Leveraging Root Cause Deconvolution Analysis for Logic Yield Ramping

Abstract The root cause deconvolution (RCD) provides an easy-to-understand defect Pareto, together with targeted physical failure analysis candidates. Unfortunately, even the RCD analysis also has some assumptions and limitations, and its result cannot always be interpreted literally. This calls for a variety of conventional yield analysis techniques to be adopted in parallel to improve the confidence in the RCD results. This paper briefly introduces the RCD analysis and explains how it distinguishes itself from other conventional volume diagnosis analysis techniques. Its typical inputs and outputs are discussed as well. Next, the paper focuses on two case studies where the authors leverage RCD for logic yield improvement together with other conventional analysis techniques. It then proposes a comprehensive analysis system that is backed up by accumulating RCD results over time and across different design IPs.