Integration of reactive process modeling into semiconductor technology development

Understanding the physico-chemical phenomena at play in semiconductor proce ssing is critical in making important product development decisions. Produc t performance and yield for even the best-designed chips can be traced back through transistor and interconnect performance to material and structure quality resulting from complex chemical processes. Despite the importance o f factoring process character into design and production decisions, no comp lete framework exists either to connect design ideals to process realities or to quantify the impact of process uncertainty on product performance. He nce, process, device, circuit and design decisions are all made with incomp lete or imprecise information leading to sub-optimal products and inefficie nt use of limited resources. A software-based approach to filling the significant gap at the chemical pr ocess end of the spectrum will be described. First, a hybrid approach must be created that integrates modeling with empirical methods to overcome the insufficiency of either by itself. Second, this capability must be directly accessible by technology managers, developers and practitioners to limit t he decay of its decision-making value with increasing distance from its sou rce. Third, the impact of the uncertainty associated with assumptions and m odel inputs must be quantified to optimize resource allocation and minimize risk. Finally, the chemical process models must be integrated with materia ls models and linked to solid-state process and device models while quantif ying total uncertainty. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.