Semiconductor Equipment Research Articles

Sliding Mode Observer Based Multi-Layer Metal Plates Core Temperature On-Line Estimation for Semiconductor Intelligence Manufacturing

This paper focuses on the technological development of core temperature estimation algorithm of multi-layer metal plates. It applies new control technology in the field of real time monitoring of semiconductor producing processes. To achieve real time core temperature estimation in semiconductor equipment processes, this paper will follow the order of: system description, model derivation, parameter identification, and design of a robust core temperature observer of multi-layer metal plates, which will then be cross validated with experimental data. In the metal heating system model proposed in this paper, external cooling is considered as an unknown interference. Since the system contains an unknown interference, the sliding mode observer (SMO) will use the equivalent conversion technique to tackle with the uncertainty. In order to improve the degree of freedom and flexibility in the design of the gain matrix, and considering the effects of parameter identification uncertainty, this paper introduces the multi-objective linear matrix inequality (LMI) in the design of the sliding mode observer to suppress the impacts of the non-matching uncertainty on the system and to reduce the gain matrix which also satisfies the convergence requirement of the designer. In terms of algorithm implementation, the parameters of the thermally processed multilayer plate model are first identified through the minimum difference filter (MDF), the data is then filtered offline, and lastly, the model parameter is derived using the least square (LS) method. The filtering technology can greatly improve the accuracy of parameter identification and improve the SMO estimation precision. Finally, the experimental data of the actual semiconductor machine and the estimation from the proposed method verifies the usefulness of the SMO in core temperature estimation of multi-layer metal plate heating systems.

Dynamic Outsourcing Development for Sustainable Competitive Advantage in a High-Tech Backend Semiconductor Equipment Firm

In a high-tech backend semiconductor business where a market environment changes sharply and requires competitiveness of high technology, one of the most important criteria is to establish an optimal strategy for outsourcing development so a firm can achieve a sustainable competitive advantage. Many studies have investigated sustainable and successful strategies for the selection and management of outsourcing suppliers, whereas, this study focuses mainly on analyzing the most affecting factor for outsourcing development in the perspective of dynamic capability by using the Delphi Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. For the analysis of affecting factors, 4 dimensions are defined: technology, organization, environment, and process. The research result shows that the sustainability of the productive skill in the technology dimension is adopted as the most affecting factor for outsourcing development among the defined 4 dimensions of an outsourcing supplier’s capability. With this research, a high-tech firm can measure the level of each dimension and each factor in developing outsourcing service providers. Then the firm can develop an appropriate outsourcing provider who contributes to the firm’s sustainable competitive advantage. This study also provides a practical and strategic framework of a high-tech firm’s outsourcing development in variable market situations and changeable conditions of transaction.

Reviews of wearable healthcare systems: Materials, devices and system integration

Wearable health monitoring systems are considered as the next generation of personal portable devices for telemedicine practice. These systems are based on monitoring different kinds of biological signals released by human beings through saliva, urine, breathing and epidemic skin perspiration. However, the development and commercialization of wearable healthcare equipment is still at a relatively slow pace, because the construction method of ordinary semiconductor equipment is no longer applicable. Despite these challenges, advances in materials science, chemical analysis techniques, equipment design and manufacturing methods have laid the foundation for a completely different wearable technology, which has led to the continuous evolution of wearable systems over the years. Hence, a comprehensive review in this field is required for the rational design and development of wearable systems for healthcare applications. In this regard, we like to summarize all the major components in wearable healthcare systems and discuss the progress made in this field, as well as the challenges that lie ahead. We think that this review will have a great implication for the wider scientific community which will contribute to the rational design of human health monitoring devices and accelerate the development of flexible electronics.

