# US 9,519,285 B2 · Systems and associated methods for tuning processing tools

> Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt

- Number: US 9,519,285 B2
- Document ID: US9519285B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 13/666,176
- Filed: 2013-01-23
- Published: 2014-07-24
- Granted: 2016-12-13
- Earliest claimed: 2013-01-23
- Assignees: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
- Applicants: Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
- Inventors: Po-Feng Tsai; Chia-Tong Ho; Sunny Wu; Jo Fei Wang; Jong-I Mou; Chin-Hsiang Lin
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US9519285B2

## CPC

- G05B 23/024: {Quantitative history assessment, e.g. mathematical relationships between available data; Functions therefor; Principal component analysis [PCA]; Partial least square [PLS]; Statistical classifiers, e.g. Bayesian networks, linear regression or correlation analysis; Neural networks}
- G05B 19/4065: Monitoring tool breakage, life or condition
- G05B: CONTROL OR REGULATING SYSTEMS IN GENERAL; FUNCTIONAL ELEMENTS OF SUCH SYSTEMS; MONITORING OR TESTING ARRANGEMENTS FOR SUCH SYSTEMS OR ELEMENTS (systems for controlling or regulating non-electric variables G05D; systems for regulating electric or magnetic variables G05F; control devices or systems insofar as characterised by mechanical features only G05G)

## Abstract

The present disclosure provides various methods for tuning process parameters of a process tool, including systems for implementing such tuning. An exemplary method for tuning process parameters of a process tool such that the wafers processed by the process tool exhibit desired process monitor items includes defining behavior constraint criteria and sensitivity adjustment criteria; generating a set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations using process monitor item data associated with wafers processed by the process tool, sensitivity data associated with a sensitivity of the process monitor items to each process parameter, the behavior constraint criteria, and the sensitivity adjustment criteria; generating a set of optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations from the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations; and configuring the process tool according to one of the optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method for tuning process parameters of a process tool such that the wafers processed by the process tool exhibit desired process monitor items, the method comprising:
defining behavior constraint criteria and sensitivity adjustment criteria;
generating a set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations using process monitor item data associated with wafers processed by the process tool, sensitivity data associated with a sensitivity of the process monitor items to each process parameter, the behavior constraint criteria, and the sensitivity adjustment criteria, wherein the generating the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes:
applying a discount of the sensitivity adjustment criteria to a set of process parameter values for each process parameter to generate a discounted set of process parameter values for each process parameter, wherein the discounted set of process parameter values has a reduced number of process parameter values; and
generating the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations using the discounted set of process parameter values;
generating a set of optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations from the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations; and
configuring the process tool according to one of the optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein N process parameters are associated with the process tool, the method further including selecting a number (n) of the N process parameters for tuning such that the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes various tool tuning combinations for the n process parameters.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the generating the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes:
generating a first number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations;
generating a second number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations from the first number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations, wherein the second number is larger than the first number; and
generating a third number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations from the second number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations, wherein the third number is smaller than the second number.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3 wherein the generating the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations further includes generating a fourth number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations from the third number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations, wherein the fourth number is smaller than the third number.

### Claim 5 (depends on 4)

The method of claim 4 wherein the generating the fourth number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes:
applying the sensitivity adjustment criteria to the third number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations to determine the possible tool tuning process parameter combinations that minimize a value of a weighted minimization function of the sensitivity adjustment criteria,
wherein the weighted minimization function defines weights of changes in the process parameter values for the process parameters against changes in the process monitor item data for the process monitor items.

### Claim 6 (depends on 3)

The method of claim 3 wherein the generating the first number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes using the process monitor item data and the sensitivity data to generate the set of process parameter values for each process parameter.

### Claim 7 (depends on 6)

The method of claim 6 wherein the generating the second number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes, for each process parameter, performing a growing process to expand each set of process parameter values.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7, wherein the generating the third number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes:
determining that the second number is larger than a predefined number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations; and
performing a trimming process to at least one set of the process parameter values until a number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations is less than or equal to the predefined number.

