METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR IDENTIFYING ROOT CAUSE OF DEFECT USING COMPOSITE DEFECT MAP

Provided are a method and apparatus for automatically determining defective equipment by using a sample defect map showing defect distribution in each cell of a defective sample and production history information of each product, wherein the defective sample is a set of products, each being divided into a plurality of cells. According to this invention, the method of determining defective equipment is provided. The method comprises, generating a sample defect map which shows defect distribution in each cell of a defective sample, generating an equipment defect map for at least one of pieces of equipment through which each product of the defective sample passed, calculating, for each piece of equipment whose equipment defect map has been generated, map similarity between the sample defect map and the equipment defect map, and determining one or more defective pieces of equipment, which are the cause of the defective sample, based on the map similarity for each piece of equipment whose equipment defect map has been generated, wherein the defective sample is a set of products, each being divided into a plurality of cells, and the equipment defect map for a specific piece of equipment shows defect distribution in each cell of products that passed through the specific piece of equipment among the products of the defective sample.