Development and deployment of a multi-component Advanced Process Control system for an epitaxy tool

Abstract

A multi-component Advanced Process Control (APC) system has been developed and deployed for an Applied Materials vapor phase epitaxy tool at Fairchild Semiconductor. The system, which is fully automated, operates on a SEMI APC framework compliant platform, supports the plug-and-play of multiple APC applications ("plug-ins"), and has configurable control rules that allow the user to specify not only how each APC application will be utilized, but also how the APC applications will interact in a complementary fashion. The current system contains real-time data visualization, run-to-run control (R2R), and fault detection and classification (FDC) plug-ins. The data visualization component is currently being utilized for real-time visual monitoring of aspects of equipment health. The R2R component includes a multivariate algorithm and is being used to provide multi-zone control of deposition thickness and resistivity. The FDC component will gather the in-process data from the tool to automatically determine equipment health and classify faults in order to reduce mean time to repair. In this paper, the methodology used to deploy and configure this APC system is described. Data is provided illustrating the use of each of these APC capabilities individually and in complementary fashion. Data analysis is included that focuses on the benefits of utilizing these capabilities, benefits such as improved equipment reliability, improved overall equipment effectiveness and yield. The paper also includes a discussion of the benefits and issues associated with the complementary utilization of multiple APC components in an open architecture framework.