Novel techniques for the run by run process control of chemical-mechanical polishing

The purpose of this thesis is to explore control schemes for application to the ChemicalMechanical Polishing (CMP) semiconductor fabrication process. Particular emphasis is placed on an Exponentially Weighted Moving Average (EWMA) controller, a Predictor-Corrector Controller (PCC), and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) controllers. These methods are explored with respect to their stability, responsiveness (optimal or otherwise), ability to incorporate practical issues and their applicability to the CMP process. These characteristics are evaluated through simulation and experiments performed on various CMP tools which highlight and demonstrate these principles.

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