JP2011114250A - Substrate processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of preventing a malfunction after restarting when a shut-down is not a normal termination. <P>SOLUTION: The substrate processing apparatus includes a notification means for notifying an operator when the shut-down is not a normal termination after starting the substrate processing apparatus that the shut-down is not a normal termination, after restarting the substrate processing apparatus, and a stopping means for temporarily stopping each section of the substrate processing apparatus until the operator performs a proper procedure after restarting the substrate processing apparatus. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2011,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate such as a semiconductor substrate or a glass substrate.

  Patent Document 1 describes a failure diagnosis apparatus for a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that notifies an operator of the cause of the abnormality and an appropriate repair method when an abnormality occurs in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. However, it is unclear whether the operator who has been notified of the abnormality actually performs the repair work by an appropriate repair method. For example, if the operator did not perform repair work to resolve this abnormality even though an abnormality that the shutdown did not end normally was notified, it will be retained if the shutdown is normal Information that should be performed (for example, contents worked by an operator or the like before the shutdown) is not retained, and there is a possibility that a malfunction may occur after restart.

JP-A-10-21079

  An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate processing apparatus capable of preventing a malfunction after a restart when the shutdown is not normally completed.

  In order to achieve the above object, in the substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention, if the shutdown does not end normally after starting the substrate processing apparatus, the shutdown ends normally after restarting the substrate processing apparatus. A notifying means for notifying that there has not been, and a stopping means for temporarily stopping the substrate processing apparatus.

  According to the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to prevent a malfunction after the restart when the shutdown is not normally completed.

1 is a perspective view of a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is sectional drawing of the substrate processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. 1 is a hardware configuration of a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is the processing flow after starting of the control program performed on the substrate processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention. It is the processing flow after restart of the control program performed on the substrate processing apparatus which concerns on embodiment of this invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments for carrying out the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.
[Detailed Configuration of Substrate Processing Apparatus 10]
FIG. 1 shows a substrate processing apparatus 10 using a perspective view. FIG. 2 shows the substrate processing apparatus 10 using a side perspective view.
The substrate processing apparatus 10 processes a wafer 100 made of silicon or the like used as a substrate.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the substrate processing apparatus 10 includes a substrate processing apparatus main body 11. In the substrate processing apparatus 10, a hoop (substrate container; hereinafter referred to as a pod) 101 that is used as a wafer carrier storing the wafer 100 is used.
A front maintenance port 102 used as an opening provided for maintenance is installed in the front front portion of the front wall 11a of the substrate processing apparatus main body 11, and a front maintenance door 103 for opening and closing the front maintenance port 102 is installed. It has been. An operation unit (not shown) is installed in the vicinity of the upper front maintenance door 103.

A pod loading / unloading port 104 is opened on the front wall 11 a of the substrate processing apparatus body 11 so as to communicate with the inside and outside of the substrate processing apparatus body 11, and the pod loading / unloading unit 104 is opened and closed by the front shutter 105. It has become.
A load port 106 is installed on the front front side of the pod loading / unloading unit 104, and the load port 106 is configured so that the pod 101 is placed and aligned. The pod 101 is loaded onto the load port 106 by an in-process transfer device (not shown) and unloaded from the load port 106.

  A rotary pod shelf 107 is installed at an upper portion of the substrate processing apparatus main body 11 in a substantially central portion in the front-rear direction, and the rotary pod shelf 107 is configured to store a plurality of pods 101. That is, the rotary pod shelf 107 includes a column 108 that is vertically installed and intermittently rotates in a horizontal plane, and a plurality of shelf plates 109 that are radially supported by the column 108 at each of the upper, middle, and lower levels. The plurality of shelves 109 are configured to hold the pods 101 in a state where the pods 101 are respectively placed on the plurality.

  A pod transfer device 110 is installed between the load port 106 and the rotary pod shelf 107 in the substrate processing apparatus main body 11. The pod transfer device 110 can be moved up and down while holding the pod 101. And a pod transport mechanism 110b as a transport mechanism. The pod transport device 110 is connected to the load port 106, the rotary pod shelf 107, and the pod opener 111 by continuous operation of the pod elevator 110a and the pod transport mechanism 110b. It is comprised so that the pod 101 may be conveyed between.

  A sub-housing 112 is installed across the rear end of the substrate processing apparatus main body 11 at a lower portion in a substantially central portion in the front-rear direction. A pair of wafer loading / unloading ports 113 for loading / unloading the wafer 100 into / from the sub-casing 112 are arranged on the front wall 112a of the sub-casing 112 in two vertical rows. A pair of pod openers 111 are respectively installed at the lower wafer loading / unloading port 113. The pod opener 111 includes a mounting table 114 on which the pod 101 is mounted and a cap attaching / detaching mechanism 115 for attaching / detaching the cap of the pod. The pod opener 111 is configured to open and close the wafer loading / unloading opening of the pod 101 by attaching / detaching the cap of the pod 101 placed on the placing table 114 by the cap attaching / detaching mechanism 115.

