Virtual sensor innovation for higher productivity

It takes a lot of different types of process tools to make chips, from deposition, to lithographic to etch and to cleaning tools among others. Large scale production requires chipmakers to use large fleets of the same chamber types to perform a particular processing step, such as fin etch used in making 3D transistors. Ideally, wafer lots would be processed identically across the fleet, meaning every chamber would behave exactly the same as all others. In practice, however, performance will vary from chamber to chamber due to slight differences in the many control parameters that determine the success of the process. These parameters, including pressure, temperature, power delivery and surface conditions, all have to be co-optimized together.

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