A methodological approach to overcome the technology/equipment inherited limitations for yield improvement

Summary form only given, as follows. As technology moves into the submicron territory and the manufacturing capability expands to tens of thousand wafers per month, an effective and fast method must be established to maintain the process stability and enhance the production yield. Three approaches are usually used in manufacturing to ensure the process quality: (1) real-time machine/process monitoring, (2) on-line product inspection, (3) WAT and product yield result analysis. All necessary functions are usually included in the engineering data analysis system. In this paper, an effective system based on proven methodology to improve the production yield is described. 8-D (eight disciplines) analysis approach is the core of the whole system. In this system, the way to identify the problem, form the team, solve the problem, and set up the steps for the prevention of problem recurrence is clearly defined. Several yield related process problems, e.g. particles from the fast degraded ring from round etcher, cluster bit-line failure from the 2/sup nd/ gate dimension control, and low natural good die from the thermal impact of S/D RTA, are explained in this paper to show the way that 8-D method can be very effective to solve any low yield issue. A general idea will also be described in here to show why 8-D approach sometimes might fail in manufacturing due to system incompatibility and how to overcome the mentioned issues.