Jan. 24, 2008 – Korea’s Dongbu HiTek says it has integrated its yield management system (YMS) and fault detection & classification (FDC) tools into a “Dongbu early trouble detection and analysis system” that reduces fault detection and analysis from 2-3 days to 1hr, while “sharply” increasing wafer yields and process stabilities.

The systems had previously been utilized separately to resolve unspecified yield-loss factors, with YMS performed offline to determine the source of yield loss and FDC independently monitoring fab equipment parameters in real-time. The integration effort took seven months and ~$6M in hardware/software investments, and some 60 tech personnel, according to the company.

“The real-time interaction and correlation between YMS and FDC metrics enable rapid defect analysis and resolution, thereby lowering manufacturing costs and maximizing the yields of the increasingly complex chip designs coming to market,” the company said in a statement.