Controlling a Manufacturing Process with a Multivariate Model

A multivariate controller for a continuous or batch-type manufacturing process, the controller comprising:

• a control module in communication with a plurality of process tools and a plurality of sensors to monitor manipulated variable data from the process tools and dependent variable data from the sensors, the control module including a multivariate model, the dependent variable data representative of values of a first set of process parameters observed by the plurality of sensors and the manipulated variable data representative of expected values of a second set of process parameters;
• and
• a solver module to receive, from the multivariate model, at least one of predicted yield data, predicted manipulated variable data, predicted dependent variable data, a multivariate statistic, or any combination thereof, based on at least the monitored manipulated variable and dependent variable data and to generate values of the manipulated variables for providing to the plurality of process tools and to a prediction model that provides at least predicted statistical data.

A system for controlling a manufacturing process, the system comprising:

• a data acquisition means for acquiring, from a plurality of process tools, manipulated variable data representative of expected values of a set of process parameters and acquiring, from a plurality of sensors, dependent variable data representative of values of a second set of process parameters observed by the plurality of sensors;
• a process control means for determining operational parameters of the plurality of process tools of the manufacturing process;
• a multivariate control means to determine, based on a multivariate statistical model, values for the manipulated variable data to provide to the process control means, the multivariate statistical model receiving at least the acquired manipulated variable and dependent variable data and providing predicted yield values and statistical information to the process control means based on at least the received data.