Virtual metrology of semiconductor PVD process based on combination of tree-based ensemble model

In order to improve the accuracy of semiconductor wafer virtual metrology, and overcome the physical metrology delay of wafer acceptance test, a virtual physical vapor deposition metrology method based on combination of tree-based ensemble models is proposed to conduct online virtual metrology on semiconductor wafer electrical parameters, and use hyperparameter optimization technique to perform model optimization and to achieve real-time alarm on process deviation. This combination of tree-based ensemble model combines Bagging, Boosting, and Stacking techniques. First, based on 4 types of base learner, Random Forest, Extra-Trees, XGBoost, and lightGBM, preliminary virtual metrology is performed on wafer PVD process, and then transforms the predict results of the 4 base learners into meta feature vector as the input of meta learner lightGBM to perform further virtual metrology. The Sequential model-based optimization algorithm is used to improve the accuracy of virtual metrology. First, the initial hyperparameter of the sequential model-based optimization is initialized by using random sampling, then the combination model is approximated by the surrogate model of tree-structured Parzen estimator, and the recommended hyperparameters is obtained by using EI (Expected Improvement), and then the optimized combination model is obtained. Finally, the superiority of the method proposed in this paper is verified by studying the results comparing to the common virtual metrology methods on the PVD process. The experiment shows the result of resistivity metrology using the combination of tree-based ensemble models in the PVD process is significantly better than LASSO regression, partial least squares regression(PLSR), support vector machine(SVR), Gaussian process regression(GPR) and artificial neural network regression(ANN). (C) 2020 ISA. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.