Why traceability matters: Hidden risks in every chip you ship 

Complexity demands a comprehensive solution

Semiconductor fabs are battlegrounds of complexity. Over 1400 steps. Atomic-level precision. Thousands of interdependent processes. Every step must be traceable at wafer level. Every day generates unprecedented data volumes. 

Then something breaks. 

A chip lot splits. A die moves. The MES gaps out. Data vanishes. Traceability disappears. Your customers demand absolute traceability for every chip and every step. But without the right approach, data recovery is impossible. 

The difference between tracing and tracking isn’t just semantics—it’s the difference between losing your data and keeping it. 

The critical difference between tracing and tracking

Most people use these terms interchangeably. But they’re fundamentally different: 

Tracing answers the past: “Where did this come from?” It’s backward-looking genealogy. 

Traceability is the ability to trace a device’s current status back to its point of origin, providing an audit trail. For example, to trace where a device comes from on the wafer, you must begin at the start of fabrication. 

As the device’s history is traced back to the beginning, critically important information about its lifecycle will be available: 

• Who supplied the device to an OEM? 
• Is the device built to spec as designed? 
• Is the device genuine, or has it been tampered with? 
• If the data has been altered, who did it and why? 

The limitations of traceability

Traceability answers the backward question: it shows customers materials, origins, processing steps, equipment, and conditions for every device. 

But that’s only half the story. You also need tracking to answer the forward question: “What happens next?” Customers demand both: complete history (traceability) and real-time visibility (tracking). Together, they provide the complete picture customers require today. 

What makes tracking essential

Tracking does three critical things: 

• Enables flexible processing — Different devices can follow different paths at specific steps, while other steps remain standardized 
• Captures complete history — Records details and metadata for every die (once cut) and every package (once assembled) 
• Maps the future — Shows what happens next to each device, not just where it came from 

Tracking is forward-looking genealogy—the operational map that keeps production moving. It enables flexible processing at specific steps, standardized processing elsewhere, and captures complete metadata for individual dies and assembled packages. As device complexity increases, tracking becomes increasingly critical. 

The landscape is changing: Complex multi-chip devices are now the norm

The semiconductor landscape is fundamentally shifting. Complex multi-chip devices are now standard, generating exponential data volumes—thousands of child data points per lot when a single module contains dozens of chips. Yet most fabs still operate with tracking systems designed for simpler products. 

This mismatch creates three critical failures: lot-based models collapse under complexity, sequential data processing becomes a bottleneck, and widespread confusion between traceability and tracking erodes yield and capacity. The industry’s legacy systems simply cannot keep pace. 

The right solution requires technology that handles device complexity and data volume at scale—and clarity on what tracing and tracking actually do. 

The added challenge of multi-chip modules 

Firms making multi-chip modules (MCM), systems in packages (SIPs), central processing units (CPUs), and Insulated-gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) need to track sub-devices. Multi-chip module tracking and chiplet traceability are rapidly becoming the norm for many chipmakers. With varying batch sizes, tracking and monitoring each device through each step in the process is needed to provide complete traceability and genealogy. 

Modern manufacturing demands both. Without tracking, traceability is incomplete. When something goes wrong, containment scope balloons. You risk being unable to answer your customers’ critical questions—and losing their trust. 

The Problem: Speed vs. accountability

For years, fabs have tried to provide tracing and tracking accountability with sequential data writes. But sequential writes are fundamentally slow. They bog down the application server, which is compounded by growing complexity. Semiconductor manufacturing execution system (MES) processing that takes seconds is unacceptable at production speed. As a result, most fabs respond by either accepting slower operations or building fragile homegrown workarounds. Neither is sustainable. 

The Solution: Single-device tracking

Fortunately, you can meet customer expectations with a single-device tracking approach. Single-device tracking manages production and delivers complete data about every device and its processing history—even when individual devices are processed differently. But here’s the challenge: most semiconductor companies cannot perform single-device tracking without slowing operations.

Until now. 

A high-performance MES semiconductor approach now exists that solves the need for speed without requiring additional capital investment. When high-performance single device tracking is integrated into MES, it enables you to track every device, control how each moves through processes, and record it all—at production speed. 

