Method of controlling an epitaxial growth process in an epitaxial reactor

A method of controlling an epitaxial growth process in an epitaxial reactor, the method comprising:

• performing a first run of the epitaxial growth process, and controlling a temperature of the first run of the epitaxial growth process with a temperature measuring device that determines the temperature based on a first thermocouple offset parameter value;
• optimizing the thermocouple offset parameter for a second run by the steps of:
• measuring an actual output parameter value of the epitaxial growth process of the first run;
• setting up a modeled output parameter value as a linear function of the actual output parameter value, and a second thermocouple offset parameter value;
• determining a distance between a target output parameter value and the modeled output parameter value;
• determining the second thermocouple offset parameter value as a thermocouple offset parameter value that provides the minimum distance between the modeled output parameter value and the target parameter value;
• and
• performing a second run of the epitaxial growth process, and controlling a temperature of the epitaxial growth process during the second run by a temperature measuring device that determines the temperature based on the second thermocouple offset parameter value.