From shott at stanford.edu Fri Feb 5 10:16:01 2010 From: shott at stanford.edu (John Shott) Date: Fri, 05 Feb 2010 10:16:01 -0800 Subject: Update .... stsetch2 Message-ID: <4B6C6061.5080806@stanford.edu> stsetch2 community: I know that many of you are extremely anxious to know when stsetch2 will be back and operational and that many of you are frustrated that it has taken so long to repair. To be honest, it is frustrating to us as well and nobody is more disappointed than we that it has taken this length of time. It is my belief and expectation that we finally assembled the hardware support, on-site field service, and off-site software support from STS to resolve this issue by the end of the day Monday (Feb 8). I have every expectation stsetch2 should be operational at that time. So what is going on and why has it taken so long? One of the significant subsystems of this tool is a set of PID controllers that monitor and control the collection of heaters that keep the chamber area hot. That subsystem is manufactured by West Instruments and is called a MLC 9000 (for multi-loop controller). While raw heater power is available, the control system has failed. That system actually consists of a DeviceNet control module, two interface modules, and two 4-loop PID controllers. The original diagnosis was that one of the 4-loop controllers had failed. Elmer ordered a replacement from STS some time ago. When it arrived, however, we found that we had been sent a module for a MLC 9000+ series controller. Apparently, our tool is one of the few tools that STS ever manufactured with the MLC 9000 series controllers before they upgraded to the MLC 9000+ series. Unfortunately, despite their very similar names, MLC 9000+ controllers, components, and software are incompatible with MLC 9000 elements. So, STS had to find and send us a series MLC 9000 series 4-loop controller. We have been awaiting that shipment ... and field service on site ... for much of this week. In the meantime, we have been working with STS support in the UK to try to further pin-point the exact failure in this subsystem and have been working with a STS engineer named Steve Blackwell in the UK that literally has a full set of our generation MLC components on his desktop .... it turns out that these are the only MLC 9000 series components that STS has. Steve now believes that it is more likely that the main MLC control module, rather than the 4-loop controller, has failed. In any event, Steve has loaded the proper program into these components and FedExed them all to the STS facility in San Carlos. On Monday morning, STS field service will be arriving first thing in the morning with these components to install them. At the same time, Steve Blackwell and the lead software engineer from STS will both be on the phone and accessing our system remotely to make sure that everything is fully operational. They are confident that this collection of resources will resolve our heater issues by the end of the day Monday. I know that this has been terribly inconvenient and frustrating to all of you. We certainly understand the critical importance of this tool to all of your research needs. We will let you know the exact status of the tool on Monday afternoon. If any of you would like to discuss this in more detail, I would be happy to do so .... either individually or in small groups. Thank you for your patience, John From mtang at stanford.edu Sat Feb 6 08:01:21 2010 From: mtang at stanford.edu (Mary Tang) Date: Sat, 06 Feb 2010 08:01:21 -0800 Subject: stsetch2 reservations Message-ID: <4B6D9251.9050907@stanford.edu> Hi all -- The feedback on proposed reservations policy ranged from keeping it as is, using the stsetch1 policy, and having a stricter policy limiting time. So... for the time being, the reservation policy that is now in effect is the same as stsetch1. It may not be perfect, but should be a good starting place. Thanks to Elmer and John's efforts, it looks like there is good reason to believe the system might come up soon. Many people are anxious to use it. We expect everyone to be diligent in using Coral and the stsetch2 at snf mail list to keep each other updated on tool status, need, and availability. If you have made reservations you won't be using, make sure to delete them and inform stsetch2 at snf. If you have a pressing need an can't get reservations, let us know. Thanks for your patience -- Your SNF Staff From shott at stanford.edu Tue Feb 9 13:49:20 2010 From: shott at stanford.edu (John Shott) Date: Tue, 09 Feb 2010 13:49:20 -0800 Subject: Update .... stsetch2!!! Message-ID: <4B71D860.4090801@stanford.edu> STS Etch Community: We are pleased to report that stsetch2 has just been returned to service. The