Substrate processing apparatus
AssigneeHitachi Kokusai Electric Inc.
InventorMakoto NOMURA
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Only a wafer for QC check may be transferred and a production wafer may prevent from being transferred into an assigned process chamber whose QC check is not completed after a maintenance task, and the production wafer may be processed the assigned process chamber after the completion of the QC check. The wafer for QC check is transferred while inhibiting a transfer of the production wafer into the assigned process chamber, and the production wafer is transferred into each of the process chambers of the plurality except the assigned process chamber.
Claims4
A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of process chambers for processing a substrate;
- a transfer chamber connected to the process chambers;
- a transfer mechanism located inside the transfer chamber to transfer the substrate between the transfer chamber and the process chambers;
- a process controller connected to each of the process chambers to control a processing of the substrate in each of the process chambers;
- and
- an integrated controller connected to the process controller to control an operation of the transfer mechanism,
- wherein the integrated controller controls the transfer mechanism to transfer a quality control substrate into predetermined process chamber and inhibit a transfer of a production substrate into the predetermined chamber of process chambers of the plurality and simultaneously transfer the production substrate into each of the process chambers of the plurality except the predetermined process chamber.
A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
- a plurality of process chambers for processing a substrate;
- a transfer chamber connected to the process chambers;
- a transfer mechanism located inside the transfer chamber to transfer the substrate between the transfer chamber and the process chambers;
- a process controller connected to each of the process chambers to control processing of the substrate in each of the process chambers;
- an integrated controller connected to the process controller to control an operation of the transfer mechanism;
- and
- a display unit for displaying a setting screen to select a maintenance mode for performing a maintenance check one predetermined process chamber of process chambers of the plurality, a QC mode for processing a quality control substrate in the predetermined process chamber after performing the maintenance check, and a production mode for processing a production substrate as an operation modes of the plurality of process chambers.
A method of transferring a substrate, comprising:
- a step of transferring a quality control substrate and inhibiting a transfer of a production substrate by a transfer mechanism into the predetermined process chamber by setting an operation mode of the predetermined process chamber to a QC mode for processing a quality control substrate, and
- a step of transferring the production substrate into the predetermined process chamber by the transfer mechanism by setting the operation mode of the predetermined process chamber to a production mode for processing the production substrate when a quality of the quality control substrate is higher than a predetermined level determined by inspecting the quality of the quality control substrate.
A method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, comprising:
- a step of transferring a quality control substrate and inhibiting a transfer of a production substrate by a transfer mechanism into the predetermined process chamber by setting an operation mode of the predetermined process chamber to a QC mode for processing the quality control substrate, and processing the quality control substrate in the predetermined process chamber;
- and
- a step of transferring the production substrate into the predetermined process chamber by the transfer mechanism by setting the operation mode of the predetermined process chamber to a production mode for processing the production substrate when a quality of the quality control substrate is higher than a predetermined level determined by inspecting the quality of the quality control substrate, and processing the production substrate.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.