Chamber component condition estimation using substrate measurements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12216455-B2
Application number	US-202217584318-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 25, 2022
Priority date	Jan 25, 2022
Publication date	Feb 4, 2025
Grant date	Feb 4, 2025

Abstract

A substrate processing system includes a process chamber, one or more robot, a substrate measurement system, and a computing device. The process chamber may process a substrate that will comprise a film and/or feature after the processing. The one or more robot, to move the substrate from the process chamber to a substrate measurement system. The substrate measurement system may measure the film and/or feature on the substrate and generate a profile map of the film and/or feature. The computing device may process data from the profile map using a first trained machine learning model, wherein the first trained machine learning model outputs a first chamber component condition estimation for a first chamber component of the process chamber. The computing device may then determine whether to perform maintenance on the first chamber component of the process chamber based at least in part on the first chamber component condition estimation.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
processing a substrate in a process chamber of a substrate processing system, wherein the substrate comprises at least one of a film or a feature after the processing;
measuring a plurality of locations on the substrate using a substrate measurement system of the substrate processing system;
generating a profile map of at least one of the film or the feature on the substrate based on measurements of the plurality of locations on the substrate;
processing data from the profile map using a first trained machine learning model, wherein the first trained machine learning model outputs a first chamber component condition estimation for a first chamber component of the process chamber;
determining at least one of a deficiency or a degradation of the first chamber component based on the first chamber component condition estimation; and
determining whether to perform maintenance on the first chamber component of the process chamber based on at least one of the deficiency or the degradation of the first chamber component.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first chamber component comprises a substrate support, and wherein the first chamber component estimation comprises at least one of an estimated mesa erosion condition of the substrate support, an estimated seal band erosion condition of the substrate support, or an estimated lift pin location erosion condition of the substrate support.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein:
the estimated mesa erosion condition comprises an estimation of an amount of erosion for one or more mesas of the substrates support;
the estimated seal band erosion condition comprises an estimation of erosion for one or more portions of the seal band of the substrates support; and
the estimated lift pin location erosion condition comprises an estimation of erosion for each lift pin location of the substrates support.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first chamber component comprises a substrate support, and wherein the first chamber component estimation comprises at least one of an estimation of recesses in a surface of the substrate support, an estimation of a roughness across the surface of the substrate support, an estimation of a planarity of the surface of the substrate support, or an estimation of a concentricity of one or more circular elements of the substrate support.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the profile map of the film comprises a thickness profile map of the film.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first chamber component comprises a showerhead, and wherein the first chamber component estimation comprises an estimated gas delivery for each of a plurality of regions of the showerhead.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a probability that the first chamber component will cause a reduction in product quality based on the first chamber component estimation; and
determining whether to perform the maintenance on the first chamber component of the process chamber further based on the probability that the first chamber component will cause the reduction in the product quality.

8. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
estimating a time of failure of the first chamber component based at least in part on the first chamber component condition estimation; and
determining when to perform the maintenance on the first chamber component of the process chamber based on the estimated time of failure.

9. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
processing the data from the profile map using a second trained machine learning model, wherein the second trained machine learning model outputs a chamber component condition estimation for a second chamber component of the process chamber; and
determining whether to perform maintenance on the second chamber component of the process chamber based at least in part on the chamber component condition estimation for the second chamber component.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
training a first machine learning model to produce the first trained machine learning model, wherein the first machine learning model is trained using data from a plurality of process chambers that share a common process chamber type.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising:
tuning the first trained machine learning model using additional data from the process chamber prior to processing the data from the profile map.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate is a blanket wafer.

13. A substrate processing system comprising:
a process chamber, to process a substrate that will comprise at least one of a film or a feature after the processing;
one or more robot, to move the substrate from the process chamber to a substrate measurement system;
the substrate measurement system, to measure a plurality of locations of at least one of the film or the feature on the substrate and generate a profile map of at least one of the film or the feature based on measurements of the plurality of locations; and
a computing device, to:
process data from the profile map using a first trained machine learning model, wherein the first trained machine learning model outputs a first chamber component condition estimation for a first chamber component of the process chamber;
determine at least one of a deficiency or a degradation of the first chamber component based on the first chamber component condition estimation; and
determine whether to perform maintenance on the first chamber component of the process chamber based on at least one of the deficiency or the degradation of the first chamber component.

14. The substrate processing system of claim 13 , wherein the first chamber component comprises a chuck, wherein the profile map comprises a thickness profile map, and wherein the first chamber component estimation comprises at least one of an estimated mesa erosion condition of the chuck, an estimated seal band erosion condition of the chuck, or an estimated lift pin location erosion condition of the chuck.

15. The substrate processing system of claim 14 , wherein:
the estimated mesa erosion condition comprises an estimation of an amount of erosion for one or more mesas of the chuck;
the estimated seal band erosion condition comprises an estimation of erosion for one or more portions of the seal band of the chuck; and
the estimated lift pin location erosion condition comprises an estimation of erosion for each lift pin location of the chuck.

16. The substrate processing system of claim 13 , wherein the first chamber component comprises a showerhead, and wherein the first chamber component estimation comprises an estimated gas delivery for each of a plurality of regions of the showerhead.

17. The substrate processing system of claim 13 , wherein the computing device is further to:
determine a probability that the first chamber component will cause a reduction in product quality based on the first chamber component estimation; and
determine whether to perform the maintenance on the first chamber component of the process chamber based further on the probability that the first chamber component will cause the reduction in the product quality.

18. The substrate processing system of claim 13 , wherein the computing device is further to:
estimate a time of failure of the first chamber component based at least in part on the first chamber component condition estimation; and
determine when to perform the maintenance on the first chamber component of the process chamber based on the estimated time of fail

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Zhang Chunlei
• Zhu Zhaozhao
• Kutney Michael

Classifications

• H10P74/238

  comprising acting in response to an ongoing measurement without interruption of processing, e.g. endpoint detection or in-situ thickness measurement · CPC title

• H10P72/0612 Primary

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

• H10P74/203

  Structural properties, e.g. testing or measuring thicknesses, line widths, warpage, bond strengths or physical defects · CPC title

• H10P72/0604

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

• H10P72/0616

  Monitoring of warpages, curvatures, damages, defects or the like · CPC title