SAN JOSE, Calif., Aug. 7, 2007 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- PDF Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq:PDFS), the leading provider of process-design integration technologies to enhance IC manufacturability, today announced that Korean Semiconductor Foundry Dongbu HiTek has selected a combination of its Maestria(r) Fault Detection and Classification (FDC) and dataPOWER(r) Yield Management System (YMS) software products as Dongbu's enterprise-wide FDC and YMS solution. The planned integration of these market leading software tools is designed to enable customers to increase IC yields by providing a unified view of product yield and manufacturing data.
"After an extensive evaluation, we found Maestria(r) and dataPOWER(r) to be the best stand alone FDC and YMS products on the market today," said Dr. Byun, Executive Vice President at Dongbu HiTek. "Integrating the two should provide even greater leverage and value to Dongbu."
"We are pleased to work with Dongbu to deploy the industry's first combined FDC and YMS solution," stated Mr. Dave Joseph, Chief Strategy Office at PDF Solutions. "The integrated offering is designed to tie tool parameter data with product yield information and provide fab engineers with a unified environment to correlate equipment parameters and final product yield. This offering is the most recent result of PDF Solutions' development and acquisition strategy which aims to provide our customers with the most advanced and comprehensive set of tools and services to optimize the prevention, detection, and resolution of yield loss mechanisms."
FDC and YMS tools have traditionally been regarded as different solutions addressing separate yield-loss mechanisms. While FDC tools focus on real-time (on-line) detection of manufacturing equipment parameter excursion, YMS tools have traditionally been used as an off-line tool to identify root causes of yield loss based on correlations of final die (IC) yield. This approach resulted in the creation of data "islands" within the fab. Integrating equipment trace data with product and process data using advanced FDC and YMS software will provide comprehensive and fast analysis capabilities to resolve equipment-based product yield loss. The integrated YMS-FDC solution improves the prevention of yield excursions by "feeding-backward" YMS data to the FDC software to optimize fab equipment control strategies, as well as shortens the time to identify the root-cause of a yield loss mechanism by "feeding-forward" FDC data to the YMS software.
Additionally, PDF Solutions has recently announced the opening of an office in Korea to support yield ramp service and software customers in the Korean market.
About PDF Solutions:
PDF Solutions, Inc. (Nasdaq:PDFS) is the leading provider of process-design integration technologies and services for manufacturing integrated circuits (ICs). PDF Solutions offers solutions that are designed to enable clients to lower costs, enhance time to market, and improve profitability by addressing design and manufacturing interactions from product design to initial process ramps to mature manufacturing operations. PDF Solutions' Characterization Vehicle(r) (CV(r)) test chips provide the core modeling capabilities, and are used by more leading manufacturers than any other test chips in the industry. PDF Solutions' industry leading yield management system software, dataPOWER(r), and fault detection and classification software, Maestria(r), enhance yield improvement and production control activities at leading fabs around the world. Headquartered in San Jose, Calif., PDF Solutions operates worldwide with additional offices in China, Europe, Japan and Korea. For the company's latest news and information, visit http://www.pdf.com/.
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