A Monitoring System for Functional Input Data in Multi-phase Semiconductor Manufacturing Process

Process monitoring of output variables affecting final performance have been mainly executed in semiconductor manufacturing process. However, even earlier detection of causes of output variation cannot completely prevent yield loss because a number of wafers after detecting them must be re-processed or cast away. Semiconductor manufacturers have put more attention toward monitoring process inputs to prevent yield loss by early detecting change-point of the process. In the paper, we propose the method to efficiently monitor functional input variables in multi-phase semiconductor manufacturing process. Measured input variables in the multi-phase process tend to be of functional structured form. After data pre-processing for these functional input data,change-point analysis is practiced to the pre-processed data set. If process variation occurs, key variables affecting process variation are selected using contribution plot for monitoring efficiency. To evaluate the propriety of proposed monitoring method, we used real data set in semiconductor manufacturing process. The experiment shows that the proposed method has better performance than previous output monitoring method in terms of fault detection and process monitoring