The Integrated Measurement Association (IMA) hosted the 23rd annual Advanced Process Control (APC) Conference in Phoenix, AZ on Oct. 17 to 20. This conference brings together equipment suppliers, device manufacturers, metrology suppliers and software solution providers in the semiconductor, solar devices, flat panels, LEDs and MEMs manufacturing industries. SC Solutions has been a long-time attendee and contributor to this conference, and this year was no different with Drs. Abbas Emami and Dick de Roover serving both as session chairs as well as presenting their latest research results in model-based tuning for semiconductor wafer manufacturing.
Dr. Dick de Roover presented a model-based approach for temperature and CD tuning of multi-zone heated plates. By combining physics-based models with the latest algorithms in constrained optimization techniques, a systematic tuning approach was developed that provides optimal wafer temperature and CD uniformity, critical for meeting today’s stringent performance requirements in the fab. See our case study for more details on this method.
SC Solutions also proudly sponsored the reception at the APC conference. We believe this annual conference is critical to our industry as it continues to promote research and advances in semiconductor manufacturing, and foster and strengthens relationship among leaders in this field. A copy of the presentation slides can be found here.