• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.02a
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• pp.320-320
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• 2013

Film thickness monitoring with plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) is demonstrated for small area $SiO_2$ RF plasma etching processes in this work. The chamber conditions were monitored by the impedance signal variation from the I-V monitoring system. Moreover, modified principal component analysis (mPCA) was applied to estimate the $SiO_2$ film thickness. For verification, the PIM was compared with optical emission spectroscopy (OES) signals which are widely used in the semiconductor industry. The results indicated that film thickness can be estimated by 1st principal component (PC) and 2nd PC. Film thickness monitoring of small area $SiO_2$ etching was successfully demonstrated with RF plasma harmonic impedance monitoring and mPCA. We believe that this technique can be potentially applied to plasma etching processes as a sensitive process monitoring tool.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.08a
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• pp.153-153
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• 2012

Endpoint detection with plasma impedance monitoring and self-plasma optical emission spectroscopy is demonstrated for dielectric layers etching processes. For in-situ detecting endpoint, optical-emission spectroscopy (OES) is used for in-situ endpoint detection for plasma etching. However, the sensitivity of OES is decreased if polymer is deposited on viewport or the proportion of exposed area on the wafer is too small. To overcome these problems, the endpoint was determined by impedance signal variation from I-V monitoring (VI probe) and self-plasma optical emission spectroscopy. In addition, modified principal component analysis was applied to enhance sensitivity for small area etching. As a result, the sensitivity of this method is increased about twice better than that of OES. From plasma impedance monitoring and self-plasma optical emission spectroscopy, properties of plasma and chamber are analyzed, and real-time endpoint detection is achieved.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2012.02a
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• pp.523-523
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• 2012

As the wafer geometric requirements continuously complicated and minutes in tens of nanometers, the expectation of real-time add-on sensors for in-situ plasma process monitoring is rapidly increasing. Various industry applications, utilizing plasma impedance monitor (PIM) and optical emission spectroscopy (OES), on etch end point detection, etch chemistry investigation, health monitoring, fault detection and classification, and advanced process control are good examples. However, process monitoring in semiconductor manufacturing industry requires non-invasiveness. The hypothesis behind the optical monitoring of plasma induced ion current is for the monitoring of plasma induced charging damage in non-invasive optical way. In plasma dielectric via etching, the bombardment of reactive ions on exposed conductor patterns may induce electrical current. Induced electrical charge can further flow down to device level, and accumulated charges in the consecutive plasma processes during back-end metallization can create plasma induced charging damage to shift the threshold voltage of device. As a preliminary research for the hypothesis, we performed two phases experiment to measure the plasma induced current in etch environmental condition. We fabricated electrical test circuits to convert induced current to flickering frequency of LED output, and the flickering frequency was measured by high speed optical plasma monitoring system (OPMS) in 10 kHz. Current-frequency calibration was done in offline by applying stepwise current increase while LED flickering was measured. Once the performance of the test circuits was evaluated, a metal pad for collecting ion bombardment during plasma etch condition was placed inside etch chamber, and the LED output frequency was measured in real-time. It was successful to acquire high speed optical emission data acquisition in 10 kHz. Offline measurement with the test circuitry was satisfactory, and we are continuously investigating the potential of real-time in-situ plasma induce current measurement via OPMS.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.5-9
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• 2019

Optical emission spectroscopy is used to identify chemical species and monitor the changes of process results during the plasma process. However, plasma process monitoring or fault detection by using emission signal variation monitoring is vulnerable to background signal fluctuations. IR heaters are used in semiconductor manufacturing chambers where high temperature uniformity and fast response are required. During the process, the IR lamp output fluctuates to maintain a stable process temperature. This IR signal fluctuation reacts as a background signal fluctuation to the spectrometer. In this research, we evaluate the effect of infrared background signal fluctuation on plasma process monitoring and improve the plasma process monitoring accuracy by using simple infrared background signal subtraction method. The effect of infrared background signal fluctuation on plasma process monitoring was evaluated on $SiO_2$ PECVD process. Comparing the $SiO_2$ film thickness and the measured emission line intensity from the by-product molecules, the effect of infrared background signal on plasma process monitoring and the necessity of background signal subtraction method were confirmed.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.262.2-262.2
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• 2014

