JP2005260108A - Substrate processing system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate processing system capable of visually displaying a transport route when an operator designates a transport order and capable of displaying the designated route in an animation.
A plurality of modules that perform transfer processing and process processing in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus are displayed as a transfer designation screen on a personal computer. Buttons corresponding to the slots of the module on which the substrate is placed are colored. Since LP1 (load port 1) has buttons for all slots colored, when the button for slot 1 of LP1 is pressed, the substrate at that position is designated as the transfer source. Next, when the buttons of the slot 1 of the LH (atmospheric transfer robot) and the slot 2 of the LL2 (load lock 2) on which the substrate is not placed are pushed, the slot 1 and the LL2 slot 2 of the LH are used as transfer destinations in this order. It is specified. As a result, the path from slot 1 of LP1 to slot 2 of LL2 via slot 1 of LH is displayed as an animation, and the substrate is transported along that path.
[Selection] Figure 3

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate processing system for setting a substrate transfer information on an operation screen of a controller [for example, a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a personal computer)] and performing a desired process while transferring the substrate.

  Conventionally, when performing semiconductor processing such as etching while moving a semiconductor material (hereinafter referred to as material) such as a wafer, which is a kind of substrate, by a substrate processing system, an operation is performed using a transfer designation function of a personal computer. Yes. In that case, the operator can specify on the screen where the material in which slot is to be placed while viewing the screen on the personal computer. FIG. 6 is a conceptual diagram showing a state in which the operator sets the material transfer contents on the operation screen of the personal computer in the conventional substrate processing system. That is, as shown in FIG. 6, if the operator designates a desired transfer on the operation screen of the personal computer, the desired semiconductor processing can be executed while moving the semiconductor material.

  FIG. 7 is a diagram showing a transfer designation screen when operated on the operation screen of FIG. That is, FIG. 7 shows a transfer designation screen for transferring the material in the fifth slot of LP1 (load port 1) as the transfer source module to the first slot of LL2 (load lock 2) as the transfer destination module. It is. If the operator designates where the material is to be conveyed to by the designation field on the conveyance designation screen and presses the OK button, the material is subjected to etching processing while moving along the designated route in the semiconductor device. A desired semiconductor manufacturing process is executed.

  FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing a state in which a material is conveyed along a designated route when a conveyance command is input on the conveyance designation screen of FIG. As shown in FIG. 8, the wafer 11 is transferred as set on the transfer designation screen of the personal computer, such as module 12b → module 12a → module 12b → module 12c. That is, if an operator designates a conveyance command, the material can be conveyed along an arbitrary route. In addition, the transfer order can be specified interactively on a personal computer screen. In other words, if a transfer command is input according to the specified content displayed on the screen of the personal computer, the semiconductor manufacturing process can be performed by specifying the transfer path.

  However, when the material conveyance route is complicated and diverse, it is necessary to set the conveyance command by that amount before carrying out the conveyance. For this reason, since the transfer command setting operation on the transfer designation screen has to be performed many times, the operability of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is extremely deteriorated. In addition, when the material transport path becomes complicated, the material moves back and forth inside each module inside the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus (that is, the material moves back and forth between the module 12a and the module 12b as shown in FIG. ) The material transport path displayed on the computer screen may be quite unclear. For this reason, there is a risk that the operator erroneously inputs the designation of the transport command. In particular, when the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is stopped for some reason and the materials in the processing chamber and the spare chamber must be manually transferred, it takes time to recover, and the operating rate of the apparatus becomes worse.

  The present invention has been made in view of the above-described problems. When an operator designates a transportation order, the transportation route can be displayed visually, and the finally designated route is animated. It is an object of the present invention to provide a substrate processing system that can be displayed in a simulated manner.

  In order to solve the above-described problems, a substrate processing system according to the present invention is a substrate processing system that sets substrate transport information on an operation screen of a controller and executes a desired substrate processing step while transporting the substrate. A plurality of modules for carrying the substrate and / or processing, and a transfer designation screen for displaying the plurality of modules on the controller, and sequentially accessing the plurality of modules displayed on the transfer designation screen. By doing so, a conveyance path of the substrate is set.

  According to the substrate processing system of the present invention, when a process is performed while a substrate is placed on a plurality of modules and transferred, the plurality of modules are displayed on the controller screen as a transfer designation screen. Therefore, when the operator accesses (clicks) while specifying a desired module when performing manual conveyance, the substrate is set with a conveyance path according to the order of accessing the modules, and the conveyance path is displayed on the screen. Therefore, the operator can set a path for transporting the substrate relatively easily even in a complicated transport path.

