NEC Corp and Samsung Electronics Co of South Korea agreed to share information on improving semiconductor production. NEC will provide Samsung with simulation software it has developed to detect defects during chip manufacturing and Samsung will provide feedback on the working of the software. At the moment, a shortage of skilled workers in chip factories means yield control is being threatened. .The yield rate, or ratio of non-defective chips to the total output, is difficult to raise further after reaching 85-90%. Another problem is that the number of production processes required to produce semiconductors has risen to over 700, making it difficult to ascertain which processes need improvement to increase the yield. NEC software can be used by unskilled workers.
