Anticipating faults by predicting non-linearity of environment variables with neural networks: a case study in semiconductor manufacturing

The present work proposes a neural network model capable of anticipating possible faults in a semiconductor manufacturing plant by predicting non-linearity spikes in sensor data. Early detection of significant variation can be crucial for identifying machinery degradation or issues in the process itself. We use non-linearity as it is not affected by regular process changes and autocorrelation, thus avoiding false-positives in the neural network caused by changes in demand and the presence of control systems. The developed model is able to predict up to 30min of future non-linearity with loss ≤ 0.5. Furthermore, the proposed model is flexible enough to present itself as a starting point for future work in the field of fault detection in other areas.