Application of in-situ particle monitoring in defect management system under clean manufacturing environment

In-situ Particle Monitors (ISPM) have been adopted in the industry for optimizing cleaning cycles and detecting equipment abnormalities. However, in advanced manufacturing environments where the equipment is well maintained and where yield-dominating excursions rarely happen, the ISPM signal is usually too weak to use for yield monitoring. This paper details what we did to optimize ISPM sensitivity performance for non-excursion conditions, analyzes the results, and presents an alternative approach for integrating ISPM in defect management systems.