Method and system for providing a selection of golden tools for better defect density and product yield

• US 8,041,440 B2
• Filed: 03/07/2007
• Issued: 10/18/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 07/13/2006
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited
• Inventors: Wang, Ying-Lang, Fu, Hsueh-Shih, Cheng, Chang Yung, Wang, Chin-Kun
• Primary Examiner(s): DeCady; Albert
• Assistant Examiner(s): Chang; Sunray
• Application Number:
  US11/683,305
• Publication Number:
  US 20080021585A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,686 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 700/99
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 19/41865 characterised by job scheduling, process planning, material flow
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/31325 Machine selection support, use of database
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45031 Manufacturing semiconductor wafers
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06313 Resource planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/02 Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure provide a method and a system for providing a selection of golden tools for better defect density and product yield. A golden tool selection and dispatching system is provided to integrate different components for robust golden tool selection and dispatching. The golden tool selection system selects a set of golden tools based on performance of a set of manufacturing tools and provides a fully automated operational environment to produce a product using the set of golden tools.

Claims

1. A method for improving a yield of a product, the method comprising:

selecting a set of golden tools from a set of manufacturing tools by using manufacturing data collected from a working piece processed using a plurality of recipes performed by each tool from the set of manufacturing tools to provide a ranking of tool performance for each tool in order to select the set of golden tools; and

providing a fully automated operational environment to produce a product using the set of golden tools,

wherein selecting the set of golden tools further comprises;

selecting the plurality of recipes for each of the set of manufacturing tools;

excluding a recipe having excursion data from the plurality of recipes to form a subset of recipes;

benchmarking particles of the subset of recipes; and

benchmarking thickness capability index of the subset of recipes, wherein the benchmarking thickness capability index of each recipe relates to the degree each recipe meets a specified thickness.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein excluding a recipe comprises:

examining a recipe in the plurality of recipes to determine if a number of data points of the recipe exceeds a threshold; and

excluding the recipe from the plurality of recipes if the number of data points of the recipe exceeds the threshold.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein benchmarking particle of the subset of recipes comprises:

calculating a value using a seven day average of each of the plurality of recipes;

determining if the value is below a threshold; and

selecting a recipe having a smaller value than other recipes in the plurality of recipes as a golden recipe in response to the value is not below the threshold.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein benchmarking thickness capability index of the subset of recipes comprises:

calculating a thickness capability index for seven days of each of the plurality of recipes; and

selecting a recipe having a larger thickness capability index than other recipes in the plurality of recipes as a golden recipe.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the fully automated operational environment comprises automatic dispatching, automatic transportation, and automatic equipment operation.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the automatic dispatching dispatches the set of golden tools for producing the product.

7. The method of claim 5, wherein the automatic transportation arranges transportation of the product through the set of golden tools.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein operations of the fully automated operational environment are machine operations.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein selecting a set of golden tools from a set of manufacturing tools based on performances of the set of manufacturing tools is performed by a golden chamber selection system.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the golden chamber selection system takes inline statistical process control data, offline statistical process control data, and periodic maintenance data as input data.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the inline statistical process control data comprises data that is collected during control wafer processing.

12. The method of claim 10, wherein the offline statistical process control data comprises measurement data that is generated after control wafers are processed.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the periodic maintenance data comprises performance data of the set of manufacturing tools after a periodic maintenance is performed on the set of manufacturing tools.

14. The method of claim 1, wherein providing a fully automated operational environment to produce the product using the set of golden tools is performed by a real-time dispatching system.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the real-time dispatching system takes common information model information, work-in-progress information, and product configuration information as input data.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the common information model information comprises recipe information of the set of manufacturing tools.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the work-in-progress information comprises dispatching instructions of the set of manufacturing tools.

18. An apparatus comprising a non-transitory, tangible computer readable storage medium storing a computer program, wherein the computer program has instructions that when executed, carry out:

collecting data from an actual performance of a set of manufacturing tools using a plurality of recipes on at least one working piece;

selecting a set of golden tools from the set of manufacturing tools by using the collected data to provide a ranking of tool performance for each tool in order to select the set of golden tools, wherein selecting the set of golden tools includes benchmarking thickness capability index of the plurality of recipes, the benchmarking thickness capability index of each recipe relating to the degree each recipe meets a specified thickness; and

providing a fully automated operational environment to produce a product using the set of golden tools.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein selecting the set of golden tools includes:

excluding a recipe having excursion data from the plurality of recipes to form a subset of recipes;

benchmarking particles of the subset of recipes; and

wherein benchmarking thickness capability index of the plurality of recipes includes benchmarking thickness capability of the subset of recipes.

20. A system for improving a yield of a product, the system comprising:

a selecting module operable to select a set of golden tools from a set of manufacturing tools by using manufacturing data collected from a working piece processed using a plurality of recipes performed by each tool from the set of manufacturing tools to provide a ranking of tool performance for each tool in order to select the set of golden tools, wherein the selecting module operable to select the set of golden tools from the set of manufacturing tools by using manufacturing data includes benchmarking thickness capability index of the plurality of recipes, the benchmarking thickness capability index of each recipe relating to the degree each recipe meets a specified thickness; and

a fully automated operational environment operable to produce a product using the set of golden tools.