Optimize tool recipe parameters — improve Cpk, cut scrap events, and hold process capability through ramp
Applied SmartFactory Run-to-Run Control is an advanced process control (APC) solution that improves process capability (Cpk) and optimizes tool recipe parameters. The out-of-box solution offers patented model prediction, including a multivariant, constrained, optimization-based process controller with proven deployment success. For engineering teams, run-to-run control is what keeps a qualified process qualified. Rather than waiting for a capability review to reveal drift, the controller compensates run by run using measurements the process already produces.
Applied SmartFactory Run-to-Run Control improves yield by reducing the process variation that kills yield during high-volume manufacturing, and by supporting better decisions through development and ramp. Fabs see roughly 30% average Cpk improvement, 10–30% fewer scrap events, and a 2–4% increase in mature yield. Automatically optimizing recipe parameters compensates for equipment and process drift before it produces out-of-spec material.
Run-to-run control is an advanced process control approach that adjusts tool recipe parameters between runs to hold a process on target. Applied SmartFactory Run-to-Run Control does this with patented model prediction built around a multivariant, constrained, optimization-based process controller.
It improves Cpk by automatically optimizing tool recipe parameters rather than waiting for an engineer to retune them, which fabs report as roughly 30% average Cpk improvement. Holding capability steady is what reduces the yield-killing process variation that appears in high-volume manufacturing.
Yes. It reduces out-of-spec and scrap events by compensating for drifts from equipment and processes, with reported reductions of 10–30% in scrap events and a 2–4% increase in mature yield.
It improves throughput by reducing pilot wafers. Where a controller can predict and correct parameter settings, fewer wafers are consumed proving out a process before production material runs.
A unified modeling structure reduces model management activities, so the ongoing effort of maintaining controllers does not scale linearly with the number of processes under control. That is a significant part of the lower cost of ownership.
Yes. It offers a common platform with integration to SPC and FDC to promote information sharing, so statistical violations, equipment faults, and control actions are interpreted against the same data rather than in separate systems.
Run-to-Run Control optimizes tool recipe parameters automatically, so Cpk holds through development, ramp, and high-volume production.
