Method for auto-tuning and process performance assessment of chamber control

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11599069-B1
Application number	US-202117467020-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Sep 3, 2021
Priority date	Sep 3, 2021
Publication date	Mar 7, 2023
Grant date	Mar 7, 2023

Abstract

Embodiments disclosed herein include a method for auto-tuning a system. In an embodiment, the method comprises determining if the system is in a steady state. Thereafter, the method includes exciting the system. In an embodiment, the method comprises storing process feedback measurements from the excited system to provide a set of stored data. In an embodiment, the set of stored data is a subset of all available data generated by the excited system. In an embodiment, the method further comprises determining when the excited system returns to the steady state, and tuning the system using the set of stored data.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for auto-tuning a system, comprising: determining if the system is in a steady state; exciting the system; storing process feedback measurements from the excited system to provide a set of stored data, wherein the set of stored data is a subset of all past and present collected data generated by the excited system; determining when the excited system returns to the steady state; and tuning the system using the set of stored data; wherein the storing, determining, and tuning is performed based on a rectangle box approach that takes into consideration dimensions and orientations of rectangle boxes.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a level of noise within process feedback measurements before exciting the system.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein the level of noise is determined for each iteration of the method.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein the level of noise is determined before a first iteration of the method and after a preset number of iterations of the method, or after a preset period of time.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein storing process feedback measurements, comprises:
grouping consecutive data points into a series of rectangular boxes, wherein only a first data point in a given rectangular box is stored as part of the set of stored data.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein a height of the box is a function of noise in the system.

7. The method of claim 5 , wherein the excited system returns to the steady state when a rectangular box has an inclination that is substantially parallel to a time axis.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein tuning the system includes setting gain values of a closed loop controller of the system.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
validating the tuning by comparing the collected data to an internally simulated model which is obtained from information extracted from the stored data, or from a first-principle analysis of the system.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system is a closed loop control system in a semiconductor manufacturing tool.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the closed loop control is of a thermal system or a pressure system.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the system is a plurality of closed loop control systems in a semiconductor manufacturing tool.

13. A method of monitoring a recipe performance in a semiconductor processing tool, comprising: determining a level of noise in a system; storing process feedback measurements from the system to provide a set of stored data, wherein the set of stored data is a subset of all past and present collected data generated by the system; and comparing the set of stored data with a set of reference data; determining when the system returns to steady state; and tuning the system using the set of stored data; wherein the storing, determining, and tuning is performed based on a rectangle box approach that takes into consideration dimensions and orientations of rectangle boxes.

14. The method of claim 13 , wherein the set of reference data is from a known good iteration of the recipe.

15. The method of claim 13 , further comprising:
reporting a recipe performance status when the set of stored data differs from the set of reference data.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the difference between the set of stored data and the set of reference data is a time delay shift of recorded data points.

17. The method of claim 13 , wherein storing process feedback measurements, comprises:
grouping consecutive data points into a series of rectangular boxes, wherein only a single data point in a given rectangular box is stored as part of the set of stored data.

18. A semiconductor processing tool, comprising: a chamber; a plurality of components interfacing with the chamber, wherein each of the components are controlled with a different closed loop control system, wherein the processing tool comprises an auto-tuning module for tuning the closed loop control systems, wherein the auto-tuning module comprises: a noise estimation module, wherein the noise estimation module determines the noise present in each closed loop control system; and a data collection module, wherein the data collection module stores process feedback measurements from the closed loop control systems to provide a set of stored data for each closed loop control system, wherein the sets of stored data are a subset of all past and present collected data generated by the closed loop control systems; wherein when the closed loop control systems return to steady state the closed loop control systems are tuned using the set of stored data; wherein the storing and tuning is performed based on a rectangle box approach that takes into consideration dimensions and orientations of rectangle boxes.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein storing process feedback measurements, comprises:
grouping consecutive data points into a series of rectangular boxes, wherein only a single data point in a given rectangular box is stored as part of the set of stored data.

20. The method of claim 18 , wherein the plurality of components interfacing with the chamber comprises a temperature controlled component and a pressure controlled component.

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Cimino Mauro
• Dan Arkaprava
• Baluja Sanjeev

Classifications

• H10P72/0612

  Production flow monitoring, e.g. for increasing throughput · CPC title

• H10P72/0602

  Temperature monitoring · CPC title

• H10P72/0604

  Process monitoring, e.g. flow or thickness monitoring · CPC title

• G05B13/025 Primary

  using a perturbation signal · CPC title

• G05B13/022

  using a perturbation of the variable · CPC title