Granted Patent B2

US 12,730,946 · App. 17/500,857 · Granted Sep 8, 2026

Inventors: Tarpan Tushar Dixit (Durango, CO); Gyan Prakash (Santa Clara, CA); Achyuth Madhav Diwakar (Santa Clara, CA)

Assignee: Applied Materials, Inc.

G06F30/27G05B13/04G05B23/0283G05B23/0294

Abstract

Claims (87)

1 . A system comprising a server and manufacturing equipment, wherein the system is configured to:

initiate a maintenance process of the manufacturing equipment, the maintenance process comprising a plurality of maintenance stages that are associated with maintenance of one or more components of the manufacturing equipment;

provide, to a user device, a first instruction indicating that a first maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed;

cause, via the first instruction, the first maintenance stage to be performed;

cause, via a second instruction, a second maintenance stage to be performed;

receive first data resulting from a first performance of the first maintenance stage, the first data comprising image or video data of the manufacturing equipment provided by the user device in connection with the first maintenance stage;

receive second data resulting from a first performance of the second maintenance stage, at least a portion of the second data provided by one or more tools communicatively connected to the system in connection with the second maintenance stage;

determine that the first performance of the first maintenance stage or the first performance of the second maintenance stage was not satisfactory based on the first data or the second data;

cause the user device to display an indication of a corrective action to be performed based on determining that the first performance of the first maintenance stage or the first performance of the second maintenance stage was not satisfactory;

cause performance of the corrective action;

responsive to obtaining an indication from the user device that the corrective action has been performed, provide a signal to activate one or more components of the manufacturing equipment to perform qualification operations in connection with the corrective action;

determine, responsive to activating the one or more components of the manufacturing equipment and based on one or more sensor measurements of processing conditions of the manufacturing equipment associated with the one or more components of the manufacturing equipment, results of the qualification operations; and

responsive to determining that the results of the qualification operations satisfy one or more criteria, cause a substrate to be processed using the manufacturing equipment.

2 . The system of claim 1 , further comprising the user device, wherein the user device is configured to:

receive the first instruction indicating that the first maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed;

provide, to the server, the first data resulting from the first performance of the first maintenance stage;

receive, from the server, verification data indicating that the first performance of the first maintenance stage was not satisfactory; and

cause performance of the corrective action in view of the verification data.

3 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is further configured to:

receive third data resulting from a second performance of the first maintenance stage;

determine that the second performance of the first maintenance stage was satisfactory; and

provide, to the user device, a third instruction indicating that a third maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed.

4 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is further configured to:

receive third data resulting from a first performance of a third maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages;

determine that the first performance of the third maintenance stage was satisfactory; and

provide, to the user device, a third instruction indicating that a fourth maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed.

5 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the first data resulting from performance of the first maintenance stage further comprises:

sensor data from sensors associated with the manufacturing equipment.

6 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining that the first performance of the first maintenance stage was not satisfactory comprises determining that at least one value associated with the first data does not satisfy at least one threshold criterion.

7 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining that the first performance of the first maintenance stage was not satisfactory comprises:

providing data based on the first data to a physics-based model; and

receiving from the physics-based model an indication that the first performance of the first maintenance stage was not satisfactory.

8 . The system of claim 1 , wherein determining that the first performance of the first maintenance stage was not satisfactory comprises:

providing data based on the first data to a trained machine learning model; and

receiving from the trained machine learning model an indication that the first performance of the first maintenance stage was not satisfactory.

9 . The system of claim 1 , wherein the system is further configured to assign a score describing success of at least one of the maintenance process or a maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages of the maintenance process.

10 . The system of claim 9 , wherein the score is indicative of a likelihood that performance of the maintenance process or the maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages of the maintenance process results in the manufacturing equipment that satisfies one or more manufacturing equipment qualification criteria.