### Claim 9 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein:
the behavior constraint criteria defines an optimization object function; and
the generating the set of optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations from the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes determining the tool tuning process parameter combinations that minimize a value of the optimization object function.

### Claim 10 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the defining the behavior constraint criteria includes:
defining correlations between the process parameters that constrain tuning of the process parameters;
defining correlations between the process monitor items that constrain tuning of the process parameters; and
defining correlations between the process parameters and the process monitor items that constrain tuning of the process parameters.

### Claim 11 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 further including processing wafers with the process tool configured according to the one of the optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations.

### Claim 12

A method comprising:
processing wafers with a process tool; and
determining that process monitor item data associated with the wafers processed by the process tool are not within specification;
tuning a process parameter tool set of the process tool, wherein the tuning includes:
defining behavior constraint criteria and sensitivity adjustment criteria;
generating a set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations using the process monitor item data associated with the wafers processed by the process tool, sensitivity data associated with a sensitivity of the process monitor items to each process parameter, the behavior constraint criteria, and the sensitivity adjustment criteria, wherein the generating the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes:
generating a first number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations by minimizing a value of a weighted minimization function of the sensitivity adjustment criteria, wherein the weighted minimization function defines weights of changes in process parameter values for the process parameters against changes in the process monitor item data for the process monitor items;
generating a second number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations from the first number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations, wherein the second number is larger than the first number, wherein the generating the second number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes:
for each process parameter, performing a growing process to expand each set of process parameter values by including quartiles of the set of process parameter values;
generating a set of optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations from the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations;
configuring the process tool according to one of the optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations; and
repeating the processing wafers and the determining that the process monitor item data associated with the wafers processed by the process tool are not within specification until the process monitor item data associated with the wafers processed by the process tool are within specification.

### Claim 13 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12 further including performing maintenance on the process tool before the processing and determining whether the process monitor item data associated with the wafers processed by the process tool are within specification.

### Claim 14 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12 wherein the generating the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes:
generating a third number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations from the second number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations, wherein the third number is smaller than the second number; and
generating a fourth number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations from the third number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations, wherein the fourth number is smaller than the third number.

### Claim 15 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14 wherein the generating the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes sorting the fourth number of possible tool tuning process combinations.

### Claim 16 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14 wherein:
the generating the third number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes performing a trimming process to at least one set of the process parameter values; and
the generating the fourth number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes applying the sensitivity adjustment criteria to the third number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations.

### Claim 17 (depends on 14)

The method of claim 14 wherein:
the behavior constraint criteria defines an optimization object function; and
the generating the set of optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations from the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes evaluating the fourth number of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations to determine the tool tuning process parameter combinations that minimize a value of the optimization object function.

### Claim 18 (depends on 12)

The method of claim 12 further including, after releasing the process tool for production, processing wafers with the process tool.

### Claim 19

An integrated circuit manufacturing system comprising:
a process tool configured to perform a process on wafers; and
a process tool tuning system configured to determine a process parameter tool set for the process tool, wherein the process tool tuning system includes a tool tuning solution module configured to:
generate a set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations using process monitor item data associated with wafers processed by the process tool, sensitivity data associated with a sensitivity of the process monitor items to each process parameter, predefined behavior constraint criteria, and predefined sensitivity adjustment criteria, wherein the generating the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations includes:
performing a trimming process to the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations values until a size of the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations is less than or equal to a predefined number, wherein the performing the trimming process includes:
determining a process parameter having the most process parameter values; and
removing a process parameter value for the process parameter; and
generate a set of optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations from the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations.

### Claim 20 (depends on 19)

The integrated circuit manufacturing system of claim 19, wherein the tool tuning solution module includes:
an engineering based knowledge module that defines the behavior constraint criteria;
a combination calculator module configured to generate the set of possible tool tuning process parameter combinations;
a statistical optimizer module configured to generate the set of optimal tool tuning process parameter combinations; and
a robust buffer module configured to define the sensitivity adjustment criteria.