Automation of a remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system using LabVIEW

Rajan Sharma; John L. Fretwell; Jochen Vaihinger; Sanjay K. Banerjee

doi:10.1117/12.284628

25 August 1997 Automation of a remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system using LabVIEW

Rajan Sharma, John L. Fretwell, Jochen Vaihinger, Sanjay K. Banerjee

Proceedings Volume 3213, Process, Equipment, and Materials Control in Integrated Circuit Manufacturing III; (1997) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.284628
Event: Microelectronic Manufacturing, 1997, Austin, TX, United States

Abstract

The remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (RPCVD) system is an experimental low temperature Si/Si-Ge epitaxy system. This paper describes an integrated hardware/software automation package developed for the RPCVD system. Aspects of the system controlled by the package include pneumatic gas valves, mass flow controllers (MFCs), and a temperature controller. The package was developed on an Apple Quadra 950 platform using LabVIEW^TM 3.1 and associated data acquisition and control hardware supplied by National Instruments and other vendors. The software interface allows the user to operate the system through a virtual control panel which displays critical system parameters such as chamber pressure, chamber temperature and gas flow rates, along with the states of the gas valves and the MFCs. The system can also be run in the recipe mode, in which a sequence of steps are read in from an Excel^TM file. A simulation routine scans each recipe for possible errors such as violation of valve interlocks while the recipe is being loaded. All actions, whether in the manual mode or the recipe mode, are recorded in a log file. Finally, since many of the gases used in the RPCVD process are toxic and/or flammable, there is an emphasis on safety in the entire control scheme. A safety monitor routine constantly checks for valve interlocks and pressure-valve interlocks. Upon detecting an illegal state, it automatically takes necessary action to bring the system into a safe state. In addition to these software safety features, there are also hardware interlocks to deal with such situations as power outages.

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Rajan Sharma, John L. Fretwell, Jochen Vaihinger, and Sanjay K. Banerjee "Automation of a remote plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition system using LabVIEW", Proc. SPIE 3213, Process, Equipment, and Materials Control in Integrated Circuit Manufacturing III, (25 August 1997); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.284628

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KEYWORDS

Safety

Microsoft Foundation Class Library

Human-machine interfaces

Plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition

Relays

Semiconducting wafers

Computer programming

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