Rotational plating process design with computational fluid analysis

During the semiconductor manufacturing process and equipment development, we designed a face-up type electro-plating process and equipment including technologies of single wafer processing, wafer handling, and cyclic fluid delivery. In this study, with the help of computational fluid dynamics, we presented the flow effect on the wafer from the viewpoint of the coating uniformity. Process and hardware parameters, such as the electrode rotating speed, the gap between the electrode and the wafer, and the electrode shape were considered. The electrode height of 10 mm exhibited the best results, and this may be caused by the shoulder gap location to the outlet duct. A rotating speed of 5 rpm was shown to produce better results than those at other speeds. The butterfly wing and the meshed disk electrode showed a similar tendency in terms of the rotating speed and the gap. However, the butterfly-wing-type might show less uniform results than those of the meshed disk due to its original non-uniformity in the circumferential direction in case of lower rotating speed.

Guest Editorial Special Section on the 2018 SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference

The 2018 SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference, the 29th since its conception, was held once again in Saratoga Springs, NY, USA, May 1 through May 3, 2018. Saratoga Springs provided a beautiful backdrop for discussion of the many topics central to the continued success of the semiconductor manufacturing industry in areas including Advanced Metrology, Advanced Processes and Materials, Advanced Process Control, Contamination-Free Manufacturing, Cost Reduction, Equipment Reliability and Productivity, Defect Inspection, Environmental, Health and Safety, Factory Automation and Dynamics, Human Resources Management and Development, Lithography Advances and Challenges, Yield Enhancement, and Yield Modeling. Semiconductor device manufacturers, equipment and materials suppliers, academia, and others all came together these three days, as presenters and attendees, to exchange ideas and insights. Throughout the conference, two parallel session tracks provided options to match the interests of each attendee, without being overwhelming.

The South Korea-Japan Trade Dispute in Context: Semiconductor Manufacturing, Chemicals, and Concentrated Supply Chains

The semiconductor production supply chain is among the most globally integrated. Japan’s recently announced export control actions have introduced supply chain risks for semiconductor and electronics manufacturers, particularly in Japan and Korea. This paper provides context and examines the potential implications of such risks. We identify the factors behind Japan’s competitiveness in the semiconductor materials and equipment industries, focusing on specialized chemicals, and South Korea’s competitiveness in semiconductor manufacturing. We explore the short and long-term implications of sustained supply chain risks for this particular supply chain and find that there are strong supplier-customer relationships between materials and equipment suppliers and semiconductor manufacturers, due to specialization and high fixed costs throughout the supply chain. In the short-term, Japanese chemical providers and Korean semiconductor producers face potential disruptions in their production and exports, though the magnitude of potential losses for Korean chipmakers are likely much larger than Japanese chemicals suppliers. In the long-term, these actions create incentives for Korean chipmakers to significantly lessen their sourcing from Japanese suppliers, not only in specialized chemicals, but throughout the entire semiconductor supply chain.

High-speed PCI System for Multi-I/O Semiconductor Equipment Control

High-speed PCI System for Multi-I/O Semiconductor Equipment Control

X-ray Metrology for the Semiconductor Industry Tutorial.

The semiconductor industry is in need of new, in-line dimensional metrology methods with higherspatial resolution for characterizing their next generation nanodevices. The purpose of this short course is to train the semiconductor industry on the NIST-developed critical dimension small angle X-ray scattering (CDSAXS) method. The topics will include both data processing and instrumentation. The short course will also provide an opportunity for discussion of the requirements for CDSAXS and the necessary improvements in X-ray source technology. Expected audience include semiconductor manufacturers, equipment manufacturers, and component manufacturers. The presentations were made at “X-ray Metrology for the Semiconductor Industry” short course at the National Institute of Standards and Technology on Aug. 25, 2016.

Variable Selection Under Missing Values and Unlabeled Data in Semiconductor Processes

Manufacturing semiconductor wafers involves many sequential processes, and each process has various equipment-related variables or factors, which results in high-dimensional data. However, measuring the quality of all wafers is time and cost intensive, and only a small proportion of the wafers is labeled. Further, equipment factors are not always measured by sensors due to the complicated process. Variable selection, which is performed to reduce the dimensionality of the input variable space while improving or preserving regression performance by selecting important input factors, plays an important role in regression problems. We propose a variable selection procedure to find the main equipment factors that affect in-process wafer quality in consideration of the following issues: 1) imputation for missing values; 2) semi-supervised regression for unlabeled data; and 3) redundancy among variables. In the proposed procedure, partial least squares and least absolute shrinkage and selection operator regression are utilized as prediction models. Experiments using two semiconductor equipment datasets were conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed procedure.

