Klarf View Users Guide

KlarfViewTM User’s Guide

© 2010 Value-Added Software Solutions www.valaddsoft.com

KlarfView User’s Guide

© Value-Added Software March 5, 2010 1 www.valaddsoft.com

Introduction KlarfView was created out of sheer frustration. The commercially available software from the major suppliers just did not give me the kind of wafer map visualization I needed to do my job as a semiconductor engineer. Getting the data the way I needed it, when I needed it, was THE most important part of my ability to make quick, accurate decisions. It also helps to have the data in the right format to explain things clearly in presentations. After all, you can get more people to “buy in” to your point, if you have the data in the right format.

But, the real beauty of KlarfView is the ability to use Windows to view wafer map galleries. (Who needs that expensive software from the big guys?) With KlarfView, you can visually select maps that look the same (e.g. “signature analysis”) to find all wafers or lots that share the same process steps to define the source of the defect issue, or to just separate the signal (signature) from the noise (defect counts).

Features KlarfView was created with virtually all the flexibility any engineer needs for fast, accurate decision-making, and more importantly, presentations. You can run it on several files at once, or you can use it on a server to automatically create maps as the data is collected.

With KlarfView, you can:

• Quickly create high-quality images of defect wafer maps from any version of klarf file.

• Adjust key parameters to get exactly what you need:

• Color and adjust symbol markers for defects by classification, size, cluster number, and more.

• Filter by classification, size (range), cluster/random, and more.

• Adjust line types, colors and thickness for wafer and die.

• Turn legends, titles and die on or off.

• Adjust notch rotation.

• Adjust image file name.

• Create maps with or without transparent backgrounds (useful for overlays to images).

• View wafer map galleries in Windows XP, Vista and Windows 7.

• Run manually, or run in automated processes to create wafer maps.



Installation KlarfView installation is simple. Just double-click on the install icon, and follow the steps in the menus. The KlarfView shortcut icon will appear on your desktop. During the installation process, you have the option of installing extra shortcuts with customized settings. These shortcuts have specific configurations that allow you to create image maps based on classification, defect size, and more.

By default, KlarfView installs to the “C:\Program Files\KlarfView\” folder. These files will be installed:

KlarfView.exe The main program.

KlarfView.ini The default definition file. Contains all default parameter definitions passed to the program. If you just run KlarfView.exe without passing any parameters at run time, all options are defined using the “.ini” file. Any of the default definitions can be superseded by passing new parameters at run time. Look at one of the custom short cuts: “Properties / Target” to see an example of run-time parameters. You can use any text editor to edit this file. I prefer “Notepad++” because it automatically performs syntax highlighting on “.ini” files. (I’ll simplify the editing process in a future release.)

kv.bat An optional batch file. You can run this and pass run-time parameters to the program. You would not normally use the batch file, because custom shortcuts are easier to use. This file is a good reference for which run-time parameters are available to use, and how to use them. . Look at one of the custom short cuts: “Properties / Target” to see an example of run-time parameters. You can use any text editor to edit this file. I prefer “Notepad++” because it automatically performs syntax highlighting on “.bat” files.

colorbysettings.txt This file contains all the color, symbol type and symbol size for the defects. All colors are grouped by the field (column) name in the defect data area in the klarf file. You can create more groups and settings. The columns are tab-delimited. You can use Excel or OpenOffice Calc to edit this file. Just be sure to save it as a “.txt” file. (I’ll simplify the editing process in a future release.) More information on colors can be found in the section GnuPlot Color Codes. More information on point symbols can be found in the section GnuPlot Point Symbols.

pgnuplot.exe The gnuplot program.



wgnuplot.exe Another gnuplot program.

linesymb.png A reference to illustrate the different line types and symbol types that are used in “colorbysettings.txt” file.

KlarfView EULA.pdf A copy of the KlarfView end user license agreement.

gnuplot license agreement.pdf A copy of the gnuplot end user license agreement.

KlarfView Users Guide This document.

Running KlarfView To run KlarfView, just double-click on the KlarfView shortcut (the purple “globe” with a slash) on your desktop. For the “KlarfView” shortcut, all maps will be stored as “.png” files in the “C:\Map_Images\” folder. The maps will be created according to the settings in the “C:\Program Files\KlarfView\KlarfView.ini” file. You can change the parameters in the “.ini” file, or as a parameter passed at run time. Look at one of the custom short cuts: “Properties / Target” to see an example of how you can change this at run time.

