System, process, apparatus and program for controlling special lot carrying in semiconductor carrying facility

A carrying control system comprising:

• stockers for storing therein special purpose lots comprising wafers which will not be processed in production facilities, or said special purpose lots and usual lots comprising wafers which will be processed by production facilities, and
• a carrying host computer for controlling automatic carrying of lots in carrying facilities,
• wherein said carrying host computer comprises:
• a storage unit for registering carrying patterns which define a carrying path or paths for special purpose lots;
• and
• means which receives a report of receipt of said special purpose lot or lots by said one of stockers transmitted from said one of the stockers when said special purpose lot or lots are received by said one of the stocker in said carrying pattern, for initiating a counting means and for assuming that processing of said special purpose lot or lots stored in said stocker are completed when a result of count in said counting means shows the lapse of a predetermined period of time, for determining next stocker to which said special purpose lot or lots are to be carried next in accordance with said carrying pattern corresponding to said special purpose lot or lots stored in said storage unit, and for sending to said one of the stockers which stores said special purpose lot or lots a carrying instruction for carrying special purpose lot or lots to a next stocker.

A carrying control system comprising:

• stockers each for one step for storing lots of wafers which are put into production facilities in a production process and special purpose lots of wafers, which are automatically carried between steps by interoperat ion carrying means without being put into the production facilities in a process, and
• a carrying host computer for controlling the carrying of lots in carrying facilities, wherein said host computer comprises:
• a storage unit for preliminarily storing carrying patterns each comprising a series of steps defining a carrying path for each of said special purpose wafer lots, and
• means which receives a report of the receipt of a lot or lots from said stocker to start a timer, said means assuming that processing of said special purpose lot or lots which will not be put into the production facilities in a process is completed in a step corresponding to said stocker when said timer times out, for determining a step to which said special purpose lot or lots to be carried next in accordance with said carrying pattern corresponding to said special purpose to be stored in said storage, and for sending a carrying instruction to carry said special purpose lot or lots to said next step.

A carrying control system for automatically carrying wafers on a lot by lot basis on carrying facilities laid between/across steps by means of interoperat ion carrying means, wherein a carrying host computer for controlling the carrying of lots in said carrying facility comprises:

• a storage unit having a carrying path pattern table for registering carrying patterns comprising a series of steps defining the carrying paths (referred to as “carrying steps”) of the special purpose lot or lots which will not be processed in the production facilities and pattern identification information IDs in a corresponding relationship thereto in addition to a storage lot table for managing the lot or lots stored in the stocker at said each step and a lot path table for storing and managing the correspondence between the lot identification information IDs of said special purpose lot or lots and the pattern ID, and the in-process step at said carrying step;
• means for initiating a timer and determining the purpose of said lot or lots in response to a report of reception of said lot or lots from one of the stockers when the lot or lots are received by said one of the stockers in said carrying step;
• means which assumes that processing of the lot or lots in the step to which said stocker belongs is completed when said timer times out if a result of said determination shows that the lot or lots have a special purpose and acquires a pattern ID or IDs corresponding to-the lot or lots ID or IDs from the lot ID or IDs of said special purpose lot or lots with reference to said lot or lots path table, acquires a carrying pattern corresponding to said pattern ID or IDs by retrieving said carrying path pattern table based upon said pattern ID or IDs for determining a next step as an in-process step if the next step exists in said carrying pattern;
• and
• means for sending a carrying instruction to said one of the stockers which store said special purpose lot or lots to issue and carry said special purpose lot or lots to the stocker in said in-process step;
• said stocker storing said special purpose lot or lots being adapted to receive the carrying instruction from said carrying host computer to issue said special purpose lot or lots, so that said special purpose lot or lots are automatically carried on a path to the stocker at the next step.

A carrying system in semiconductor carrying facilities comprising:

