• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.1240-1245
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• 2009

The throughput characteristics of the cluster tool with dual blade robot are analyzed. Using equipment's cycle time chart of the equipment, simple analytic form of the throughput is derived. Then, several important throughput characteristics are analyzed by the throughput formula. First, utilization of the process chamber and the robot are maximized by assigning the equipment to the process whose processing time is near the critical process time. Second, rule for selecting optimal number of process chambers is suggested. It is desirable to select a single process chamber plus a single robot structure for relatively short time process and multi process chambers plus a single robot, namely cluster tool for relatively long time process. Third, throughput variation between equipments due to the wafer transfer time variation is analyzed, especially for the process whose processing time is less than critical process time. And the throughput and the wafer transfer time of the equipments in our fabrication line are measured and compared to the analysis.

• Korean Management Science Review
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• v.31 no.3
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• pp.27-39
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• 2014

We derive a generalized statistic form of Q control chart, which is especially suitable for short run productions and start-up processes, for the detection of process mean shifts. The generalization means that the derived control chart statistic concurrently uses within lot variability and between lot variability to explain the process variability. The latter variability source is noticeably prevalent in lot type production processes including semiconductor wafer fabrications. We first obtain the generalized Q control chart statistic when both the process mean and process variance are unknown, which represents the case of implementing statistical process control charting for short run productions and start-up processes. Also, we provide the corresponding generalized Q control chart statistics for the rest of three cases of previous Q control chart statistics : (1) both the process mean and process variance are known (2) only the process mean is unknown and (3) only the process variance is unknown.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2000.05a
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• pp.854-857
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• 2000

Chemical Mechanical Polishing(CMP) has been accepted as one of the essential processes for VLSI fabrication. However, as the polishing process continues, pad pores get to be glazed by polishing residues, which hinder the supply of new slurry. This defect makes removal rate decrease with a number of polished wafer and the desired within-chip planarity, within wafer and wafer-to-wafer nonuniformity are unable to be achieved. So, pad conditioning is essential to overcome this defect. The eletroplated diamond grit disk is used as the conventional conditioner, And alumina long fiber, the .jet power of high pressure deionized water and vacuum compression are under investigation. But, these methods have the defects like scratches on wafer surface by out of diamond grits, subsidences of pad pores by over-conditioning, and the limits of conditioning effect. To improve these conditioning methods. this paper presents the Characteristics of Ultrasonic conditioning aided by cavitation.

• Transactions of the Society of Information Storage Systems
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.96-99
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• 2006

In this research, a wafer-level transfer method of cantilever away on a conventional CMOS circuit has been developed for high density probe-based data storage. The transferred cantilevers were silicon nitride ($Si_3N_4$) cantilevers integrated with poly silicon heaters and piezoelectric sensors, called thermo-piezoelectric $Si_3N_4$ cantilevers. In this process, we did not use a SOI wafer but a conventional p-type wafer for the fabrication of the thermo-piezoelectric $Si_3N_4$ cantilever arrays. Furthermore, we have developed a very simple transfer process, requiring only one step of cantilever transfer process for the integration of the CMOS wafer and cantilevers. Using this process, we have fabricated a single thermo-piezoelectric $Si_3N_4$ cantilever, and recorded 65nm data bits on a PMMA film and confirmed a charge signal at 5nm of cantilever deflection. And we have successfully applied this method to transfer 34 by 34 thermo-piezoelectric $Si_3N_4$ cantilever arrays on a CMOS wafer. We obtained reading signals from one of the cantilevers.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.143-146
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• 2009

One of the most important issues of crystalline silicon solar cell is minimizing reflectance at the surface. Laser texturing is an isotropic process that will sculpt the surface of a silicon wafer, regardless of its crystallographic orientation. We investigated surface texturing process using Nd-YAG laser ($\lambda$=1064 nm) on multi-crystalline silicon wafer. Removal of slag formed after the laser process was performed using acid solution (HF : $HNO_3$ : $CH_3COOH$ : DI water). The reflectance and carrier lifetime of the samples were measured and analyzed using UV-Vis spectrophotometer and carrier lifetime tester. It was found that the minimum reflectance of the samples was 16.39% and maximum carrier life time was $21.8\;{\mu}s$.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Electrical and Electronic Material Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.360-361
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• 2005

