US 2006/0137721 A1Published application

Liquid processing apparatus and liquid processing method

AssigneeTokyo Electron Limited

InventorOsamu Kuroda

Life of this patent

Estimating the term…

Loading patent…

Abstract

A liquid processing apparatus comprises a liquid processing section for applying a liquid processing to wafers W, a carrier delivery section for delivering the carrier housing the wafers W, a carrier stock section capable of storing a plurality of carriers, an interface section for transferring the wafers W between the carrier stock section and the liquid processing section, a carrier transfer device for transferring the carrier, a wafer inspecting device for inspecting the wafers W within the carrier, and a carrier transfer device control section for controlling the carrier transfer device. The carrier transfer device control section controls the carrier transfer device such that the carrier, which has been judged to be capable of a liquid processing on the basis of the result of the inspection of the wafers W, is stored in the carrier stock section, and the liquid processing is started after completion of the inspection of a predetermined number of carriers.

Claims6

Dependent claims

A liquid processing method for applying a predetermined liquid processing to the substrates housed in a first carrier and a second carrier, comprising:

a first step for inspecting the number and/or housed state of the substrates within the first carrier;
a second step for storing the first carrier within the carrier stock section in the case where it is judged by the inspection in said first step that it is possible to apply a liquid processing, and for stopping the liquid processing applied to the substrates stored in the first and second carriers in the case where it is judged by the inspection in said first step that the liquid processing should be stopped;
a third step for inspecting the number and/or housed state of the substrates within the second carrier in the case where the first carrier is stored in the carrier stock section;
and
a fourth step for transferring the substrates within the second carrier to the liquid processing section in the case where it is judged by the inspection in said third step that the liquid processing can be applied, followed by transferring the substrates within the first carrier into the liquid processing section, or, where it is judged by the inspection in said third step that the liquid processing should be stopped, for stopping the liquid processing of the substrates within the second carrier.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 11/361,926Filed 24 Feb 2006
Priority: JP 2000-1679005 Jun 2000
Published: 29 Jun 2006
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification6 codes

H10P 72/0456
Characterised by the layout of the process chambers: in-line arrangement
H10P 72/0411
For cleaning followed by drying, rinsing, stripping, blasting or the like: for wet cleaning or washing
H10P 72/0604
Apparatus for monitoring, sorting, marking, testing or measuring: process monitoring, e.g. flow or thickness monitoring
H10P 72/0612
Apparatus for monitoring, sorting, marking, testing or measuring: production flow monitoring, e.g. for increasing throughput

Family

Application09/873,478Division · filed 4 Jun 2001
Application11/361,926Division · filed 24 Feb 2006
US 2001/0049204 A1Published application
US 7,108,752 B2Related patent
US 7,493,904 B2Related patent
US 2006/0137721 A1This patent

From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.

Timeline

Citations

Open elsewhere

Building an agent or pulling many patents? Use the API or MCP server instead of scraping pages. Get an API key