Method and system for implementing virtual metrology in semiconductor fabrication

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device, comprising:

• providing first manufacturing data that corresponds to a first semiconductor process;
• transforming the first manufacturing data in a manner so that the first manufacturing data is statistically compatible with second manufacturing data that corresponds to a second semiconductor process, the second semiconductor process being different from the first semiconductor process;
• predicting performance of the second semiconductor process using the transformed manufacturing data;
• and
• controlling a semiconductor fabrication tool based on the predicted performance.

A system for wafer result prediction, comprising:

• a data collector that collects a plurality of manufacturing data sets from a plurality of semiconductor processes, respectively;
• and
• a virtual metrology module that includes:
• a first data normalization module that normalizes each of the manufacturing data sets in a manner so that statistical differences among the manufacturing data sets are reduced, the normalized manufacturing data sets forming a database;
• and
• a second data normalization module that normalizes the database in a manner so that the manufacturing data sets in the normalized database are statistically compatible with a selected one of the manufacturing data sets;
• wherein the virtual metrology module:
• predicts performance of a selected one of the semiconductor processes that corresponds to the selected manufacturing data set;
• and
• controls a semiconductor processing machine in response to the predicted performance.