When you run KlarfView, you’ll see the “Select Klarfs” dialog like the one below.



Just select any klarf, or all klarfs, you want to create maps of. (Note: You may not see this window at first. If that happens, just “cntl-c” in the command window – you’ll see it – and re-start the program.)

When the program is done, you’ll just go to the “C:\Map_Images\” folder to view the maps. In Windows Vista, you just select “Views” and either “Large Icons” or “Extra Large Icons” to view the maps as a gallery. If you have Windows XP, you use “Thumbnail View”. (For Windows XP, you need to install “TweakUI” to get a utility to allow you to adjust the size of the thumbnails.) I’m sure you can view the maps on an Apple computer, but I’m not sure how to do it.

That’s all you need to do to run the program. It’s not that hard.

Now look at the file names. Each file has a unique identifier: Lot, Wafer, Step, Test, and so on. You can change the arraignment, and what is or is not part, of the file name in the parameters in the “.ini” file. We’ll cover this later, in the section, Parameters That Can Be Used At Run Time.



Ok, I See Maps. Now What? This is where the fun begins! Let’s try a few examples.

Signatures Let’s say you have seen a signature you just noticed recently on a few maps. Does that signature extend to other wafers or lots? How far back in time did you first detect that signature? Which tool or process is common across all the wafers/lots with these signatures.

Just pull klarf files for the last N days or M months and put them in a folder. (Note: KlarfView only runs on klarf files already pulled from a database. If data pull is required to create klarf files, you can contact me to discuss creating this feature.)

Now view the gallery in Windows (see example below). Just collect all the images that look like they have the same signature into a separate folder. You can get a list of the files you’ve just collected to use as a filter to find common tools or processes that may be the cause of the signature.



Separate the Signal From the Noise This is similar to the previous example, but now we have a problem where the defect counts are noisy. A possible problem with a tool creates subtle signatures, but the defect counts are not much different from the random noise from other wafers.

Just pull the klarf files, run KlarfView, and then use the map galleries to separate the maps with the signatures from the rest of the pack. Now you have a set of maps to use to find the tool or process that causes this particular problem.

View Maps by Defect Size What if someone asked you to define how defect sizes (as defined by the inspection tool) are distributed on a wafer. Assume the wafer map looks like the one below on the left. KlarfView can display defects in different colors, by size bins. Now, suppose you want to see fewer defect sizes, or just one size range. The map on the right illustrates how you can use KlarfView to view the same map, using size filtering.

This is how it was done:

Run the shortcut, “KlarfView_DSize” to get the map on the left.

Open the “C:\Program Files\KlarfView\KlarfView.ini” file and add “0.3, 0.4” to the “SizeFilter=” parameter, so it looks like this: “SizeFilter=0.3, 0.4”. (Or you can add this to the shortcut “KlarfView_DSize”: “/sizefilter=0.3,0,4” to get the same results.) This will give you the map on the right, when your run “KlarfView_DSize”.



View Maps By Cluster Die These maps can be viewed using the shortcut, “KlarfView_Clusterdie”. But, you need to run the program, “DBCluster” first. You can get a copy of DBCluster from my web site.

Stacked Layer Maps You want to view stacked maps that have defects colored by detection layer. Unfortunately, due to the way klarf files are constructed, you will need to run KlarfView each time for each klarf file (layer). Fortunately, KlarfView is designed to permit coloring by layer via a batch (command) file. To do this, create a command file with the options set like the example below. In this example, we have 5 layers we wish to stack.

First, when you run KlarfView in a command file, you need to point to the ini file using the command, “/inifilename=’C:\Program Files\KlarfView\KlarfView.ini’”.

The first layer is opaque, “/transparent=false”, without die displayed, “/showdie=false”. The pointcolor (defect color) is set to black, “/pointcolor=#000000” (using hexadecimal color codes).

The other layers have different colors set for the defects. All layers are transparent, and without die displayed.

