CN1229265A - Method for preventing failure in semiconductor fabricating process due to change in process condition recipe - Google Patents

Abstract

A method of preventing failure of a semiconductor manufacturing process due to a change in process condition specification, the method comprising the steps of: if real-time process conditions for a particular process variable change, the semiconductor fabrication equipment reports the changed process condition specification to a host computer; and then The main computer judges whether the real-time process data of the changed process variable is included in the specified data; if the real-time process data of the changed process variable is not included in the specified data, it will interlock the relevant semiconductor manufacturing equipment, thereby preventing the semiconductor process from failure.

Description

Method for Preventing Failure of Semiconductor Manufacturing Process Due to Specification Changes in Process Conditions

The present invention relates to a method for preventing the failure of a semiconductor manufacturing process caused by a change in a process condition specification (recipe), and in particular to such a method for preventing a failure of a semiconductor manufacturing process, that is, the process variable stored in a semiconductor manufacturing device changed by an engineer The real-time process data is compared with the specified data stored in the host computer, and the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is interlocked when the real-time process data is not within the specified data.

Semiconductor devices are generally manufactured through a large number of sequential unit processing processes, and each unit processing process requires an extremely high level of precision. Therefore, the unit processing process cannot be manually performed. Thus, a plurality of complex equipment parts, such as CVD equipment, sputtering equipment, etching equipment, and measurement equipment, are arranged along the semiconductor process line to form a unit process sequence, and the equipment performs the unit process in a predetermined process sequence.

Recently, in order to maximize the operating efficiency of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, a system for maintaining semiconductor manufacturing equipment has been introduced.

A system for equipment maintenance is composed of a plurality of equipment sections that perform semiconductor manufacturing processes, an equipment server that is connected on-line with the semiconductor manufacturing equipment and directly controls the equipment, and that is connected on-line with the equipment server and stores therein a The main computer of the database of the equipment, and the operator interface personal computer (O/I PC) that is connected on-line with the main computer and provides the operator with data about the semiconductor manufacturing process.

In this equipment maintenance system, if a lot on which wafers are loaded is sent into the semiconductor manufacturing equipment, the operator inputs basic data about the process through the I/O PC, such as the The identification number (ID) of the lot or the ID of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Then, based on the basic data entered, the host computer searches the host computer database for process condition specifications of the process to be applied. The host computer immediately offloads these process condition specifications to the equipment.

After performing the semiconductor manufacturing process for a period of time, engineers change specific specifications such as real-time process of specific process variables in the specification of process conditions directly related to semiconductor manufacturing stored in the equipment or host computer by replacing special parts of the equipment, cleaning the equipment, preventive maintenance of equipment. Real-time process data for changing specific process variables during manufacture of other semiconductor products in the facility and during preventive maintenance of the facility.

However, in order to perform preventive maintenance or mass-produce another semiconductor, an engineer may change the real-time process data of this particular process variable in semiconductor manufacturing equipment or a host computer. In this case, if the real-time process data of a specific process variable is incorrectly input due to an engineer's error, failure of the semiconductor product occurs. This problem arises because the operator performing the semiconductor manufacturing process or the engineer maintaining the equipment is not equipped with a means to determine whether the real-time process data for that particular process variable was entered correctly or incorrectly.

Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a method to prevent the failure of semiconductor production, that is, during preventive maintenance or mass production of another semiconductor, the engineer changes the real-time process data of a specific process variable, in this case, the host computer Comparing the real-time process data of the changed specific process variable in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment with the prescribed data stored in the host computer, if the changed real-time process data of the specific process variable is not included in the prescribed data, then Interlock related semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

In order to achieve the above objects and other advantages, there is provided a method of preventing failure of a semiconductor manufacturing process caused by a change in process condition specification, the method comprising the steps of: changing the specific process variable stored in the process condition specification of a semiconductor manufacturing equipment real-time process data; the changed process condition specification is reported from the semiconductor manufacturing equipment to the host computer; the host computer compares the changed process condition specification loaded from the semiconductor fabrication equipment with the corresponding process condition specification stored in the host computer, and determine whether the changed real-time process condition data is included in the specified data by the host computer; and if the real-time process data is included in the specified data, then the host computer will unload the real-time process data to the user interface computer, if the real-time process data does not Included in the prescribed data, then the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is interlocked by the host computer to prevent execution of the semiconductor manufacturing process.

Preferably, the prescribed data are as a database recorded in the host computer.

Meanwhile, in the above comparison and determination step, if the changed real-time process data is not included in the prescribed data, then an alarm message is downloaded and displayed on the user interface computer.

In addition, if the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is interlocked, the engineer can release the interlock by changing the real-time process data to be included in the specified data.

