Proactive BEOL yield improvement methodology for a successful mobile product

Mobile products incorporating ever increasing functions and capabilities are often designed on new technologies nodes which can enable smaller chip size and therefore result in profitable production. In order to achieve rapid yield ramp up, new BEOL yield enhancement methodology was implemented for new mobile product introduction which adds preliminary GDS Hot spot analysis to develop test structures, short flow process characterization, and equipment sensor FDC analysis techniques to the traditional methods of yield improvement engineering. The methodology is suited for use in 28nm and beyond technology nodes because the statistically based discovery process can handle changes in process better than the traditional methodologies which rely solely on expert knowledge and limited infrastructure.