Automatic control in microelectronics manufacturing: Practices, challenges, and possibilities

✍ Scribed by Thomas F. Edgar; Stephanie W. Butler; W.Jarrett Campbell; Carlos Pfeiffer; Christopher Bode; Sung Bo Hwang; K.S. Balakrishnan; J. Hahn

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2000
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 790 KB
• Volume: 36
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0005-1098
• DOI: 10.1016/s0005-1098(00)00084-4

✦ Synopsis

Advances in modeling and control will be required to meet future technical challenges in microelectronics manufacturing. The implementation of closed-loop control on key unit operations has been limited due to a dearth of suitable in situ measurements, variations in process equipment and wafer properties, limited process understanding, non-automated operational practices, and lack of trained personnel. This paper reviews the state-of-the-art for process control in semiconductor processing, and covers the key unit operations of lithography, plasma etching, thin "lm deposition, rapid thermal processing, and chemical}mechanical planarization. The relationship of process (equipment) models to control strategies is elaborated because recently there has been a considerable level of activity in model development in industry and academia. A proposed control framework for integrating factory control and equipment scheduling, supervisory control, feedback control, statistical process control, and fault detection/diagnosis in microelectronics manufacturing is presented and discussed.