The above objects and other advantages of the present invention will be more apparent by describing in detail preferred embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is the block diagram of semiconductor maintenance system of the present invention;

Figure 2 shows the specification of process conditions stored in the main computer database;

3A to 3C show specifications of process conditions which have been changed in semiconductor manufacturing equipment; and

FIG. 4 is a flowchart representing a method for preventing semiconductor manufacturing process failures due to process condition specification changes.

Preferred embodiments of the invention are shown in the accompanying drawings, and the invention will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and is not limited to the embodiments set forth herein so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.

As shown in FIG. 1 , the semiconductor maintenance system 1 includes a plurality of semiconductor manufacturing devices 40 , a plurality of device servers 30 , a host computer 10 and a user interface computer 50 . The semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 introduces the batch (lot) that has completed the prerequisite process, and executes the semiconductor manufacturing process; a plurality of equipment servers 30 are connected with the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 on-line, and directly control the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 to execute the semiconductor manufacturing process; the host computer 10 and The equipment server 30 is connected online, and database is stored therein, and is used to provide a large amount of data required from the equipment server 30 to control the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40; The relevant data is provided to the operator or engineer.

Among them, the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 and the equipment server 30 share or exchange data using the Semi-Equipment Communication Standard (SECS) protocol. The device server 30 and the host computer 10 exchange data using Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP).

Meanwhile, the database stored in the host computer 10 includes all data related to the semiconductor manufacturing process so that all the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 in the semiconductor manufacturing process can perform the process under optimum conditions. The database includes: for example, the process flow of each semiconductor manufacturing equipment, the environmental requirements for implementing the process, and the process condition specification 20 and so on.

The process condition specification 20 in which the process conditions of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 are specified is explained with reference to FIG. 2 .

The first column represents process variables 21 such as temperature 21a, pressure 21b and processing time 21c. The second column indicates a process allowable range (hereinafter referred to as specified data 23 ) in an executable semiconductor manufacturing process, that is, a range from a minimum process value to a maximum process value in which the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 30 can perform processing. The third column represents the real-time process data 25 which results in the lowest failure rate among the prescribed data 23 when the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 has performed the semiconductor manufacturing process.

For example, if the specified data 23 of the temperature 21a is Ha～Hc (°C), the specified data 23 of the pressure 21b is Pa～Pc (torr), and the specified data 23 of the processing time 21c is Ta～Tc (min), then through the equipment The real-time process data 25 unloaded from the server 30 to the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 is actually temperature 21a as Ha, pressure 21b as Pb, and process time 21c as Tb.

Meanwhile, the process condition specification 32 shown in FIG. 3 a is also stored in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 . In the process condition specification 32, process variables 33 and real-time process data 35 stored in the process condition specification 32 of the host computer 10 except for the specified data 23 are recorded. Wherein, reference numeral 33a refers to temperature among process variables, 33b refers to pressure, and 33c refers to processing time.

Wherein, if preventive maintenance is performed or another semiconductor needs to be mass-produced using the same semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40, the engineer can change the real-time process data 35 of the specific process variable 33 stored in the process condition specification 32 of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 40 are those values shown in Figures 3b and 3c.

Figure 3b shows the same process condition specification as the process condition specification 32 shown in Figure 3a, except that the real-time process data 35 is changed to Hc. The process condition specification 32" shown in FIG. 3c is the same as the process condition specification 32 shown in FIG. 3a except that the real-time process data 35 is changed from Hb to Hd. Therefore, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

A method of preventing operational problems in a semiconductor manufacturing process when changing the process condition specification 32 shown in FIG. 3a to those shown in FIGS. 3b and 3c will be described below with reference to FIG. 4 .

For example, when performing preventive maintenance to change a specific part of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 or to clean the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41, or to mass-produce other semiconductors with the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41, the engineer changes the specific specifications stored in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41, such as Process condition specification 32. Process condition specifications 32 may be changed during preventive maintenance operations. That is, if the test is performed with predetermined real-time process data so that the failure rate in the semiconductor manufacturing process is minimized, and if the failure rate can be reduced compared with the case of using the real-time process data 35, then the real-time process data 35 is changed for testing those specified data.

If the engineer changes the specific process variable 33 in the process condition specification 32 shown in FIG. As shown in step 120 of FIG. 4 , the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 reports the change of the process variable 33 to the host computer 10 through the equipment server 31 .

Next, in order to confirm which process variables were changed and how the changes were made, the host computer 10 requests the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 to provide all data related to the changed process condition specification 32 . Then, as shown in step 130 of FIG. 4 , the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 loads the changed process condition specification 32 ′ according to the request of the host computer 10 .

Then, the host computer 10 searches all the process condition specifications in the database to find the process condition specification 20 of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 . When the process condition specification 20 is found after a predetermined period of time has elapsed, the host computer 10 compares the process condition specification 20 with the process condition specification 32' loaded from the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41, and confirms that the real-time process data 25 and 35 of the temperatures 21a and 33a Changed from Hb to Hc.

