METHOD FOR DETERMINING ROOT CAUSE AFFECTING YIELD IN A SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING PROCESS

摘要

Described is a method for determining a root cause affecting yield in a process for manufacturing devices on a substrate, the method comprising; obtaining yield distribution data comprising the distribution of a yield parameter across the substrate or part thereof; obtaining sets of metrology data, each set comprising a spatial variation of a process parameter over the substrate or part thereof corresponding to a different layer of the substrate; comparing the yield distribution data and metrology data based on a similarity metric describing a spatial similarity between the yield distribution data and an individual set out of the sets of the metrology data; and determining a first similar set of metrology data out of the sets of metrology data, being the first set of metrology data in terms of processing order for the corresponding layers, which is determined to be similar to the yield distribution data.