Project Background

A leading domestic semiconductor manufacturer, in its core production process—vacuum deposition (PECVD)—requires introducing plasma chemical gases into a vacuum chamber. Under high-temperature and low-pressure conditions, the plasma adheres to the glass substrate surface, forming a semiconductor film layer. To ensure chamber cleanliness and coating quality, the vacuum chamber must be regularly cleaned with special chemical solutions after processing.

Project Challenges

Since the cleaning process occurs in a sealed vacuum environment, traditional methods cannot effectively monitor or accurately judge its progress. The company faced the following challenges in CVD chamber cleaning:

Difficulty balancing cleaning effectiveness and cost: Insufficient cleaning time leads to residual film accumulation, which may detach and form particles, contaminating the chamber and causing product defects or even batch scrapping. Excessive cleaning time results in severe waste of chemicals and time.

High reliance on manual experience: The cleaning endpoint relies entirely on visual observation or experience-based assessment, leading to subjectivity, lack of real-time quantification, and difficulty in managing variations, resulting in high management difficulty and inefficiency.

High equipment maintenance costs: Over-cleaning accelerates corrosion and aging of key components inside CVD equipment, increasing the frequency of part replacements and maintenance costs.

Difficulty in managing quality risks: The lag and inaccuracy of manual monitoring pose hidden risks of particle contamination due to incomplete cleaning, affecting product quality stability.

Implementation Plan

To address these pain points, GETECH deployed a CVD film deposition equipment chamber cleaning monitoring system for the company. The system integrates "spectrum data collection + AI modeling analysis + automated control + safety alarms" technologies to monitor the cleaning process in real-time, accurately determine the cleaning endpoint, and dynamically adjust chemical flow rates. This ensures product yield while significantly reducing chemical usage and cleaning time.

Spectrum Data Collection

Utilize high-precision spectrum collection devices to monitor plasma emission spectra inside the chamber during the cleaning process in real-time.

AI Modeling Analysis

Establish a cleaning state recognition model based on collected spectrum data, dynamically identifying cleaning progress and endpoints through machine learning algorithms.

Automated Control

Builds a cleaning status recognition model based on acquired spectral data, using machine learning algorithms to dynamically identify cleaning progress and endpoints.

Safety Warning Mechanism

Incorporates leak monitoring to track chamber vacuum levels in real-time, providing alerts for abnormal leaks to ensure production safety.

Project Results

The successful application of this system has brought significant comprehensive benefits to the company:

Significant Economic Benefits Optimization

​​Drastic Reduction in Consumables Cost:​​

By precisely determining the cleaning endpoint, overconsumption is avoided, leading to annual savings in cleaning agent costs of up to ​​CNY 10 million​​.

​​Effective Streamlining of Labor Costs:​​

Automated inspection points during the cleaning process save the need for multiple dedicated personnel, resulting in annual labor cost savings of approximately ​​CNY 400,000​​.

​​Decrease in Equipment Maintenance Costs:​​

Reduced cleaning time slows down equipment corrosion rates, extending the lifespan of critical components and generating annual maintenance cost savings of about ​​CNY 1 million​​.

Dual Improvement in Quality and Efficiency

​​Steady Improvement in Product Yield Rate:​​

Avoids product defects caused by insufficient or excessive cleaning, significantly enhancing quality consistency.

​​Increased Equipment Utilization Rate:​​

Time saved per cleaning cycle translates into faster equipment cycle times, boosting equipment capacity utilization by ​​5%​​.

​​Enhanced Process Stability:​​

Digital monitoring eliminates human factor interference, ensuring the cleaning process operates in a highly stable and controllable state.

Management and Social Benefits Highlighted

​​Accelerated Smart Manufacturing Upgrade:​​

Achieves digitalization and automation control of key process steps, driving the overall advancement of the plant's intelligent manufacturing level.

​​Strengthened Occupational Health Protection:​​

Reduces the frequency of manual visual tasks, lowering occupational injury risks and improving the work environment.

​​Effective Implementation of Green Manufacturing:​​

Reduced consumption of cleaning agents helps decrease toxic emissions, aligning with the low-carbon, environmentally friendly direction of green manufacturing development.

Customer Testimonial

The production manager of the enterprise stated:

"GETECH's CVD Film Deposition Equipment Chamber Cleaning Monitoring and Inspection System has, for the first time, provided quantifiable metrics for CVD cleaning. It has not only eliminated costs amounting to hundreds of millions but also liberated our engineers from tedious manual visual inspections. This represents another significant advancement in our company's journey towards intelligent manufacturing."