• interoperation carrying means for automatically carrying wafers on a lot by lot basis in interoperation carrying facilities,
• stockers, at least one for each step, for storing the lots and for controlling receiving, sending out and carrying of the lots based upon an input carrying instruction;
• a carrying host computer for controlling carrying of each lot and for supplying a carrying instruction to each of the stockers;
• a host computer for controlling semiconductor manufacturing, which manages processing conditions and advance of each lot and includes a list of lots,
• said host computer and said carrying host computer being connected to each other via a network, said stockers being connected to said network via an interoperation carrying controller which controls the carrying between processing steps,
• wherein said carrying host computer comprises a storage unit comprising:
• a storage lot table for storing and controlling the lots stored in said each stocker,
• a carrying path pattern table for registering carrying patterns comprising a series of processing steps referred to as “carrying steps”, defining a carrying path or paths of a special purpose lot or lots which will not processed by production facilities and information on a cycle through the carrying path or paths in a corresponding relationship with a pattern identification information ID, and
• a lot path table for storing and managing lot identification information ID of said special purpose lot, the pattern ID and in-process step in said carrying step in a corresponding manner,
• a storage lot table managing unit for managing said storage lot table;
• a carrying path pattern table managing unit for managing registration, retrieval and update of data on said carrying path pattern table;
• a lot path table managing unit for managing registration, retrieval and update of data on said lot path table;
• a carrying report processing unit which receives a carrying report from said stocker via said interoperation carrying controller;
• a carrying instruction processing unit for transmitting a carrying instruction to said stocker via said interoperation carrying controller;
• a lot purpose discriminating unit for discriminating the purpose of the lot or lots received by said stocker;
• process changing unit for controlling the change in in-process step in said lot path table;
• a carrying instruction and report managing unit having a timer and timer controlling unit for controlling said timer;
• and
• a general control unit for controlling the whole of the system;
• and
• wherein when said special purpose lot or lots are received by one of the stockers in said carrying step, said carrying host computer notifies said control unit of the receipt report from said stocker via said carrying report processing unit, and the timer is started by said timer controlling unit;
• wherein reception of said lot by said stocker is registered into the storage lot table corresponding to said stocker in said storage lot table managing unit under control of said general control unit;
• wherein the purpose of said received lot is acquired by inquiring said host computer in said purpose discriminating unit;
• wherein said timer controlling unit notifies of a report of the completion of a step corresponding to said stocker when said timer times out if the said received lot or lots have a special purpose;
• wherein in response to said notification of said step completion report, said step changing unit acquires the pattern ID of the carrying pattern corresponding to the lot ID of said special purpose lot or lots stored in said stocker via said lot path table managing unit and acquires said carrying pattern corresponding to said pattern ID from said carrying path pattern table via said carrying path pattern table managing unit to acquire a next step to the step at which said completion report is received for changing the in-process step corresponding to said lot ID in said lot path table into said next step via said lot path table managing unit;
• wherein an instruction to carry to said next step is supplied to the stocker which stores said special purpose lot or lots in said carrying instruction processing unit;
• wherein the stocker which has received said carrying instruction sending out said special purpose lot or lots and when a notification of sending-out from said stocker is notified from said carrying instruction report processing unit of said carrying host computer, said sent-out lot or lots which are registered in said storage lot table corresponding to said stocker is updated to a sent-out state in said stored lot table managing unit.

A process for monitoring dust, wherein the process comprises the steps of:

• (a) preliminarily storing carrying patterns of wafers used for monitoring dust in a clean room on a lot by lot basis in a storage unit of a carrying host computer for controlling a carrying control system;
• (b) automatically carrying and placing said wafers used for monitoring dust to and in a stocker on a carrying path by carrying said wafers on a lot by lot basis on and along at least part of a carrying path for product wafers in accordance with a carrying pattern stored in said storage unit;
• (c) determining a stocker to which a lot or lots of said wafers used for monitoring dust are to be carried with reference to said carrying pattern based upon a carrying completion report which is informed to said carrying host computer from said stocker;
• (d) sending out said wafers used for monitoring dust from the stocker which stores said wafers for carrying them to a next stocker;
• and
• (e) recovering said wafers used for monitoring dust when automatic carrying of said wafers used for monitoring dust on the carrying path which is defined by said carrying pattern is completed, followed by measuring dust on the wafers.

A process for monitoring dust, wherein the process comprises the steps of:

• (a) preliminarily storing carrying patterns of wafers used for monitoring dust in a clean room on a lot by lot basis in a storage unit of a carrying host computer for controlling a carrying control system;
• (b) automatically carrying and placing said wafers used for monitoring dust to and in a stocker on a carrying path by carrying said wafers on a lot by lot basis on and along at least part of a carrying path for product wafers in accordance with a carrying pattern stored in said storage unit;
• (c) initiating a timer by said carrying host computer in response to a notification of receipt of the lot or lots from said stocker and determining a next stocker to which the lot or lots of the wafers used for monitoring dust is to be carried with reference to said carrying pattern when a result of the count of said timer shows that a predetermined period of time has lapsed;
• (d) sending out said wafers used for monitoring dust from the stocker which stores said wafers for carrying them to said next stocker;
• and
• (e) recovering said wafers used for monitoring dust when automatic carrying of said wafers used for monitoring dust on the carrying path which is defined by said carrying pattern is completed, followed by measuring dust on the wafers.

