Applied Materials, Inc.

Semitool, Inc.

Applied Material, Inc.

Paul Zachary Wirth

Randy Harris

Steven L Peace

Robert B Moore

Kyle Moran Hanson

Charles T Carlson

Jason M Schaller

Vincent Dicaprio

Alpay Yilmaz

Gregory John Freeman

Mikhail Taraboukhine

Kiyki-Shiy N Shang

Ozkan Celik

Tommaso Vercesi

David Silvetti

Patricia A Schulze

Avinash Shantaram

Coby Scott Grove

Behzad Taheri

Amir Nissan

Jeffrey C Hudgens

Gregory J Wilson

Daniel J Woodruff

Jeffry Alan Davis

Erik Lund

Mohsin Waqar

Todd J Brill

Eric Lund

Jitendra Ratilal Bhimjiyani

Scott A Bruner

Niranjan Pingle

Juan Carlos Rocha-Alvarez

Nir Merry

Benjamin B Riordon

Ming Xu

Damon Keith Cox

Dmitry A Dzilno

Leon Volfovski

Michael C Kuchar

Sushant Suresh Koshti

Andreas Schmid

Nicholas Michael Bergantz

Paul E Fisher

Brian Aegerter

Steve L Eudy

Dana R Scranton

Arkaprava Dan

Ofer Amir

Ilias Iliopoulos

Gary Wyka

Paul Forderhase

Vincent Steffan Francischetti

Michael Carrell

Mauro Cimino

Mitchell DiSanto

Sanggyum Kim

Siva Chandrasekar

Charles Gregory Potter, Sr

Jon Kuntz

Ali Utku Pehlivan

Coby S Grove

Venkata Raghavaiah Chowdhary Kode

Jonathan Kuntz

Raechel Chu-Hui Tan

Preetham Kariyaiah Shivanna

Atilla Kilicarslan

Brooke Elise Montgomery

Methods and apparatus for bonding chiplets to substrates are provided herein. In some embodiments, a multi-chamber processing tool for processing substrates includes: an equipment front end module (EFEM) having one or more loadports for receiving one or more types of substrates; and a plurality of automation modules coupled to each other and having a first automation module coupled to the EFEM, wherein each of the plurality of automation modules include a transfer chamber and one or more process chambers coupled to the transfer chamber, wherein the transfer chamber includes a buffer, and wherein the transfer chamber includes a transfer robot configured to transfer the one or more types of substrates, wherein at least one of the plurality of automation modules include a bonder chamber and at least one of the plurality of automation modules include a wet clean chamber.

Modular mainframe layout for supporting multiple semiconductor process modules or chambers

A direct current (DC) power is supplied to a heating element embedded into a substrate support assembly (SSA). A voltage across the heating element and a current through the heating element is measured as the DC power is supplied to the heating element. A resistance of the heating element is determined based on the measured voltage and current. A temperature measurement for the heating element and/or a zone including the heating element is obtained based on signal(s) of a temperature sensor. A temperature model is updated based on the determined resistance and the obtained temperature measurement. The heating element embedded in the SSA and/or an additional heating element embedded in the SSA or in another SSA is controlled based on the updated temperature model during a substrate process.

Methods and systems for temperature control for a substrate

A lift apparatus includes a lift assembly and a servo-control system. The lift assembly includes at least one pneumatic actuator including a movable member to provide a load to transfer a substrate between a support and a transfer plane. The lift assembly further includes at least one proportional pneumatic valve to control fluid flow between the actuator and a pressurized fluid supply or a vent, a plurality of pressure sensors each to measure pressure in a respective supply line to the actuator, and at least one position sensor to measure a position of the movable member. The servo-control system includes a controller to determine an output force based on a commanded force and an estimated force, generate a control signal based on the output force, and apply the control signal to the proportional valve to move the movable member.

Servo-control system

Implementations disclosed describe an inspection device capable of being transferred by a robot blade into a processing chamber of a manufacturing machine, the inspection device comprising an optical sensor to detect light reflected from a target located within the processing chamber, wherein the optical sensor is to output, to a processing device, a signal representative of a state of a region of a surface of the target.

Methods and systems of optical inspection of electronic device manufacturing machines

A method includes receiving first sensor data associated with a first iteration of a first recipe operation of a substrate processing recipe. The method further includes determining disturbance data, the disturbance data being a difference between the first sensor data and first setpoint data of the first recipe operation. The method further includes determining, based at least in part on the disturbance data, a first actuation value associated with one or more components of a processing chamber. Actuation of the one or more components according to the first actuation value compensates for the disturbance data. The method further includes causing the actuation of the one or more components based on the first actuation value during a subsequent iteration of the first recipe operation of the substrate processing recipe to compensate for the disturbance data.

Disturbance compensation for substrate processing recipes

A direct current (DC) power is supplied to heating elements embedded in zones of a substrate support assembly (SSA) of a processing chamber. A determination is made, based on a voltage measured across the heating elements and a current measured through the heating elements as the DC power is supplied to the heating elements, that the temperature of the SSA does not satisfy a temperature condition. A zone of the SSA that is at a temperature that does not correspond to a target temperature for the zone based on the temperature condition is identified based on the measured voltage and the measured current. The DC power supplied to the heating elements embedded within the identified zone is modified to cause the temperature of the zone to be modified to the target temperature and the temperature of the substrate support assembly to satisfy the temperature condition.

