• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2012년도 제42회 동계 정기 학술대회 초록집
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• pp.499-499
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• 2012

This study was evaluated on etcher of capacitive coupled plasmas with OES (Optical Emission Spectroscopy) and impedance by VI probe that are widely used for process control and monitoring at semiconductor industry. The experiment was operated at conventional Ar and C4F8 plasma with variable change such as pressure and addition of gas (Atmospheric Leak: N2 and O2), RF, pressure, that are highly possible to impact wafer yield during wafer process, in order to observe OES and VI Probe signals. The sensitivity change on OES and Impedance by Vi probe was analyzed by statistical method to determine healthy of process. The main goal of this study is to understand unwanted tool performance to eventually improve productive capability. It is important for process engineers to actively adjust tool parameter before any serious problem occurs.

• 한국전기전자재료학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국전기전자재료학회 2008년도 하계학술대회 논문집 Vol.9
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• pp.473-474
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• 2008

This paper proposes that the relative transmittance and emission intensity measured via optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is a useful for fault detection of reactive ion etch process. With the increased requests for non-invasive as well as real-time plasma process monitoring for fault detection and classification (FDC), OES is suggested as a useful diagnostic tool that satisfies both of the requirements. Relative optical transmittance and emission intensity of oxygen plasma acquired from various process conditions are directly compared with the process variables, such as RF power, oxygen flow and chamber pressure. The changes of RF power and Pressure are linearly proportional to the emission intensity while the change of gas flow can be detected with the relative transmittance.

• 반도체디스플레이기술학회지
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• 제22권4호
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• pp.53-58
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• 2023

The storage capacity of 3D-NAND flash memory has been enhanced by the multi-layer dielectrics. The deposition process has become more challenging due to the tight process margin and the demand for accurate process control. To reduce product costs and ensure successful processes, process diagnosis techniques incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) have been adopted in semiconductor manufacturing. Recently there is a growing interest in process diagnosis, and numerous studies have been conducted in this field. For higher model accuracy, various process and sensor data are required, such as optical emission spectroscopy (OES), quadrupole mass spectrometer (QMS), and equipment control state. Among them, OES is usually used for plasma diagnostic. However, OES data can be distorted by viewport contamination, leading to misunderstandings in plasma diagnosis. This issue is particularly emphasized in multi-dielectric deposition processes, such as oxide and nitride (ON) stack. Thus, it is crucial to understand the potential misunderstandings related to OES data distortion due to viewport contamination. This paper explores the potential for misunderstanding OES data due to data distortion in the ON stack process. It suggests the possibility of excessively evaluating process drift through comparisons with a QMS. This understanding can be utilized to develop diagnostic models and identify the effects of viewport contamination in ON stack processes.

• KIEE International Transaction on Systems and Control
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• 제2D권2호
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• pp.120-124
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• 2002

A new methodology is presented to diagnose faults in equipment plasma. This is accomplished by using neural networks as a pattern recognizer of radio frequency (rf) impedance match data. Using a match monitor system, the match data were collected. The monitor system consisted mainly of a multifunction board and a signal flow diagram coded by Visual Designer. Plasma anomaly was effectively represented by electrical match positions. Twenty sets of fault-symptom patterns were experimentally simulated with variations in process factors, which include rf source power, pressure, Ar, and $O_$2 flow rates. As an input to neural networks, two means and standard deviations of positions were used as well as a reflected power. Diagnostic accuracy was measured as a function of training factors, which include the number of hidden neurons, the magnitude of initial weights, and two gradients of neuron activation functions. The accuracy was the most sensitive to the number of hidden neurons. Interaction effects on the accuracy were also examined by performing a 2$^$4 full factorial experiment. The experiments were performed on multipole inductively coupled plasma equipment.

• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제45권4호
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• pp.168-173
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• 2012

A real-time monitoring of an immersed antenna type inductively coupled plasma (ICP) was done with optical emission spectroscopy (OES) to check the reports that sputtered atom density is decreasing as the ICP power is increased. At 10 mTorr pressure of Ar, Mg was sputtered by a bipolar pulsed power supply into 2 MHz ICP which has an insulator covered 2.5 turn antenna. Emitted light was collected in two different positions: above the target and inside the ICP region. With 100 W of Mg sputtering power, the intensities of Mg I (285.06 nm), Mg II (279.48 nm), Ar I (420.1 nm) were increased constantly with ICP power from 100 W to 600 W. At 500 W, the intensity of $Mg^+$ exceeded that of Mg under PID controlled discharge voltage of 180 V. The ratio of Mg II/Mg I was increased from 0.45 to 2.71 approximately 6 times.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제22권7호
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• pp.27-37
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• 2005

