Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. (MPS), evaluating millions of IC chips daily, urgently needed SPC and automated trend-detection. As MPS grew rapidly and entered premium markets like Automotive and Industrial, advanced operational insights for quality became essential.
The goal was advanced process control, product reliability, and quality management using yieldWerx's SPC system. This system, part of yieldWerx Enterprise, enables real-time process monitoring across units, aiding early anomaly detection and resolution.
Scenario:
SPC System Implementation:
To tackle these issues, MPS integrated the yieldWerx SPC module into their existing YieldWerx Enterprise setup at their end-of-line sites in the third quarter of 2015. The SPC module monitors process uniformity across different units, including lots, wafers, machines, and testers, thereby maintaining production consistency.
Data Utilization:
The yieldWerx SPC module processes and analyzes several millions of dies, amounting to around 6-7GB data, each day. It identifies and notifies relevant parties of any process deviations. Here are some examples of SPC results:
- Process Uniformity Metrics – Indicators of consistency across lots, wafers, machines, and testers
- Anomaly Detection – Alerts indicating departures from expected process variations
- Defect Rates – Metrics highlighting the frequency of faults in the production process
- Equipment Downtime – Represents the time that machinery is non-operational
Problem Resolution and Continuous Improvement:
The yieldWerx SPC system enables MPS engineers to receive instant alerts if there are any irregularities in process variations. These engineers use the yieldWerx Enterprise software to compare the distribution with trend charts, dissect the data, and formulate an action plan, thus improving process control and equipment efficiency.
Benefits:
Enhanced Process Control:
Improved process control is achieved with real-time monitoring and automatic anomaly detection provided by the SPC system.
Increased Reliability:
The SPC system improves the reliability of the product through early detection and resolution of faulty lots.
Customer Transparency:
The SPC system enhances transparency for customers by ensuring consistent product quality.
Quick Problem Resolution:
Instant alerts of any process irregularities enable faster anomaly detection and problem resolution, thus decreasing defect rates and equipment downtime.