As the number of semiconductor layers has been increasing to save power and improve performance, the overlay measurement for pattern misalignment between layers has become more critical. High voltage-scanning electron microscopes (HV-SEMs) measure overlay by simultaneously capturing secondary electron (SE) and backscattered electron (BSE) images. Here, the SE images reflect information about the upper layer patterns, and the BSE images reflect information about both the upper and lower layer patterns. Some conventional overlay measurements estimate upper layer pattern regions (ULPRs) and lower layer pattern regions (LLPRs), and compute their shifts. Supervised segmentation is accurate but requires labor-intensive manual annotation, making unsupervised methods important for semiconductor manufacturing. However, existing unsupervised segmentation methods fail to estimate the LLPRs when the ULPRs and LLPRs have similar brightness in a BSE image. To solve this issue, we propose an unsupervised method that can estimate only the LLPRs by leveraging the HV-SEM characteristics. To estimate only the LLPRs, our method predicts only the ULPRs in the BSE image and subtracts them from the BSE image. The evaluation results showed that our method estimated the LLPRs more accurately than existing unsupervised methods. Furthermore, its overlay measurement accuracy was comparable to a supervised segmentation method.
{"title":"Unsupervised Estimation of Lower Layer Pattern Regions Based on High Voltage-Scanning Electron Microscope Image Characteristics","authors":"Goshi Sasaki;Masayoshi Ishikawa;Sota Komatsu;Jun Chen","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3621109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3621109","url":null,"abstract":"As the number of semiconductor layers has been increasing to save power and improve performance, the overlay measurement for pattern misalignment between layers has become more critical. High voltage-scanning electron microscopes (HV-SEMs) measure overlay by simultaneously capturing secondary electron (SE) and backscattered electron (BSE) images. Here, the SE images reflect information about the upper layer patterns, and the BSE images reflect information about both the upper and lower layer patterns. Some conventional overlay measurements estimate upper layer pattern regions (ULPRs) and lower layer pattern regions (LLPRs), and compute their shifts. Supervised segmentation is accurate but requires labor-intensive manual annotation, making unsupervised methods important for semiconductor manufacturing. However, existing unsupervised segmentation methods fail to estimate the LLPRs when the ULPRs and LLPRs have similar brightness in a BSE image. To solve this issue, we propose an unsupervised method that can estimate only the LLPRs by leveraging the HV-SEM characteristics. To estimate only the LLPRs, our method predicts only the ULPRs in the BSE image and subtracts them from the BSE image. The evaluation results showed that our method estimated the LLPRs more accurately than existing unsupervised methods. Furthermore, its overlay measurement accuracy was comparable to a supervised segmentation method.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"39 1","pages":"2-9"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146122761","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-13DOI: 10.1109/TSM.2025.3620675
Jun-Chao Ren;Ding Liu;Yin Wan
Conventional control strategies for crystal growth often focus solely on regulating the crystal diameter, while neglecting fluctuations in the thermal field temperature. This oversight leads to process instability in Czochralski silicon single crystal growth (Cz-SSCG) and hinders the consistent production of high-quality crystals. To address this issue, this paper proposes a data-driven coordinated control method based on an indirect control strategy, aimed at simultaneously regulating both the crystal diameter and the thermal field temperature by dynamically tuning the virtual set-point of the thermal field temperature in real time. Firstly, a data-driven crystal diameter prediction controller is developed, leveraging a dynamic linearization approach to facilitate real-time tuning of the virtual thermal field temperature set-point. Within this framework, an adaptive controller parameter update strategy is proposed by optimizing the objective function of the predictive control model for crystal diameter regulation. Additionally, an extended state observer is designed to estimate external disturbances and integrated into the predictive controller to mitigate their impact on both diameter control and temperature set-point tuning. Finally, a local PID controller is employed to realize the indirect regulation of the crystal diameter. The convergence of the optimal control approach for the thermal field temperature set-point adjustment is mathematically proven. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through a coordinated control case study for Cz-SSCG.
