Wafer process monitoring system and method
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsMing-Sung Hung, Chia-Lun Chen, Cheng-Hao Kuo
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Abstract
The present disclosure provides a system and method for determining condition of wafers during processing of the wafers. The system and method include detecting vibrations of a wafer transfer robot, generating signals based upon the vibrations, and processing the signals for determining a condition of the wafers held by the wafer transfer robot.
Claims20
A system, comprising:
- a wafer lift configured to move at least one wafer into a processing region for performing a processing step on the at least one wafer;
- a wafer transfer robot having a first arm and a second arm positioned opposite to the first arm, the wafer transfer robot configured to hold the at least one wafer between the first and second arms and place the at least one wafer on the wafer lift;
- a vibration sensor attached to at least one of the first and second arms, and configured to detect vibration of the wafer transfer robot during holding of the at least one wafer by the wafer transfer robot and generate detection signals based upon the vibration, the vibration sensor being communicatively coupled to a processing module;
- and
- a wafer count sensor configured to detect a number of wafers of the at least one wafer placed by the wafer transfer robot on the wafer lift and generate a wafer count signal, the wafer count sensor being communicatively coupled to the processing module;
- wherein, the processing module includes a memory, the memory configured to store signal patterns, and the processing module configured to determine a condition of the at least one wafer placed by the wafer transfer robot based on the detection signals, the signal patterns and the wafer count signal.
A system for use with a semiconductor bench, the semiconductor bench including at least one semiconductor processing region and at least one wafer lift, each wafer lift configured to move wafers into the processing region of a corresponding semiconductor processing tank and move the wafers out of the processing region, the system comprising:
- a wafer transfer robot configured to hold at least one wafer and place the at least one wafer on a wafer lift;
- a wafer count sensor configured to detect a number of wafers of the at least one wafer held by the wafer transfer robot, generate a wafer count signal and send the wafer count signal to a processing module;
- and
- a vibration sensor attached to the wafer transfer robot and configured to detect vibration of the wafer transfer robot as the wafer transfer robot holds the at least one wafer, generate a vibration signal based upon the vibration, and send the vibration signal to the processing module, the processing module configured to determine a condition of the at least one wafer held by the wafer transfer robot based on the wafer count signal vibration signal.
A method for determining condition of wafers during processing of the wafers by a wafer processing system, the method comprising:
- holding one or more wafers between a first arm and a second arm of a wafer transfer robot, the first arm being opposite to the second arm;
- detecting vibration of the wafer transfer robot by a vibration sensor attached to one of the first and second arms;
- generating a detection signal based upon the detected vibration;
- detecting a number of the one or more wafers held by the wafer transfer robot;
- generating a wafer count signal based on the number of wafers detected;
- processing the detection signal and the wafer count signal by a processing module, the processing module having a memory, and the memory including signal patterns;
- and
- determining, by the processing module, based on the detection signal, signal patterns and the wafer count signal, a condition of the one or more wafers held by the wafer transfer robot.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.