The last layer is transparent, “/transparent=true”, but now the die are displayed, “/showdie=true”. The pointcolor (defect color) is set to gold, “/pointcolor=#CC6600” (using hexadecimal color codes).

When this command file is run, you get the maps below.



Now, just copy these files to a program like PowerPoint, and then align to create the stacked map as shown below. It helps to move each file to PowerPoint in the order of earliest to latest layer.



Other Views There’s much more you can do with KlarfView. We can’t cover all the possibilities. Only you know what your requirements are. And that’s the point. With KlarfView, you have the flexibility to view the maps in virtually any way you want.

Using KlarfView Maps In Documents Each map is an individual image file. So it can be used in any document (e.g. Powerpoint or Word) just like any image. If you want to add single maps to a document, you can either import it, or just drag & drop the file to the document.

If you want to add a gallery view to a document, you’ll need to use a screen capture program like “Snagit” (you pay for this), or “Greenshot” (a free Snagit-like screen capture utility). Just view your maps in Windows as a gallery (as described in the section Signatures), use the screen capture program to capture all or part of the gallery, and then paste the image to your document. You can even make sure to copy the file names with the maps to display the lot/wafer/step information with the maps.



Shortcuts Because shortcuts are a nice, clean way to create custom views for your wafer maps, let’s take a few minutes to go over how to create and edit them.

Here’s a view of all the shortcuts created by the install. Each of these shortcuts will create maps and store them in their respective folders: “C:\Map_Images_Classified\”, “C:\Map_Images_ClusterDie\”, “C:\Map_Images_Clusternumber\”, and so on.

These are only a few examples of the types of views you can create. After all, you know “DSize” is not the only way to look at defect size. You can also look at “DefectArea”. So, let’s create a couple of shortcuts that allow us to color defects by “DefectArea” size bins.

Make a copy of the “KlarfView_DSize” shortcut. View the properties for the “KlarfView_DSize - Copy” shortcut by right-clicking on it, the select “Properties” to open the dialog you see below.



You’ll see the “Target” field is already highlighted. This is the field you will be changing. As is, this field will have the following settings: "C:\Program Files\KlarfView\KlarfView.exe" /colorby=DSIZE /mapimagefolder=C:\Map_Images_DSIZE\ /sizebins=0,0.1,0.2,0.3,0.4,0.5,0.6,0.7,0.9,1.0,10,20,50,100000

Change “DSIZE” to “DEFECTAREA”, and “C:\Map_Images_DSIZE\” to “C:\Map_Images_ DEFECTAREA\” to place the maps in their own folder. Otherwise, these maps will overwrite the maps in the “C:\Map_Images_DSIZE\” folder. You can also change the manually-defined sizebins. The upper limit for each bin range is separated by commas. The lowest value on the left is the min size for the first bin (inclusive). If you want to automatically create, say 10 bins based on min/max range of all defect sizes, you can set sizebins to “auto, 10”. The details on all the options will be covered later.

Save the settings for the shortcut. For this example, we’ll just change “DSIZE” to “DEFECTAREA”, and nothing else. "C:\Program Files\KlarfView\KlarfView.exe" /colorby=DEFECTAREA /mapimagefolder=C:\Map_Images_DEFECTAREA\ /sizebins=0,0.1,0.2,0.3,0.4,0.5,0.6,0.7,0.9,1.0,10,20,50,100000

Rename the shortcut to “Map_Images_DEFECTAREA”.

Run the shortcut on your klarf files.

And you’ll get maps like the one below, with defects colored by “DefectArea”.

You may have noticed that the parameters we defined in the “Target” field in the shortcut is defined EXACTLY as if we were to run the program from the command window, or in a batch file. These are the run-time parameters. They override parameters set in the “.ini” file.



Parameters That Can Be Used At Run Time Any parameter that you apply at run time will override the settings in the “.ini” file. This allows you to set your own defaults in the “.ini” file, and then create different views with just a few changes in a shortcut as described in the previous section.

All parameters must be used with this format: /parameter=value. You need to use the “switch” “/” in front of the parameter and the equals “=” between the parameter and the value.