{"title":"Data-Driven Coordinated Control of Czochralski Silicon Single Crystal Growth Operation Process Based on Indirect Control Strategy","authors":"Jun-Chao Ren;Ding Liu;Yin Wan","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3620675","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3620675","url":null,"abstract":"Conventional control strategies for crystal growth often focus solely on regulating the crystal diameter, while neglecting fluctuations in the thermal field temperature. This oversight leads to process instability in Czochralski silicon single crystal growth (Cz-SSCG) and hinders the consistent production of high-quality crystals. To address this issue, this paper proposes a data-driven coordinated control method based on an indirect control strategy, aimed at simultaneously regulating both the crystal diameter and the thermal field temperature by dynamically tuning the virtual set-point of the thermal field temperature in real time. Firstly, a data-driven crystal diameter prediction controller is developed, leveraging a dynamic linearization approach to facilitate real-time tuning of the virtual thermal field temperature set-point. Within this framework, an adaptive controller parameter update strategy is proposed by optimizing the objective function of the predictive control model for crystal diameter regulation. Additionally, an extended state observer is designed to estimate external disturbances and integrated into the predictive controller to mitigate their impact on both diameter control and temperature set-point tuning. Finally, a local PID controller is employed to realize the indirect regulation of the crystal diameter. The convergence of the optimal control approach for the thermal field temperature set-point adjustment is mathematically proven. The effectiveness of the proposed method is validated through a coordinated control case study for Cz-SSCG.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"39 1","pages":"36-45"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146122777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-10-10DOI: 10.1109/TSM.2025.3620246
Jesse Aronstein
The industry’s first, and arguably still the fastest, automated integrated circuit fabricator was operational at IBM in East Fishkill, NY, in 1974. It demonstrates the highest possible level of automated sequential process integration in a wafer fab. It took less than one day to create IBM RAM-II chip circuits on blank wafers. The fast turnaround time was achieved with a system architecture that is unique even today. All operations required to process a wafer between one photoresist pattern exposure and the next were integrated into a single automobile-sized automated machine called a “sector”. The fabricator consisted of a pattern exposure station, five automated wafer processing sectors, a monorail single-wafer “taxi” connecting them, and a computer-based production control and monitoring system. This paper describes the processing equipment and achievements of this little-known pioneering demonstration of wafer processing automation. It was initiated and managed by William E. Harding to demonstrate the practicality and advantages of full automation, single-wafer processing, fast turn-around time and continuous operation for integrated circuit manufacturing. Harding’s groundbreaking automated wafer processor produced RAM-II circuits at a good yield in 20 hours turnaround time, averaging 5 hours per layer.
{"title":"The First and Fastest Automated Fab","authors":"Jesse Aronstein","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3620246","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3620246","url":null,"abstract":"The industry’s first, and arguably still the fastest, automated integrated circuit fabricator was operational at IBM in East Fishkill, NY, in 1974. It demonstrates the highest possible level of automated sequential process integration in a wafer fab. It took less than one day to create IBM RAM-II chip circuits on blank wafers. The fast turnaround time was achieved with a system architecture that is unique even today. All operations required to process a wafer between one photoresist pattern exposure and the next were integrated into a single automobile-sized automated machine called a “sector”. The fabricator consisted of a pattern exposure station, five automated wafer processing sectors, a monorail single-wafer “taxi” connecting them, and a computer-based production control and monitoring system. This paper describes the processing equipment and achievements of this little-known pioneering demonstration of wafer processing automation. It was initiated and managed by William E. Harding to demonstrate the practicality and advantages of full automation, single-wafer processing, fast turn-around time and continuous operation for integrated circuit manufacturing. Harding’s groundbreaking automated wafer processor produced RAM-II circuits at a good yield in 20 hours turnaround time, averaging 5 hours per layer.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"39 1","pages":"105-114"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-10","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11199869","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146122788","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The crystal lifting and rotating mechanism (CLRM) is the key motion device during the growth process of monocrystalline silicon. The operation state of CLRM has a direct influence on the quality of the monocrystalline silicon. Typically, the CLRM operates at a slow speed with subtle changes in state and inconspicuous signal features, which makes it hard to effective diagnosis the working condition. In this article, a vibration-signal-based diagnosis method is proposed to monitor the operation status of the CLRM. Firstly, the vibration signals are collected by the sensor installed on the certain location of the CLRM. A signal expansion strategy is then designed to extent the original signal by integration of variational mode decomposition and canonical polyadic decomposition. The characteristic of the signal is enriched. After that, the features of the expanded signals are extracted using permutation entropy, followed by the K-nearest neighbor classification. Three representative experiments are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed method using different datasets, including the benchmark vibration signal dataset, signals acquired from the experimental platform established by our laboratory, and the signals acquired during the actual growth process of monocrystalline silicon.
