Improvement of photolithography process by 2<sup>nd</sup> Generation Data Mining

Abstract

Advanced Process Control (APC) system has been developed and already been introduced about CD and overlay controls in photolithography process, and productivity and device performance have been improved. However, current APC is based on the inspection data where process deviation combined with machine fluctuation, and had the limit in the effect. The purpose of this paper is to show that we have developed 2 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">nd</sup> Generation Data Mining system in cooperation with APC and have proven the effect of stabilizing machine fluctuation.