Plasma processing is an essential process for pattern etching and thin film deposition in nanoscale semiconductor device fabrication. It is necessary to maintain plasma chamber in steady-state in production. In this study, we determined plasma chamber state with residual gas analysis with self-plasma optical emission spectroscopy. Residual gas monitoring of fluorocarbon plasma etching chamber was performed with self-plasma optical emission spectroscopy (SPOES) and various chemical elements was identified with a SPOES system which is composed of small inductive coupled plasma chamber for glow discharge and optical emission spectroscopy monitoring system for measuring optical emission. This work demonstrates that chamber state can be monitored with SPOES and this technique can potentially help maintenance in production lines.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.75-78
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• 2017

We reports improved monitoring performance of Self plasma-optical emission spectroscopy (SP-OES) by augmenting a by-pass tube to a conventional straight (or single) tube type self plasma reactor. SP-OES has been used as a tool for the monitoring of plasma chemistry indirectly in plasma process system. The benefits of SP-OES are low cost and easy installation, but some semiconductor industries who adopted commercialized SP-OES product experiencing less sensitivity and slow sensor response. OH out-gas chemistry monitoring was performed to have a direct comparison of a conventional single type tube and a by-pass type tube, and fluid dynamic simulation on the improved hardware design was also followed. It is observed faster pumping out of OH from the chamber in the by-pass type SP-OES.

• 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 Welding and Joining
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• v.35 no.3
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• pp.75-81
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• 2017

Recently in the welding field, the establishment of unmanned and automated systems are rapidly developing. Accurate interpretation of the welding phenomenon is applied a number of monitoring systems. In this paper, butt welding (6t) type I using Plasma-MIG welding was carried out. And we evaluated characteristics of the Al-5083 aluminium alloy in Plasma-MIG hybrid welding. Process variables including the plasma current, MIG voltage, wire feeding rate and the welding speed were used. Butt welding was conducted 1 pass. Argon gas was used as the protective gas that results from the experiment were able to achieve full penetration. In addition to monitoring the welding process occurring during MIG welding current, welding votage and Plasma current, voltage were collected in real time, the photodiode and CCD cameras observing the phenomenon that the welding is in progress were measured using a quantity of light.

• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2013.08a
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• pp.123.2-123.2
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• 2013

Etching endpoint detection with plasma impedance monitoring (PIM) is demonstrated for small area dielectric layers inductive coupled plasma etching. The endpoint is determined by the impedance harmonic signals variation from the I-V monitoring system. Measuring plasma impedance has been examined as a relatively simple method of detecting variations in plasma and surface conditions without contamination at low cost. Cluster analysis algorithm is modified and applied to real-time endpoint detection for sensitivity enhancement in this work. For verification, the detected endpoint by PIM and real-time cluster analysis is compared with widely used optical emission spectroscopy (OES) signals. The proposed technique shows clear improvement of sensitivity with significant noise reduction when it is compared with OES signals. This technique is expected to be applied to various plasma monitoring applications including fault detections as well as end point detection.

• Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Materials
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.71-77
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• 2013

Advanced semiconductor manufacturing technology requires methods to maximize tool efficiency and improve product quality by reducing process variability. Real-time plasma process monitoring and diagnosis have become crucial for fault detection and classification (FDC) and advanced process control (APC). Additional sensors may increase the accuracy of detection of process anomalies, and optical monitoring methods are non-invasive. In this paper, we propose the use of a chromatic data acquisition system for real-time in-situ plasma process monitoring called the Plasma Eyes Chromatic System (PECS). The proposed system was initially tested in a six-inch research tool, and it was then further evaluated for its potential to detect process anomalies in an eight-inch production tool for etching blanket oxide films. Chromatic representation of the PECS output shows a clear correlation with small changes in process parameters, such as RF power, pressure, and gas flow. We also present how the PECS may be adapted as an in-situ plasma arc detector. The proposed system can provide useful indications of a faulty process in a timely and non-invasive manner for successful run-to-run (R2R) control and FDC.