{"title":"A Condition Monitoring Method via a New Signal Expansion Strategy for the Crystal Lifting and Rotating Mechanism","authors":"Lingxia Mu;Ding Liu;Shihai Wu;Yuyu Liu;Peiyuan Gao;Han Liu;Youmin Zhang","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3619539","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3619539","url":null,"abstract":"The crystal lifting and rotating mechanism (CLRM) is the key motion device during the growth process of monocrystalline silicon. The operation state of CLRM has a direct influence on the quality of the monocrystalline silicon. Typically, the CLRM operates at a slow speed with subtle changes in state and inconspicuous signal features, which makes it hard to effective diagnosis the working condition. In this article, a vibration-signal-based diagnosis method is proposed to monitor the operation status of the CLRM. Firstly, the vibration signals are collected by the sensor installed on the certain location of the CLRM. A signal expansion strategy is then designed to extent the original signal by integration of variational mode decomposition and canonical polyadic decomposition. The characteristic of the signal is enriched. After that, the features of the expanded signals are extracted using permutation entropy, followed by the K-nearest neighbor classification. Three representative experiments are conducted to verify the performance of the proposed method using different datasets, including the benchmark vibration signal dataset, signals acquired from the experimental platform established by our laboratory, and the signals acquired during the actual growth process of monocrystalline silicon.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"39 1","pages":"115-128"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-10-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"146122789","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
A non-contact power transfer mechanism via an ionic liquid (IL) to a bipolar electrostatic wafer chuck (ESC) was developed. The liquid power transfer method can supply voltage to the ESC set on a floating bearing, with no metal contact points and friction contamination. It intended for use in vacuum processes for semiconductor fabrication. In this transfer mechanism, electrostatic charge-up occurs in the IL which is concerned with the degradation of the IL. Thus, a non-oxidized metal nanoparticle-dispersed IL was prepared to reduce the charge-up, and its effect on charge reduction was investigated. The nanoparticle-dispersed IL exhibited a significant reduction in charge-up compared to the pure IL during voltage supply to the ESC. Although decomposition products obtained from the sputtering process were detected from the sputtered IL in a vacuum environment, the partial pressure values of these products were set to 10-9 Pa, indicating that the damage to the IL from sputtering was limited. The non-oxidizing metal nanoparticle-dispersed IL effectively prevented IL degradation and was useful for the non-contact power supply mechanism. It exhibits the potential to contribute to advancements in semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
{"title":"Non-Contact Power Transfer Via Metal Nanoparticle-Dispersed Ionic Liquid","authors":"Takao Okabe;Shinichi Tanabe;Naoki Umeshita;Toshikazu Akimoto;Junji Miyamoto;Kei Somaya","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3603152","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3603152","url":null,"abstract":"A non-contact power transfer mechanism via an ionic liquid (IL) to a bipolar electrostatic wafer chuck (ESC) was developed. The liquid power transfer method can supply voltage to the ESC set on a floating bearing, with no metal contact points and friction contamination. It intended for use in vacuum processes for semiconductor fabrication. In this transfer mechanism, electrostatic charge-up occurs in the IL which is concerned with the degradation of the IL. Thus, a non-oxidized metal nanoparticle-dispersed IL was prepared to reduce the charge-up, and its effect on charge reduction was investigated. The nanoparticle-dispersed IL exhibited a significant reduction in charge-up compared to the pure IL during voltage supply to the ESC. Although decomposition products obtained from the sputtering process were detected from the sputtered IL in a vacuum environment, the partial pressure values of these products were set to 10-9 Pa, indicating that the damage to the IL from sputtering was limited. The non-oxidizing metal nanoparticle-dispersed IL effectively prevented IL degradation and was useful for the non-contact power supply mechanism. It exhibits the potential to contribute to advancements in semiconductor manufacturing equipment.","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"38 4","pages":"917-924"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"145405349","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1109/TSM.2025.3595469
{"title":"Call for Papers for a Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices: Wide Band Gap Semiconductors for Automotive Applications","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3595469","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3595469","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"38 3","pages":"734-735"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11132358","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887607","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1109/TSM.2025.3595473
{"title":"Call for Papers for a Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices: Ultrawide Band Gap Semiconductor Devices for RF, Power and Optoelectronic Applications","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3595473","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3595473","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"38 3","pages":"738-739"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11132377","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887649","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1109/TSM.2025.3594797
Jeanne Paulette Bickford;Delphine Le Cunff;Ralf Buengener;Stefan Radloff;Paul Werbaneth
{"title":"Guest Editorial Special Section on the 2024 SEMI Advanced Semiconductor Manufacturing Conference","authors":"Jeanne Paulette Bickford;Delphine Le Cunff;Ralf Buengener;Stefan Radloff;Paul Werbaneth","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3594797","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3594797","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"38 3","pages":"372-374"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11132375","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1109/TSM.2025.3595357
{"title":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing Information for Authors","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3595357","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3595357","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"38 3","pages":"C3-C3"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11132376","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887640","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2025-08-21DOI: 10.1109/TSM.2025.3575487
{"title":"Call for Papers for a Special Issue of IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices: Reliability of Advanced Nodes","authors":"","doi":"10.1109/TSM.2025.3575487","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/TSM.2025.3575487","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":451,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing","volume":"38 3","pages":"736-737"},"PeriodicalIF":2.3,"publicationDate":"2025-08-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?tp=&arnumber=11132379","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144887641","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"工程技术","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"OA","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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