# US 10,872,797 B2 · Substrate processing apparatus and method of operating substrate processing apparatus

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- Number: US 10,872,797 B2
- Document ID: US10872797B2
- Status: Granted
- Kind: B2
- Application number: 16/224,952
- Filed: 2018-12-19
- Published: 2019-06-27
- Granted: 2020-12-22
- Earliest claimed: 2017-12-22
- Assignees: Tokyo Electron Limited
- Applicants: Tokyo Electron Limited
- Inventors: Hiromitsu Sakaue; Junpei Sasaki
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10872797B2

## CPC

- H10P 72/3302: {Mechanical parts of transfer devices}
- B25J 9/0048: {with kinematics chains of the type rotary-rotary-rotary}
- B25J 9/107: {of the froglegs type}
- B25J 9/1623: {Parallel manipulator, Stewart platform, links are attached to a common base and to a common platform, plate which is moved parallel to the base}
- B25J 11/0095: {Manipulators transporting wafers}
- B25J 18/04: rotatable
- H10P 72/0606: {Position monitoring, e.g. misposition detection or presence detection}
- H10P 72/3306: {Horizontal transfer of a single workpiece}
- H10P 72/3314: {Continuous loading and unloading into and out of a processing chamber, e.g. transporting belts within processing chambers}
- H10P 72/53: {using optical controlling means}
- H10P: GENERIC PROCESSES OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OR TREATMENT OF DEVICES COVERED BY CLASS H10
- B25J: MANIPULATORS; CHAMBERS PROVIDED WITH MANIPULATION DEVICES ({manipulators specially adapted for use in surgery A61B34/70; manipulators used in cleaning hollow articles B08B9/04}; manipulators associated with rolling mills B21B39/20; manipulators associated with forging machines B21J13/10; {manipulators associated with picking-up and placing mechanisms B23P19/007}; means for holding wheels or parts thereof B60B30/00; {vehicles with ground-engaging propulsion means, e.g. walking members B62D57/02, B62D57/032; devices for picking-up and depositing articles or materials between conveyors B65G47/90, B65G47/91; manipulators with gripping or holding means for transferring packages B65H67/065}; cranes B66C; {manipulators used in the protection or supervision of pipe-line installations F17D5/00; walking equipment adapted for nuclear steam-generators F22B37/006}; manipulators specially adapted for, or associated with, nuclear reactors G21C; {apparatus used for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor H10P72/50})

## Abstract

A substrate processing apparatus, includes: a substrate transfer mechanism configured to advance and retreat a holding body that holds a substrate by symmetrically arranging two link mechanisms each including a driving arm and a driven arm; a processing module; a rotation angle measuring part configured to measure a rotation angle the driving arms; a holding body detection part configured to detect that a specific portion of the holding body is located at a predetermined position; and a controller configured to execute a step of acquiring a measurement value of the rotation angle of the driving arm, a step of obtaining a moving average of the measurement value of the rotation angle, and a step of obtaining a correction amount of the rotation angle so that a substrate transfer position of the holding body of the substrate transfer mechanism for the processing module becomes a reference position.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A substrate processing apparatus, comprising:
a substrate transfer mechanism configured to advance and retreat a holding body that holds a substrate by bilaterally symmetrically arranging two link mechanisms each including a driving arm and a driven arm connected to each other so as to horizontally rotate, connecting the holding body at a leading end of each of the driven arms of the link mechanisms so that the holding body horizontally rotates, and horizontally rotating the driving arms synchronously by a driving part;
a processing module configured to process the substrate in a heated state, the substrate being transferred by the substrate transfer mechanism;
a rotation angle measuring part configured to measure a rotation angle of at least one of the driving arms;
a holding body detection part configured to detect that a specific portion of the holding body is located at a predetermined position; and
a controller configured to execute a step of acquiring a measurement value of the rotation angle of at least one of the driving arms when the specific portion is detected by the holding body detection part by positioning the specific portion of the holding body at the predetermined position at preset time intervals, a step of obtaining a moving average of a preset sampling number for the measurement value of the rotation angle based on time series data of the measurement value of the rotation angle acquired in the step of acquiring the measurement value, and a step of obtaining a correction amount of the rotation angle of at least one of the driving arms obtained in advance so that a substrate transfer position of the holding body of the substrate transfer mechanism for the processing module becomes a reference position, according to a comparison result between a value of the moving average and a value of a reference rotation angle which is a rotation angle of at least one of the driving arms when the specific portion of the holding body of the substrate transfer mechanism at a reference temperature is located at the predetermined position.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the step of obtaining the correction amount obtains the correction amount by being further based on a distance from a rotation center of the substrate transfer mechanism to the predetermined position, and a distance from the rotation center of the substrate transfer mechanism to the specific portion when the holding body is located at the substrate transfer position, in addition to the comparison result between the value of the moving average and the value of the reference rotation angle.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the reference temperature is a room temperature.

### Claim 4 (depends on 3)

The apparatus of claim 3, wherein when a number of time series data is less than the preset sampling number in an initial stage of starting the operation of the substrate transfer mechanism at the room temperature, the reference rotation angle or a value close to the reference rotation angle is assigned as a measurement value of a rotation angle for an insufficient sampling number.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, wherein after the substrate transfer mechanism is retracted from the processing module and waits, when the substrate transfer mechanism which is in a temperature state higher than a room temperature resumes a transfer operation, if there is no waiting time series data, a value obtained based on the measurement value of the rotation angle acquired before the substrate transfer mechanism waits is assigned as the time series data.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a load lock chamber configured to be switched between a normal pressure atmosphere and a vacuum atmosphere and having a loading part on which the substrate is loaded; and
a vacuum transfer chamber which is airtightly connected to the load lock chamber and in which the substrate transfer mechanism is disposed,
wherein the processing module is further configured to perform vacuum processing on the substrate and is airtightly connected to the vacuum transfer chamber.

### Claim 7

A method of operating a substrate processing apparatus including a substrate transfer mechanism configured to advance and retreat a holding body that holds a substrate by bilaterally symmetrically arranging two link mechanisms each including a driving arm and a driven arm connected to each other so as to horizontally rotate, connecting the holding body at a leading end of each of the driven arms of the mechanisms so that the holding body horizontally rotates, and horizontally rotating the driving arms synchronously by a driving part; and a processing module configured to process the substrate in a heated state, the substrate being transferred by the substrate transfer mechanism, the method comprising:
acquiring a measurement value of a rotation angle of at least one of the driving arms when a specific portion of the holding body is detected by a holding body detection part by positioning the specific portion of the holding body at the predetermined position at preset time intervals;
obtaining a moving average of a preset sampling number for the measurement value of the rotation angle based on time series data of the measurement value of the rotation angle acquired in the step of acquiring the measurement value; and
obtaining a correction amount of the rotation angle of at least one of the driving arms obtained in advance so that a substrate transfer position of the holding body of the substrate transfer mechanism for the processing module becomes a reference position, according to a comparison result between a value of the moving average and a value of a reference rotation angle which is a rotation angle of at least one of the driving arms when the specific portion of the holding body of the substrate transfer mechanism at a reference temperature is located at the predetermined position.