User configurable multivariate time series reduction tool control method

• US 6,584,368 B2
• Filed: 09/17/2002
• Issued: 06/24/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 03/19/1999
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: GlobalFoundries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Surendra, Maheswaran, McGill, James J., Ghias, Asif, Colt, John Z. Jr., Pascoe, Nancy T., Bunkofske, Raymond J., Taubenblatt, Marc A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Picard, Leo
• Assistant Examiner(s): Garland, Steven R.
• Application Number:
  US10/245,461
• Publication Number:
  US 20030055523A1
• Time in Patent Office: 280 Days
• Field of Search: 700/83, 700/28, 700/51, 700/33, 700/34, 700/52, 700/67, 700/73, 700/79, 700/80, 700/121, 700/174, 700/175, 700/177, 700/74, 702/179, 702/181, 702/182, 702/185, 702/189, 702/190, 438/9, 216/60
• US Class Current: 700/83
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45031 Manufacturing semiconductor wafers
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0221 Preprocessing measurements, e.g. data collection rate adjustment; Standardization of measurements; Time series or signal analysis, e.g. frequency analysis or wavelets; Trustworthiness of measurements; Indexes therefor; Measurements using easily measured parameters to estimate parameters difficult to measure; Virtual sensor creation; De-noising; Sensor fusion; Unconventional preprocessing inherently present in specific fault detection methods like PCA-based methods
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 22/20 Sequence of activities consisting of a plurality of measurements, corrections, marking or sorting steps

Abstract

A method and structure for controlling a manufacturing tool includes measuring different manufacturing parameters of the tool, transforming a plurality of time series of the manufacturing parameters into intermediate variables based on restrictions and historical reference statistics, generating a surrogate variable based on the intermediate variables, if the surrogate variable exceeds a predetermined limit, identifying a first intermediate variable, of the intermediate variables, that caused the surrogate variable to exceed the predetermined limit and identifying a first manufacturing parameter associated with the first intermediate variable, and inhibiting further operation of the tool until the first manufacturing parameter has been modified to bring the surrogate value within the predetermined limit.

Claims

1. A computer interface for creating a file for transformation of various process recipes, process tools and products in a statistical analysis of a manufacturing process, said computer interface comprising:

an input device for inputting data;

a correction device for correcting missing data in a time series of said data by determining a length of said times series and an interpolation interval of said time series;

a first selector for selecting a transformation function;

a generator for generating one or more control charts from a Hotelling function using said data corrected by said correction device and using said transformation function; and

a second selector for selecting between said control charts.

2. The computer interface according to claim 1, wherein said Hotelling function comprises T², where:

$T^2={\left(\frac{\left(x-\stackrel{\_}{x}\right)}{\mathrm{\sigma <br><br>}}\right)}^T<br><br>R^{-1}<br><br>\left(\frac{\left(x-\stackrel{\_}{x}\right)}{\mathrm{\sigma <br><br>}}\right)=z^T<br><br>R^{-1}<br><br>z,$

where x comprises said intermediate variables, {overscore (x)} comprises a historical sensor value, a comprises a historical standard deviation sensor value, R<sup>−

1</sup> comprises an inverse correlation matrix and z comprises mean and standard deviation normalized values.

3. The computer interface according to claim 2, wherein x and σ

are user adjustable.

4. The computer interface according to claim 1, wherein said transformation function reduces a dimensionality of a time series of manufacturing parameters.

5. The computer interface according to claim 1, wherein said transformation function selects, modifies and combines a time series of manufacturing parameters based on restrictions and historical reference statistics.

6. The computer interface according to claim 5, wherein said restrictions comprise user-defined, batch-specific restrictions.