Intel Technology ASIA Pte Ltd wins at Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards 2026
The company automated wafer failure pattern classification to reduce manual review time from days to minutes.
Intel Technology ASIA Pte Ltd won Analytics - Semiconductor in the Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards 2026 for its AI/ML solution for Wafer Bin Map pattern classification. This system addresses the time-intensive nature of identifying defective die distributions across wafers, which are essential for root cause analysis in manufacturing.
The company developed a Wafer Pattern Recognition (WPR) tool in collaboration with Synopsys. This solution utilises the Synopsys Silicon.da production data analytics tool and the WM-811K dataset, which contains more than 811,000 wafer maps. By moving away from manual, heuristic-driven processes, the system creates a data-driven environment for identifying process anomalies.
At the centre of this technology is a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based machine learning algorithm. Whilst traditional clustering methods often struggle with complex spatial relationships, the CNN accurately identifies complicated defect signatures. These include edge rings, donuts, scratches, and localised clusters. The model maintains high accuracy across various manufacturing scenarios by training on both public and proprietary datasets.
The integration of WPR with inline production data allows engineers to link failure patterns to specific equipment or process steps. This capability reduces the time required for root cause identification from weeks to hours. Furthermore, the system detects multi-bin failures, a feature previously unavailable in existing analytics tools that focused only on single-bin clusters.
Intel Technology ASIA Pte Ltd achieved significant efficiency gains through this automation. Manual review time fell from several days to under a few minutes per lot, representing an efficiency increase of over 95%. This speed enables quicker corrective actions and reduces scrap, which leads to yield improvement. The solution also identified systematic failure patterns that manual reviews previously missed.
The Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards is the most prestigious awards programme for technological innovations, recognising exceptional companies in Singapore that are riding the digital disruption wave and leading the technological revolution and digital journeys of their respective industries.
The Singapore Business Review Technology Excellence Awards is presented by Singapore Business Review Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2027 awards programme and be acclaimed for your company's outstanding contributions in pursuit of technological innovation, please contact Danica Avila at +(65) 3158 1386 ext 217 or [email protected].