Application of Taguchi Methods to the Production of Integrated Circuits

Taguchi methods were applied to the production of thin RF integrated circuits on alumina. The substrates had 20 via holes of 1 mm in diameter, which led to a perturbation to the homogeneous spread of photoresist (by spinning) adjacent to the holes. Consequently, the overall process yield was 30%. Implementation of Taguchi methods resulted in a substantial increase in production yield — to a value of 90%, which was obtained repeatedly. Thus, a robust cost‐effective process was achieved.