“The purchase of licenses for FloorVision in 2010 is proving to have been a smart decision by SensL as this is an ideal data analysis and yield management system for our needs.

We would highly recommend Mfg Vision’s FloorVision as a cost-effective and powerful solution for managing and analyzing semiconductor test data. Having all the results on-line (as opposed to in a user’s desktop) in a secure database with speedy analysis tools, many available in a single click, is very convenient for the needs of a mobile workforce in a fast moving business environment.”
Liam Wall, Silicon Technology Manager, SensL, 15 Nov 2011

The Data Management Headache

A prospect was being supplied by several wafer fabs, using several assembly houses and test subcons. Engineers in Asia, the US and Europe worked together with tight schedules to release new products. Yield issues occurred but often they were not aware of these until too many wafers were started, resulting in high scrap levels.

The company found that they were reacting to yield problems rather than preventing them. The engineers in Asia were using their own tools for analysing data ftp’d to them from Europe and the US. It was a tedious task trying to correlate performance across manufacturing stages which might prevent issues in the future. Releases were often delayed through absence of data.

In May 2010 they purchased FloorVision, replacing ad hoc tools.

From Hours to Minutes

Now around 100 users from Fab, Probe, Test, Quality and Reliability have the production data they need in one place. They can share analyses in one click with remote colleagues, reducing decision times for releasing a product from one or two days to just minutes. They can correlate final test and wafer probe performance in seconds and can set personal alerts for any deviation from expected product performance in production.

They have told us that we are close to “revolutionising” their business. The engineers in different countries are getting to know each other a lot better too with greatly enhanced near real-time collaboration. FloorVision typically saves them 1-5% of Yield on high running products.

Ongoing Work

Medium to large companies like the one in this case study will have new formats every so often and new needs for data analysis. We provide immediate support for any queries from our customers or to fix any bugs. We treat every company the same, be they large or small. We monitor the data pipelines closely and make sure any processing anomalies are checked by our technicians immediately. A larger company will typically ask us to develop or tweak a parser every few months. If a company needs a particular type of report or analysis type we work with them and they are assured of a cost-effective solution to their particular need at the time.

Young people starting college in 2011 will graduate in four years time with only a memory of the PC or laptop, as they have now but a memory of the CD player, or as my parents’ generation has but a memory of the typewriter.

So when these young people enter the workplace in 2015, or more specifically in this case, the semiconductor industry, as test development or product/process engineers, do you think they will be using PC-based tools like Excel or the like? Unlikely.

It’s fairly clear considering the pace of change that they will be using cloud-based apps for everything from reporting to monitoring to analysis.

There is no need any more for tools and data for semiconductor yield analysis to be local on your PC. They are already in the Cloud, as private as you like, but still in the cloud and accessible from anywhere for your dispersed engineering teams. No need to wait till 2015.

Upgrades for maintenance purposes or for enhancements occur typically about three times a year and we work closely with an internal customer team to make this seamless. We constantly work to keep FloorVision the easiest product to use in the market, as well as the most powerful for our customers, so improvements and enhancements are constantly being worked on for the next version. Every company we meet, whether a prospect or during customer visits, enhances our product for everyone over time. Alerts for Outliers, Reticle Analysis and our Test Coverage Optimizer are recent examples of tools inspired by prospects and customers alike.

We have a ticket system integrated into FloorVision, so bug reports or feature requests are immediately communicated to our engineers. This complements what we hear at meetings and we employ a web-based system for prioritizing work based on the needs we are hearing, with bugs, should they arise, always having the highest priority in the work pipeline. Contact us at info{at}mfgvision{dot}com for information about what we have to offer and what is pencilled-in on our roadmap for 2011.

Approving Set-ups for Subcons

One of our customers used to have a thick client data analysis tool (a popular tool amongst test engineers which crunches STDF data locally on your PC) which allowed them to do some analysis once the files were loaded onto their PC and the files connected up properly. Their engineers in Europe used the software to approve set-ups in China and Taiwan before full production release of a new product, or new revisions of test programs were released.

They lived with the fact that this exercise took four to five hours at a time and that raw data had to be ftp’d back from China for review.

They also lived with the fact that this could cost them from twelve hours right up to a day of production because the engineer in Asia might have left the office by the time they had sent the approval.

From Hours to Minutes

Now that this company has purchased FloorVision licenses, they are wondering how they ever put up with all those hours of data set-up and review. Now that the engineers in Asia also have FloorVision accounts, they share the correlation analysis/report with their colleagues back in Europe who can review everything in a few minutes, without having to receive any raw data and without having to set-up any analysis on their PC. The four or five hours is reduced now to four or five minutes. The engineer in Asia no longer has to wait around for hours to receive approval. Also, both sets of engineers are looking at exactly the same data, charts and statistics. Even if the European engineer does some further analysis with the shared report, he can share it back with his Asian colleague, maybe to explain that further checking should be done and possibly a hardware fix be made.

In summary, FloorVision can transform the speed of communication with your engineers in Asia and allow you to ramp up ahead of schedule and with far greater visibility of issues, without any exchange of tedious raw data and without wasting any time setting up special analysis on your computer. You’ll just need a web browser and a few minutes to review the data; and your colleague in Asia won’t have to wait around long to know whether full production can begin.

Mfg Vision’s SaaS tool “FloorVision” helps in two ways to improve this situation.

Firstly, if your colleagues in Asia have access to FloorVision (recall they don’t have to work in your company, they can have access via a restricted ‘Third Party’ license), they can share analyses of great depth with you, and you can with them, in a single click on the web browser. This means that you don’t have to send any raw data to them or they to you. You can collaborate at great distances with only your browser and FloorVision. This should reduce your need to travel and if you do have to travel, should make it very focussed and efficient.

Secondly, while you are travelling, you can access and monitor all your product performance from your mobile and from your laptop in the airport or in your hotel, and you do not need a high speed connection. No longer do you have to have Vpn access or no longer will you have to download a lot of data before being able to see what is happening. Using the secure FloorVision web-site, you will be able to catch up immediately with all the performance detail for your products, do simulations, correlations and characterization reports. You will get any alerts on your smart phone and be right up to date with any exceptions which you yourself have set for your products.

So, in summary, FloorVision can help you reduce your overall travel and, when you do have to travel, FloorVision will help you keep in touch with your products and make your visit even more efficient. You can get back home to your family and not have to steal back to work on the way home to check if your products are now running as expected after your highly productive yet exhausting trip to the other side of the planet! Contact info {at} mfgvision {dot} com for a free trial.

* Gage R&R * Calculated(Virtual) Tests  * Shareable Reports * IQR-based filtering  * Wafer-level genealogy * SAP support * Smart ANOVA * Site Loss Analysis * All-round Speed Improvements