Report on industrial attachment with Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing

Abstract

Physical vapor deposition (PVD) is a general term used to describe variety of methods to deposit thin films by the condensation of a vaporized form of the material onto various surfaces. Endura machine is used in PVD process to deposit metals onto semiconductor wafers. The purpose of this report is to enhance the preventive maintenance of Endura PVD machine and problems solving of machine faulty by analyzing the data extracted from the Endura machine. There is software, which is known as SECS Talk Pro II, is introduced that could communicate the computer with Endura machine. A computer with SECS Talk Pro II software was used as pass through between controller and Endura machine. Several SECS script and Visual Basic (VBA) script were developed to support the supplementary maintenance of Endura machine. For example, several SECS script and VBA script were created to remote command Endura machine to perform various functions in weekly preventive maintenance (PM) and analyzed the results of PM success rate. In addition, PE charting and wafer history SECS scripts are used to validate the setting on Endura machine and to extract parameters from Endura machine. By all the SECS script, Endura machine can be automated to perform functions required during PM and reduce the PM time. Furthermore, the data extracted from Endura machine was charted and analyzed. In conclusion, by using the SECS Talk Pro II software, the PM can be enhanced by time reducing. It is also successful to validate the settings on Endura machine and extract the parameters from Endura machine. The parameters extracted were also useful in analyzing the problems caused to the Endura machine. With further exploring and investigation, the SECS Talk Pro II may also be used in automating and controlling the wafer process.