Method and system for manufacturing integrated circuits meeting special customer requirements with multiple subcontractors in remote locations

A computer readable medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions for manufacturing integrated circuits meeting customer special requirements with multiple subcontractors in remote locations, wherein the execution of the one or more sequences of the one or more instructions causes the one or more processors to perform the steps of:

• receiving a customer transaction file via the Internet;
• extracting a set of customer special requirements from said transaction file;
• updating a customer rule set database with the set of customer special requirements;
• selecting partially-processed wafers identified in a die bank database in accordance with said customer rule set database;
• validating special release requirements for said selected wafers in accordance with an assembly capability database that stores capabilities of each subcontractor;
• and
• issuing electronic die release orders for release of said selected wafers from a die bank to at least one of a plurality of subcontractors for further processing.

A system for manufacturing integrated circuits meeting customer-special requirements with multiple subcontractors in remote locations, the system comprising:

• at least one processing unit for executing computer programs;
• at least one user interface for communicating with said computer programs;
• at least one network interface for exchanging information with file servers and subcontractor computer systems, the information exchanged including information concerning manufacturing databases;
• a manufacturing automation execution module including one or more computer programs, said computer programs including instructions for:
• receiving a customer transaction file via the Internet;
• extracting a set of customer special requirements from said transaction file;
• updating a customer rule set database with the set of customer special requirements;
• selecting partially-processed wafers identified in a die bank database in accordance with said customer rule set database;
• validating special release requirements for said selected wafers in accordance with an assembly capability database that stores capabilities of each subcontractor;
• and
• issuing electronic die release orders for release of said selected wafers from a die bank to at least one of a plurality of subcontractors for further processing.