Signature analysis based IC diagnostics-a statistician´s perspective

This paper deals with the basic concepts of signature analysis, and will attempt to demonstrate how its implementation would enable efficient utilization of failure analysis engineering resources to analyze field failures and avoid repetitive analyses. This would accomplish the dual objective of improved customer satisfaction and reduced cycle time. Signature analysis methodology can be used in Failure Analysis, Design, Product, and Customer Quality and Reliability Engineering group applications. Starting with definitions, purpose, and various possible scenarios, a formal mathematical framework is developed for computing sample sizes and establishing confidence levels when the failures occur at random or occur in clusters