An operating method for a fault detection of a semiconductor process and a diagnostic system for fault detection in a semiconductor process are described. By using the method and the diagnostic system, the real-time process parameters collected during the process is performed by the tool become meaningful and are correlated with the historic process performance data obtained by the post process metrology process. Moreover, the method and the diagnostic system further provide an alarm index for the process performed on the tool to actually reflect the process environment during the process is performed after correlating the real-time process parameters and the historic process performance data. With referring to the alarm index, the current process performance under the real-time process parameters in the tool can be accurately diagnosed.

A method for controlling a process includes determining incoming state information associated with the process. A plurality of control models associated with the process is provided. A confidence metric is determined for each of the control models based on the incoming state information. The one of the plurality of control models having the highest associated confidence metric is selected. A control action for determining at least one parameter in an operating recipe used to implement the process is generated using the selected control model. A system includes a process tool and a process controller. The process tool is configured to process a workpiece in accordance with an operating recipe. The process controller is configured to determine incoming state information associated with processing the workpiece, determine a confidence metric for each of a plurality of control models based on the incoming state information, select the one of the plurality of control models having the highest associated confidence metric, and generate a control action for determining at least one parameter in the operating recipe using the selected control model.

A method and system are disclosed for configuring manufacturing tools in a semiconductor manufacturing flow. After collecting information with regard to one or more product performance features associated with a processing step performed in a process tool, one or more undesired process tool performance excursion patterns may be determined based on the collected information. On the other hand, operational and processing parameters of the process tool are monitored while conducting the processing step. Non-conformance faults of the monitored operational and processing conditions are detected and classified. A correlation between the classified non-conformance faults with the determined excursion patterns is made for adjusting one or more processing parameters of the processing tool.

A method and apparatus is provided for a process control based on an estimated process result. The method comprises processing a workpiece using a processing tool, receiving trace data associated with the processing of the workpiece from the processing tool and estimating at least one process result of the workpiece based on at least a portion of the received trace data. The method further comprises adjusting processing of a next workpiece based on the estimated at least one process result.

The present invention provides for a method and an apparatus for using scatterometry to perform feedback and feed-forward control. A processing run of semiconductor devices is performed. Metrology data from the processed semiconductor devices is acquired. Error data is acquired by analyzing the acquired metrology data. A determination is made whether the error data merits modification to the processing of semiconductor devices. A feedback modification of the processing of semiconductor devices is performed in response to the determination that the error data merits modification to the processing of semiconductor devices. A feed-forward modification of the processing of the semiconductor devices is performed in response to the determination that the error data merits modification to the processing of semiconductor devices.