Fab implementation of a system for cleaning wafers which survive wafer-breakage events

Wafer-breakage events are detrimental to the productivity of a semiconductor fab in two ways. The loss of product revenue is obvious, but more subtle is the yield impact of wafers in proximity to the breakage event. This collateral damage can impact the final test yield of the surviving wafers, as well as potentially contaminate tools which subsequently process these wafers. This paper describes the evolution and factory-wide implementation of a system for rework cleaning of such wafers, and an estimate of the yield improvement from its implementation.