Virtual cross metrology: leveraging process sequence for improved process characterization

As processes become more complex, and more operations are needed to fabricate individual levels in a sem iconductor chip, the ability to leverage the wealth of information to fully monitor and control the process has become of critica l importance. In this work we extend the application of design-aware fabrication process models to more operations. While one could expect that the process models become more accurate with respect to the target of interest, one of the main benefits of applying this technique is that it further decouples the individual influences that every process step imposes to different designs at different stages of the fabrication process. These results have significant implications on how this methodology can be used to improve process monitoring, a nd in the future extend to process optimization and design specific process control.