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US 9,630,927 B2Granted
Method and manufacturing system
AssigneeTaiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.
InventorsWei-Pin Huang, Wen-Chi Chien, Bing-Yuan Cheng, Feng-Ning Lee, Wei-Cheng Wang
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method is provided. The method includes: assigning a buffer to a first wafer lot comprising a plurality of wafers according to a first trigger event associated with an equipment; and assigning a transporter to a second wafer lot comprising a plurality of wafers according to a second trigger event associated with the equipment.
Claims18
A method performed by a controller of a wafer-manufacturing system, the method comprising:
- receiving real-time data associated with processing, by a tool, a second wafer lot having at least two wafers that is in the tool;
- in response to a trigger event, causing a first transporter to transport a first wafer lot from a first stocker to a buffer;
- and
- in response to completion of the processing of the second wafer lot:
- causing a second transporter to transfer the second wafer lot out of the tool, and
- causing the first transporter to transfer the first wafer lot from the buffer to the tool;
- wherein the trigger event is a first predetermined amount of time before the tool will start to process the last wafer in the second wafer lot, and
- at a second predetermined amount of time before the completion of the processing of the second wafer lot, causing the second transporter to move to a position close to the tool to wait for the second wafer lot, wherein the first predetermined amount of time is different from the second predetermined amount of time.
5 more elements
A method performed by a wafer-manufacturing system, the method comprising:
- processing, by a tool, a second wafer lot that is in the tool;
- in response to a trigger event, transferring by a first transporter a first wafer lot having at least two wafers from a first stocker to a buffer;
- and
- in response to completion of the processing of the second wafer lot:
- transferring, by a second transporter, the second wafer lot out of the tool;
- and
- transferring, by the first transporter, the first wafer lot from the buffer to the tool;
- wherein the trigger event is a first predetermined amount of time before the tool will start to process the last wafer in the second wafer lot;
- and
- at a second predetermined amount of time before the completion of the processing of the second wafer lot, the second transporter moving to a position close to the tool to wait for the second wafer lot, wherein the first predetermined amount of time is different from the second predetermined amount of time.
7 more elements
A manufacturing system comprising:
- a tool configured to process a second wafer lot having at least two wafers that is in the tool;
- a buffer;
- a first transporter;
- a second transporter;
- and
- a controller configured to:
- in response to a trigger event, cause the first transporter to transport a first wafer lot from a first stocker to a buffer;
- and
- in response to completion of the processing of the second wafer lot,
- (i) cause the second transporter to transfer the second wafer lot out of the tool, and
- (ii) cause the first transporter to transfer the first wafer lot from the buffer to the tool;
- wherein the trigger event is a first predetermined amount of time before the tool will start to process the last wafer in the second wafer lot;
- and
- at a second predetermined amount of time before the completion of the processing of the second wafer lot, cause the second transporter to move to a position close to the tool to wait for the second wafer lot, wherein the first predetermined amount of time is different from the second predetermined amount of time.
11 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.