Because the safety of humans can potentially ride on the performance of a single chip, it is important that we know everything we can about that chip, from where it was made and what part of the wafer it originated from, to intermediate test results as it proceeded through the fab.¹ 

– Fram Akiki, President, Joun Technologies, Adjunct Instructor, Clarkson University 

Why Single-device tracking is non-negotiable

The market demands it: 

• 72% of semiconductor companies report stronger customer demand for quality than even their customers expect² 
• Complex MCM devices (CPUs, SiPs, IGBTs) can have dozens of chiplets—each requiring its own track and trace record 
• The scale is massive: One lot of 1,000 devices = 1,000 individual transactions at a single step. Multiply that across steps, equipment, and work shifts 

Single-device tracking isn’t optional anymore. It’s essential. 

High-performance tracking accelerates the process

The key to high-performance tracking is moving beyond sequential writes. Instead of processing data at the application server level—which creates bottlenecks—a high-performance approach writes data in bulk at the database level. The result: 

• Milliseconds, not minutes of processing time per transaction 
• Two-level lot starts that initiate tracking at both the lot and individual device level simultaneously, maintaining data integrity without sacrificing speed 
• Real production-speed performance that doesn’t compromise traceability 

Only manufacturing execution systems (MES) with high-performance engines (HPE) can process the volume of data and transactions needed to offer trace and track at the flexible granularity required. An HPE is more efficient because it uses bulk, not sequential, data writing to avoid slowing down.  

Additional benefits of an MES with HPE for tracking and tracing include: 

• Grading and binning 
• Modeled business rules 
• End-to-end lot genealogy and traceability 
• Map storage solution with bin editing 
• Die level traceability 

High-performance MES capabilities—powered by HPE—enable semiconductor companies to enhance customer traceability, maintain SEMI compliance and significantly increase throughput. The result: faster time-to-market, superior quality and sustained competitive advantage. 

Proof in practice

In one documented use case, a fab reduced tester time by 80% by implementing this single-device tracking approach.³ That’s not just faster—that’s transformational. 

Learn more: Read our comprehensive white paper, Semiconductor Manufacturing with Single Device Tracking, to see how high-performance tracking integrates with modern MES systems—plus actionable insights to drive implementation at your organization. 

References: 

1. Digital Transformation for smart semiconductor manufacturing, Page 12, sw.cdn.siemens.com/siemens-disw-assets/public/-Book.pdf 

2. Julie Fraser – Tech-Clarity, Retool Semiconductor Innovation for Profit: A Lifecycle Approach for Smart Products and Devices, 2021 

3. Julie Fraser – Tech-Clarity, Semiconductor Manufacturing with Single Device Tracking, Page 13, 2022, Semiconductor Manufacturing with Single Device Tracking | Siemens 

Tracing and Tracking FAQs

Process engineers ask great questions. Here’s what they ask most: 

Q: What’s the difference between semiconductor tracking and tracing? 

Great question—most people use these terms interchangeably, but they’re actually doing different jobs. Tracing is backward-looking. It answers: “Where did this device come from?” It follows a device’s path back to its origin, all the way to wafer-level traceability. Tracking is forward-looking. It answers: “What happens next?” It follows a device through production and enables different processing at each step. Here’s the thing: you need both. But most fabs do one well and struggle with the other. 

Q: Why does single-device tracking matter for multi-chip modules? 

Because MCM devices like CPUs and SiPs are complex. They can contain dozens of chiplets, and each one needs its own process control and complete data record. That’s where lot-level tracking breaks down. The moment you cut a die from the wafer, lot-level tracking loses the detail you need. With single-device tracking, you maintain visibility into every chiplet through the entire manufacturing process. For modern MCM devices, multi-chip module tracking is essential. 

Q: What is the SEMI T23 traceability standard? 

SEMI T23 is the industry standard for device-level traceability. It defines how you track individual device IDs through manufacturing, test, and assembly all the way to the customer. Think of it as the rulebook that ensures everyone’s speaking the same language when it comes to traceability. When everyone understands how the traceability standard works, compliance becomes a powerful competitive advantage—ensuring you meet customer expectations and build lasting trust. 

Q: Does single-device tracking really slow down production? 

It can—if you’re using the wrong approach. Traditional sequential data writes process each device transaction one at a time, and that can take seconds per transaction. When you’re running thousands of devices per hour, those seconds add up fast. You hit a bottleneck that crushes your capacity. But here’s the good news: it doesn’t have to be this way. When high-performance single device tracking is integrated into MES, it enables you to track every device, control how each moves through processes, and record it all—at production speed. 

Learn more: For complete solution details, see our comprehensive white paper Semiconductor Manufacturing with Single Device Tracking