• Industrial Engineering and Management Systems
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.392-400
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• 2015

Monitoring of plasma etch processes for fault detection is one of the hallmark procedures in semiconductor manufacturing. Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) has been considered as a gold standard for modeling plasma etching processes for on-line diagnosis and monitoring. However, statistical quantitative methods for processing the OES data are still lacking. There is an urgent need for a statistical quantitative method to deal with high-dimensional OES data for improving the quality of etched wafers. Therefore, we propose a robust relevance vector machine (RRVM) for regression with statistical quantitative features for modeling etch rate and uniformity in plasma etch processes by using OES data. For effectively dealing with the OES data complexity, we identify seven statistical features for extraction from raw OES data by reducing the data dimensionality. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed approach is more suitable for high-accuracy monitoring of plasma etch responses obtained from OES.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.131-135
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• 2023

Neural network-based time series models called time series neural networks (TSNNs) are trained by the error backpropagation algorithm and used to predict process shifts of parameters such as gas flow, RF power, and chamber pressure in reactive ion etching (RIE). The training data consists of process conditions, as well as principal components (PCs) of optical emission spectroscopy (OES) data collected in-situ. Data are generated during the etching of benzocyclobutene (BCB) in a SF₆/O₂ plasma. Combinations of baseline and faulty responses for each process parameter are simulated, and a moving average of TSNN predictions successfully identifies process shifts in the recipe parameters for various degrees of faults.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.245-246
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• 2011

Emission lines ratios were used for diagnostics of and excited level densities in low-temperature plasmas. In this work, an optical emission spectroscopy (OES) was used to determine the electron temperature and metastable level densities in low-pressure inductively coupled plasma. The emission spectroscopy method was based on a simple collisional-radiative model. The selected lines of the Ar(4p to 4s) were influenced by the radiation trapping at relatively high pressures where the plasma become optically thick. To quantify this effect, a pressure dependence factor ${\alpha}$(P) was derived by using corrections for the measured intensities. It was found that the lower metastable level densities were obtained when ${\alpha}$(P) increased with the increasing discharge pressure. The effect of non-Maxwellian electron energy distribution functions (EEDFs) on the metastables was also presented and discussed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2011.02a
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• pp.32-32
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• 2011

Plasma etching is used in microelectronic processing for patterning of micro- and nano-scale devices. Commonly, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is widely used for real-time endpoint detection for plasma etching. However, if the viewport for optical-emission monitoring becomes blurred by polymer film due to prolonged use of the etching system, optical-emission monitoring becomes impossible. In addition, when the exposed area ratio on the wafer is small, changes in the optical emission are so slight that it is almost impossible to detect the endpoint of etching. For this reason, as a simple method of detecting variations in plasma without contamination of the reaction chamber at low cost, a method of measuring plasma impedance is being examined. The object in this research is to investigate the suitability of using plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) with statistical approach for real-time endpoint detection of $SiO_2$ etching. The endpoint was determined by impedance signal variation from I-V monitor (VI probe). However, the signal variation at the endpoint is too weak to determine endpoint when $SiO_2$ film on Si wafer is etched by fluorocarbon plasma on inductive coupled plasma (ICP) etcher. Therefore, modified principal component analysis (mPCA) is applied to them for increasing sensitivity. For verifying this method, detected endpoint from impedance analysis is compared with optical emission spectroscopy (OES). From impedance data, we tried to analyze physical properties of plasma, and real-time endpoint detection can be achieved.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.14 no.8
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• pp.634-639
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• 2001

We investigated the etching characteristics of chromium films by using Cl$_2$/O$_2$ gas mixtures with electron cyclotron resonance plasma. In order to examine the chemical etch characteristics of Cr films by using Cl$_2$/O$_2$ gas plasma, we obtained the etch rate with various gas mixing ratios. By X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, the surface reaction on the chromium films during the etch was examined. From narrow scan analyses of Cr, Cl, and O, it was confirmed that a chromium oxychlorie (CrCl$_{x}$O$_{y}$) layer was formed on the surface by the etch using Cl$_2$/O$_2$ gas mixtures. We observed a new characteristic emission line during the etch of chromium films using Cl$_2$/O$_2$ gas mixtures by an optical emission spectroscopy. It was found that the peak intensity of this emission line had a tendency compatible with the etch rate. The origin of this emission line was discussed in detail. At the same time, the etched profile was also examined by scanning electron microscope.e.e.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.13 no.4
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• pp.395-401
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• 2013

