Minimax Optimization for Recipe Management in High-Mixed Semiconductor Lithography Process

This article addresses the application of minimax optimization in the control design of complex dynamic systems of the semiconductor manufacturing. We highlight the main challenge in the control system of high-mixed wafer fabrication during the photolithography process called overlay control. In the semiconductor photolithography process, the sophisticated and high-mixed setting is generated by multiple recipe adjustments for the single scanner device. The high complexity will be moderated if there is a communication interface among the process variables. We design a communication protocol for the high-mixed photolithography process for overlay control. The proposed system is designed on the basis of the recipe management system for a distinct batches of recipes. The focal point of switching recipes performs as a communication hop, where aligning recipes together make a multihop communication system for recipe management. The proposed multihop communication system is optimized by the minimax decision rule to select the best parameter setting for each recipe and boost the overlay compensation.