System and method for identifying latent reliability defects in semiconductor devices

A method comprising:

• performing one or more stress tests with one or more stress test tools on at least some of a plurality of wafers to determine a passing set of the plurality of wafers and a failing set of the plurality of wafers, the plurality of wafers received from one or more in-line sample analysis tools, each wafer of the plurality of wafers including a plurality of layers, each layer of the plurality of layers including a plurality of dies;
• performing a reliability hit-back analysis on at least some of the failing set of the plurality of wafers;
• analyzing the reliability hit-back analysis to determine one or more geographic locations of one or more die fail chains caused by one or more latent reliability defects (LRD);
• and
• performing a geographic hit-back analysis on the one or more geographic locations of the one or more die fail chains caused by the LRD.

A system comprising:

• one or more in-line sample analysis tools;
• one or more stress test tools;
• and
• a controller communicatively coupled to the one or more in-line sample analysis tools and the one or more stress test tools, the controller including one or more processors configured to execute program instructions causing the one or more processors to:
• perform one or more stress tests with the one or more stress test tools on at least some of a plurality of wafers to determine a passing set of the plurality of wafers and a failing set of the plurality of wafers, the plurality of wafers received from the one or more in-line sample analysis tools, each wafer of the plurality of wafers including a plurality of layers, each layer of the plurality of layers including a plurality of dies;
• perform a reliability hit-back analysis on at least some of the failing set of the plurality of wafers;
• analyze the reliability hit-back analysis to determine one or more geographic locations of one or more die fail chains caused by one or more latent reliability defects (LRD);
• and
• perform a geographic hit-back analysis on the one or more geographic locations of the one or more die fail chains caused by the LRD.