In-situ optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is employed for leak detection in plasma etching system. A misprocessing is reported for significantly reduced silicon etch rate with chlorine gas, and OES is used as a supplementary sensor to analyze the gas phase species that reside in the process chamber. Potential cause of misprocessing reaches to chamber O-ring wear out, MFC leaks, and/or leak at gas delivery line, and experiments are performed to funnel down the potential of the cause. While monitoring the plasma chemistry of the process chamber using OES, the emission trace for nitrogen species is observed at the chlorine gas supply. No trace of nitrogen species is found in other than chlorine gas supply, and we found that the amount of chlorine gas is slightly fluctuating. We successfully found the root cause of the reported misprocessing which may jeopardize the quality of thin film processing. Based on a quantitative analysis of the amount of nitrogen observed in the chamber, we conclude that the source of the leak is the fitting of the chlorine mass flow controller with the amount of around 2-5 sccm.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Illuminating and Electrical Installation Engineers
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• v.25 no.11
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• pp.103-112
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• 2011

This paper is tried to analysis the optical emission spectroscopy related to the position of inductive load coil and flow rates of methane and oxygen in the RF inductive plasma process. According to the position of load coil, peak of $H_{\alpha}$, $H_{\beta}$, and CH were appeared strongly at the middle position of the coil and it decreased both direction. The electron temperature was approximately 0.9[eV] at that position. Emission intensities of $H_{\alpha}$, $H_{\beta}$, and CH increased linearly by increasing input power. In addition, intensities of $H_{\alpha}$ and $H_{\beta}$ increased by increasing the flow rate of oxygen. It might be ascribed that the oxygen species were bonded with $C_nH_m$ by suppressing the combination with hydrogen atoms. Consequently, the optimal position of the inductive coil is decided to the intermediate position between 4th and 5th turns, the wanted carbon thin-film is possible to deposit by controlling flow rates of methane and oxygen.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.111-118
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• 2003

Recently, environmental damage to urban area becomes serious problem due to the exhaust emissions by increasing the number of vehicle. Especially, exhaust emission from diesel vehicles are blown to be harmful to human health and environment. Photoacoustic Spectroscopy system is very useful technology for simultaneous and continuous measurement of the various components of the automotive exhaust gas. In this study, in order to reduce emission gases from automobile, we tried to develop the measurement system of Photoacoustic Spectroscopy. To improve performance of high sensitive Photoacoustic Spectroscopy system for automotive exhaust emissions, the shape of Photoacoustic Spectroscopy cell was optimized to use the flow analysis. And Exhaust emission data of the 1,500cc gasoline engine was fixed the working fluid. The characteristics of fluid flow for cell were analyzed by various conditions in detail.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.353-360
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• 2012

As semiconductor device technology continuously shrinks, low-open area etch process prevails in front-end etch process, such as contact etch as well as one cylindrical storage (OCS) etch. To eliminate over loaded wafer processing test, it is commonly performed to emply diced small coupons at stage of initiative process development. In nominal etch condition, etch responses of whole wafer test and coupon test may be regarded to provide similar results; however, optical emission spectroscopy (OES) which is frequently utilize to monitor etch chemistry inside the chamber cannot be regarded as the same, especially etch mask is not the same material with wafer chuck. In this experiment, we compared OES data acquired from two cases of etch experiments; one with coupon etch tests mounted on photoresist coated wafer and the other with coupons only on the chuck. We observed different behaviors of OES data from the two sets of experiment, and the analytical results showed that careful investigation should be taken place in OES study, especially in coupon size etch.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.139-143
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• 2012

Optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is often used for real-time analysis of the plasma processes. OES has been suggested as a primary plasma process monitoring tool. It has the advantage of non-invasive in-situ monitoring capability but selecting the proper wavelengths for the analysis of OES data generally relies on empirically established methods. In this paper, we propose a practical method for the selection of OES wavelength peaks for the analysis of plasma etch process and this is done by investigating reactants and by-product gas species that reside in the plasma etch chamber. Wavelength selection criteria are based on the standard deviation and correlation coefficients. Moreover, chemical actinometry is employed for the normalization of the selected wavelengths. We also present the importance of chemical actinometry of OES data for quantitative analysis of plasma. Then, the suggested OES peak selection method is employed.. This method is used to find out the reason behind abnormal etching of PR erosion during a series of $SiO_2$ etch processes using the same recipe. From the experimental verification, we convinced that OES is not only capable for real-time detection of abnormal plasma process but it is also useful for the analysis of suspicious plasma behavior.