MMST manufacturing technology-hardware, sensors, and processes

This paper describes the equipment and processes utilized in the Microelectronics Manufacturing Science and Technology (MMST) program. The processes were carried out in a combination of testbeds (AVP, the TI designed and built Advanced Vacuum Processor) and commercial equipment, all in the single-wafer mode. All AVP processing was performed with the wafers in an inverted, face-down, configuration. All the processing equipment was connected to a Computer-Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) system, which both collected the designated data and communicated the process parameters from the CIM database to the particular processing unit. Where available, in situ sensors were utilized for monitoring the process parameters, with measurements made on a metrology die in the center of the wafer. Many of these processes were controlled by the model-based process control algorithms in the CIM system. Otherwise, the processes were controlled by standard statistical process control (SPC) methods. This paper emphasizes the processing methodology that was developed and followed in order to operate in this CIM environment and successfully execute an approximately 150 step 0.35 /spl mu/m CMOS process in less than 72 hours. >