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US 7,329,168 B2Granted
Extended Kalman filter incorporating offline metrology
AssigneeMicron Technology, Inc.
InventorJim Hofmann
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An algorithm uses offline metrology to control a process by passing information from an outer control loop to an inner control loop, extended Kalman filter estimator. The inner control loop operates online, and the outer control loop operates asynchronously with respect to the inner control loop. The online control loop is updated for each subsequent process. The offline metrology is optionally updated for each subsequent process.
Claims20
A control system comprising:
- a physical interface adapted to control a state of at least one of a mechanical system and an electronic system;
- an online extended Kalman filter (EKF) estimator;
- an offline metrology data base;
- an information statement transferring a current state of selected portions of stored information from the offline metrology data base to the EKF estimator;
- and
- a control statement transferring a control setting from the online EKF estimator to the physical interface.
3 more elements
A control system comprising:
- a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) interface to a chemical-mechanical polishing system;
- an online extended Kalman filter (EKF) estimator;
- an offline metrology data base;
- an information statement from the offline metrology data base to the first EKF estimator;
- and
- a control statement from the online EKF estimator to the CMP interface determining a state variable of an operation of a chemical-mechanical polishing system.
3 more elements
A control system comprising:
- a physical interface for controlling state variables in a mechanical system;
- an online extended Kalman filter (EKF) estimator;
- an offline metrology data base in communication with the online estimator;
- an information statement including current state variable values from the offline metrology data base to the EKF estimator;
- and
- a control statement from the online EKF estimator to the physical interface.
3 more elements
A control system for a cyclic process, comprising:
- an outer control loop, sending process parameter data from an nth process run, where n is an integer greater than zero, to update and improve accuracy in a process parameter;
- an inner control loop including an extended Kalman filter (EKF) recciving the process parameter data, calculating an updated process parameter and sending the updated process parameter to a process parameter controller;
- and
- the process parameter controller receiving the updated process parameter and applying the updated process parameter to the (n+m)th process run, where m is greater than one.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.