합성곱 신경망을 이용한 웨이퍼 맵 기반 불량 탐지

The Electrical die sorting (EDS) test is performed to discriminate defective wafers for the purpose of improving the yield of the wafers during the semiconductor manufacturing process, and wafer maps are generated as a result. Semiconductor manufacturing process and equipment engineers use the patterns of the wafer map based on their knowledge to judge the defective wafer and estimate the cause. We use convolutional neural network which demonstrate good performance in the image classification. The convolutional neural network is used as a classification model of which the image of wafer map itself as input and whether the image is good or bad as output. While previous studies have used hand-crafted features for wafer map-based fault detection, the methodology used in this study is that the convolutional neural network learns the features useful for classification, it has the advantage of integrating knowledge. We show that the proposed classifier has better prediction accuracy than the conventional machine learning based techniques such as multilayer perceptron and random forest empirically by experiments on the data collected in the actual semiconductor manufacturing process.

Analysis of Temperature and Gas Flow Distribution in Chamber with Wafer Batch

ABSTRACTWafer temperature distribution and gas flow inside a tube of a chemical vapor deposition chamber, which is a semiconductor fabrication equipment, were analyzed. The control volume was assumed to be a two-dimensional space, and calculation program was developed based on a MATLAB code. The program is divided into two parts – heat transfer and gas flow analyses. The results of the calculation and the temperature test agreed well with each other. Heat loss was observed at both ends of the wafer batch, and gas convection momentum was not enough for the flow to invade into the wafer spacing. Thus, the flow rate and the temperature of the wafer needed to be increased to make the film thickness uniform. To increase the wafer temperature, the radiation adiabatic pedestal was considered. Low emissivity made the pedestal almost adiabatic, which increased the temperature of the wafer batch. To increase the flow rate in the wafer spacing, the eccentric wafer batch was proposed.

Polymer Microlens 제작을 위한 Thermal Reflow 공정 해석

Polymer microlens manufacturing using thermal reflow was simulated and optimized by a numerical approach. Microlenses are used in various industrial fields, such as optical, semiconductor, and observation experiment equipment. Therefore, polymer microlens fabrication using an economical thermal reflow process is important for mass production and cost reduction. The feasibility of a thermal reflow process for microlens fabrication was analyzed in this paper by numerical methods. First, we refer to the previous studies and papers for the theoretical shape of the microlens. Second, for numerical simulation of the process above Tg (Glass Transition Temperature), we studied the multiphase flow simulation using a VOF method and adopted a Cross-WLF model to consider the rheological characteristics of PMMA. Finally, several parametric studies were carried out to compare the simulation profile and the theoretical lens shape in order to optimize the thermal reflow process. The numerical approach presented in this paper would enable a more efficient analysis and provide better understanding of reflow behavior to obtain the optimal process.

Lateral vibration control of a precise machine using magneto-rheological mounts featuring multiple directional damping effect

In a previous work, magneto-rheological (MR) dampers were originally designed and implemented for reducing the vertical low-frequency vibration occurring in precise semi-conductor manufacturing equipment. To reduce the vibrations, an isolator levitated the manufacturing machine from the floor using pneumatic pressure which cut off the external vibration, while the MR damper was used to decrease the transient response of the isolator. However, it has been found that the MR damper also provides a damping effect on the lateral vibration induced by the high-speed plane motions. Therefore, in this work both vertical and lateral vibrations are controlled using the yield and shear stresses of the lateral directions generated from the MR fluids by applying a magnetic field. After deriving a vibration control model, an overall control logic is formulated considering both vertical and lateral vibrations. In this control strategy, a feedback loop associated with the laser sensor is used for vertical vibration control, while a feed-forward loop with the motion information is used for lateral vibration control. The experimental results show that the proposed concept is highly effective for lateral vibration control using the damping effect on multiple directions.

