Adaptive run-to-run control and monitoring for a rapid thermal processor

Process reproducibility is a challenging problem in semiconductor manufacturing as the component size shrinks and the manufacturing complexity increases. This article proposes a new adaptive run-to-run controller for intermittent batch operations and applies it to a rapid thermal annealing (RTA) process at Advanced Micro Devices. The adaptive controller has a self-monitoring component and requires little process knowledge to set up. The success of the controller is demonstrated on an AST SHS 2800 RTA system. Improvement was made to reduce the first wafer effects and lot-to-lot variability due to disturbances.