Mind Mapping

Challenge and Selection

I’m a Mechanical Engineer in semiconductor manufacturing equipment industry, and my day to day  activities include solving field issues and developing new products. In this reflection I will be sharing my  experience on how our team used Mind Mapping tool to solve on wafer non-uniformity and defects. I  won’t be sharing details about the project since it is a company confidential data but I will rather be  sharing the approach.

Mind Mapping is a great tool to form connections between several modules of a tool and helps give a  better understanding of the overall system. It also helps to guide the project in right direction if we keep  deviating from the goal while working on several level deeper parts of the project. In this example of our  team, we used fish bone diagram to brainstorm and list down all the possible root causes possible and  assigned the team members the tasks to validate the hypothesis for every line item.

Application

In a semiconductor manufacturing tool there are several modules and sub systems which help in maintain  and control the deposition environment to meet stringent standards for a film deposition over a wafer,  few of the major characteristics of the film that need to be controlled are the Uniformity of the film (%NU  - % of Non-Uniformity) deposited to make sure that the thickness of the film is uniform across the wafer,  particle defects which is nothing but contamination inside the deposition chamber likes of which can  cause device failure, and several other properties.

The challenge to maintain such stringent standard is that the performance of the wafer depends on  several factors given the number of sub systems involved. Our team gathered huge amounts of data  pertaining to the problem and performed root cause analysis using fish bone diagram to dissect the high  level problem into sub-system level trouble-shooting tasks.

Insight

By making a fish-bone diagram we were able to clearly see and visualize the possible roots of the problem  and assign the probability for it to occur and prioritize the tasks with high probability rate of success. Doing  this also gave a very good understanding to every member of the team and we were able to generate  more ideas to resolve the problems.

Approach

This course on Coursera, has opened up my approach to product design.   With respect to Mind Mapping, I would definitely use it as often as possible. The key benefits are bringing  out innovative ideas, find patterns and connect them. Also sometimes we zero down on newer ideas  which are amalgamation of the ideas given by different team members. Given the current scenario where,  time to design to market is shrinking day by day, this tool definitely helps us in concept generation and  sharing our ideas without ambiguity.


Mind Mapping Challenge and Selection I ’m a Mechanical Engineer in semiconductor manufacturing equipment industry , and my day to day activities include solving field issues and developing new products . In this reflection I will be sharing my experience on how our team used Mind Mapping tool to solve on wafer non - uniformity and defects . I wo n’t be sharing details about the project since it is a company confidential data but I will rather be sharing the approach . Mind Mapping is a great tool to form connections between several modules of a tool and helps give a better understanding of the overall system . It also helps to guide the project in right direction if we keep deviating from the goal while working on several level deeper parts of the project . In this example of our team , we used fish bone diagram to brainstorm and list down all the possible root causes possible and assigned the team members the tasks to validate the hypothesis for every line item . Application In a semiconductor manufacturing tool there are several modules and sub systems which help in maintain and control the deposition environment to meet stringent standards for a film deposition over a wafer , few of the major characteristics of the film that need to be controlled are the Uniformity of the film ( % NU - % of Non - Uniformity ) deposited to make sure that the thickness of the film is uniform across the wafer , particle defects which is nothing but contamination inside the deposition chamber likes of which can cause device failure , and several other properties . The challenge to maintain such stringent standard is that the performance of the wafer depends on several factors given the number of sub systems involved . Our team gathered huge amounts of data pertaining to the problem and performed root cause analysis using fish bone diagram to dissect the high level problem into sub - system level trouble - shooting tasks . Insight By making a fish - bone diagram we were able to clearly see and visualize the possible roots of the problem and assign the probability for it to occur and prioritize the tasks with high probability rate of success . Doing this also gave a very good understanding to every member of the team and we were able to generate more ideas to resolve the problems . Approach This course on Coursera , has opened up my approach to product design . With respect to Mind Mapping , I would definitely use it as often as possible . The key benefits are bringing out innovative ideas , find patterns and connect them . Also sometimes we zero down on newer ideas which are amalgamation of the ideas given by different team members . Given the current scenario where , time to design to market is shrinking day by day , this tool definitely helps us in concept generation and sharing our ideas without ambiguity .