Here is a description of all the parameters and their options. Note: All these parameters are also listed in the “kv.bat” file. All parameters listed here are also in the “.ini” file, except for “inifilename” and “inisection”, so I won’t repeat this description for the “.ini” file parameters.

inifilename Define the name of an “.ini” file that is not the default file. This file will be read before the other run-time parameters are applied. This is useful if you have more than one ValaddSoft program, and you want to define all defaults in one “.ini” file (see next parameter). You will generally not need to use this parameter.

inisection Define the name of section in the INI file that contains settings for this program -- default is “ViewKlarfSettings”. This is useful if you have more than one ValaddSoft program, and you want to define all defaults in one “.ini” file (see previous parameter). You will generally not need to use this parameter.

mindefs Plot only maps that have at least this number of defects in the klarf file. The default is 0 defects (all klarfs).

maxdefs Plot only maps that have this number of defects or less. The default is 65000 defects.

filesizelimit Plot only maps that are this file size or less. The default is 1000000 (1 gigabyte).

fnorder Set the file name order. The variables (and default order) is: “Lot Waf Step Setup Slot”. If you want to have file names with step first, just rearrange these variables to: “Setup Lot Waf Step Slot”. Leaving any variable out will leave that data out of the filename.



showtitle Defines if you want a title to be shown over the wafer map. This is a true/false setting. The default is “false” – no title will be shown. If the title will be shown, it will be: “Lot: lotid Waf: waferid Step: stepid Setup: setupid Slot: slotid”

dispnotchdn Defines if you want the notch to be displayed notch down, or as inspected. This is a true/false setting. The default is “true” – the wafer map will be displayed notch down, regardless of inspection orientation.

mapimagefolder Defines where you want the map images to go. The default is “C:\Map_Images\”.

inputfilename Set the input file name. Any combination of valid paths and wildcards are acceptable. The default is “”. When “inputfilename” is “”, the “Select Klarf” dialog will be shown. If you use a valid path/wildcards here, the program will not display the “Select Klarf” dialog. This is how you can use KlarfView to automatically generate defect maps.

transparent Define whether or not the background will be transparent. This is a true/false setting. The default is “false” – the maps will NOT be transparent.

showlegend Define if a key (legend) will be displayed. This is a true/false setting. The default is “false” – the legend will NOT be displayed. Even if set to “true”, the legend will not be displayed, unless “colorby” has a valid value defined.

legendoptions Set legend options using any valid gnuplot option. Default settings: “outside bottom center horizontal”. This places the legend outside the plot area, at the bottom, centered, and lists the values horizontally. Other options can be seen at http://gnuplot.info/docs/node192.html

plotoptions The name of the file containing the data point settings. Refer to gnuplot documentation for valid colors, point shapes & sizes. The default is “C:\Program Files\KlarfView\colorbysettings.txt”

dielinetype The gnuplot line type for die. The default is “1” (solid line). 0 = dotted line, any other number = solid line.



dielinewidth The gnuplot line width for die. The default is “1”. Decimals can be used.

dielinecolor The gnuplot line color for die. The default is “gray”. Any valid 6-character hexadecimal color code can be used. The hexadecimal code must start with “#”. More information on colors can be found in the section GnuPlot Color Codes.

waferlinetype The gnuplot line type for wafer outline. The default is “1” (solid). 0 = dotted line, any other number = solid line.

waferlinewidth The gnuplot line width for wafer outline. The default is “3”. Decimals can be used.

waferlinecolor The gnuplot line color for wafer outline. The default is “'black'”. Any valid 6-character hex-dec color code can be used. The hex-dec code must start with “#”. More information on colors can be found in the section GnuPlot Color Codes.

colorby Color defects by this group name (group names are from the klarf file as shown below). This group name MUST be defined in the plotoptions file (“colorbysettings.txt”) in order to be used.

Valid fields that can be used: CLASSNUMBER TEST XSIZE YSIZE DEFECTAREA DSIZE CLUSTERNUMBER ROUGHBINNUMBER FINEBINNUMBER MACROSIGCLASS MICROSIGCLASS REVIEWSAMPLE IMAGECOUNT IMAGELIST, and CLUSTERDIE (after running DBCluster).

sizebins Defines the defect size bins. This will only work if ColorBy=DEFECTAREA or DSIZE or XSIZE or XSIZE. Valid options:

• "auto,N" takes min/max values of sizes, then creates N bins. Example: "auto,10"

• Set bins manually "Bin1MaxVal, Bin2MaxVal, ...."

