A New Optimization Strategy for Chemical Mechanical Polishing Process

Abstract

Abstract In this paper, a systematic approach to achieve global optimum CMP process is carried out. In this new approach, orthogonal array technique adopted from the Taguchi method is used for efficient experiment design. The neural network (NN) technique is then applied to model the complex CMP process. Signal to Noise Ratio (S/N) Analysis (ANOVA) technique used in the conventional Taguchi method is also implemented to obtain the local optimum process parameters. Successively, the global optimum parameters are acquired in terms of the trained neural network. In order to increase the CMP throughput, a two-stage optimal strategy is also proposed. Experimental results demonstrate that the two-stage strategy can perform better then the original approach even though the polishing time is reduced by 1/6.