A hybrid approach for identification of root causes and reliability improvement of a die bonding process - A case study

This paper presents an industrial case study on reliability improvement of the die bonding machine in the semiconductor industry. A hybrid approach combining dynamic analysis, process decomposition, and a structured fault tree was used to analyze the die bonding process. Firstly, the process was analyzed technically and decomposed into several stages according to different motions. Then, the die movement and force balance at each stage were analyzed according to physical laws, to identify the root causes of die rotation. A structured fault tree was then constructed to trace all possible causes and effects. A qualitative approach was used to identify critical events (root causes) for further analysis. Experiments were conducted to modify the bonding process to reduce the effects of the critical events. Finally, further process modification was proposed for simplification of the fault tree. This case study combined the knowledge in control and reliability engineering and presented a hybrid approach, which is very useful for practising engineers. © 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd.