Mentor Graphics Tessent YieldInsight demos faster IC failure and yield analysis at Fujitsu

WILSONVILLE, USA: Mentor Graphics Corp. announced evaluation results at Fujitsu Semiconductor Ltd. that shows the Tessent YieldInsight diagnosis-driven yield analysis tool can help cut the time required to determine the cause of IC yield loss.

By correlating production test results and physical design information, the product reduces the time to pinpoint yield loss mechanisms without requiring intimate knowledge of the manufacturing process. The Tessent YieldInsight tool can help accelerate customers’ ramp to production volume, quickly resolve yield excursions, and improve their mature yield, leading to increased profitability, lower defects-per-million (DPM) rates, and higher customer satisfaction.

According to Takahiro Fujimi, manager of the Product Engineering Department, Product Technology Division, Fujitsu Semiconductor: “We evaluated Mentor’s yield analysis technology on a 15 million gate design manufactured on a 65 nm process. When used together with Mentor’s Tessent TestKompress ATPG product, we found Tessent YieldInsight to be very effective in quickly and accurately identifying the actual physical locations of many IC failures. The product’s intuitive graphical interface is consistent with traditional yield analysis techniques and enables product engineers to be more effective in identifying yield problems and determining the cause of systematic defects.”

“Tessent YieldInsight is exciting new technology because it addresses time-to-market and manufacturing cost issues, both critical factors in the profitability of IC products,” said Joseph Sawicki, VP and GM of Mentor’s Design to Silicon division. “Customers can use the product to easily resolve problems with ramping production volume for new products, and they can use it to maximize mature product yield. Tessent YieldInsight represents an innovative new use of test data that already exists in our customers’ production flows.”

Tessent YieldInsight
The Mentor Graphics Tessent solution combines the automated scan test failure collection and diagnosis capabilities in the Tessent Diagnosis tool with advanced statistical analysis and data mining techniques in the Tessent YieldInsight product. The Tessent YieldInsight tool uses design-correlated analysis methods that supplement traditional fab-centric yield management systems.

In a manner consistent with yield and failure analysis tools, it steps the user through the process of selecting and filtering populations of failing die, grouping die that are failing for similar reasons, and analyzing various aspects of these populations to identify and locate systematic yield loss mechanisms.