  On the transfer designation screen, the number of substrates on which each module can be placed is displayed by the number of corresponding buttons. Further, whether or not a substrate is placed in the corresponding module can be displayed by color-coding the buttons. For example, the button corresponding to the module on which the substrate is placed is displayed in color, and the button corresponding to the module on which the substrate is not placed is turned off, so that it is possible to determine whether the substrate is placed. Thus, the operator can confirm whether or not the substrate is placed on the module before setting the substrate transport path, so that no unnecessary operations are performed.

  Further, a module that cannot be designated as a transfer destination because a substrate is already placed or is busy is set so that the corresponding button is not lit and cannot be accessed. For this reason, there is no possibility that the operator erroneously sets a module that cannot be designated as the transport destination. Furthermore, since the contents of the transport path are displayed as animations after the operator finishes setting the transport path, the operator can easily confirm the transport path. At this time, since the scheduled transfer route is animated by an arrow, the operator can confirm that the substrate indicated by the icon moves along the line of the arrow.

  That is, according to the substrate processing system of the present invention, the display of the controller personal computer displays the GUI information having a role of communicating with the operator based on the data in the memory holding the program and the screen transition history information. Thus, when the input device receives a command from the operator, an appropriate conveyance path screen is displayed on the GUI. As a result, when the operator designates conveyance on the screen, the designated conveyance path is displayed as a graphical animation.

  As described above in detail, according to the substrate processing system of the present invention, when the operator designates the substrate transport route on the graphical transport route screen, the designated transport route is graphically displayed as an animation. This facilitates the setting of the transfer path when performing the semiconductor process, and the number of steps for setting the transfer path by the operator is further reduced. In addition, since there are fewer mistakes in setting the transport path, the yield of semiconductor products is improved.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a substrate processing system according to the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. First, an outline of a substrate processing system according to the present invention will be described. The substrate processing system according to the present invention is characterized in that when an operator designates (sets) a transfer route on a personal computer screen, the operator designates it by a graphical GUI (Graphical User Interface) display and graphically displays the setting contents. To do. That is, the user can easily specify the position of the transported place displayed graphically, and can finally confirm the contents of the specified position by animation display. Therefore, since it is not necessary to perform an operation for setting a conveyance path that is difficult for the user to understand, it is possible to reduce mistakes in setting a material conveyance path in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, for example.

  Next, the substrate processing system of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a graphical transfer designation screen on a personal computer applied to the substrate processing system of the present invention. That is, in the substrate processing system of the present invention, the transfer designation screen by command designation as shown in FIG. 7 is changed to a transfer designation screen that is displayed as a graphic as shown in FIG. By using the transfer designation screen as shown in FIG. 1, all the items that must be specified, such as the designation of materials and the robot to be transferred, can be directly specified visually on the graphic.

  In the transfer designation screen of FIG. 1, a schematic diagram of the inside of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is drawn, and the state of the slot in each module is shown. In the figure, PM (process module) is a module for performing a process on a wafer, TH (vacuum transfer robot) is a robot for transferring a wafer in a vacuum environment, and LL (load lock) is a wafer. An isolation chamber for insertion into the vacuum module, an LH (atmospheric transfer robot) is a robot for transferring wafers in a non-vacuum environment, an LP (load port) is an interface for an apparatus to which a carrier is sent, and an AU (Aligner) is represented as an apparatus for aligning wafers in a predetermined direction.

  In the drawing, a square box in which a number is written is a button indicating a slot of each module, and a number in the button indicates a slot number. If there is material in the slot, the corresponding button is colored, indicating that there is material in that slot. In addition, module names such as PM1, PM2, LL1, LL2, and TH, robot names, and the like are attached to the respective transport locations, and the appended numbers with the same names indicate the numbers of the modules and robots.

  Next, an operation in the case of conveying a material using the conveyance designation screen shown in FIG. 1 will be described. FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a state in which a material is designated for transportation by pressing a slot button using the transportation designation screen of FIG. First, the user designates a transport material by pressing a button of a slot having a material to be transported on the transport designation screen of FIG. For example, since the buttons of all slots are colored in LP1 (load port 1), materials are placed in slots 1 to 25 of LP1 (load port 1). Therefore, when the mouse pointer 1 depresses (clicks) the button of slot 1 of LP1 (load port 1), the material at that position is designated for conveyance.

