System and method for using first-principles simulation to facilitate a semiconductor manufacturing process

• US 8,032,348 B2
• Filed: 09/30/2003
• Issued: 10/04/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 09/30/2003
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.), Tokyo Electron Limited
• Original Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
• Inventors: Mitrovic, Andrej S., Strang, Eric J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Shah; Kamini S
• Assistant Examiner(s): Saxena; Akash
• Application Number:
  US10/673,138
• Publication Number:
  US 20050071034A1
• Time in Patent Office: 2,926 Days
• Field of Search: 703/22, 703/13, 703/7, 716/2, 438/5, 700/121
• US Class Current: 703/13
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 2111/10 Numerical modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 30/20 Design optimisation, verification or simulation optimisation, verification or simulation of circuit designs G06F30/30

Abstract

A method, system and computer readable medium for facilitating a process performed by a semiconductor processing tool. The method includes inputting data relating to a process performed by the semiconductor processing tool and inputting a first principles physical model relating to the semiconductor processing tool. First principles simulation is then performed using the input data and the physical model to provide a first principles simulation result, and the first principles simulation result is used to facilitate the process performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

Claims

1. A method of facilitating a process performed by a semiconductor processing tool, comprising:

inputting a first principles physical model including a set of computer-encoded differential equations, the first principles physical model describing at least one of a basic physical or chemical attribute of the semiconductor processing tool and including

     1) a spatially resolved model of a physical geometry of the semiconductor processing tool and

     2) a grid set addressing the semiconductor processing tool or a geometry of the semiconductor processing tool;

inputting process data related to an actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool;

setting boundary conditions for the spatially resolved model of the physical geometry of the semiconductor processing tool based on said process data related to the actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool;

storing in a fab-level library known simulation results obtained from simulation modules in a device manufacturing fab and distributing the known simulation results to other semiconductor processing tools in the device manufacturing fab;

solving the computer-encoded differential equations of the first principles physical model for the spatially resolved model concurrently with the actual process being performed and in a time frame shorter in time than the actual process being performed to produce a first principles simulation by;

using code parallelization techniques on multiple simulation modules in the device manufacturing fab, and

re-using known simulation solutions as initial conditions for the first principles simulation,

wherein re-using known simulation solutions comprises searching in the fab-level library for a closest fitting solution which if used for the initial condition would reduce the number of iterations required by the simulation module;

providing from the solution of the computer-encoded differential equations solved concurrently with the actual process being performed a first principles simulation result; and

using the first principles simulation result obtained during the performance of the actual process to facilitate the actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein said inputting process data comprises directly inputting the data relating to the actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool from at least one of a physical sensor and a metrology tool physically mounted on the semiconductor processing tool.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein said inputting process data comprises indirectly inputting the data relating to the actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool from at least one of a manual input device and a database.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein said indirectly inputting comprises inputting data recorded from a process previously performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein said indirectly inputting comprises inputting data set by a simulation operator.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein said inputting process data comprises inputting data relating to at least one of the physical characteristics of the semiconductor processing tool and the semiconductor tool environment.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein said inputting process data comprises inputting data relating to at least one of a characteristic and a result of a process performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein said inputting a first principles physical model comprises inputting fundamental equations necessary to perform first principles simulation for a desired simulation result.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising using a network of interconnected resources inside a semiconductor device manufacturing facility to perform the first principles simulation recited in claim 1.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising using code parallelization among interconnected computational resources to share the computational load of the first principles simulation.

11. The method of claim 9, further comprising sharing simulation information among interconnected resources to facilitate a process performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein said sharing simulation information comprises distributing simulation results among the interconnected resources to reduce redundant execution of substantially similar first principles simulations by different resources.