  The sub-housing 112 constitutes a transfer chamber 116 that is fluidly isolated from the installation space of the pod transfer device 110 and the rotary pod shelf 107. A wafer transfer mechanism 117 is installed in the front region of the transfer chamber 116. The wafer transfer mechanism 117 is capable of rotating or linearly moving the wafer 100 in the horizontal direction and a wafer transfer apparatus 117a. It is comprised with the wafer transfer apparatus elevator 117b for raising / lowering. As schematically shown in FIG. 1, the wafer transfer apparatus elevator 117 b is installed between the right end of the substrate processing apparatus main body 11 and the right end of the front area of the transfer chamber 116 of the sub housing 112. By the continuous operation of the wafer transfer device elevator 117b and the wafer transfer device 117a, the wafer 100 is loaded (charging) on the boat 118 with the tweezer 117c of the wafer transfer device 117a as the placement portion of the wafer 100. It is configured to be removed (discharged).

  In the rear area of the transfer chamber 116, a standby unit 119 that accommodates and waits for the boat 118 is configured. A processing furnace 120 is provided above the standby unit 119. A lower end portion of the processing furnace 120 is configured to be opened and closed by a furnace port shutter 121.

As schematically shown in FIG. 1, a boat elevator 122 for raising and lowering the boat 118 is installed between the right end of the substrate processing apparatus main body 11 and the right end of the standby unit 119 of the sub housing 112. ing. A seal cap 124 serving as a lid is horizontally installed on an arm 123 serving as a connecting tool connected to a lifting platform of the boat elevator 122, and the seal cap 124 supports the boat 118 vertically, and a lower end of the processing furnace 120. It is comprised so that a part can be obstruct | occluded.
The boat 118 includes a plurality of holding members, and is configured to hold a plurality of (for example, about 50 to 125) wafers 100 horizontally in a state where the centers thereof are aligned in the vertical direction. Has been.

  Further, as schematically shown in FIG. 1, a clean atmosphere or an inert gas is present at the left end of the transfer chamber 116 opposite to the wafer transfer device elevator 117b side and the boat elevator 122 side. A clean unit 126 composed of a supply fan and a dustproof filter is installed so as to supply clean air 125, and the position of the wafer in the circumferential direction is set between the wafer transfer device 117a and the clean unit 126. A notch alignment device (not shown) is installed as a substrate alignment device for alignment.

  The clean air 125 blown out from the clean unit 126 is circulated through the notch aligner / wafer transfer device 117a and the boat 118 in the standby unit 119, and is then sucked in by a duct (not shown), and the substrate processing apparatus main body 11 Is exhausted to the outside, or is circulated to the primary side (supply side) which is the suction side of the clean unit 126, and is again blown out into the transfer chamber 117 by the clean unit 126. .

[Operation of the substrate processing apparatus 10]
Next, the operation of the substrate processing apparatus 10 of the present invention will be described.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, when the pod 101 is supplied to the load port 106, the pod loading / unloading port 104 is opened by the front shutter 105, and the pod 101 above the load port 106 is connected to the pod transfer device. 110 is carried into the substrate processing apparatus main body 11 from the pod loading / unloading port 104.

  The loaded pod 101 is automatically transported and delivered by the pod transport device 110 to the designated shelf plate 109 of the rotary pod shelf 107, temporarily stored, and then one pod opener from the shelf plate 109. After being transferred to 111 and delivered and temporarily stored, it is transferred from the shelf plate 109 to one pod opener 111 and transferred to the mounting table 114, or directly transferred to the pod opener 111 and loaded. It is transferred to the mounting table 114. At this time, the wafer loading / unloading port 113 of the pod opener 111 is closed by the cap attaching / detaching mechanism 115, and clean air 125 is circulated and filled in the transfer chamber 116. For example, the transfer chamber 116 is filled with nitrogen gas as clean air 125, so that the oxygen concentration is set to 20 ppm or less, which is much lower than the oxygen concentration inside the substrate processing apparatus body 11 (atmosphere). .

The pod 101 mounted on the mounting table 114 has its opening-side end face pressed against the opening edge of the wafer loading / unloading port 113 in the front wall 112a of the sub-housing 112, and the cap is removed by the cap attaching / detaching mechanism 123. The wafer loading / unloading port is opened.
When the pod 101 is opened by the pod opener 111, the wafer 100 is picked up from the pod 101 by the tweezer 117c of the wafer transfer device 117a through the wafer loading / unloading port, aligned with the wafer by a notch alignment device (not shown), and then transferred. It is carried into the standby section 119 behind the loading chamber 116 and loaded (charged) into the boat 118. The wafer transfer device 117 a that has transferred the wafer 100 to the boat 118 returns to the pod 101 and loads the next wafer into the boat 118.

