Statistical control of VLSI fabrication processes. A framework

Abstract

A general framework for statistical control of VLSI (very large-scale integration) fabrication processes is given along with the architectural description of a software system that can be used for monitoring, diagnosis, and quality/quantity control of computer-aided integrated circuit manufacture. The task of process control is formulated as one of profit maximization, and the associated objective function and the constraints are developed for a number of manufacturing scenarios. The IC fabrication process is modeled as a stochastic system and the necessary conditions for efficient statistical control of VLSI fabrication processes are described. >