Advanced Process Contra Conies of Age

摘要

Wafer processing has traditionally depended on a series of localized regulatory controllers to assure process consistency. The idea of a supervisory controller, historically portrayed as part of advanced process control (APC), has been the source of hotly contested debates as its very definition is being developed. APC manifests itself in various forms: from the passive collection of process and wafer data to tool-to-tool process adjustments and from self-aware tools to manufacturing ex- ecution system (MES) enabled implementations. Despite the evolving nature of APC, the industry is pushing ahead. The continuous shrink of circuit device features and larger wafer sizes have made wafers more valuable, thereby driving the increased demand for some form of APC.