As microelectronics device feature sizes continue to shrink and wafers continue to increase in size, it is becoming necessary to have tighter tolerances during the fabrication process. This is particularly true for plasma processing steps.
Feedback control has, therefore, become an important issue in plasma processing equipment design.
Comprehensive plasma equipment models linked to controller algorithms would greatly aid in the investigation and optimal selection of control strategies. It has been used to investigate a number of problems in which response surface based controllers were used to compensate for actuator drifts, nullify the effect of external disturbances and improve important process parameters such as etch uniformity. We are presently concentrating on controller design improvements, experimental validation and advanced techniques for polysilicon etching using Cl 2 . 2. To make the HPEM suitable for studying issues related to feedback control, we added sensor, actuator and programmable controller modules. The sensor module emulates measurements of experimental sensors.