Next, as shown in step 140 of FIG. 4 , the host computer 10 judges whether the real-time process data 35 of the temperature 33a which has become Hc is within the specified data 23 in the database, that is, whether it is within the range of Ha˜Hc.

If the real-time process data Hc is within the specified data Ha～Hc, then as shown in step 150 of FIG. Process data Hc.

However, if the engineer mistakes the real-time process data 35 of the temperature 33a as Hd shown in FIG. 3c, then the host computer 10 determines that the real-time process data Hd is not within the prescribed data Ha˜Hc recorded in the database.

In this case, the host computer 10 transmits the alarm message and the real-time process data Hd to the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 and the I/O computer 50 through the equipment server 31 . Subsequently, as shown in step 160 of FIG. 4 , the real-time process data Hd and the alarm message are displayed on the display of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 and the I/O computer 50 . This is to make it easy for other engineers or operators to identify the real-time process data 35 of temperature 21a incorrectly entered by the engineer.

Then, as shown in step 170 of FIG. 4 , the host computer 10 transmits an interlock signal to the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 through the equipment server 31 to prevent the execution of the semiconductor manufacturing process using incorrectly input real-time process data Hd. This is to prohibit the operation of another semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 with data included in the prescribed data Ha to Hc until the real-time process data Hd is cleared.

If the real-time process data Hd and alarm messages are displayed on the display of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 and the I/O computer 50, the engineer should confirm them. If it is determined that the real-time process data Hd is an incorrect input, then as shown in step 180 of FIG. Within Hc.

If the engineer changes the real-time process data Hd to Hc, the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 reports to the host computer that the process condition specification 3200 "has been changed. Then, the host computer 10 compares the process condition specification 20 of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 with the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 The reported process conditions are compared to the specification 20 and the process variables 33 that have changed are retrieved.

Next, the host computer 10 compares the real-time process data Hc of the changed process variable 33, ie temperature 33a, with the specified data Ha~Hc to determine whether the real-time process data Hc is included in the specified data Ha~Hc. If the real-time process data Hc is included in the specified data Ha˜Hc, the interlock of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 will be canceled, as shown in step 190 of FIG. 4 .

When the engineer confirms the alarm message and the real-time process data 35 of the temperature 33a, even when the real-time process data 35 is input correctly according to the operator's intention, if the alarm message is displayed, the engineer should confirm that it is recorded in the main computer 10. The specified data 23 of the temperature 21a in the database. If the specified data 23 of the temperature 21a is incorrectly input, the specified data 23 of the temperature 21a should be re-entered in order to release the interlock of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment 41 .

As described above, in the present invention, if the real-time process condition of a specific process parameter is changed for the mass production of other semiconductors or when performing preventive maintenance on the semiconductor fabrication facility according to schedule, the semiconductor fabrication facility reports the changed process condition to the host computer specification. Then, the host computer determines whether the real-time process data of the changed specific process variable is within the specified data. If the real-time process data is not included in the specified data, then the relevant semiconductor manufacturing equipment will be interlocked. Therefore, failures in semiconductor production caused by incorrect input of real-time process data can be eliminated.

The present invention has been described with reference to the above-mentioned embodiments. However, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations may be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the above description. Accordingly, the present invention embraces all such alternatives, modifications and changes that fall within the spirit and scope of the claims of the present invention.

Claims (5)

1. a method that prevents to change because of the process conditions standard semiconductor fabrication process inefficacy that causes is characterized in that described method comprises the following steps:

Change the real-time process data of the special process variable in the described process conditions standard that is stored in the semiconductor manufacturing facility;

The described process conditions standard that has changed to master computer report from described semiconductor manufacturing facility;

By described master computer the described process conditions standard that has changed that loads from described semiconductor manufacturing facility is compared with relevant process conditions standard being deposited at described master computer, and whether be included in the specified data by the definite described process conditions data that changed of described master computer; With

If described real-time process data is included in the described specified data, just by described master computer described real-time process data is unloaded to user interface computer, if described real-time process data is not included in the described specified data, so by the described semiconductor manufacturing facility of described master computer interlocking, so that prevent to carry out semiconductor fabrication process.

2. according to the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that described specified data is recorded in the described master computer with the form of database.

3. according to the method for claim 1, it is characterized in that, also further comprise the following steps:, so unloading and display alarm message on described user interface computer if described real-time process data is not included in the described specified data.

4. according to the method for claim 3, it is characterized in that the described real-time process data that has changed is recorded in the described alarm information and on described user interface computer and shows.

5. according to the method for claim 3, it is characterized in that, also comprise the following steps:

If on described user interface computer, show described alarm information, confirm described alarm information so and change the described real-time process data that has changed again, the described real-time process data of change can be included in the described specified data; With

Report the described real-time process data that changes again from described semiconductor manufacturing facility to described master computer, and discharge described interlocking described semiconductor manufacturing facility.

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