Productivity improvement for dry etch equipment through the application of simulation

The standards of the semiconductor market with its specifications are leading to a basic demand for an increase in productivity. On a department level, this can be achieved through an increase in equipment throughput and/or in an increase in wafer starts at constant and/or less clean-room area used by the process group. Through simulation of Clustertools in various operation modes, possibilities were found to improve the operation of this equipment. In addition, Infineon Dresden was able to examine different hardware configurations in the dry etch sector. In concrete examples, discrete event simulation results of Clustertools showed possibilities for throughput increases and performance improvements of up to 20%, thus supporting the decisions for capacity developments and hardware alterations. The comparison with data from on-tool tests verified the simulation software and its results. Important general findings on the behaviour of Clustertools will be introduced.