Monitoring and preventing arc-induced wafer damage in 300mm manufacturing

Arcing between the plasma and the wafer, kit, or target in PVD processes can cause significant wafer damage and foreign material contamination which limits wafer yield. Monitoring the plasma and quickly detecting this arcing phenomena is critical to ensuring that today's PVD processes run optimally and maximize product yield. This is particularly true in 300mm semiconductor manufacturing, where energies used are higher and more product is exposed to the plasma with each wafer run than in similar 200mm semiconductor manufacturing processes.