In a fab, sort is wafer probe: every die is electrically tested and binned before the wafer is diced, and sort yield is the headline yield figure. In manufacturing quality more broadly, a sort is a 100 percent screen of suspect stock, as in putting a sort in place at the plant or at the customer while the root cause is found. Both meanings share the idea of separating good from bad unit by unit rather than by sampling.
Customer found two cracked housings, so we've got a third-party sort running at their dock on everything from week 18.
Also heard as
- wafer sort
- probe
- 100 percent inspection
- containment sort
Related terms
Bin
Test category that each die or unit is sorted into at probe or final test, with bin 1 usually meaning good.
Yield
Fraction of units that come out good at a step or across a whole process, the headline number for any production line.
Acceptance sampling
Accepting or rejecting a whole lot based on inspecting a random sample from it against a predefined plan.
Wafer map
Picture of a wafer showing each die's test result or measurement by location, used to spot spatial failure patterns.