Transfer learning based 3D fuzzy multivariable control for an RTP system

Abstract

Rapid thermal processing (RTP) is an important process in the fabrication of semiconductor devices. It is difficult to achieve temperature uniformity control of the wafer in RTP since the system is a highly nonlinear process with strong spatial distribution. In this study, a transfer learning-based three-dimensional (3D) fuzzy multivariable control scheme is proposed for the temperature uniformity control of an RTP system. In difference to the traditional expert-knowledge based design, a two-level framework of transfer learning methodology is constructed to design the 3D fuzzy multivariable controller (3D FMC) with the help of a multi-output support vector regression (M-SVR). The 3D FMC defines a qualitative spatial fuzzy structure that will be transferred to the M-SVR. On the other hand, the structure parameters of the M-SVR will be learned from data and transferred to design quantitative parameters of the 3D FMC. Under the framework of transfer learning, the control laws (e.g. human control experience) hidden in spatio-temporal data can be extracted and formulated back into multi-output 3D fuzzy rules. The proposed method provides an effective integration of the spatial fuzzy inference and the transfer learning for 3D FLC design. The newly developed method is applied to the temperature uniformity control of a rapid thermal chemical vapor deposition (RTCVD) system at the set temperature 1000K, and the maximum non-uniformity along the wafer radius is close to 1K.