Winbond Accepts SiGlaz Intelligent Defect Analysis Software

    /24-7PressRelease/ - SANTA CLARA, CA, March 28, 2008 - SiGlaz, a world leader in defect spatial signature analysis (SSA) software, today announced that its initial installation of Intelligent Defect Analysis (IDA) Enterprise Edition has been accepted by Winbond Electronics Corporation, a leading semiconductor manufacturer based in Taiwan. IDA software automatically analyzes the spatial distribution of defects on the wafer, using its patented algorithms, and notifies the user when it recognizes a signature. Defect spatial signatures may result from process excursions or from failures in process equipment.

IDA Enterprise Edition, which operates on a Microsoft Windows-based server with .NET framework and web service architecture, is compatible with all leading database software, including Microsoft SQL Server. It provides a fab-wide repository for signature analysis results and the ability to access those results in real time and from remote locations. A new IDA module, called Real Time Process Monitor, allows the user to run concurrent process control rules and generate alarms, refreshing the data hourly, daily or weekly. Another new module, called IDA Navigator, provides trend analysis capability and ad hoc queries of analysis results, and it allows the user to build, set and save process control rules and alarms.

"The Enterprise Edition of IDA provides a major benefit to our fab, in terms of analyzing large volumes of production defect data," according to a Winbond spokesperson. "Not only does IDA notify the engineer when it identifies a defect signature, the engineer can quickly access the IDA database from any location and view all of the data in the affected lots. In addition, IDA Auto-Learn capability and Layer Repeater Analysis enable us to identify new signatures that were not previously trained into the signature library."

SiGlaz IDA software automatically classifies defects associated with a spatial signature. When the performance of the software is compared to a human expert, the average performance of classification has been above 90%.

Victor Luu, SiGlaz President and CEO said, "We are very excited about our new software platform. IDA Enterprise Edition provides an upgrade path for our users to expand the utility and application of SSA in the fab. This new platform will be the foundation for other new SiGlaz products in the development pipeline that will soon allow users to correlate defect signatures with electrical test results, and then with other metrology data."

About SiGlaz

SiGlaz is a privately held corporation that provides manufacturers of integrated circuits, magnetic media and flat panel displays with intelligent software to increase productivity and yield. SiGlaz provides advanced image processing products and spatial signature analysis (SSA) software products that automatically analyze the large volumes of data that are generated by inspection and metrology tools to determine the root cause of manufacturing problems in seconds.

About Winbond

Winbond Electronics Corp. was founded in 1987 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan. The company owns the capabilities of both IC design and manufacturing and provides entire solutions to the customers. Winbond focuses on the development of four main product lines, including ìC & ìC-based Consumer IC, Computer Logic IC, Mobile RAM, and Flash Memory, and it has built a solid foundation and a strong reputation in the semiconductor industry.

Winbond has over 4,000 employees worldwide and operates one 150mm wafer fab and one 300mm wafer fab. Winbond owns more than 2,500 patents worldwide and has subsidiaries in the USA, China, Israel, and Japan.

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