Patent ID: 7118926

Claim:
A method of optimizing a seasoning recipe for an etching process, comprising the steps of: (a) selecting a critical value of reproducibility; (b) selecting a main etch recipe; (c) selecting a preliminary seasoning recipe; (d) etching a test wafer using the preliminary seasoning recipe in a dry etch chamber; (e) performing a main etch process for a plurality of run wafers in the dry etch chamber using the main etch recipe, and determining an end-point detection time of each run wafer; (f) determining an initial dispersion and a standard deviation using the determined end-point detection times; (g) comparing the initial dispersion to the critical value of reproducibility; and (h) selecting the preliminary seasoning recipe as a seasoning recipe for the etch process, if the initial dispersion is less than or equal to the critical value of reproducibility.