11 . A method comprising:

initiating, by a server, a maintenance process of manufacturing equipment, the maintenance process comprising a plurality of maintenance stages that are associated with maintenance of one or more components of the manufacturing equipment;

providing to a user device a first instruction indicating that a first maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed;

causing, via the first instruction, the first maintenance stage to be performed;

causing, via a second instruction, a second maintenance stage to be performed;

receiving first data resulting from a first performance of the first maintenance stage, the first data comprising image or video data of the manufacturing equipment provided by the user device in connection with the first maintenance stage;

receiving second data resulting from a first performance of the second maintenance stage, the second data provided by one or more tools communicatively connected to the server in connection with the second maintenance stage;

determining that the first performance of the first maintenance stage or the first performance of the second maintenance stage was not satisfactory based on the first data or the second data;

causing performance of a corrective action;

responsive to obtaining an indication from the user device that the corrective action has been performed, providing a signal to activate one or more components of the manufacturing equipment to perform qualification operations in connection with the corrective action;

determining, responsive to activating the one or more components of the manufacturing equipment and based on one or more sensor measurements of processing conditions of the manufacturing equipment associated with the one or more components of the manufacturing equipment, results of the qualification operations; and

responsive to determining that the results of the qualification operations satisfy one or more criteria, causing a substrate to be processed using the manufacturing equipment.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the corrective action comprises at least one of: providing an alert to a user;

providing maintenance instructions to a user; or updating a process recipe.

13 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving third data resulting from a second performance of the first maintenance stage;

determining that the second performance of the first maintenance stage was satisfactory; and

providing to the user device a third instruction indicating that a third maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed.

14 . The method of claim 11 , further comprising:

receiving third data resulting from a first performance of a third maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages;

determining that the first performance of the third maintenance stage was satisfactory; and

providing, to the user device, a third instruction indicating that a fourth maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed.

15 . The method of claim 11 , wherein the first data resulting from the performance of the first maintenance stage further comprises:

sensor data from sensors associated with the manufacturing equipment.

16 . A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed, cause a processing device to perform operations comprising:

initiating, by a server, a maintenance process of manufacturing equipment, the maintenance process comprising a plurality of maintenance stages that are associated with maintenance of one or more components of the manufacturing equipment;

providing to a user device a first instruction indicating that a first maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed;

causing, via the first instruction, the first maintenance stage to be performed;

causing, via a second instruction, a second maintenance stage to be performed;

receiving first data resulting from a first performance of the first maintenance stage, the first data comprising image or video data of the manufacturing equipment provided by the user device in connection with the first maintenance stage;

receiving second data resulting from a first performance of the second maintenance stage, the second data provided by one or more tools communicatively connected to the server in connection with the second maintenance stage;

determining that the first performance of the first maintenance stage or the first performance of the second maintenance stage was not satisfactory based on the first data or the second data;

causing performance of a corrective action;

responsive to obtaining an indication from the user device that the corrective action has been performed, providing a signal to activate one or more components of the manufacturing equipment to perform qualification operations in connection with the corrective action;

determining, responsive to activating the one or more components of the manufacturing equipment and based on one or more sensor measurements of processing conditions of the manufacturing equipment associated with the one or more components of the manufacturing equipment, results of the qualification operations; and

responsive to determining that the results of the qualification operations satisfy one or more criteria, causing a substrate to be processed using the manufacturing equipment.

17 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the corrective action comprises at least one of:

providing an alert to a user;

providing maintenance instructions to a user; or

updating a process recipe.

18 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , the operations further comprising:

receiving third data resulting from a second performance of the first maintenance stage;

determining that the second performance of the first maintenance stage was satisfactory; and

providing to the user device a third instruction indicating that a third maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed.

19 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , the operations further comprising:

receiving third data resulting from a first performance of a third maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages;

determining that the first performance of the third maintenance stage was satisfactory; and

providing, to the user device, a third instruction indicating that a fourth maintenance stage of the plurality of maintenance stages is to be performed.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable storage medium of claim 16 , wherein the first data resulting from the performance of the first maintenance stage further comprises:

sensor data from sensors associated with the manufacturing equipment.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (54)