  Note that the button is disabled so that it cannot be pressed if there is no material or if the module is busy and the slot cannot be transported at present. For example, since the buttons of all slots of LP2 (load port 2) are turned off, no material is placed in slots 1 to 25 of LP2 (load port 2).

  Next, the material transport destination is designated by pressing (clicking) the button of the slot where the material is not placed at the destination (that is, the slot where the button is not colored). That is, as shown in FIG. 2, since the buttons of all slots in the isolation chamber of LL2 (load lock 2) are turned off, for example, the button of slot 2 of LL2 (load lock 2) is pressed by the mouse pointer 2 (Click) to specify that the material is transported to that position. Thus, it can be specified that the material placed in the slot 1 of the LP1 (load port 1) is transported to the slot 2 of the LL2 (load lock 2). In this embodiment, the transfer designation is performed from LP1 (load port 1). However, the present invention is not particularly limited to this mode, and the transfer designation can be performed from another module such as PM1.

  In addition, if the material is already placed, the location where the transport source cannot be transported directly, or the transport destination module is busy, etc., and the slot cannot be designated as the transport destination at this time, the corresponding button The button is disabled so that it cannot be pressed.

  When the designation of the material transport source and transport destination is completed by the above-described procedure, the transport content is displayed as an animation. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing an animation display screen displayed by the conveyance designation shown in FIG. In this animation display screen, the scheduled conveyance path is represented by an arrow, and the material repeats the animation movement along the path of the arrow. In the example of FIG. 3, the icon (ellipsoidal pellet) of the wafer (material) 1 placed in the slot 1 of LP1 (load port 1) is transferred from the slot 1 of LP1 (load port 1) to LH (atmospheric transfer). An animation transported to slot 2 of LL2 (load lock 2) via slot 1 of the robot) is displayed. Of course, in this case, it is assumed that the transfer destination of slot 1 of the LH (atmospheric transfer robot) is specified in the middle of the transfer path shown in FIG. Although the animation display function is automatically displayed at the final stage of setting for each sheet, it can be set in advance so that a plurality of sheets are designated at a time and then displayed for each plurality. In this case, some input is performed after setting.

  Next, a specific conveyance example in the case where the material is conveyed on the conveyance designation screen shown in FIG. 1 using the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus will be described. 4 is an overall configuration diagram of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus applied to the substrate processing system of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is an internal configuration diagram of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. FIG. 5 shows an internal configuration of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that performs predetermined processing while conveying, for example, a 12-inch wafer. Therefore, an outline of the operation of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus to which the transfer designation screen according to the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIGS. In the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus to which the transfer designation screen of the present invention is applied, a FOUP (Front Opening Unified Pod, hereinafter referred to as a pod) is used as a carrier for transferring a substrate such as a wafer. In the following description, the expressions front and rear, left and right are based on FIG. That is, with respect to the paper surface shown in FIG. 5, the front is below the paper surface, the back is above the paper surface, and the left and right are the left and right sides of the paper surface.

  First, the configuration of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 will be described. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus includes a first transfer chamber 103 configured in a load lock chamber structure that can withstand a pressure (negative pressure) at the end of atmospheric pressure such as a vacuum state. The casing 101 of one transfer chamber 103 is formed in a box shape in which the plan view is hexagonal and the upper and lower ends are closed. The first transfer chamber 103 is provided with a first wafer transfer machine 112 for simultaneously transferring two wafers (materials) 200 under a negative pressure. The first wafer transfer device 112 is configured to be moved up and down by the elevator 115 while maintaining the airtightness of the first transfer chamber 103. Here, the wafer transfer machine 112 corresponds to TH in FIG.

  A spare chamber 122 and a spare chamber 123 are connected to two side walls located on the front side of the six side walls of the housing 101 through gate valves 244 and 127, respectively, and can withstand negative pressure. It is configured in a load lock chamber structure. Further, a substrate holder 140 is installed in the spare chamber 122, and a substrate holder 141 is installed in the spare chamber 123. A second transfer chamber 121 used at substantially atmospheric pressure is connected to the front side of the reserve chamber 122 and the reserve chamber 123 via gate valves 128 and 129. In the second transfer chamber 121, a second wafer transfer machine 124 for transferring two wafers 200 at the same time is installed. The second wafer transfer device 124 is configured to be moved up and down by an elevator 126 installed in the second transfer chamber 121, and is configured to be reciprocated in the left-right direction by a linear actuator 132. . Here, the spare chamber 122 and the spare chamber 123 correspond to LL1 and LL2 in FIG. 1, respectively, and the second wafer transfer device 124 corresponds to LH in FIG.