  During the loading operation of the wafer into the boat 118 by the wafer transfer mechanism 117 in the one (upper or lower) pod opener 111, the other (lower or upper) pod opener 111 receives another pod from the rotary pod shelf 107. 101 is transferred and transferred by the pod transfer device 110, and the opening operation of the pod 101 by the pod opener 111 is simultaneously performed.

  When a predetermined number of wafers 100 are loaded into the boat 118, the lower end of the processing furnace 120 closed by the furnace port shutter 121 is opened by the furnace port shutter 121. Subsequently, the boat 118 holding the group of wafers 100 is loaded into the processing furnace 120 when the seal cap 124 is lifted by the boat elevator 122.

After loading, arbitrary processing is performed on the wafer 100 in the processing furnace 120.
After the processing, the wafer 100 and the pod 101 are ejected to the outside of the casing by the reverse procedure described above except for the wafer alignment process in a notch alignment apparatus (not shown).

[Hardware Configuration of Substrate Processing Apparatus 10]
Hereinafter, a hardware configuration of the substrate processing apparatus 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention will be described.
FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating a hardware configuration of the substrate processing apparatus 10.
In the substrate processing apparatus 10, an input / output device 14 is provided integrally with the substrate processing apparatus 10 or connected via a network. The operator inputs a predetermined instruction or monitors the status of the substrate processing apparatus 10 via the operation screen of the substrate processing apparatus 10. Here, the predetermined instruction is, for example, an instruction for starting the main control unit 16, an instruction for restarting the main control unit 16, an instruction for shutting down the main control unit 16, and causing the substrate processing apparatus 10 to execute the recipe. Instructions. A recipe is a file that describes detailed procedures for substrate processing.

  The input / output device 14 receives data from the operation unit 140 that receives an operation such as an instruction input by an operator, a display unit 142 that displays data from the transmission / reception processing unit 164, and data from the transmission / reception processing unit 164 via the operation screen. It has a display control unit 144 that outputs to the display unit 142 or outputs the contents of an operation received by the operation unit 140 (such as an input instruction) to the transmission / reception processing unit 164.

In addition, a main controller 16 as a main controller is provided in the substrate processing apparatus 10.
The main control unit 16 includes a CPU 160, a storage unit 162 such as a ROM (Read Only Memory), a RAM (Random Access Memory), and an HDD (Hard Disk Drive), a transmission / reception processing unit 164, an I / O control unit 166, and a sub-control unit 18. Have Further, the sub control unit 18 includes a pressure control unit 168, a gas control unit 170, a temperature control unit 172, and a transfer control unit 174, and functions as a sub controller of the main control unit 16. The storage unit 162 stores a recipe, a control program (details will be described later), a shutdown information file, a backup file, and the like.

  The recipe stored in the storage unit 162 is displayed on the operation screen via the transmission / reception processing unit 164 and the execution is instructed by the operator. The CPU 160 sends control data (control instructions) for processing the substrate based on the recipe instructed to be executed by the operator via the I / O control unit 166, the pressure control unit 168, the gas control unit 170, and the temperature control. To the process controller such as the unit 172 and the transfer control unit 174.

The pressure control unit 168 controls the pressure in the processing chamber by opening and closing the valve 178 based on the control instruction from the CPU 160 and the output value of the pressure sensor 176 provided in the exhaust pipe 180 of the processing chamber. The gas control unit 170 controls the supply amount of the reaction gas supplied into the processing chamber based on the control instruction from the CPU 160 and the output value from the MFC (mass flow controller) 182 provided in the gas pipe 184 of the processing chamber. . Based on the control instruction from the CPU 160, the temperature control unit 172 controls the temperature in the processing chamber by the heater 186 provided on the outer peripheral portion of the processing chamber described above. The transfer control unit 174 controls the position of the boat and the like based on the control instruction from the CPU 160 and the output value of the motor 188 provided in the pod transfer device 110, the wafer transfer device 117, the boat elevator 122, and the like.
As described above, the sub-control unit 18 is based on the control instruction from the CPU 160 and the output values indicating the states of the respective units (valve 178, MFC 182, heater 186, motor 188, etc.) of the substrate processing apparatus 10. 10 parts are controlled. The output value indicating the state of each part of the substrate processing apparatus 10 can be monitored from the operation screen via the I / O control unit 166, the transmission / reception processing unit 164, and the like.

