{"title":"Practical Reinforcement Learning for Adaptive Photolithography Scheduler in Mass Production","authors":"Eungjin Kim;Taehyung Kim;Dongcheol Lee;Hyeongook Kim;Sehwan Kim;Jaewon Kim;Woosub Kim;Eunzi Kim;Younggil Jin;Tae-Eog Lee","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3336909","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2023.3336909","url":null,"abstract":"This work introduces a practical reinforcement learning (RL) techniques to address the complex scheduling challenges in producing Active Matrix Organic Light Emitting Diode displays. Specifically, we focus on autonomous optimization of the photolithography process, a critical bottleneck in the fabrication. This provides an outperforming scheduling method compared with the existing rule-based approach which requires diverse rules and engineer experience on adapting dynamic environments. Our purposing RL network was designed to make effective schedules aligning with layered structures of the planning and scheduling modules for mass production. In the training phase, historical production data is utilized to create a representative discrete event simulation environment. The RL agent, based on the Deep Q-Network, undergoes episodic training to learn optimal scheduling policies. To ensure safe and reliable scheduling decisions, we further introduce action filters and parallel competing schedulers. The performance of RL-based Scheduler (RLS) is compared to the Rule-Based Scheduler (RBS) over actual fabrication in a year-long period. Based on key performance indicators, we validate the RLS outperforms the RBS, with a remarkable improvement in step target matching, reduced setup times, and enhanced lot assignments. This work also paves a way for the gradual integration of AI-based algorithms into smart manufacturing practices.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"37 1","pages":"16-26"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"139695117","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"GAGAN: Global Attention Generative Adversarial Networks for Semiconductor Advanced Process Control","authors":"Hsiu-Hui Hsiao;Kung-Jeng Wang","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3332630","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3332630","url":null,"abstract":"This paper addresses the quality control of the photolithography process in the semiconductor industry. Overlay errors in the process seriously affect the wafer yield, and cause the wafer to be forced to rework and affect the production efficiency of the equipment. We examine the current state of its process control, develop a novel overlay predict model, and verify the prediction results. This study proposes a Global Attention Generative Adversarial Networks (GAGAN) model to precisely predict the overlay error for the feed-forward data of the front layer, which is used as the important information and process parameters for the advanced process control of the current layer. Experiment results on a semiconductor shop-floor confirms that our proposed method achieves high predictive performance while maintaining extensibility and visual quality.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"37 1","pages":"115-123"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135709787","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"2023 Index IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing Vol. 36","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3329863","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3329863","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"36 4","pages":"677-693"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-11-08","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=10312824","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"135515206","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing Information for Authors","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3325126","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2023.3325126","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"36 4","pages":"C3-C3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71903136","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Special Issue on Semiconductor Design for Manufacturing (DFM)","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3324270","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2023.3324270","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"36 4","pages":"676-676"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71903144","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Guest Editorial Special section on the 2022 International Symposium on Semiconductor Manufacturing","authors":"Tsuyoshi Moriya","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3323254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2023.3323254","url":null,"abstract":"Since its beginning in 1992 in Japan, International Symposium on Semiconductor Manufacturing (ISSM) has provided unique opportunities to share the best practices of semiconductor manufacturing technologies for professionals. At the symposiums, semiconductor manufacturing professionals discussed the technologies developed to meet the worldwide requirements for advanced manufacturing. It is becoming crucial to re-examine semiconductor manufacturing in terms of fundamental principles to improve the performance of semiconductor devices. Moreover, utilizing artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies to improve semiconductor manufacturing have become a new challenge. These manufacturing technology challenges are showing the need for drastic revolutionary concept and stronger collaborative efforts to find solutions to the precompetitive challenges.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"36 4","pages":"499-500"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71903143","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Guest Editorial Special Section on Production-Level Artificial Intelligence Applications in Semiconductor Manufacturing","authors":"John W. Fowler;Karl Kempf;Lars Mönch","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3324469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2023.3324469","url":null,"abstract":"The increasing availability of data, advances in computational and storage capacities of IT systems, and algorithmic advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI), especially Machine Learning (ML) combine to enable significant improvements in the efficiency, operations and throughput of manufacturing systems at the production level. The semiconductor industry is one of the most data-intensive industries and has seen increased use of AI-based technologies over the last few years. In order to develop effective AI-based technologies in the semiconductor manufacturing industry several issues have to be taken into account, including scalability, heterogeneity of data, and the need for interpretability.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"36 4","pages":"558-559"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-10-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"71903137","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Yang Liu;Lilei Hu;Bin Sun;Can Ma;Jingxuan Shen;Chang Chen
{"title":"A Novel Multiscale Residual Aggregation Network-Based Image Super-Resolution Algorithm for Semiconductor Defect Inspection","authors":"Yang Liu;Lilei Hu;Bin Sun;Can Ma;Jingxuan Shen;Chang Chen","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3327767","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TSM.2023.3327767","url":null,"abstract":"Single-image super-resolution (SISR) techniques have found wide applications in semiconductor defect inspection. Enhancing image resolution to improve inspection sensitivity and accuracy holds great significance. A novel SISR algorithm, called cross-convolutional residual network (CCRN), is proposed in this study. CCRN comprises a cross-convolutional module (CCM), which incorporates a cross-sharing mechanism that facilitates the fusion of features from different stages, enabling the extraction of more information from the image. Moreover, a global residual aggregation structure (GRA) is introduced. GRA captures and transfers different levels of residual features acquired from learning each CCM to the reconstruction layer. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed SR algorithm outperforms existing state-of-the-art SR algorithms in terms of both visual and quantitative metrics when applied to optical, SEM, and TEM images of microfluidic chips, CMOS image sensors, and quantum dots, respectively. Additionally, CCRN significantly improves the accuracy of defect classification and inspection of unpatterned wafers, as evaluated using the WM-811K dataset. Notably, an increase in local defection testing accuracy from 79.00% to 89.00% and an improvement in classification accuracy from 93.69% to 96.06% are achieved. These findings underscore the potential applications of the proposed algorithm in improving semiconductor defect inspection and classification accuracies.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"37 1","pages":"93-102"},"PeriodicalIF":2.7,"publicationDate":"2023-10-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134884005","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}