Electric heating – Heating devices – With power supply and voltage or current regulation or...
Patent
1997-03-07
1999-11-30
Paschall, Mark
Electric heating
Heating devices
With power supply and voltage or current regulation or...
219497, 219485, 219413, 392416, 374121, 118724, 438663, 438600, B23K 1000
Patent
active
059946750
ABSTRACT:
A vertically oriented thermal processor supporting semiconductor wafers within a vertical processing chamber within a process tube about which a furnace heater is supported utilizes a model-base control target in combination with a heating control system configured to heat portions of the furnace in order to achieve a thermally uniform processing chamber environment. A furnace power controller implements a dynamic control system configured to achieve a desired uniform thermal distribution within the processing chamber during various processing cycles for semiconductor wafers. Preferably, the control system monitors thermal conditions within the chamber and compares the conditions with a desired thermal model of the furnace, and activates/deactivates one or more heater elements within the furnace in order to achieve a desired thermal condition within the processing chamber.
REFERENCES:
patent: 4276603 (1981-06-01), Beck et al.
patent: 4570054 (1986-02-01), Chidzey et al.
patent: 4688180 (1987-08-01), Motomiya
patent: 4711989 (1987-12-01), Yu
patent: 4738618 (1988-04-01), Massey et al.
patent: 4761538 (1988-08-01), Chiba et al.
patent: 4937434 (1990-06-01), Nakao
patent: 5000682 (1991-03-01), Heidt et al.
patent: 5001327 (1991-03-01), Hirasawa
patent: 5099442 (1992-03-01), Furuta et al.
patent: 5258601 (1993-11-01), Takano
patent: 5280422 (1994-01-01), Moe et al.
patent: 5291514 (1994-03-01), Heitmann et al.
patent: 5436172 (1995-07-01), Moslehi
patent: 5517594 (1996-05-01), Shah et al.
patent: 5555725 (1996-09-01), Shimasaki et al.
patent: 5661669 (1997-08-01), Mozumder et al.
patent: 5782227 (1998-07-01), Abe
"Optimal Control of the Wafer Temperatures in Diffusion/LPCVD Reactors", by H. De Waard and W.L. De Koning, pp. 243-252, 1992--International Federation of Automatic Control.
Chapter 8, "System Identification", pp. 349-416. Chapter 9, "Multivariable and Optimal Control", pp. 417-483.
"Appendix 4A: Identifiability of Black-Box Miltivariable Model Structures", Models of Linear Time-Invariant Systems, pp. 114-126.
"Frequency Shaping", Chapter 9, pp. 262-289.
"Optimization Problems for Dynamic Systems", Chapter 2, pp. 42-89. "Optimization Problems for Dynamic Systems with Path Constraints", Chapter 3, pp. 90-127.
"Model Identification in Rapid Thermal Processing Systems", by Young Man Cho & Thomas Kailath--IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing, Aug. 1993, pp. 233-245.
"Modeling, Identification, and Control of Rapid Thermal Processing Systems", by Charles Schaper et al., Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Sep. 1993, pp. 1-29 and drawings.
"Temperature Distribution in Semiconductor Wafers Heated in a Vertical Diffusion Furnace", by Shigeki Hirasawa et al., IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing, Aug. 1993, pp. 226-232.
"Optimization of Transient Temperature Uniformity in RTP Systems", by Stephen Norman, IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Jan. 1992, pp. 205-207.
"Control of MMST RTP: Repeatability, Uniformity, and Integration for Flexible Manufacturing", by Charles Schaper et al., IEEE Transactions on Semiconductor Manufacturing, pp. 1-24 and drawings.
"Adaptive Temperature Control of Industrial Diffusion/LPCVD Reactors", by H. De Waard & W.K. De Koning, IFAC Intelligent Tuning and Adaptive Control, Singapore, 1991.
T.A. Badgwell et al., "In situ measurement of wafer temperature in a low pressure chemical vapor deposition furnace", American Institute of Physics, pp. 1129-1133.
B. J. Van Schravendijk et al., "Modeling and control of the wafer temperatures in a diffusion furance", Journal of Applied Physics, Feb. 15, 1987, pp. 1620-1627.
Peter H. Singer: "Trends in Vertical Diffusion Furnaces"; Apr. 1986; 5 pages.
Bethune Edwin M.
Olmsted Donald
Paschall Mark
Semitool Inc.
LandOfFree
Semiconductor processing furnace heating control system does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Semiconductor processing furnace heating control system, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Semiconductor processing furnace heating control system will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-1675525