Effective Process Equipment Defect Control Methodology

The aggressive shrinking of design rules with the increasing requirement to reduce costs of running a 300 mm Fab are pushing equipment particle performance to lower defectivity counts and tighter control. The rapid qualification of process equipment and the identification of excursions on monitor wafers before the product is committed is an important metric of a Fab strategy to minimize the product at risk and control cost (faster time to detect/fix excursion). This paper will focus on examining different techniques used to cope with excursion data and help maintain an optimum balance between alpha and beta risks by applying them to real data from a production line. These techniques will be compared using metrics such practicality, effectiveness and robustness.