Abstract: A method increases a reliability of packaged semiconductor integrated circuit dice by identifying one or more dice on a wafer having failed an electrical test. One or more failed dice are added to a character map. A first tier of buffer dice is added to the initial character map adjacent to each die on the character map. Both the failed dice and the first tier of buffer dice are indicated or marked, such as by inking, thereby indicating dice not requiring packaging. A wafer may include multiple die, with die corresponding to the die in the character map being marked. The marked die thus include die that have failed an electrical test plus die that may be likely to fail in the future due to their proximity to the failed die.

Abstract: A method increases a reliability of packaged semiconductor integrated circuit dice by identifying one or more dice on a wafer having failed an electrical test. One or more failed dice are added to a character map. A first tier of buffer dice is added to the initial character map adjacent to each die on the character map. Both the failed dice and the first tier of buffer dice are indicated or marked, such as by inking, thereby indicating dice not requiring packaging. A wafer may include multiple die, with die corresponding to the die in the character map being marked. The marked die thus include die that have failed an electrical test plus die that may be likely to fail in the future due to their proximity to the failed die.

Abstract: Semiconductor dice are electrically tested prior to final assembly. Dice failing the test are identified and not packaged. However, “good dice” (i.e., those dice that passed testing) in proximity to the failed dice frequently fail prematurely in the field. Therefore, in one embodiment, a method to identify those dice having a probability for early failure includes identifying a core die and a die cluster, adding the core die and at least one additional die from the die cluster to a weighted character map, and assigning a weighting value to each of the dice added to the weighted character map. At least one tier of buffer dice is then added to the weighted character map adjacent to each die on the weighted character map. Both the dice from the die cluster and the tier of buffer dice are marked, thereby preventing those dice from being packaged and consequently, shipped to customers.

Abstract: Semiconductor dice are electrically tested prior to final assembly. Dice failing the test are identified and not packaged. However, “good dice” (i.e., those dice that passed testing) in proximity to the failed dice frequently fail prematurely in the field. Therefore, in one embodiment, a method to identify those dice having a probability for early failure includes identifying a core die and a die cluster, adding the core die and at least one additional die from the die cluster to a weighted character map, and assigning a weighting value to each of the dice added to the weighted character map. At least one tier of buffer dice is then added to the weighted character map adjacent to each die on the weighted character map. Both the dice from the die cluster and the tier of buffer dice are marked, thereby preventing those dice from being packaged and consequently, shipped to customers.