Quality Assurance
Operational strategies designed to minimize the loss of usable units during manufacturing maintain the economic viability of a production line. Implementing yield protection involves identifying the root causes of defects early in the process. These efforts stop when the final product is shipped.
Process Monitoring
Continuous data collection from every machine on the floor allows for the detection of drift. Yield protection requires the use of statistical process control to keep the manufacturing variables within their limits. Any deviation triggers an immediate investigation.
Intervention Threshold
Predetermined limits for scrap rates define when a production line must be stopped. In yield protection, the goal is to prevent a single faulty machine from ruining an entire batch of wafers. Automated sensors provide the real-time feedback needed for these decisions.
Financial Impact
Reducing the number of rejected parts lowers the average cost of each unit. Yield protection is a primary focus for semiconductor foundries where the cost of raw materials is high. Testing and inspection stages are designed to catch errors before more value is added to the part.
The success of the strategy is measured by the ratio of good dies to the total number of dies on the wafer.
