Abstract
Continuous yield enhancement is crucial for semiconductor companies that are driven by Moore's Law for technology migration. This study aims to develop a manufacturing intelligence approach for trouble shooting and low yield correlation with imbalanced classes. In particular, Engineering Data Analysis (EDA) system is an off-line analysis system that can be used for trouble-shooting and yield enhancement. While making trouble shooting in semiconductor industry, engineers can not only use the expert knowledge on physics or electronics to answer the problem because of numerous relevant analysis factors. However, little research has been done on analyzing class imbalance problem to extract useful rules for yield enhancement. This study proposed a main branch decision tree (MBDT) algorithm that modifies the criteria of tree growth rather than using accuracy- based methods. An empirical study was conducted in a semiconductor company to evaluate validity. The results provide references for engineers to quickly identify the assignable causes and diagnose the problem of low yield. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012.