Technical Bulletins

In this Issue:

Disappearing Latent Macro Defects
Macro defects missed by sampling can become invisible to later screening techniques (electrical test and/or final inspection) and these latent defects can turn into reliability issues.

Marginal wafer defects can slip past electrical testing.
Certain non-killer but marginal wafer defects can slip through electrical testing if they have sufficient electrical connectivity.

Guardbanding inline wafer defects improves chip reliability.
Guardbanding removes marginal die and neighboring die around clearly identified defective die.

Increasing device reliability by adding more wafer inspection.  
Current inspection regimes still allow too many defects to pass through and escape to the field.

Increase yield by stopping intermittent in-line wafer excursions.
Applying 100% macro defect inspection inline at many critical process levels enables a fab to catch more intermittent low-level defects.

Operator shortage? Methodology to reduce or eliminate manual inspection.
Post-pandemic labor shortages push wafer manufacturers to rethink Photolithography “After Develop Inspection” (ADI).