Rapid progress in IC fabrication technology has strong demand in polishing of silicon wafer to meet the tight specification of nanotopography and surface roughness. One of the important issues in Si CMP is the stabilization of polishing pad. If a polishing pad is not stabilized before main Si wafer polishing process, good polishing result can not be expected. Therefore, new pad must be subjected into break-in process using dummy wafers for a certain period of time to enhance its performance. After the break-in process, the main Si wafer polishing process must be performed. In this study, the characteristics of break-in process were investigated in Si wafer polishing. Viscoelastic behavior, temperature variation of pad and friction were measured to evaluate the break-in phenomenon. Also, it is found that the characteristic of the break-in seems to be related to viscoelastic behavior of pad.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.25 no.1
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• pp.138-144
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• 2008

Micro-machining of a brittle material such as glass, silicon, etc., is important in micro fabrication. Particularly, micro-abrasive jet machining (${\mu}-AJM$) has become a useful technique for micro-machining of such materials. The ${\mu}-AJM$ process is mainly based on the erosion of a mask which protects brittle substrate against high velocity of micro-particle. Therefore, fabrication of an adequate mask is very important. Generally, for the fabrication of a mask in the ${\mu}-AJM$ process, a photomask based on the semi-conductor fabrication process was used. In this research a rapid mask fabrication technology has been developed for the ${\mu}-AJM$. By scanning the focused UV laser beam, a micro-mask pattern was fabricated directly without photolithography process and photomask. Two kinds of mask patterns were fabricated using SU-8 and photopolymer (Watershed 11110). Using fabricated mask patterns, abrasive-jet machining of Si wafer were conducted successfully.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.199-202
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• 2003

Ultraviolet-nanoimprint lithography (UV-NIL) is a promising method for cost-effectively defining nanoscale structures at room temperature and low pressure. Since the resolution of nanostructures depends strongly upon that of nanostamps, the nanostamp fabrication technology is a key technology to UV-NIL. In this paper, a 5$\times$5$\times$0.09 in. quartz stamp whose critical dimension is 377 nm was fabricated using the etch process in which a Cr film was employed as a hard mask for transferring nanostructures onto the quartz plate. To effectively apply tile fabricated 5-in. stamp to UV-NIL on a 4-in. Si wafer, we have proposed a new UV-NIL process using a multi-dispensing method as a way to supply resist on a wafer Experiments have shown that the multi-dispensing method can enable UV-NIL rising a large-area stamp.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2006.05a
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• pp.501-502
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• 2006

In-plane type micro piezoelectric micro grippers with pneumatic lines for manipulation biological cells and micro parts were designed, fabricated, and characterized. Micro grippers were fabricated through the final micro-sanding process after wafer level bonding between the etched 4' Si wafer with pneumatic channels and 4' glass wafer. Displacements between two jaws of fabricated micro grippers were linearly increased with applying voltages to piezoelectric actuator. In the case of applying 80 V, the displacement between two jaws was $160{\mu}m$. Using fabricated micro grippers, manipulation tests for biological cell and micro parts with the sizes less than $100{\mu}m$ are in process.

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Simulation Conference
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• 2003.06a
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• pp.161-166
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• 2003

Semiconductor Manufacturing has emerged as one of the most Important world industries. Even with the highly automated and precisely monitored facilities used to process the complex manufacturing steps in a near particle free environment, processing variations in wafer fabrication still exist. The causes of these variations may arise from equipment malfunctions, delicate and difficult processing steps, or human mistakes. In this paper, we could specify the cause stage and the cause equipment and take countermeasures at a speed by the conventional method, without depending on the experience and skills of the engineer