Inline monitoring system for process defects during manufacturing
Systems and methods are provided for inline process monitoring (e.g., remote inline process monitoring) for scalable and precision high-yield manufacturing. Antenna probes, such as millimeter (mm) wave (mmWave) antenna (mWA) probes, can be introduced into fabrication equipment to reveal the nature of hidden conductor and/or dielectric defects, as well as via-pad and/or device pad-trace misalignments, going beyond automated optical inspection (AOI) or contact probing.
1. A system for inline monitoring of a manufacturing process, the system comprising:
a first antenna sensor disposed on a first side of a substrate of an electronic device being manufactured during the manufacturing process, the first antenna sensor being configured to operate as at least one of a transmitter and a receiver;
a processor; and
a machine-readable medium in operable communication with the processor,
the first antenna being configured to generate a dataset of S-parameter data from the substrate and to transmit the dataset to the machine-readable medium,
the machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, perform the following steps:
receive the dataset from the first antenna;
analyze the dataset to identify a defect in the substrate by comparing the dataset to reference data; and
provide process corrections to a user of the system to address the identified defect in the substrate.
2. The system according to claim 1 , the first antenna sensor being a millimeter (mm) wave (mmWave) antenna (mWA).
3. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising a second antenna sensor disposed on a second side of the substrate opposite the first side of the substrate,
the first antenna sensor being configured to operate as a transmitter,
the second antenna sensor being configured to operate as a receiver, and
the first antenna being configured to generate the dataset of S-parameter data together with the second antenna.
4. The system according to claim 3 , the first antenna sensor being an mWA, and
the second antenna sensor being an mWA.
5. The system according to claim 1 , further comprising at least one defect monitoring structure formed on the substrate.
6. The system according to claim 5 , the at least one defect monitoring structure comprising a ring resonator with multiple resonance-using grooves.
7. The system according to claim 3 , the first antenna sensor and the second antenna sensor each having a dual patch topology, a patch topology, a horn topology, a spiral topology, or a Yagi topology.
8. The system according to claim 3 , the first antenna sensor comprising a first antenna array, and the second antenna sensor comprising a second antenna array.
9. The system according to claim 1 , the substrate comprising at least one via structure and at least one pad structure.
10. The system according to claim 3 , the first antenna sensor being coupled with a first lens configured to reduce a first aperture and narrow a first bandwidth, and
the second antenna sensor being coupled with a second lens configured to reduce a second aperture and narrow a second bandwidth.
11. The system according to claim 10 , the first lens being a Fresnel lens or a curved lens, and
the second lens being a Fresnel lens or a curved lens.
12. The system according to claim 1 , the analyzing of the dataset to identify a defect in the substrate comprising using a machine learning model to analyze the dataset, and
the machine learning model being trained using the reference data.
13. The system according to claim 1 , the defect comprising at least one of a line discontinuity, a line width change, a die pad shift, a radio frequency (RF) circuit pattern shift, an interconnect pad shift, and a via-pad shift of at least 5 microns.
14. The system according to claim 1 , the first antenna having first grooves configured for multiple resonances, and
the second antenna having second grooves configured for multiple resonances.
15. A method for inline monitoring of a manufacturing process, the method comprising:
providing the system according to claim 1 ;
using the first antenna sensor and the second antenna sensor to generate the dataset of S-parameter data from the substrate;
transmitting the dataset from the first antenna sensor and the second antenna sensor to the machine-readable medium;
analyzing the dataset to identify the defect in the substrate by comparing the dataset to reference data; and
providing process corrections to the user of the system to address the identified defect in the substrate.
16. The method according to claim 15 , further comprising implementing the process corrections to address the identified defect in the substrate.
17. The method according to claim 16 , the process corrections comprising at least one of: adding printed metal or dielectric material; and trimming metal or a dielectric pattern with a laser.
18. A system for inline monitoring of a manufacturing process, the system comprising:
a first antenna sensor disposed on a first side of a substrate of an electronic device being manufactured during the manufacturing process, the first antenna sensor being configured to operate as a transmitter;
a second antenna sensor disposed on a second side of the substrate opposite the first side of the substrate, the second antenna sensor being configured to operate as a receiver;
at least one defect monitoring structure formed on the substrate;
a processor; and
a machine-readable medium in operable communication with the processor,
the first antenna and the second antenna being configured to generate a dataset of S-parameter data from the substrate and to transmit the dataset to the machine-readable medium,
the machine-readable medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, perform the following steps:
receive the dataset from the first antenna and the second antenna;
analyze the dataset to identify a defect in the substrate by comparing the dataset to reference data; and
provide process corrections to a user of the system to address the identified defect in the substrate,
the first antenna sensor being a millimeter (mm) wave (mmWave) antenna (mWA),
the second antenna sensor being an mWA,
the at least one defect monitoring structure comprising a ring resonator with multiple resonance-using grooves,
the first antenna sensor and the second antenna sensor each having a dual patch topology, a patch topology, a horn topology, a spiral topology, or a Yagi topology,
the substrate comprising at least one via structure and at least one pad structure,
the analyzing of the dataset to identify a defect in the substrate comprising using a machine learning model to analyze the dataset,
the machine learning model being trained using the reference data,
the defect comprising at least one of a line discontinuity, a line width change, and a via-pad shift of at least 5 microns,
the first antenna having first grooves configured for multiple resonances, and
the second antenna having second grooves configured for multiple resonances.
19. A method for inline monitoring of a manufacturing process, the method comprising:
providing the system according to claim 18 ;
using the first antenna sensor and the second antenna sensor to generate the dataset of S-parameter data from the substrate;
transmitting the dataset from the first antenna sensor and the second antenna sensor to the machine-readable medium;
analyzing the dataset to identify the defect in the substrate by comparing the dataset to reference data;
providing process corrections to the user of the system to address the identified defect in the substrate; and
implementing the process corrections to address the identified defect in the substrate.
20. The method according to claim 19 , the process corrections comprising at least one of: adding printed metal or dielectric material; and trimming metal or a dielectric pattern with a laser.