This paper presents the failure mode study of process FMEA (failure mode and effects analysis) based on the characteristics for semiconductor industry. To identify failure modes, we first divide the process into modified one and new one. For the former, failure modes are driven from the master FMEA, the previously prepared FMEA DB, and similar processes FMEAs previously analyzed. For the latter, a systematic study for process function is done firstly and then failure modes are identified according to the cases where the function is absent, surplus, insufficient, intermittent, and unexpected and the characteristics of the process itself and inspection methods. Those failure modes are stored in the master FMEA. A case study is also given.