Development of Microwave Power Supply for Semiconductor Equipment

Development of Microwave Power Supply for Semiconductor Equipment

Tool Efficiency Analysis model research in SEMI industry

One of the key goals in SEMI industry is to improve equipment through put and ensure equipment production efficiency maximization. This paper is based on SEMI standards in semiconductor equipment control, defines the transaction rules between different tool states，and presents a TEA system model which is to analysis tool performance automatically based on finite state machine. The system was applied to fab tools and verified its effectiveness successfully, and obtained the parameter values used to measure the equipment performance, also including the advices of improvement.

Fiscal and social costs of recovery programs for an earthquake disaster in northern Taiwan

We investigate the long-run disaster impact of an earthquake hitting northern Taiwan with a nuclear power plant shutdown and the costs and effectiveness of recovery programs using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model. We simulate the losses of capital and labor from the disaster with a nuclear power plant shutdown and then conduct policy experiments of the recovery of Taiwan’s three major industries by subsidizing their output or capital use. We find that the semiconductor and electronic equipment sectors could recover with the aid of subsidies. In contrast, the recovery of the chemical sector would be crucially dependent on the availability of nuclear power. This is because the chemical sector is heavily dependent on petroleum products as inputs and thus susceptible to fuel price rises, induced by a fuel demand increase following the shutdown of a nuclear power plant. The fiscal and welfare costs differ by type of subsidy and program duration. Capital-use subsidies would cost less than output subsidies. A longer recovery program duration would cost less by reducing the distortionary effects of the policy interventions.

A Comparative Case Study on CRM of Innovative Foreign Semiconductor Equipment Companies

A Comparative Case Study on CRM of Innovative Foreign Semiconductor Equipment Companies

Chemical makers invest in chip materials

During Semicon West, a trade show for semiconductor manufacturing materials and equipment held in San Francisco July 11–13, multiple chemical makers announced deals or investments intended to serve makers of advanced computer chips. High-end cleaning was the subject of two announcements. Versum Materials said it will pay $13 million to acquire Dynaloy, an Eastman Chemical business that supplies formulated cleaning products to semiconductor makers. Versum, which is Air Products’ former electronic materials business, says Dynaloy will complement its existing surface preparation and cleaning materials business. Mitsubishi Gas Chemical said it will spend $60 million to build plants in Oregon and Texas that produce ultrapure hydrogen peroxide, used in the electronics industry for cleaning, etching, and abrading semiconductor wafers. MGC already operates similar facilities in Arizona and at four sites in Asia. Cutting-edge materials for next-generation chip circuitry got a lot of attention. The start-up company...

Assessment of the SEMI energy conversion factor and its application for semiconductor and LCD fabs

High-tech fabrication plants (called fabs) generally use a lot of energy, for example, yearly energy consumption might reach 215GWh for a 3.5-generation small/medium-size TFT-LCD panel fab with a monthly yield of 75,000 pieces and a clean room area of 59,760m2[1]. The process tools use electricity directly during their operation and also consume energy indirectly through other facilities (such as the exhaust, clean dry air, and process cooling-water systems). The organization Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) issued guidelines (called SEMI S23) for energy, electricity, and production conservation by facility systems. In this study, a calculator was developed to provide the energy conversion factors (ECFs) needed in a fab. The results show that most of the ECF values estimated by the new calculator are very close to the values reported in the SEMI S23-0813, while applying the same operating conditions. Most importantly, with the new calculator, it is possible to understand better the detailed contribution of each variable to the energy consumption of each sub-system in the fab. The new ECF calculator eliminates one drawback of the SEMI S23-0813, the inability to objectively compare results for different industries, or under different operating conditions. The new ECF calculator can be used as a straightforward tool for energy-saving tasks or for new-fab design. Moreover, this new calculator was successfully employed to analyze in detail the energy consumption of three high-tech fabs (for manufacturing semiconductors and LCDs). The ECFs reported in the present study can be considered normalized results because those factors are actually the energy consumption of a sub-system per unit volume flow rate (and unit temperature degree).

SEA4KET, Semiconductor Equipment Assessment for Key Enabling Technologies, FP7

SEA4KET, Semiconductor Equipment Assessment for Key Enabling Technologies, FP7