The control program stored in the storage unit 162 starts processing by using, as a trigger, an instruction to start and restart the control unit 16 by the operator via the transmission / reception processing unit 164 or the like. . Each step constituting the process is executed by the CPU.
When an instruction to activate the control unit 16 is input, a new shutdown information file is created, and a message indicating that the shutdown is not performed is written, and then an instruction to execute the recipe is accepted. During the recipe execution or after the recipe execution, an instruction to execute the shutdown is accepted, and when the shutdown ends normally, the shutdown information file is overwritten to indicate that the shutdown has been performed before the substrate processing apparatus 10 is turned off. Thereafter, information on the substrate processing apparatus 10 before shutdown (for example, output types indicating the types of recipes that have been executed and the status of each unit of the substrate processing apparatus 10) is stored as a backup file. On the other hand, when the shutdown is not completed normally, the power of the substrate processing apparatus 10 is turned off as it is.

When an instruction to restart the control unit 16 is input, the shutdown information file is read to determine whether or not the shutdown has been completed normally. Specifically, if a message indicating that the shutdown has not been performed is written, it is determined that the shutdown has not been completed normally, and if a message indicating that the shutdown has been performed is written Judge that the shutdown was completed normally. If it is determined that the shutdown did not end normally, an alarm notification to that effect is sent to the operator (for example, an e-mail indicating that is sent to the operator, and The sub-control unit 18 is controlled so that each unit of the substrate processing apparatus 10 is temporarily stopped.
Note that an alarm is notified and each part of the substrate processing apparatus 10 is temporarily stopped until the operator takes an appropriate measure (for example, the operator reads a backup file when shutdown is normally completed).

FIG. 4 is a processing flow after starting a control program executed on the substrate processing apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. 4, the processing flow is started with the input of an instruction to activate the control unit 16 as a trigger.
In step 100 (S100), a new shutdown information file is created in the storage unit 162 and information indicating that the shutdown has not been performed is written.
In step 102 (S102), an instruction for causing the substrate processing apparatus 10 to execute a recipe is received from the operator via the transmission / reception processing unit 164 or the like.
In step 104 (S104), it is determined whether or not the shutdown has been completed normally. If the shutdown has been completed normally, the process proceeds to step 106. Otherwise, the power is turned off.
In step 106 (S106), after the information indicating that the shutdown has been performed is overwritten in the shutdown information file created in step 100, the information before shutdown is stored in the storage unit 162 as a backup file, and the power is turned off. .

FIG. 5 is a processing flow after restarting the control program executed on the substrate processing apparatus 10. As shown in FIG. 5, the processing flow is started with the input of an instruction to restart the control unit 16 as a trigger.
In step 200 (S200), the shutdown information file stored in the storage unit 162 is read.
In step 202 (S202), if the shutdown information file read in step 200 indicates that the shutdown has not been performed, it is determined that the shutdown has not been completed normally, and the shutdown is performed. If it is written that it indicates that the shutdown has been completed, it is determined that the shutdown has ended normally. If the shutdown is completed normally, the process proceeds to step 204. If not, the process proceeds to step 206.
In step 204 (S204), the backup file saved in step 106 of FIG. 4 is read from the storage unit 162, and the state of the substrate processing apparatus 10 before the previous shutdown is reproduced.
In step 206 (S206), for example, the sub-control unit 18 is notified via the transmission / reception processing unit 164 and the like, for example, that the shutdown has not been completed normally, and that each unit of the substrate processing apparatus 10 is temporarily stopped. Is controlled.
In step 208 (S208), it is determined whether or not an appropriate action has been taken by the operator, and the process in step 206 is performed unless an appropriate process is performed.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate processing system 10 Substrate processing apparatus 11 Substrate processing apparatus main body 100 Wafer 101 Pod 102 Front maintenance port 103 Front maintenance door 104 Pod loading / unloading port 105 Front shutter 106 Load port 107 Rotating pod shelf 108 Support column 109 Substrate container mounting table 110 Pod transfer device 111 Pod opener 112 Sub housing 113 Wafer loading / unloading port 114 Mounting table 115 Cap attaching / detaching mechanism 116 Transfer chamber 117 Wafer transferring mechanism 118 Boat 119 Waiting unit 120 Processing furnace 121 Furnace shutter 122 Boat elevator 123 Arm 124 Seal Cap 125 Clean air 126 Clean unit

Claims (1)

After shutdown of the substrate processing equipment, if shutdown did not end normally,
After restarting the substrate processing apparatus, a notification means for notifying that the shutdown has not ended normally;
A substrate processing apparatus having stop means for temporarily stopping the substrate processing apparatus after the substrate processing apparatus is restarted.

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