The Contamination Audit ‐ A Vital Tool For Yield Improvement

With the increasing trends towards fineline circuitry, contamination has become a major cause of defects. This paper outlines the techniques used in conducting a Contamination Audit and in generating a Contamination Matrix, which is a map of the types of contamination and their relative levels within a facility. Using the Contamination Matrix contamination control measures can be targetted in the most effective manner to achieve yield improvements.