DEVICE AND METHOD FOR CONTROLLING THE PRODUCTION OF DISCRETE ELEMENTS IN SEMICONDUCTOR TECHNOLOGY WITH THE AID OF MODEL-BASED PREDICTIVE CONTROL

摘要

A system and method for controlling the manufacture of semiconductor wafers using model predictive control is provided. In accordance with one embodiment, a tool output of the manufacturing tool is determined based on a first wafer run. Using the tool output, a tool input for a subsequent wafer run is determined by minimizing an optimization equation being dependent upon a model which relates tool output to tool process state and tool process state to tool input and previous tool process state. The tool input is then provided to the manufacturing tool for processing a second wafer run. In this manner, processing by the tool or tool age is taken into account in determining the tool input for a subsequent run. This can reduce variations in tool output from run-to-run and improve the characteristics of the ultimately formed semiconductor devices. The tool may, for example, be a chemical mechanical polishing tool with the tool input being polishing time and the tool output being a post-polish wafer layer thickness associated with CMP tool for a run.