Application Value and Technical Practice of Intelligent Fault Self-Healing System for High-Voltage Power Supply in Ion Implantation

In the core process chain of semiconductor manufacturing, ion implantation technology is a key link to achieve precise wafer doping. As the energy core of this technology, the high-voltage power supply (HVPS) directly determines the doping concentration accuracy, wafer yield, and continuous production capacity of the production line. Under the operating condition of 10-50kV high-voltage output, traditional HVPS for ion implantation is prone to faults due to aging of insulating media, local electric field distortion, fatigue of power modules, and other issues. Fault handling relies on the passive mode of shutdown-manual inspection-component replacement, and a single fault causes an average production line interruption of more than 4 hours, which not only results in significant capacity loss but also may lead to batch scrapping of wafers due to fault propagation. Against this backdrop, the R&D and implementation of intelligent fault self-healing systems have become the core technical path to break through the reliability bottleneck of HVPS and meet the zero downtime demand of semiconductor manufacturing.
Faults in HVPS for ion implantation have distinct characteristics: first, concealment—tiny insulation defects inside the high-voltage cavity can cause partial discharge, which has no obvious alarm signal in the early stage but gradually erodes the insulation layer, eventually leading to breakdown faults; second, chain reaction—if abnormal current ripple is not handled in a timely manner, it will directly cause fluctuations in wafer doping concentration, thereby affecting the performance of subsequent chips. Traditional fault protection only relies on preset threshold alarms, which can only trigger shutdown protection after a fault occurs, failing to achieve pre-warning and real-time repair, and thus cannot meet the strict requirements of semiconductor manufacturing for process stability.
The intelligent fault self-healing system constructs a dynamic fault defense system for HVPS through a three-layer architecture of perception-decision-execution. The perception layer deploys distributed high-frequency sensors to collect 12 key parameters in real time, including voltage ripple, temperature field distribution, and local electric field strength, with a sampling frequency of 1MHz. It can capture tiny parameter fluctuations of 0.1% level, avoiding the omission of fault signs. The decision layer adopts an AI algorithm that integrates Fault Tree Analysis (FTA) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) network, comparing real-time data with the historical health database. It completes fault type identification and severity classification within 100 milliseconds, accurately distinguishing between self-healable faults (such as transient overvoltage and contact point oxidation) and faults requiring intervention (such as insulation layer breakdown). The execution layer achieves self-healing through strategies such as millisecond-level switching of redundant modules, dynamic voltage compensation, and partial discharge suppression—for example, when a power module's current fluctuation exceeding 0.5% is detected, the system activates the standby module within 20 milliseconds, ensuring that the high-voltage output accuracy deviation is controlled within ±0.1% without shutdown.
In practical applications, this system has demonstrated significant value: data from a 12-inch wafer production line shows that the fault shutdown rate of HVPS has decreased from 3.2 times per month to 0.1 time, the fault handling time has been shortened by 98%, and the fluctuation of wafer doping uniformity is controlled within ±0.3%, far exceeding the ±1% index of traditional systems. At the same time, the fault prediction model built by the system through long-term data accumulation can predict the aging trend of power modules 1-2 months in advance, reducing the cost of preventive maintenance by 40% and extending the overall service life of HVPS by 35%.
As chip processes evolve toward 7nm and smaller, the requirements for the accuracy and stability of HVPS in ion implantation continue to increase. The intelligent fault self-healing system not only solves the reliability pain points of traditional HVPS but also promotes its transformation from passive protection to active self-healing, providing core technical support for the high stability and high efficiency demands of semiconductor manufacturing.