Semiconductor Digest | From Reactive to Real-Time and Predictive: A New Era of In-Situ Semiconductor Metrology

While in-line semiconductor metrology is very good at imaging and identifying problems in processes, it’s actually very bad at helping to address those problems before they have significant financial impact. 

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Beyond identification, what semiconductor processes need more of is in-situ, real-time quantitative analysis, to mitigate issues before they turn up as defects or excursions in electrical performance or line yield. 

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In other words, semiconductor process control needs to move from in-line monitoring to in-situ process measurement and control. Metrology needs to move from ‘we’ve found a processing problem, what do we do about it?’ to ‘we know our process is running right now within optimal limits and at the highest throughput efficiency’. 

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But how can this change be achieved in practice?

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