  As shown in FIG. 5, an orientation flat aligning device 106 is installed on the left side of the second transfer chamber 121. As shown in FIG. 4, a clean unit 118 for supplying clean air is installed on the upper portion of the second transfer chamber 121. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the housing 125 of the second transfer chamber 121 has a wafer loading / unloading port 134 for loading / unloading the wafer 200 into / from the second transfer chamber 121, and a wafer loading / unloading. A lid 142 for closing the outlet and a pod opener 108 are installed. The pod opener 108 includes a cap of the pod 100 placed on the IO stage 105 and a cap opening / closing mechanism 136 that opens and closes a lid 142 that closes the wafer loading / unloading port 134, and the pod placed on the IO stage 105. The lid 100 that closes the cap 100 and the wafer loading / unloading port 134 is opened and closed by the cap opening / closing mechanism 136, so that the wafer can be taken in and out of the body 100. Here, the pod 100 applies to LP1 and LP2 in FIG.

  The pod 100 is supplied to and discharged from the IO stage 105 by an in-process transfer device (RGV) (not shown). As shown in FIG. 5, a first processing furnace 202 for performing a desired process on the wafer and a second processing furnace 137 are provided on two side walls located on the back side among the six side walls of the housing 101. Are connected adjacent to each other. Each of the first processing furnace 202 and the second processing furnace 137 is configured by a cold wall type processing furnace. In addition, two remaining side walls facing each other among the six side walls of the casing 101 are provided with a first cooling unit 138 as a third processing furnace and a second as a fourth processing furnace. Each of the first cooling unit 138 and the second cooling unit 139 is configured to cool the processed wafer 200. Here, the third processing furnace 138, the first processing furnace 202, the second processing furnace 137, and the fourth processing furnace 139 correspond to PM1, PM2, PM3, and PM4 in FIG. 1, respectively.

  Next, a semiconductor material processing process by the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 will be described. In a state where 25 unprocessed wafers 200 are accommodated in the pod 100, the wafer 200 is transferred to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that performs a processing step by an in-process transfer device (not shown). As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the pod 100 that has been transported is delivered and placed on the IO stage 105 from the in-process transport device. The cap 142 and the lid 142 for opening and closing the wafer loading / unloading port 134 are removed by the cap opening / closing mechanism 136, and the wafer loading / unloading port (not shown) of the pod 100 is opened.

  When the pod 100 is opened by the pod opener 108, the second wafer transfer machine 124 installed in the second transfer chamber 121 picks up two wafers 200 from the pod 100 and loads them into the spare chamber 122. Two wafers 200 are transferred onto the substrate mounting table 140. During the transfer operation, the gate valve 244 on the first transfer chamber 103 side is closed, and the negative pressure in the first transfer chamber 103 is maintained. When the transfer of the wafer 200 to the substrate table 140 is completed, the gate valve 128 is closed, and the preliminary chamber 122 is exhausted to a negative pressure by an exhaust device (not shown).

  When the preliminary chamber 122 is depressurized to a preset pressure value, the gate valves 244 and 130 are opened, and the preliminary chamber 122, the first transfer chamber 103, and the first processing furnace 202 are communicated. Subsequently, the first wafer transfer device 112 in the first transfer chamber 103 picks up the wafers 200 from the substrate placing table 140 two by two and loads them into the first processing furnace 202. Then, a processing gas is supplied into the first processing furnace 202 and a desired process is performed on the wafer 200. When the predetermined process is completed in the first processing furnace 202, the two processed wafers 200 are transferred to the first transfer chamber 103 by the first wafer transfer device 112 in the first transfer chamber 103. Then, the first wafer transfer device 112 carries the wafer 200 unloaded from the first processing furnace 202 into the first cooling unit 138 and cools the processed wafer.

  Next, when the two wafers 200 are transferred to the first cooling unit 138, the first wafer transfer machine 112 transfers the first two wafers 200 prepared in advance to the substrate table 140 in the preliminary chamber 122. The processing gas is transferred to the first processing furnace 202 by the above-described operation, a processing gas is supplied into the first processing furnace 202, and a desired processing is performed on the wafer 200.

  When a preset cooling time has elapsed in the first cooling unit 138, the cooled wafer 200 is unloaded from the first cooling unit 138 to the first transfer chamber 103 by the first wafer transfer device 112. The After the cooled two wafers 200 are carried out from the first cooling unit 138 to the first transfer chamber 103, the gate valve 127 is opened. Then, the first wafer transfer device 112 transports the two wafers 200 unloaded from the first cooling unit 138 to the preliminary chamber 123 and transfers them to the substrate table 141, and then the preliminary chamber 123 has the gate valve 127. Closed by.