Methods and apparatus bonding chiplets to substrates are provided herein. In some embodiments, a multi-chamber processing tool for processing a substrate includes: an equipment front end module (EFEM) having one or more loadports for receiving one or more types of substrates; and a plurality of automation modules coupled to each other and having a first automation module coupled to the EFEM, wherein each of the plurality of automation modules include a transfer chamber and one or more process chambers coupled to the transfer chamber, wherein the transfer chamber includes a buffer configured to hold a plurality of the one or more types of substrates, and wherein the transfer chamber includes a transfer robot configured to transfer the one or more types of substrates between the buffer, the one or more process chambers, and a buffer disposed in an adjacent automation module of the plurality of automation modules.

Methods and apparatus for bonding chiplets to substrates are provided herein. In some embodiments, a multi-chamber processing tool for processing substrates, includes: a first equipment front end module (EFEM) having one or more loadports for receiving one or more types of substrates, a second EFEM having one or more loadports; and a plurality of atmospheric modular mainframes (AMMs) coupled to each other and having a first AMM coupled to the first EFEM and a last AMM coupled to the second EFEM, wherein each of the plurality of AMMs include a transfer chamber and one or more process chambers coupled to the transfer chamber, wherein the transfer chamber includes a buffer, and wherein the transfer chamber includes a transfer robot, the one or more process chambers, and a buffer disposed in an adjacent AMM of the plurality of AMMs.

A process chamber includes one or more vertical walls at least partially defining a chamber portion of the process chamber, and multiple zones located about a periphery of the one or more vertical walls, wherein one or more of the multiple zones extends from a top to a bottom of the one or more vertical walls. The process chamber further includes a plurality of temperature control devices, each thermally coupled to the one or more vertical walls in one of the multiple zones, and a controller coupled to the plurality of temperature control devices and configured to set temperatures of one or more of the plurality of temperature control devices to obtain temperature uniformity within 2% across a substrate located in the chamber portion.

Temperature-controllable process chambers, electronic device processing systems, and manufacturing methods

Disclosed herein are embodiments of a servo-control system comprising at least one pneumatic actuator comprising a movable member, at least one proportional pneumatic valve configured to control fluid flow between the at least one pneumatic actuator and a pressurized fluid supply or a vent, a plurality of pressure sensors each configured to independently measure pressure in a respective supply line to the at least one pneumatic actuator, at least one position sensor configured to measure a position of the moveable member, and a controller. The controller is configured to determine a control signal based at least in part on pressure measurements of the plurality of pressure sensors and a position measurement of the at least one position sensor, and apply the control signal to at least one proportional pneumatic valve to move the movable member to a target position.

A calibration object is retrieved, by a first robot arm of a transfer chamber, from a processing chamber connected to the transfer chamber and placed in a load lock connected to the transfer chamber. The calibration object is retrieved from the load lock by a second robot arm of a factory interface connected to the load lock and placed at an aligner station housed in or connected to the factory interface. The calibration object has a first orientation at the aligner station. A difference is determined between the first orientation and an initial target orientation at the aligner station. A first characteristic error value associated with the processing chamber is determined based on the determined difference. The first characteristic error value is recorded in a storage medium. The aligner station is to use the first characteristic error value for alignment of objects to be placed in the processing chamber.

Calibration of an aligner station of a processing system

A method for finding a center of a process kit and/or a process kit ring is provided. An object placed on an end effector is moved past a sensor of a manufacturing system. A first signal indicating a current shape of object is received from the sensor of the manufacturing system. A determination is made whether the first signal corresponds to a second signal indicating a predefined shape for a process kit and/or a process kit carrier. In response to a determination that the first signal corresponds to the second signal, a coordinate correspondence is determined between coordinates of a center of the object and coordinates of a center of the end effector. The determined coordinate correspondence indicates whether a current placement of the object on the end effector satisfies a target placement criterion.

Centerfinding for a process kit or process kit carrier at a manufacturing system

Disclosed herein are embodiments of a lift apparatus and systems containing a support and at least one lift apparatus for moving a substrate between the support and a transfer plane, using a servo-control system. Further disclosed herein are methods for servo control of a lift apparatus and lifting a substrate off of a support or lowering the substrate onto the support.

Methods of use of a servo control system

Gas distribution apparatus to provide uniform flows of gases from a single source to multiple processing chambers are described. A valve upstream of a shared volume is controlled by at least two pressurizing sequences during a process it the processing chamber. The first pressurizing sequence opens and closes the upstream valve a first number of cycles and the second pressurizing sequence opens and closes the upstream valve less frequently after the first number of cycles. The open/close timing of the second pressurizing sequence occurs less frequently than the open/close timing of the first pressurizing sequence.

Methods of controlling gas pressure in gas-pulsing-based precursor distribution systems

Disclosed herein are embodiments of a mass flow control apparatus, systems incorporating the same, and methods using the same. In one embodiment, a mass flow control apparatus comprises a flow modulating valve configured to modulate gas flow in a gas flow channel, a sensor device, such as a micro-electromechanical (MEMS) device, configured to generate a signal responsive to a condition of the gas flow, and a processing device operatively coupled to the flow modulating valve and the sensor device to control the flow modulating valve based on a signal received from the sensor device.

Mass flow control based on micro-electromechanical devices

Growing community of inventors

Kalispell, MT, United States of America

Paul Zachary Wirth