Patent ID: 11868689
Assignee: KLA CORPORATION
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 17:
18. A non-transitory computer-readable medium, storing program instructions executable on one or more computer systems for performing a computer-implemented method for setting up a physics-based model, wherein the computer-implemented method comprises:
comparing results generated by a physics-based model describing a semiconductor fabrication-related process with different values of one or more parameters of the physics-based model to reference data and generating output responsive to a difference between the results and the reference data with an objective function;
fitting a surrogate function configured as an approximation of the objective function to the output generated by the objective function as a function of the different values of the one or more parameters; and
selecting additional values of the one or more parameters for the physics-based model based on the surrogate function with an acquisition function, wherein the objective function, the surrogate function, and the acquisition function are included in a set up component, wherein the set up component and the physics-based model are included in one or more components executed by the one or more computer systems; and
wherein the set up component is configured for setting up the physics-based model in multiple phases in each of which only a subset of all of the one or more parameters of the physics-based model are set up;
wherein a configuration of the set up component is changed between at least two of the multiple phases based on the subset of all of the one or more parameters of the physics-based model set up in the at least two of the multiple phases;
wherein the objective function and the surrogate function used in at least one of the multiple phases are replaced with a different objective function and a different surrogate function, respectively, in a subsequent one of the multiple phases; and
wherein the acquisition function used in one or more of the at least one of the multiple phases is replaced with a different acquisition function in the subsequent one of the multiple phases, and wherein the different acquisition function samples the surrogate function and the different surrogate function for selecting the additional values.