Direct writing technology on the silicon wafer surface is used to reduce the size of the chip as the miniature trend in electronic circuit. In order to improve the productivity and efficiency, the real time quality estimation is very important in each semiconductor process. In laser marking, marking quality is determined by readability which is dependant on the contrast of surface, the line width, and the melting depth. Many researchers have tried to find theoretical and numerical estimation models fur groove geometry. However, these models are limited to be applied to the real system. In this study, the estimation system for the line width during the laser marking was proposed by process monitoring method. The light intensity emitted by plasma which is produced when irradiating the laser to the silicon wafer was measured using the optical sensor. Because the laser marking is too fast to measure with external sensor, we build up the coaxial monitoring system. Analysis for the correlation between the acquired signals and the line width according to the change of laser power was carried out. Also, we developed the models enabling the estimation of line width of the laser marking through the statistical regression models and may see that their estimating performances were excellent.

• 한국진공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 한국진공학회 2014년도 제46회 동계 정기학술대회 초록집
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• pp.237.1-237.1
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• 2014

Etching is one of the most important steps in semiconductor manufacturing. In etch process control a critical task is to stop the etch process when the layer to be etched has been removed. If the etch process is allowed to continue beyond this time, the material gets over-etched and the lower layer is partially removed. On the other hand if the etch process is stopped too early, part of the layer to be etched still remains, called under-etched. Endpoint detection (EPD) is used to detect the most accurate time to stop the etch process in order to avoid over or under etch. The goal of this research is to develop a hardware and software system for EPD. The hardware consists of an Optical Plasma Monitor (OPM) sensor which is used to continuously monitor the plasma optical emission intensity during the etch process. The OPM software was developed to acquire and analyze the data to perform EPD. Our EPD algorithm is based on the following theory. As the etch process starts the plasma generated in the vacuum is added with the by-products from the etch reactions on the layer being etched. As the endpoint reaches and the layer gets completely removed the plasma constituents change gradually changing the optical intensity of the plasma. Although the change in optical intensity is not apparent, the difference in the plasma constituents when the endpoint has reached leaves a unique signature in the data gathered. Though not detectable in time domain, this signature could be obscured in the frequency spectrum of the data. By filtering and analysis of the changes in the frequency spectrum before and after the endpoint we could extract this signature. In order to do that, first, the EPD algorithm converts the time series signal into frequency domain. Next the noise in the frequency spectrum is removed to look for the useful frequency constituents of the data. Once these useful frequencies have been selected, they are monitored continuously in time and using a sub-algorithm the endpoint is detected when significant changes are observed in those signals. The experiment consisted of three kinds of etch processes; ashing, SiO2 on Si etch and metal on Si etch to develop and evaluate the EPD system.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• 제14권5호
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• pp.254-257
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• 2013

In-situ optical emission spectroscopy (OES) is employed for PECVD chamber monitoring. OES is used as an addon sensor to monitoring and cleaning end point detection (EPD). On monitoring plasma chemistry using OES, the process gas and by-product gas are simultaneously monitored. Principal component analysis (PCA) enhances the capability of end point detection using OES data. Through chamber cleaning monitoring using OES, cleaning time is reduced by 53%, in general. Therefore, the gas usage of fluorine is also reduced, so satisfying Green Fab challenge in semiconductor manufacturing.

• 한국레이저가공학회지
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• 제5권3호
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• pp.21-30
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• 2002

In automotive industry, the studies about light weight vehicle and improving the productivity have been accomplished. For that, TRIP steel was developed and research for the laser welding process have been performed. In this study, the monitoring system using photodiode was developed for laser welding process of TRIP steel. With measuring light, neural network model for estimating bead width and tensile strength was made and weld quality classification algorithm was formulated with fuzzy inference method.

• 한국표면공학회지
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• 제48권4호
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• pp.179-184
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• 2015

Quadrupole Mass Spectrometers (QMS) is a very useful tool in vacuum process diagnosis. Tungsten filament based ion sources are vulnerable to contamination from process gas monitoring. Common symptoms of quadrupole mass spectrometer malfunction is appearance of unwanted contaminant mass peaks or no detection of any ion peaks. We disassembled used quadrupole mass spectrometer and found out black insulating deposits on inside of ion source parts. Five steps of cleaning procedure were applied and almost full restoration of functions were confirmed in two types of closed ion source quadrupole mass spectrometer. By using a numerical modeling (CFD-ACE+) technique, the electric potential profile of ion source with/without insulating deposit was calculated and showed the possibility of quadrupole mass spectrometer malfunction by the deterioration of designed potential profile inside the ion source.