• Proceedings of the Korean Vacuum Society Conference
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• 2014.02a
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• pp.237.1-237.1
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• 2014

Etching is one of the most important steps in semiconductor manufacturing. In etch process control a critical task is to stop the etch process when the layer to be etched has been removed. If the etch process is allowed to continue beyond this time, the material gets over-etched and the lower layer is partially removed. On the other hand if the etch process is stopped too early, part of the layer to be etched still remains, called under-etched. Endpoint detection (EPD) is used to detect the most accurate time to stop the etch process in order to avoid over or under etch. The goal of this research is to develop a hardware and software system for EPD. The hardware consists of an Optical Plasma Monitor (OPM) sensor which is used to continuously monitor the plasma optical emission intensity during the etch process. The OPM software was developed to acquire and analyze the data to perform EPD. Our EPD algorithm is based on the following theory. As the etch process starts the plasma generated in the vacuum is added with the by-products from the etch reactions on the layer being etched. As the endpoint reaches and the layer gets completely removed the plasma constituents change gradually changing the optical intensity of the plasma. Although the change in optical intensity is not apparent, the difference in the plasma constituents when the endpoint has reached leaves a unique signature in the data gathered. Though not detectable in time domain, this signature could be obscured in the frequency spectrum of the data. By filtering and analysis of the changes in the frequency spectrum before and after the endpoint we could extract this signature. In order to do that, first, the EPD algorithm converts the time series signal into frequency domain. Next the noise in the frequency spectrum is removed to look for the useful frequency constituents of the data. Once these useful frequencies have been selected, they are monitored continuously in time and using a sub-algorithm the endpoint is detected when significant changes are observed in those signals. The experiment consisted of three kinds of etch processes; ashing, SiO2 on Si etch and metal on Si etch to develop and evaluate the EPD system.

• Journal of the Microelectronics and Packaging Society
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.11-19
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• 2023

Recently with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies such as Chat GPT, AI semiconductors have become important. AI technologies require the ability to process large volumes of data quickly, as they perform tasks such as big data processing, deep learning, and algorithms. However, AI semiconductors encounter challenges with excessive power consumption and data bottlenecks during the processing of large-scale data. Thus, the latest packaging technologies are required for AI semiconductor computations. In this study, the authors have described packaging technologies applicable to AI semiconductors, including interposers, Through-Silicon-Via (TSV), bumping, Chiplet, and hybrid bonding. These technologies are expected to contribute to enhance the power efficiency and processing speed of AI semiconductors.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.1 no.4
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• pp.216-231
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• 2001

Several methods for improving device yields and characteristics have been studied by IC manufacturers, as the options for programming components become diversified through the introduction of novel processes. Especially, the sequential repair steps on wafer level and package level are essentially required in DRAMs to improve the yield. Several repair methods for DRAMs are reviewed in this paper. They include the optical methods (laser-fuse, laser-antifuse) and the electrical methods (electrical-fuse, ONO-antifuse). Theses methods can also be categorized into the wafer-level(on wafer) and the package-level(post-package) repair methods. Although the wafer-level laser-fuse repair method is the most widely used up to now, the package-level antifuse repair method is becoming an essential auxiliary technique for its advantage in terms of cost and design efficiency. The advantages of the package-level antifuse method are discussed in this paper with the measured data of manufactured devices. With devices based on several processes, it was verified that the antifuse repair method can improve the net yield by more than 2%~3%. Finally, as an illustration of the usefulness of the package-level antifuse repair method, the repair method was applied to the replica delay circuit of DLL to get the decrease of clock skew from 55ps to 9ps.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.157-177
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• 2003

This paper presents a comprehensive and successful application of data mining methodologies to improve and predict wafer yield in a semiconductor wafer fabrication system. As the wafer fabrication process is getting more complex and the volume of technological data gathered continues to be vast, it is difficult to analyze the cause of yield deterioration effectively by means of statistical or heuristic approaches. To begin with this paper applies a clustering method to automatically identify AUF (Area Uniform Failure) phenomenon from data instead of naked eye that bad chips occurs in a specific area of wafer. Next, sequential pattern analysis and classification methods are applied to and out machines and parameters that are cause of low yield, respectively. Furthermore, radial bases function method is used to predict yield of wafers that are in process. Finally, this paper demonstrates an information system, Y2R-PLUS (Yield Rapid Ramp-up, Prediction, analysis & Up Support), that is developed in order to analyze and predict wafer yield in a korea semiconductor manufacturer.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.143-146
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• 2005