A carrying control process for automatically carrying wafers on a lot by lot basis along a path laid between processing steps by means of an interoperation carrying apparatus, wherein a carrying host computer for controlling the carrying of said carrying system comprises:

• a storage unit having a carrying path pattern table for registering carrying patterns comprising a series of processing steps defining carrying a path or paths, referred to as “carrying steps”, of a special purpose lot or lots which will not be processed in production facilities and pattern identification information IDs in a corresponding relationship thereto, and
• a lot path table for storing and managing the correspondence between the lot identification information IDs of said special purpose lot or lots and the pattern IDs, and an in-process step in said carrying steps;
• wherein a timer is initiated and the purpose of said lot or lots is determined in response to a report of reception of said lot or lots from one of the stockers when the lot or lots are received by said one of the stockers in said carrying step;
• wherein it is assumed that processing of the lot or lots in the step to which said stocker belongs is completed when said timer times out if a result of said determination shows that the lot or lots have a special purpose and a pattern ID corresponding to the lot ID from the lot ID is acquired of said special purpose lot with reference to said lot path table, a carrying pattern corresponding to said pattern ID is acquired by retrieving said carrying path pattern table based upon said pattern ID for determining a next step as an in-process step if the next step exists in said carrying pattern;
• and
• wherein a carrying instruction is sent to said one of the stockers which store said special purpose lot or lots to send out and carry said special purpose lot or lots to the stocker in said in-process step;
• and
• wherein said stocker storing said special purpose lot or lots is adapted to receive a carrying instruction from said carrying host computer to send out said special purpose lot or lots, so that said special purpose lot or lots are automatically carried along a path to the stocker at the next step.

A carrying control apparatus for controlling automatic carrying of lot or lots among stockers which store special purpose lot or lots comprising wafers which are not processed in production facilities or lot or lots comprising said special purpose lot or lots and lot or lots of wafers which are processed in production facilities, wherein said apparatus comprises:

• means for initiating a timer in response to a report of receipt of the special purpose lot or lots which are received by one of the stockers when said one of the stockers receives the special purpose lot or lots;
• means for determining a next step to which said special purpose lot or lots are to be carried in accordance with a carrying pattern corresponding to said special purpose lot or lots, stored in a storage unit by assuming that processing of said special purpose lot or lots among lots received by said stocker is completed based upon a result of counting in said timer when a predetermined period of time has lapsed since said special purpose lot or lots are received by said one of the stockers;
• and
• means for supplying to the stocker which stores said special purpose lot or lots a carrying instruction to carry said special purpose lot or lots to said determined next step.

In a carrying control apparatus for controlling automatic carrying of lot or lots among stockers which store special purpose lot or lots comprising wafers which are not processed in production facilities or lot or lots comprising said special purpose lot or lots and a lot or lots of wafers which are processed in production facilities,

• a computer readable program product to cause a computer making up said carrying control apparatus to execute the operations of:
• (a) initiating a timer in response to a report of receipt of a special purpose lot or lots received by one of the stockers when said one of the stockers receives the special purpose lot or lots;
• (b) determining a next processing step to which said special purpose lot or lots are to be carried in accordance with a carrying pattern corresponding to said special purpose lot or lots, stored in a storage unit by assuming that processing of said special purpose lot or lots among the lots received by said stocker is completed based upon a result of counting in said timer when a predetermined period of time has lapsed since said special purpose lot or lots have received by said one of the stockers;
• and
• (c) supplying to a stocker which stores said special purpose lot or lots a carrying instruction to carry said special purpose lot or lots to said determined next step.

In use for a carrying control apparatus for controlling automatic carrying of lot or lots among stockers which store a special purpose lot or lots comprising wafers which are not processed by semiconductor manufacturing facilities, or lot or lots comprising said special purpose lot or lots and lot or lots comprising wafers which are processed by the semiconductor manufacturing facilities in a carrying system for automatically carrying wafers by an interoperation carrying apparatus on and along a path or paths laid among steps on a lot or lots by lot or lots basis,

• said carrying host computer comprising a storage unit including:
• a carrying path pattern table for registering carrying patterns comprising a series of processing steps referred to as “carrying steps”, defining a carrying path or paths of a special purpose lot or lots which will not processed by production facilities and information on the cycle through a carrying path or paths in a corresponding relationship with a pattern identification information ID, and
• a lot path table for storing and managing the correspondence between a lot identification information ID of said special purpose lot or lots and, the pattern ID, and an in-process step in said carrying steps,
• a computer readable program product to cause a computer making up said carrying control apparatus to execute the operations of:
• (a) initiating a timer in response to a receipt report of said lot or lots from one of said stocker when said one of the stockers on said carrying step receives the lot or lots;
• (b) determining the purpose of said lot or lots in response to said receipt report thereof;
• (c) acquiring a pattern ID corresponding to said lot ID from the lot ID of said special purpose lot or lots with reference to said lot or lots path table by assuming that processing at a step to which said stocker belongs is completed when said timer times out if said lot or lots are determined as said special purpose lot or lots and acquiring a carrying pattern corresponding to said pattern ID by retrieving said carrying path pattern table based upon said pattern ID to determine a next step from said carrying pattern;
• and
• (d) supplying to said one of the stockers which store said special purpose lot, a carrying instruction to carry said special purpose lot or lots to a stocker at the next step.