Robust Parameter Design for Profile Quality Control

In certain manufacturing processes, product quality is characterized by spatial profiles, and such profiles are expected to meet specific shape requirements. As profile shapes are affected by process conditions, properly adjusted process variables are expected to help improve profile quality. This work aims to achieve desired shapes of profiles that are sensitive to the variation of noise factors through optimizing settings of controllable factors. A hierarchical model is first built to characterize the spatial correlation of measurement points on a profile and link quality metrics with process variables. The process is then optimized using the robust parameter design technique. The performance of the proposed method is studied using a motivating example from nanomanufacturing. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.