Many data mining techniques have been proved useful in revealing important patterns from large data sets. Especially, data mining techniques play an important role in a customer data analysis in a financial industry and an electronic commerce. Also, there are many data mining related research papers in a semiconductor industry and an automotive industry. In addition, data mining techniques are applied to the bioinformatics area. To satisfy customers' various requirements, each industry should develop new processes with more accurate production criteria. Also, they spend more money to guarantee their products' quality. In this manner, we apply data mining techniques to the production-related data such as a test data, a field claim data, and POP (point of production) data in the automotive parts industry. Data collection and transformation techniques should be applied to enhance the analysis results. Also, we classify various types of manufacturing processes and proposed an analysis scheme according to the type of manufacturing process. As a result, we could find inter- or intra-process relationships and critical features to monitor the current status of the each process. Finally, it helps an industry to raise their profit and reduce their failure cost.

• Journal of Korean Institute of Industrial Engineers
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• v.40 no.1
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• pp.43-51
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• 2014

Statistical process control (SPC) is an important technique for monitoring and managing the manufacturing process. In spite of its easiness and effectiveness, some problematic sides of application exist such that the SPC techniques are hardly reflect the changes of the process conditions. Especially, update of control limits at the right time plays an important role in acquiring a reasonable performance of control charts. Therefore, we propose the control chart performance evaluation index (CPEI) based on count data model to monitor and manage the performance of control charts. The CPEI could indicate the degree of control chart performance and be helpful to detect the proper update cycle of control limits in real time. Experiments using real manufacturing data show that the proper update intervals are made by proposed method.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.205-208
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• 2009

In this paper, a MAS information management method is proposed for the WiMedia MAC protocol. WiMedia MAC configures a fully distributed network based on Ad-hoc method. WiMedia devices communicate during Superframe which is a communication unit in WiMedia MAC. Each superframe which consist of 256 MASs is divided into two periods, beacon period and data period. In data period, devices communicate with each other using the received channel access information during the beacon period. Due to only $12{\mu}s$ timing allowance between beacon period and data period, the process of the MAS information management cannot be completed in time if entire process handle by software. Therefore, we propose a novel MAS information management method using hardware module. With our proposed method, a WiMedia device is satisfied with the processing time that is required in WiMedia MAC protocol.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.6-9
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• 2021

The 3D industry is drawing attention for its applications in various markets, including architecture, media, VR/AR, metaverse, imperial broadcast, and etc.. The current feature of the architecture we are introducing is to make 3D models more easily created and modified than conventional ones. Existing methods for generating 3D models mainly obtain values using specialized equipment such as RGB-D cameras and Lidar cameras, through which 3D models are constructed and used. This requires the purchase of equipment and allows the generated 3D model to be verified by the computer. However, our framework allows users to collect data in an easier and cheaper manner using cell phone cameras instead of specialized equipment, and uses 2D data to proceed with 3D modeling on the server and output it to cell phone application screens. This gives users a more accessible environment. In addition, in the 3D modeling process, object classification is attempted through deep learning without user intervention, and mesh and texture suitable for the object can be applied to obtain a lively 3D model. It also allows users to modify mesh and texture through requests, allowing them to obtain sophisticated 3D models.

• JSTS:Journal of Semiconductor Technology and Science
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.184-193
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• 2015

This paper proposes a cost-efficient and automatic method for large data acquisition from a test chip without expensive equipment to characterize random process variation in an integrated circuit. Our method requires only a test chip, a personal computer, a cheap digital-to-analog converter, a controller and multimeters, and thus large volume measurement can be performed on an office desk at low cost. To demonstrate the proposed method, we designed a test chip with a current model logic driver and an array of 128 current mirrors that mimic the random process variation of the driver's tail current mirror. Using our method, we characterized the random process variation of the driver's voltage due to the random process variation on the driver's tail current mirror from large volume measurement data. The statistical characteristics of the driver's output voltage calculated from the measured data are compared with Monte Carlo simulation. The difference between the measured and the simulated averages and standard deviations are less than 20% showing that we can easily characterize the random process variation at low cost by using our cost-efficient automatic large data acquisition method.

• Proceedings of the Korean Powder Metallurgy Institute Conference
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• 2006.09b
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• pp.810-811
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• 2006

Pulsed Current Sintering (PCS) process possesses some problems that need to be resolved. We, therefore aims at understanding phenomena of PCS process by presenting some basic data on in situ sintering behavior of PCS. Special graphite mold equipped with thermo couple and electrodes were designed to measure the temperature, electric current and voltage inside the powder during PCS process. We apply three types of raw materials, especially for ZnO as semiconductor, $Al_2O_3$ as non-conductor and WC as good conductor. The electric current and voltage were measured for each powder during PCS process. In addition, their electric resistance properties were calculated.