瑕疵診斷的技術是半導體產業中關鍵的技術之一，密切地關係到量產的時程及獲利能力。傳統上，記憶體的瑕疵診斷大多仰賴失效圖樣和工程人員的經驗來達成，然而這樣的方法已難滿足現今產品更替的速度。為此我們提出一個半導體記憶體的瑕疵診斷系統來加速瑕疵診斷的時間及精確度。它結合了記憶體偵錯及分析(Memory Error Catch and Analysis, MECA)系統，以及記憶體缺陷診斷(Memory Defect Diagnostics, MDD)系統。記憶體偵錯及分析系統採用以錯誤模型為導向之診斷方法，同時能依需求自動產生測試及診斷演算法。記憶體缺陷診斷系統係採用錯誤樣型為導向之診斷方法，進一步提升了缺陷辨認之精確度。此外，這個診斷系統也包含一個圖形界面的瀏覽器，提供工程人員詳查記憶體之失效圖樣與錯誤樣型和分析的結果。同時我們以展示了運用參數量測配合可測性設計的技術，可更進一步釐清缺陷的位置。
在這篇論文中，我們提出了一個有效且自動化的的缺陷診斷與分析方法，可以迅速且有效率地縮減瑕疵定位之搜尋時間;再佐以可測性設計及參數量測的方法，這個瑕疵診斷系統可以達成非常精確的診斷結果。同時，我們以一個工業界的實際產品作為實驗，與傳統方法相比，能夠在極短時間內達到精準的結果。總結來說，這個系統提供了一個系統化、自動化的方法來加速半導體記憶體的瑕疵診斷及良率提升。

Failure analysis (FA) is one of the key competencies and enables reasonable time-to-market, resulting in higher profit than other competitors. Conventional FA for memories based on bitmaps and the experiences of the FA engineer is time consuming and hard to meet the increasing time-to-volume pressure on semiconductor
products. To reach a profitable yield level rapidly in new
development flow demands an efficient and automatic FA
methodology. An advanced memory failure analysis framework is proposed---the Failure Analyzer for MEmories (FAME), to
facilitate the defect diagnosis and yield ramp-up in system-on-chip (SOC) product development. Our FAME integrates
the Memory Error Catch and Analysis (MECA) system and Memory
Defect Diagnostics (MDD) system. The fault-type based
diagnostics approach used by MECA can improve the efficiency of the test and diagnostic algorithms. Furthermore, we also developed a systematic diagnosis approach based on the novel fault-pattern approach. It is used in the MDD system to improve the defect identification capability. Defect diagnosis and FA can be performed
automatically by using the MDD, reducing the time in yield
improvement. FAME also comes with a powerful viewer for
inspecting the failure patterns and fault patterns. It provides an easy way to narrow down the potential cause of failures and identify possible defects. We also demonstrate the ability of parametric testing for defect-level diagnostics with proper design-for-test support in memories. Combining the proposed framework and parametric testing can achieve excellent diagnostic results. An experiment has been done on an industrial case, demonstrating very accurate results in a much shorter time as compared with the conventional way. The main benefit of FAME is thus an automatic methodology and procedure for accelerating FA and yield optimization for semiconductor memories.

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