final issues related to the heater channels were resolved this morning and Pascal Bouvron and Elmer ran a number of test runs to both season the system and make sure that it is functioning properly. While we wish that it did not take as long as it did to resolve these issues, we had important support from a variety of folks at STS including: Pascal Bouvron - Field Service Rich Hunt - Technical Support Manager, Redwood City Michael Clarkin - Service Manager North America (in New Hampshire) Larry Gering - Field Service Philip Waller - Technical Engineer Europe Rhys Miles - Software Team Leader (UK) Steve Blackwell - Senior Hardware Wizard (UK) (Well, I don't know Steve's real job title ....) All of these folks pitched in with diagnostic, logistics, and troubleshooting help. In particular, Steve Blackwell did a lot of the hardware diagnosis from the UK on our now-obsolete MLC9000 controller and actually sent us the development hardware from his desk as he has the only remaining MLC9000 hardware in STS. Rhys Miles was able to spot .... from the UK mind you ... that we had a module/wiring problem that needed to be resolved. Elmer's initial diagnosis of the faulty subsystem was exactly on target .... but it took a lot of additional support from STS to pinpoint and resolve the exact source of the problems. We know that a lot of you are anxious to use this tool. We will caution you, however, that we have not taken time to carefully characterize the tool following these repairs. Many of you will want to use test wafers in advance of etching important samples and we'd encourage everyone to report any process results that they obtain (along with the recipe ran). Finally, I will also add that stsetch has a new helium backside controller that is resulting in nice, stable backside cooling pressures. Happy etching, John Note: Because we were close to empty, Mike and Elmer have just switched to a new, full cylinder of SF6 so that there will not be any unscheduled gas-related downtime in the coming weeks. From grahamab at stanford.edu Wed Feb 10 00:42:51 2010 From: grahamab at stanford.edu (Andrew Blake Graham) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:42:51 -0800 (PST) Subject: sts2 free 2:30am-9am Message-ID: <1131357315.893341265791371678.JavaMail.root@zm06.stanford.edu> for anyone up late, the people who had the tool reserved through the night couldn't get their wafers ready due to other equipment, so the tool should be free starting around 2:30am. From grahamab at stanford.edu Wed Feb 10 00:46:45 2010 From: grahamab at stanford.edu (Andrew Blake Graham) Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:46:45 -0800 (PST) Subject: stsetch2 characterization update Message-ID: <200625719.893921265791605471.JavaMail.root@zm06.stanford.edu> Just an FYI for people looking to use the tool. We just ran the same recipe we characterized a couple of days before the power outage and, upon SEM inspection, the tool appears to be giving the same results (etch rate, etch profile, etc.). Thanks again to everyone involved in getting the tool back up and running. Andrew From grahamab at stanford.edu Mon Feb 15 20:37:13 2010 From: grahamab at stanford.edu (Andrew Blake Graham) Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:37:13 -0800 (PST) Subject: stsetch2 free 9-midnight Message-ID: <1814117687.769721266295033616.JavaMail.root@zm06.stanford.edu> was able to get on the tool much earlier than expected. tool should be free shortly. From chingmei at stanford.edu Tue Feb 16 12:52:15 2010 From: chingmei at stanford.edu (Ching-Mei Hsu) Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 12:52:15 -0800 (PST) Subject: Fwd: sts2 free from 1:00 to 2:30 pm today In-Reply-To: <1035781632.767891266353464009.JavaMail.root@zm01.stanford.edu> Message-ID: <982778732.768171266353534972.JavaMail.root@zm01.stanford.edu> ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: "Ching-Mei Hsu" To: stsetch at snf.stanford.edu Sent: Tuesday, February 16, 2010 12:51:04 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific Subject: sts2 free from 1:00 to 2:30 pm today Sorry about the late notice. switch to sts since sts is back -- Ching-Mei Hsu PhD Candidate Materials Science and Engineering Stanford University McCullough rm. 209 476 Lomita Mall Stanford, CA 94305 -- Ching-Mei Hsu PhD Candidate Materials Science and Engineering Stanford University McCullough rm. 209 476 Lomita Mall Stanford, CA 94305 From jsnapp at stanford.edu Fri Feb 19 17:58:11 2010 From: jsnapp at stanford.edu (Justin Snapp) Date: Fri, 19 Feb 2010 17:58:11 -0800 Subject: tool free until 8:30pm Message-ID: <1B403394-E766-46F3-92AD-5FB7AFE0A942@stanford.edu> I ended up not needing my reservation. Sorry for the late notice. Justin