A method includes receiving, from one or more sensors associated with manufacturing equipment, current trace data associated with producing, by the manufacturing equipment, a plurality of products. The method further includes performing signal processing to break down the current trace data into a plurality of sets of current component data mapped to corresponding component identifiers. The method further includes providing the plurality of sets of current component data and the corresponding component identifiers as input to a trained machine learning model. The method further includes obtaining, from the trained machine learning model, one or more outputs indicative of predictive data and causing, based on the predictive data, performance of one or more corrective actions associated with the manufacturing equipment.

This invention teaches a multi-sensor quality inference system for additive manufacturing. This invention still further teaches a quality system that is capable of discerning and addressing three quality issues: i) process anomalies, or extreme unpredictable events uncorrelated to process inputs; ii) process variations, or difference between desired process parameters and actual operating conditions; and iii) material structure and properties, or the quality of the resultant material created by the Additive Manufacturing process. This invention further teaches experimental observations of the Additive Manufacturing process made only in a Lagrangian frame of reference. This invention even further teaches the use of the gathered sensor data to evaluate and control additive manufacturing operations in real time.

A machine learning device of a finish-machining amount prediction apparatus observes, as state variables expressing a current state of an environment, finish-machining amount data indicating finish-machining amounts of the respective parts of a component and accuracy data indicating the accuracy of the respective parts of a machine, to which the component is attached. Then, the machine learning device acquires determination data indicating propriety determination results of the accuracy of the respective parts of the machine, to which the component after being subjected to finish machining is attached. After that, the machine learning device learns the finish-machining amounts of the respective parts of the component in association with the accuracy data by using the state variables and the determination data.

Systems and methods for controlling device performance variability during manufacturing of a device on wafers are disclosed. The system includes a process platform, on-board metrology (OBM) tools, and a first server that stores a machine-learning based process control model. The first server combines virtual metrology (VM) data and OBM data to predict a spatial distribution of one or more dimensions of interest on a wafer. The system further comprises an in-line metrology tool, such as SEM, to measure the one or more dimensions of interest on a subset of wafers sampled from each lot. A second server having a machine-learning engine receives from the first server the predicted spatial distribution of the one or more dimensions of interest based on VM and OBM, and also receives SEM metrology data, and updates the process control model periodically (e.g., to account for chamber-to-chamber variability) using machine learning techniques.

Anomaly detection and remedial recommendation techniques for improving the quality and yield of microelectronic products are provided. In one aspect, a method for quality and yield improvement via anomaly detection includes: collecting time series sensor data during individual steps of a semiconductor manufacturing process; calculating anomaly scores for each of the individual steps using a predictive model; and implementing changes to the semiconductor manufacturing process based on the anomaly scores. A system for quality and yield improvement via anomaly detection is also provided.

A manufacturing system is disclosed herein. The manufacturing system includes one or more stations, a monitoring platform, and a control module. Each station of the one or more stations is configured to perform at least one step in a multi-step manufacturing process for a product. The monitoring platform is configured to monitor progression of the product throughout the multi-step manufacturing process. The control module is configured to dynamically adjust processing parameters of each step of the multi-step manufacturing process to achieve a desired final quality metric for the product.

A system for characterizing a specimen is disclosed. In one embodiment, the system includes a characterization sub-system configured to acquire one or more images a specimen, and a controller communicatively coupled to the characterization sub-system. The controller may be configured to: receive training images of one or more features of a specimen from the characterization sub-system; receive training three-dimensional (3D) design images corresponding to the one or more features of the specimen; generate a deep learning predictive model based on the training images and the training 3D design images; receive product 3D design images of one or more features of a specimen; generate simulated images of the one or more features of the specimen based on the product 3D design images with the deep learning predictive model; and determine one or more characteristics of the specimen based on the one or more simulated images.

An information processing device includes a processor configured to: calculate a principal component score of each piece of manufacturing data for each verification data by using an eigenvector obtained by performing principal component analysis on each piece of manufacturing data of a manufactured product and performing principal component analysis on each piece of manufacturing data of the verification data to which an OK or no-good label is attached; calculate determination accuracy in a case where OK or no good of each verification data is determined by using a number of dimensions of the principal component score, a combination of the principal component scores for the number of dimensions, and a determination threshold of a distance in a principal component space of the combination; and search for the number of dimensions, the combination, and the determination threshold that make the determination accuracy satisfy a predetermined condition as determination rules.

Aspects of the disclosed technology encompass the use of a deep learning controller for monitoring and improving a manufacturing process. In some aspects, a method of the disclosed technology includes steps for: receiving a plurality of control values from two or more stations, at a deep learning controller, wherein the control values are generated at the two or more stations deployed in a manufacturing process, predicting an expected value for an intermediate or final output of an article of manufacture, based on the control values, and determining if the predicted expected value for the article of manufacture is in-specification. In some aspects, the process can further include steps for generating control inputs if the predicted expected value for the article of manufacture is not in-specification. Systems and computer-readable media are also provided.

Aspects of the disclosed technology encompass the use of a deep-learning controller for monitoring and improving a manufacturing process. In some aspects, a method of the disclosed technology includes steps for: receiving control values associated with a process station in a manufacturing process, predicting an expected value for an article of manufacture output from the process station, and determining if the deep-learning controller can control the manufacturing process based on the expected value. Systems and computer-readable media are also provided.