13. The method of claim 11, wherein said sharing simulation information comprises distributing model changes among the interconnected resources to reduce redundant refinements of first principles simulations by different resources.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising using remote resources via a wide area network to facilitate the semiconductor process performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein said using remote resources comprises using at least one of remote computational and storage resources via a wide area network to facilitate the semiconductor process performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

16. A system comprising:

a semiconductor processing tool configured to perform a process;

a fab-level library storing known simulation results obtained from simulation modules in a device manufacturing fab;

a fab-level process controller distributing the known simulation results to other semiconductor processing tools in the device manufacturing fab;

a first principles simulation processor configured to input a first principles physical model including a set of computer-encoded differential equations describing at least one of a basic physical or chemical attribute of the semiconductor processing tool and including

     1) a spatially resolved model of a physical geometry of the semiconductor processing tool and

     2) a grid set addressing the semiconductor processing tool or a geometry of the semiconductor processing tool;

an input device configured to input process data related to an actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool; and

said first principles simulation processor further configured to;

set boundary conditions for the spatially resolved model of the physical geometry of the semiconductor processing tool based on said process data related to the actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool,

solve the computer-encoded differential equations of the first principles physical model for the spatially resolved model concurrently with the actual process being performed and in a time frame shorter in time than the actual process being performed to produce a first principles simulation by;

using code parallelization techniques on multiple simulation modules in the device manufacturing fab, and

re-using known simulation solutions as initial conditions for the first principles simulation,

wherein re-using known simulation solutions comprises searching in the fab-level library for a closest fitting solution which if used for the initial condition would reduce the number of iterations required by the simulation module, and

provide from the solution of the computer-encoded differential equations solved concurrently with the actual process being performed a first principles simulation result,

wherein said first principles simulation result obtained during the performance of the actual process is used to facilitate the actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein said input device comprises at least one of a physical sensor and a metrology tool physically mounted on the semiconductor processing tool.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein said input device comprises at least one of a manual input device and a database.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein said input device is configured to input data recorded from a process previously performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

20. The system of claim 18, wherein said input device is configured to input data set by a simulation operator.

21. The system of claim 16, wherein said input device is configured to input data relating to at least one of the physical characteristics of the semiconductor processing tool and the semiconductor tool environment.

22. The system of claim 16, wherein said input device is configured to input data relating to at least one of a characteristic and a result of a process performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

23. The system of claim 16, wherein said processor is configured to input a first principles physical model comprising fundamental equations necessary to perform first principles simulation for a desired simulation result.

24. The system of claim 16, further comprising a network of interconnected resources inside a semiconductor device manufacturing facility and connected to said processor and configured to assist said processor in performing at least one of the inputting a first principles simulation model and performing a first principles simulation.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein said network of interconnected resources is configured to use code parallelization with said processor to share the computational load of the first principles simulation.

26. The system of claim 24, wherein said network of interconnected resources is configured to share simulation information with said processor to facilitate said process performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

27. The system of claim 26, wherein said network of interconnected resources is configured to distribute simulation results to said processor to reduce redundant execution of substantially similar first principles simulations.

28. The system of claim 26, wherein said network of interconnected resources is configured to distribute model changes to said processor to reduce redundant refinements of first principles simulations.

29. The system of claim 16, further comprising remote resources connected to said processor via a wide area network and configured to facilitate the semiconductor process performed by the semiconductor processing tool.

30. The system of claim 29, wherein said remote resources comprise at least one of a computational and a storage resource.

31. At least one of non-volatile media and volatile media containing program instructions for execution on a processor, which when executed by the computer system, cause the processor to perform the steps of:

inputting a first principles physical model including a set of computer-encoded differential equations, the first principles physical model describing at least one of a basic physical or chemical attribute of the semiconductor processing tool and including

     1) a spatially resolved model of a physical geometry of the semiconductor processing tool and

     2) a grid set addressing the semiconductor processing tool or a geometry of the semiconductor processing tool;

inputting process data related to an actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool;

setting boundary conditions for the spatially resolved model of the physical geometry of the semiconductor processing tool based on said process data related to the actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool;

storing in a fab-level library known simulation results obtained from simulation modules in a device manufacturing fab and distributing the known simulation results to other semiconductor processing tools in the device manufacturing fab;

solving the computer-encoded differential equations of the first principles physical model for the spatially resolved model concurrently with the actual process being performed and in a time frame shorter in time than the actual process being performed to produce a first principles simulation by;

using code parallelization techniques on multiple simulation modules in the device manufacturing fab, and

re-using known simulation solutions as initial conditions for the first principles simulation,

wherein re-using known simulation solutions comprises searching in the fab-level library for a closest fitting solution which if used for the initial condition would reduce the number of iterations required by the simulation module;

providing from the solution of the computer-encoded differential equations solved concurrently with the actual process being performed a first principles simulation result; and

using the first principles simulation result obtained during the performance of the actual process to facilitate the actual process being performed by the semiconductor processing tool.