A Methodology to Improve Manufacturing Precision in the Presence of Workpiece Imperfections

Abstract

In modern manufacturing applications of products such as LCD’s, semiconductor wafers, and thin film heads, the workpiece has to be processed in multiple steps. The quality and yield of the products depends on how precisely the workpiece is aligned in each setup. The effect of imperfections of the workpiece on the manufacturing precision are analyzed, and our analysis shows that the imperfections of the workpiece can be a major cause of tolerance problems. A methodology that can help to greatly reduce the sensitivity of imperfections in the workpiece has been proposed. The methodology is applied to the 2-D domain, and is substantiated by characterization and analysis of samples from the LCD industry.