Estimation of chamber component conditions using substrate measurements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12339645-B2
Application number	US-202217882393-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 5, 2022
Priority date	Jan 25, 2022
Publication date	Jun 24, 2025
Grant date	Jun 24, 2025

Abstract

A method includes processing a substrate in a process chamber according to a recipe, wherein the substrate comprises at least one of a film or a feature after the processing. The method further includes generating a profile map of the first substrate. The method further includes processing data from the profile map using a first model, wherein the first model outputs at least one of an estimated mesa condition of a substrate support for the process chamber, an estimated lift pin location condition of the substrate support an estimated seal band condition of the substrate support, or an estimated process kit ring condition for a process kit ring for the process chamber. The method further includes outputting a notice as a result of the processing.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method, comprising:
processing a first substrate in a process chamber of a substrate processing system according to a recipe, wherein the first substrate comprises at least one of a film or a feature after the processing;
generating a profile map of at least one of the film or the feature on the first substrate using a substrate measurement system of the substrate processing system;
processing data from the profile map using a first model, wherein the first model outputs at least one of an estimated mesa condition of a substrate support for the process chamber, an estimated lift pin location condition of the substrate support an estimated seal band condition of the substrate support, or an estimated process kit ring condition for a process kit ring for the process chamber;
determining at least one of a) a quality of the substrate support based on at least one of the estimated mesa condition, the estimated lift pin location condition, or the estimated seal band condition or b) a quality of the process kit ring based on the estimated process kit ring condition;
outputting a notice of at least one of the estimated mesa condition, the estimated lift pin location condition, the estimated process kit ring condition, or the estimated seal band condition of the substrate support as a result of the processing; and
causing maintenance to be performed on at least one of a) the substrate support based at least in part on the quality of the substrate support or b) the process kit ring based at least in part on the quality of the process kit ring.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether to perform maintenance on the substrate support based at least in part on at least one of the estimated mesa condition, the estimated lift pin location condition or the estimated seal band condition.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first model outputs the estimated mesa condition, and wherein the estimated mesa condition comprises at least one of an estimation of an amount of erosion for one or more mesas of the substrate support, an estimation of missing mesas, an estimation of a mesa pattern, or an estimation of a degree to which the estimated mesa pattern deviates from a target mesa pattern.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first model outputs the estimated seal band condition, and wherein the estimated seal band condition comprises at least one of an estimation of erosion for one or more portions of a seal band of the substrate support or an estimation of a concentricity of the seal band.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first model outputs the estimated lift pin location condition, and wherein the estimated lift pin location condition comprises at least one of an estimation of hot spots at one or more locations of the substrate support, an estimation of lift pin locations, or an estimation of a deviation of the estimated lift pin locations from target lift pin locations.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first model outputs the estimated process kit ring condition for the process kit ring that at least one of a) surrounds the substrate support or b) is underneath the substrate support, wherein the estimated process kit ring condition comprises at least one of an estimation of erosion for the process kit ring, an estimation of a defect in the process kit ring, or an estimation of a missing process kit ring.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
processing a second substrate in the process chamber, wherein the second substrate comprises at least one of a second film or a second feature after the processing;
generating a second profile map of at least one of the second film or the second feature on the second substrate using the substrate measurement system of the substrate processing system;
processing data from the second profile map using the first model, wherein the first model outputs at least one of a second estimated mesa condition of the substrate support, a second estimated lift pin location condition of the substrate support, a second estimated seal band condition of the substrate support, or a second estimated process kit ring condition of the process kit ring; and
comparing at least one of a) the second estimated mesa condition to the estimated mesa condition, b) the second estimated lift pin location condition to the estimated lift pin location condition, c) the second estimated seal band condition to the estimated seal band condition, or d) the second estimated process kit ring condition to the estimated process kit ring condition.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising:
determining an erosion rate for at least one of a) one or more mesas of the substrate support, b) one or more lift pin locations of the substrate support, c) one or more seal band portions of the substrate support, or d) the process kit ring based on a result of the comparing.

9. The method of claim 7 , further comprising determining at least one of the following based on a result of the comparing:
a) whether it is time to replace a chamber component of the process chamber;
b) a remaining life of the chamber component; or
c) an anticipated yield performance of a device produced from the second substrate.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that one or more mesas are broken, missing or improperly positioned based on the estimated mesa condition; and
determining that the substrate support fails to pass a quality test in view of the one or more mesas that are broken, missing or improperly positioned.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining at least one of a) when to replace the process kit ring based on the estimated process kit ring condition, or b) a placement position of the process kit ring around the substrate support.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the substrate support comprises a first component, a second component, and a bond between the first component and the second component, and wherein the first model or a second model further outputs a bond condition estimation for the bond that indicates a degree of failure of the bond and whether delamination of the second component from the first component has occurred.

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

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining a probability that the substrate support will cause a reduction in product quality based on at least one of the estimated mesa condition, the estimated lift pin location condition or the estimated seal band condition of the substrate support; and
determining whether to perform maintenance on the substrate support based on the probability that the substrate support will cause the reduction in the product quality.

15. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
estimating a time of failure of the substrate support based at least in part on at least one of the estimated mesa condition, the estimated lift pin location condition, the estimated seal band condition, or the estimated process kit ring condition; and
determining when to perform maintenance on at least one of the substrate support or the process kit ring based on the estimated time of failure.

16. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first model is a first trained machine learning model, the method 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

Assignees

• Applied Materials Inc

Inventors

• Zhang Chunlei
• Zhu Zhaozhao
• Kutney Michael

Classifications

• H10P72/7612

  characterised by lifting arrangements, e.g. lift pins · CPC title

• H10P72/7604

  the wafers being placed on a susceptor, stage or support · CPC title

• H10P72/0606

  Position monitoring, e.g. misposition detection or presence detection · CPC title

• H10P72/53

  using optical controlling means · CPC title

• H10P72/0604 Primary

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