

Failure analysis (FA) is an essential step for achieving sufficient yield in semiconductor manufacturing, but it’s struggling to keep pace with smaller dimensions, advanced packaging, and new power delivery architectures. All of these developments make defects harder to find and more expensive to fix, which impacts the reliability of chips and systems. Traditional failure analysis techniqu... » read more

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