Discrete sampling based nonlinear control system
First Claim
1. A method for performing a real-time control of a semiconductor product manufacturing process, the method comprising:
- measuring attributes of a spatial feature being patterned over an area of a semiconductor product being manufactured by one or more semiconductor manufacturing tools, the measured attributes including;
a non-linear spatial variation of the feature of the semiconductor product;
generating one or more orthogonal and normalized mesh functions which model the non-linear spatial variation of the feature on the semiconductor product being manufactured;
determining coefficients of the one or more generated orthogonal and normalized mesh functions in real-time for particular non-spatial variations;
mapping the determined coefficients to actual process parameters that govern the semiconductor product manufacturing process;
adjusting, based on the determined coefficients, the one or more semiconductor manufacturing tools during manufacturing the semiconductor product; and
correcting, by the semiconductor manufacturing tool adjustment, the non-linear spatial variation on the feature of the semiconductor product being manufactured,wherein a processor coupled to a memory device is configured to perform;
the measuring, the generating, the determining, the adjusting, the mapping and the correcting.
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Accused Products
Abstract
System, method and computer program product for configuring and controlling a facility to perform a manufacturing process and updating a tool controlling the process according to a model employed for mapping calculated coefficients that characterize non-linear variations observed of a product to actual control parameters governing the processes/tools used by the facility during the manufacturing process. The method enables real-time control of variation in an exposure step of a patterning process using an exposure tool to minimize a nonlinear variation in one or more pattern attributes by adjusting the exposure tool or the patterning process corresponding to the calculated coefficients. In the method, measurements of product attributes, obtained by finite sampling over a well defined domain, are projected onto a predefined reference mesh spanning the domain, using a physically based model comprised of functions constructed to be orthogonal and normalized over a discrete set of reference mesh locations.
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Citations
23 Claims
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1. A method for performing a real-time control of a semiconductor product manufacturing process, the method comprising:
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measuring attributes of a spatial feature being patterned over an area of a semiconductor product being manufactured by one or more semiconductor manufacturing tools, the measured attributes including;
a non-linear spatial variation of the feature of the semiconductor product;generating one or more orthogonal and normalized mesh functions which model the non-linear spatial variation of the feature on the semiconductor product being manufactured; determining coefficients of the one or more generated orthogonal and normalized mesh functions in real-time for particular non-spatial variations; mapping the determined coefficients to actual process parameters that govern the semiconductor product manufacturing process; adjusting, based on the determined coefficients, the one or more semiconductor manufacturing tools during manufacturing the semiconductor product; and correcting, by the semiconductor manufacturing tool adjustment, the non-linear spatial variation on the feature of the semiconductor product being manufactured, wherein a processor coupled to a memory device is configured to perform;
the measuring, the generating, the determining, the adjusting, the mapping and the correcting. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. An apparatus for performing a real-time control of a semiconductor product manufacturing process, the method comprising:
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a memory device; a processor coupled to the memory device, wherein the processor is configured to perform; measuring attributes of a spatial feature being patterned over an area of a semiconductor product being manufactured by one or more semiconductor manufacturing tools, the measured attributes including;
a non-linear spatial variation of the feature of the semiconductor product;generating one or more orthogonal and normalized mesh functions which model the non-linear spatial variation of the feature on the semiconductor product being manufactured; determining coefficients of the one or more generated orthogonal and normalized mesh functions in real-time for particular non-spatial variations; adjusting, based on the determined coefficients, the one or more semiconductor manufacturing tools during manufacturing the semiconductor product; mapping the determined coefficients to actual process parameters that govern the semiconductor product manufacturing process; and correcting, by the performed semiconductor manufacturing tool adjustment, the non-linear spatial variation on the feature of the semiconductor product being manufactured. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. A computer program product for performing a real-time control of a semiconductor product manufacturing process, the computer program device comprising a non-transitory storage medium readable by a processing circuit and storing instructions run by the processing circuit for performing a method, the method comprising:
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measuring attributes of a spatial feature being patterned over an area of a semiconductor product being manufactured by one or more semiconductor manufacturing tools, the measured attributes including;
a non-linear spatial variation of the feature of the semiconductor product;generating one or more orthogonal and normalized mesh functions which model the non-linear spatial variation of the feature on the semiconductor product being manufactured; determining coefficients of the one or more generated orthogonal and normalized mesh functions in real-time for particular non-spatial variations; adjusting, based on the determined coefficients, the one or more semiconductor manufacturing tools during manufacturing the semiconductor product; mapping the determined coefficients to actual process parameters that govern the semiconductor product manufacturing process; and correcting, by the performed semiconductor manufacturing tool adjustment, the non-linear spatial variation on the feature of the semiconductor product being manufactured. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22, 23)
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Specification