| Shoji Ikuhara | Etching Process Design Dept., Kasado Div., Nanotechnology Products Business Gr., |
| Akira Kagoshima | Etching Process Design Dept., Kasado Div., Nanotechnology Products Business Gr., |
| Daisuke Shiraishi | Etching Process Design Dept., Kasado Div., Nanotechnology Products Business Gr., |
| Junichi Tanaka | Advanced Technology Research Dept., Central Research Lab., |
Accompanying the continuing scaling down and increasing precision of semiconductor devices, the requirements regarding the etching process are getting ever more severe. As scaling down with increasing precision and small-lot production of diversified products continue to advance, it is required to consistently set the optimum processing conditions in response to variations in equipment and products. Under these circumstances, along with a ballooning amount of information flowing between shop-floor equipment and the host computer of a semiconductor plant, the burden on process engineers on the device manufacturing side will become even heavier. Focusing on minute variations in processing conditions — which have up till now not caused problems in regards to manufacturing semiconductor devices — Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation has developed an active APC (advanced process control) system for high-precision etching equipment. On top of attaining reproducibility of etching performance in relation to each wafer in a lot as well as between lots, this system can achieve long-term reproducibility, even before and after wet cleaning. High-precision etching equipment fitted with the active APC system is already being operated and evaluated on the production line, thus contributing to stable production of semiconductor devices.
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Etch Systems |
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The Hitachi Hyoron (Japanese Only) |
APC, OES, monitoring, data collection, process analysis
