AVS 45th International Symposium
    Partial Pressure Measurements and Process Control Topical Conference Friday Sessions
       Session PC-FrM

Invited Paper PC-FrM7
RGA Process Monitoring in Semiconductor Manufacturing

Friday, November 6, 1998, 10:20 am, Room 317

Session: Process Monitoring and Control
Presenter: J.M. Baker, IBM T.J. Watson Research Center
Correspondent: Click to Email
Although RGA's have been a mainstay in vacuum technology for decades, the semiconductor industry has been slow in realizing their potential for tasks other than leak checking and vacuum troubleshooting. This is in large part because the pace and culture of the manufacturing environment provides neither the time nor the skill to deal with the combined complexities of a process tool plus an RGA system. To succeed in this environment, it is necessary to extend the basic sensor technology and build the infrastructure so that the sensor is tightly integrated with the process tool and can adapt to the process and product types. I will show how we have addressed some of these obstacles in IBM fabs through a combination of distributed hardware and software. By incorporating tool signals with the data collection software, we have been able to detect and stop contaminated wafers at a degas station in the presence of interfering pressure bursts. Through links to factory/tool control software, we have been able to obtain recipe information and adjust our monitoring methods to different process chemistries. With this capability, we have been able to collect extensive data and observe a variety of interesting and often unexpected behavior, examples of which will be presented. In concluding, I will discuss some of the implications of our experience for utilizing versatile sensors such as RGA's as part of an advanced fault detection or process control system and the importance of having the information infrastructure necessary to closely integrate with the tool, the process, and ultimately the product.