If you manually set the bins, be sure to include 0 (min value) and a very large value (max) to bound all possible sizes. The first bin is bounded as: min ≤ size ≤ first bin. All other bins are bounded as: first bin < size ≤ second bin, and so on.

The max number of bins is limited by the number of definitions you have in the plotoptions file ("colorbysettings.txt").



sizefilter Use this to plot only defects in a min,max range.

The range is defined as: min < size ≤ max.

If this is ste to “all” or "", no filtering will be applied.

sizefilterdata Define the size data you want to filter. Example: “DSIZE”, or “DEFECTAREA”.

The value should correspond to the field name in the klarf file.

sizefilterdata is ignored if sizefilter is set to “all” or “”.

classfilter Define a list of classifications to display, as a set of comma-delimited numbers. Example: “0,10,20,30”

clustrandfilter Set this as “Cluster” to display cluster defects only, or “Random” to display random defects only, or “all” or “” to display all defects.

clustfilterdata Define the cluster field data you want to filter. Example: “CLUSTERNUMBER”, or “CLUSTERDIE” (if you run dbcluster first).

The value should correspond to the field name in the klarf file.

clustfilterdata is ignored if clustrandfilter is set to “all” or “”.

samplefilter Set this to “sampled” to display sampled defects only, or “unsampled” to display unsampled defects only, or “all” or “” to display all defects

gnuplotprogfolder The folder containing the gnuplot exe files. If left empty “”, default is program folder.

showdie Define if the die will be displayed. This is a true/false setting. The default is “true” – the die will be displayed.

pointtype Define the point types to use for defects if colorby is not defined. Default is 13.



pointcolor Define the point color to use for defects if colorby is not defined. Default is “black” (Hex: #000000).

pointsize Define the point size to use for defects if colorby is not defined. Default is 1.

Defect Color and Symbol Settings All defect color and symbol settings are defined in the file “C:\Program Files\KlarfView\colorbysettings.txt”. You can edit this file using OpenOffice Calc or Excel. Just be sure to save it as a tab-delimited text file.

A spreadsheet view of this file is below.

The columns are defined as the following:

Number

This is just an index number to sort and put the list in order. The program does not use this column.

Ignore This allows you to set values in the table, but tell the program to ignore the value as if it wasn’t on the table. Any character in the cell sets the flag for the program to ignore the entire row.

Group You can define an entire set of parameters for all possible color/symbol combinations for all groups you may want to color by. It is critical that you assign the group name, and do it correctly. Otherwise, all defects will be plotted as black dots (default). This is case insensitive.



Value This is the value the program matches in order to set the color groups. Example (from the list below): any defect with a Clusternumber value of “91” will be set to symbol type 5, color blue and size 1. The exception to this rule are defect sizes. All size groups are defined using the settings as defined in the previous section. Defect size data ignores this column. BUT, the row order will be retained to match to the size bins as listed in either the “.ini” file, or in the run-time settings.

Type This sets the symbol type for each defect. The symbols are defined as they would be defined in gnuplot. The entire list of symbols are listed in the diagram in the section GnuPlot Point Symbols.

Color This sets the color for each defect. The colors are defined as they would be defined in gnuplot. The colors are discussed in the section GnuPlot Color Codes.

Size This sets the point size for each defect. The larger the number, the larger the point size. Decimal numbers can be used.



GnuPlot Color Codes This diagram below illustrates the range of colors available for line and point colors. If you use the named colors: “red”, “green”, “blue”, etc., you are limited to what gnuplot can recognize. But, if you use the 6-character hexadecimal color codes, you can use the full spectrum of all colors defined in the hexadecimal color space, which is quite extensive. The hexadecimal codes can be found on any web site that discusses HTML hexadecimal colors.

Here is a short list of color codes supported by gnuplot. This list does not represent all possible codes. The color names may not work in gnuplot, but the hexadecimal codes will work (use “#” at the front of the code).



GnuPlot Point Symbols The diagram below illustrates all possible symbols available for “.png” files. Don’t pay attention to the lines. All line colors are set using the colors described in the section GnuPlot Color Codes.

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Klarf View Users Guide