Intelligent Yield Management (IYM)

This chapter introduces the traditional root-cause search procedure of a yield loss. It presents a more systematic and efficient tool: the intelligent yield management (IYM) system for finding the root causes of a yield loss. The purpose of the IYM system is to figure out the root causes which affect the yield of the final product effectively. The kernel of the IYM system is the Keyvariable Search Algorithm (KSA) scheme. The KSA scheme contains various data preprocessing modules, KSA module, reliance index module, blind-stage search algorithm, and interaction-effect search algorithm. After elaborating the theoretical illustrations of the IYM system, the chapter introduces the deployment considerations and requirements of the IYM system. Five steps are required to deploy the IYM system into manufacturing processes. They are operation analysis, IYM system setup, data collection, IYM function and integration tests, and system release.