Advanced process control for a manufacturing process of a plurality of products with minimized control degradation after re-initialization upon occurrence of reset events

摘要

In a method and in a controller for an advanced process control one or more currently valid process states are stored and are compared, upon the occurrence of a reset event, with a subsequent valid process state that has been established after the re-initialization of the process controller. Upon comparison of the previously established process state, including the associated history information to the process state established after occurrence of the reset event on the basis of the newly gathered history information, it is decided whether or not a reset of the process controller has been necessary. If it is assessed that a reset has not been necessary, process control is continued on the basis of the previously established process state and possibly the presently valid process state and the relevant history information. In this way, process accuracy rapidly converges after a reset event has occurred and resetting the process controller is only performed in cases where the reset event has entailed a significant change in any of the involved process components.