  Then, when the preliminary chamber 123 is closed by the gate valve 127, the inside of the preliminary chamber 123 is returned to approximately atmospheric pressure by the non-circular gas. When the inside of the preliminary chamber 123 is returned to substantially atmospheric pressure, the gate valve 129 is opened, and the lid 142 that closes the wafer loading / unloading port 134 corresponding to the preliminary chamber 123 of the second transfer chamber 121 and the IO stage 105 are mounted. The cap of the placed empty pod 100 is opened by the pod opener 108.

  Subsequently, the second wafer transfer device 124 in the second transfer chamber 121 picks up the two wafers 200 from the substrate table 141 and carries them out to the second transfer chamber 121, and the second transfer chamber 121. The wafer is stored in the pod 100 through the wafer loading / unloading port 134. When the processing of 25 processed wafers 200 into the pod 100 is completed in this way, the lid 142 that closes the cap of the pod 100 and the wafer loading / unloading port 134 is closed by the pod opener 108. The closed pod 100 is transferred from the top of the IO stage 105 to the next process by an in-process transfer device (not shown).

  By repeating the above operation, wafers (materials) are sequentially processed two by two. The operation as described above has been described by taking the case where the first processing furnace 202 and the first cooling unit 138 are used as an example, but the second processing furnace 137 and the second cooling unit 139 are used. The same operation is performed also in the case of In the substrate processing process in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, the spare chamber 122 may be used for loading, the spare chamber 123 may be used for carrying out, or the spare chamber 123 may be used for loading, and the spare chamber 122 may be used for carrying out. Moreover, the 1st processing furnace 202 and the 2nd processing furnace 137 may perform the same process, respectively, and may perform another process. In the case where different processing is performed in the first processing furnace 202 and the second processing furnace 137, for example, after the processing on the wafer 200 is performed in the first processing furnace 202, the second processing furnace 137 continues. Another process may be performed. In the case where another processing is performed in the second processing furnace 137 after performing the processing on the wafer 200 in the first processing furnace 202, the first cooling unit 138 (or the second cooling unit 139) is installed. You may make it go through. In this embodiment mode, the present invention is applied to a semiconductor material such as a wafer, which is a kind of substrate.

  That is, when performing the substrate processing as described above in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, if the transfer designation of the wafer is performed using the transfer designation screen shown in FIG. 1, the transfer route as shown in FIG. 3 is displayed on the animation screen. Then, a predetermined process is performed while the wafer is transported along the trajectory. Therefore, the operator can perform the substrate processing operation by the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus by accurately specifying the predetermined transfer path without making a transfer specification error even in a complicated transfer path. Thereby, the yield of semiconductor products can be further improved. In the unlikely event that the operator makes a setting mistake in the middle of transport designation, pressing the button that was set at that time will cancel the designation of the transport destination by that button. Just push it.

It is a figure which shows the graphical conveyance designation | designated screen on the personal computer applied to the substrate processing system of this invention. It is a figure which shows the state which presses the button of a slot using the conveyance designation | designated screen of FIG. 1, and designates conveyance of a material. It is a figure which shows the animation display screen displayed by the conveyance designation | designated shown in FIG. It is a whole block diagram of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus applied to the substrate processing system of this invention. It is an internal block diagram of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. In the conventional substrate processing system, it is a conceptual diagram which shows the state in which an operator sets the conveyance content of material by the operation screen of a personal computer. It is a figure which shows the conveyance designation | designated screen when it operates on the operation screen of FIG. It is a conceptual diagram which shows the state in which material is conveyed by the designated path | route when the conveyance command is input on the conveyance designation | designated screen of FIG.

Explanation of symbols

  PM1, PM2, PM3, PM4 process module, TH vacuum transfer robot, LL1, LL2 load lock, LH atmospheric transfer robot, LP1, LP2 load port, AU aligner, 1,11 wafer, 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d, 12e module .

Claims (1)

A substrate processing system for setting a substrate transport information on an operation screen of a controller and executing a desired substrate processing step while transporting the substrate,
A plurality of modules for carrying and / or processing the substrate;
A transfer designation screen for displaying the plurality of modules on the controller;
With
A substrate processing system, wherein a transfer path of the substrate is set by sequentially accessing the plurality of modules displayed on the transfer designation screen.

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