Apparatus for analyzing a failure in a semiconductor wafer and method thereof

An apparatus for analyzing a failure in a semiconductor wafer, comprising:

• first storage means for receiving data containing defect position coordinates based on a result of physical inspection of a foreign material, a defect and the like at a surface of a semiconductor wafer for each process in a production line having a plurality of processes, and storing said data of defect position coordinates;
• failure region estimating means for producing failure related data by failure mode indicating a failure region containing a position at which a possibility of a failure may occur, based on fail bit data obtained from a result of test of an electric property of memory cells in each chip of the semiconductor wafer manufactured in said production line;
• second storage means for storing said failure related data by failure mode from said failure region estimating means;
• and
• collating means for receiving said data of defect position coordinates stored in said first storage means and said failure related data by failure mode stored in said second storage means, and collating said failure related data by failure mode with said data of defect position coordinates.

An apparatus for analyzing a failure in a semiconductor wafer, comprising:

• first storage means for receiving data containing defect position coordinates based on a result of physical inspection of a foreign material, a defect and the like at a surface of a semiconductor wafer for each process in a production line having a plurality of processes, and storing said data as data of defect position coordinates;
• second storage means for receiving fail bit data based on a result of test of an electric property of memory cells in each chip of the semiconductor wafer manufactured in said production line, and storing data of physical position coordinates indicating a position of failure based on said fail bit data;
• failure region estimating for producing failure related data by failure mode indicating a failure region containing a position at which a possibility of a failure may occur based on said fail bit data;
• third storage means for storing said failure related data by failure mode from said failure region estimating means;
• collating means for receiving said data of defect position coordinates stored in said first storage means, said data of physical position coordinates stored in said second storage means, and said failure related data by failure mode stored in said third storage means, producing data of corrected physical position coordinates by adding said failure related data by failure mode to said data of physical position coordinates, and collating said data of corrected physical position coordinates with said data of defect position coordinates.