The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Mar. 11, 2003
Filed:
Oct. 29, 1999
Michael Lee Miller, Cedar Park, TX (US);
Qingsu Wang, Austin, TX (US);
Elfido Coss, Jr., Austin, TX (US);
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Austin, TX (US);
Abstract
A method and apparatus for providing near real-time fault detection in a manufacturing process is provided. The apparatus includes a processing tool adapted to manufacture a processing piece and an interface, coupled to the processing tool, for receiving operational data from the processing tool related to the manufacture of the processing piece, and product data defining characteristics of the processing piece. In one embodiment, the processing tool is in the form of semiconductor fabrication equipment and the processing piece is a silicon wafer. A fault detection unit is provided to determine if a fault condition exists with the processing tool from the operational data or with the processing piece from the product data. An Advanced Process Control (APC) framework is further provided to receive the operational and product data from the first interface, and to send the data to the fault detection unit.