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New 300mm facilities are decreasing start-up risks by developing new processes on 200mm equipment and transferring the process and manufacturing methods to the 300mm line. 200mm factories have stable processes, equipment and manufacturing methods. Leveraging a common Advanced Process Control (APC) architecture, both semiconductor manufacturers and equipment manufacturers have the ability to extend 200mm equipment capability, and transfer successful APC methods direct. Having a common tool-level APC on both 200mm and 300mm etch equipment, has proven valuable for TEL. Starting with fault detection and process control on 200mm equipment provides for rapid learning and qualification of the APC architecture and interfaces. When transferring the process and manufacturing methods that include APC to 300mm equipment, factories can efficiently ramp up new processes, and focus efforts in areas of high risk that need integrated fault detection. Etch process equipment provides the ultimate challenge due to the lack of physical process models. This requires extensive measurements of equipment and plasma state, followed by the development of empirical models to correlate equipment related state to the process state. The etch process requires chambers to be cleaned and consumable parts replaced, adding a large variable that must be included to make the models robust in high-volume manufacturing. Optimum productivity requires multiplexing 3 or 4 chambers running the same process. Chambers must produce matched process results, while allowing different clean cycles for flexibility of maintenance. Multivariate analysis, relating the equipment and plasma state to the wafer state, is required. A strategy that includes 200mm equipment in parallel with 300mm development supports customer legacy equipment improvements while providing a platform for 300mm APC applications that will extend pas current 200mm tool capability as new processes and manufacturing methods are developed. TEL's Etch APC product allows for equipment integration of real-time data, events, external sensors, and integrated metrology.
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