Traditionally reserved for Failure Analysis investigations, Diagnostics has become essential for understanding low yield on sub-65nm logic and mixed-signal products. Diagnostics identifies failure candidates within the design, with probabilistic scoring of the candidates. The true failures are often mixed with equivalent failures, and similar failures also with a high probability score.
Volume Diagnostics is the methodology to use these failure candidates from a large population, as least several wafers of data, to identify patterns and commonality, to identify the likely true failures. Design-Aware Volume Diagnostics adds design and verification data to the analysis, to optimize the identification of the true failures. Statistics enable the Yield engineer to focus on the most important failures, in terms of their impact on Yield or Performance. Total Volume Diagnostics adds other Test results and Fab/Process data, to enable the Yield engineer to determine the root cause of the failures, and thus provide guidance for Test program or Fab/Process modifications.