JP2627796B2 - Semiconductor manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a semiconductor manufacturing process, an object to be processed, for example, a semiconductor wafer is subjected to various processes in a plurality of processing steps. Increasing and more complex.

On the other hand, in the environment of semiconductor manufacturing, a higher degree of cleanliness is required in order to prevent defects of semiconductor elements due to adhesion of dust (dust) along with the above miniaturization. There is a further need to reduce dust generation.

Therefore, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus which can easily cope with complicated processing steps and can cope with high cleanliness, for example, as a resist processing apparatus, includes a plurality of processing mechanisms such as a wafer loading / unloading mechanism, a resist coating mechanism, and a developing mechanism. A configuration has been developed in which a heating mechanism and the like are arranged and connected, and a semiconductor wafer is automatically transferred to each processing mechanism by a wafer transfer mechanism according to a predetermined processing procedure to perform a series of processing.

The arrangement configuration of each processing mechanism in such a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus differs depending on the processing contents, installation conditions, and the like. For example, each processing mechanism is linearly arranged and connected, and the next processing mechanism is sequentially arranged from one end processing mechanism by a wafer transfer mechanism. And a configuration in which a plurality of processing mechanisms are arranged in parallel, a wafer transport mechanism is arranged in the center, and a semiconductor wafer is transported to each processing mechanism for processing. .

The wafer processing operation of this semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is performed by first mounting a wafer carrier in which a large number of semiconductor wafers are stacked and stored at predetermined intervals on a wafer loading mechanism (hereinafter, referred to as a sender mechanism) configured to be able to move up and down. Are moved up and down, for example, at wafer arrangement pitch intervals, and wafers are sequentially taken out by the wafer transfer arm and transferred to the wafer transfer mechanism.

Then, the semiconductor wafer is transported by the transport mechanism to each processing mechanism based on the processing content information stored in advance, and a series of process processing is performed.

The processed semiconductor wafer is transported to a wafer unloading mechanism (hereinafter, referred to as a receiver mechanism) on which a wafer carrier for storing the processed wafer is mounted, where it is again stored by the wafer transport arm from the wafer transport mechanism into the wafer carrier. You.

Such a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is provided as a part of a semiconductor manufacturing line, and in order to automate work, processing content information (hereinafter, referred to as recipe information) corresponding to a semiconductor wafer type, a production lot type, and the like. Is stored in advance in the apparatus control unit, and recipe information corresponding to the type information of the processed wafer from the semiconductor manufacturing line side is selected, so that a series of processing operations can be automatically performed.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) In recent years, in the semiconductor manufacturing process, the production of many kinds and small quantities has been advanced, and the production of small lots, for example, when one semiconductor wafer is one lot, or when the production is interrupted by a production plan, etc. The number of special production processes is increasing, and it is necessary to flexibly cope with various production processes. In the above-described semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, in order to cope with such special production, it is necessary to change the production plan on the semiconductor manufacturing line side or manually operate the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. Since it is not realistic to change the production plan on the semiconductor production line side for production, it is common to respond to special production by manually operating the semiconductor production equipment. However, the manual operation requires the operator to perform complicated operations such as selecting and changing a large number of pieces of recipe information stored in the apparatus control unit, which causes a reduction in production efficiency and a malfunction of the apparatus.
As described above, the conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus has a problem that it is not easy to cope with low-volume production of many kinds.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned conventional problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus which can easily cope with a wide variety of small-quantity production of an object to be processed and which improves production efficiency. There is something to say.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is a processing apparatus unit in which a plurality of processing mechanisms for performing processing based on predetermined processing content information on an object to be processed are arranged. In a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having a loading / unloading mechanism for loading / unloading the workpiece to a processing mechanism selected from among the processing mechanisms in a predetermined procedure, an identification mechanism for identifying a type of the workpiece. A storage mechanism in which processing content information for the type of the object to be processed is stored in advance; a main control unit that calls processing content information corresponding to the identified type information from the storage mechanism; Receiving the called processing content information, controlling the loading / unloading mechanism according to the processing content information, and loading / unloading mechanism control unit for loading / unloading the object to / from the processing mechanism; Receiving the processing content information called from the storage mechanism by the main control unit, controlling the processing mechanism according to the processing content information, and performing a process on the workpiece loaded by the workpiece transport mechanism And a processing unit control unit.

(Operation) According to the present invention, processing content information for each type of an object to be processed is stored in advance in a storage mechanism, the type of the object to be processed is detected at the time of processing, and the processing content corresponding to this type is called from the storage mechanism. By controlling the processing device unit and the processing object transport mechanism based on the called processing content information, it is possible to easily cope with high-mix low-volume production of the processing object and improve production efficiency. It becomes possible.

(Embodiment) An embodiment in which the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention is applied to a resist coating and developing apparatus will be described below with reference to the drawings.

A wafer holding mechanism 3 for holding an object to be processed, for example, a semiconductor wafer 2, for example, by suction, is mounted near the center of the apparatus body 1, and a wafer for moving the wafer holding mechanism 3 in the XYZ direction and the θ direction. A transport mechanism 4 is provided. The wafer transfer mechanism 4 is moved and rotated by a rotation drive mechanism (not shown) such as a stepping motor and a ball screw connected thereto.

Then, one movement path of the wafer transfer mechanism 4, for example, X
A plurality of wafer processing mechanisms, for example, an HMDS processing mechanism 6 for improving the adhesion between the semiconductor wafer 2 and the resist film, are coated on the semiconductor wafer 2 on one side, for example, the upper side in the figure along the movement path 5. A first pre-bake mechanism 7 for heating and evaporating the solvent remaining in the first-layer resist, and a first cooling mechanism 8 for cooling the semiconductor wafer 2 heated by the first pre-bake mechanism 7 are provided. On the other hand, on the side of the moving path 5 that faces the wafer processing mechanisms 7, 8, and 9, a first layer of resist is spin-coated on the upper surface of the semiconductor wafer 2. A coating mechanism 9 and a second coating mechanism 10 for spin-coating a second-layer resist on the upper surface of the semiconductor wafer 2 are arranged in order. Each of these wafer processing mechanisms 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10 constitutes a processing apparatus unit 11. One side of the processing unit 11, for example, the right side in the figure, is configured so that another processing unit (not shown) similar to the processing unit 11 can be added in accordance with a processing step.

On one side of the processing unit 11, a sender mechanism 13 mounted with a wafer carrier 12 storing the semiconductor wafer 2 before processing, a receiver mechanism 15 mounted on a wafer carrier 14 storing the semiconductor wafer 2 after processing, Semiconductor wafer 2
And then carry it into the wafer carrier 14 or
A wafer transfer arm 16 to be unloaded from the
Arm driving mechanism for moving the camera in XYZ and θ directions
A wafer loading / unloading mechanism 17 composed of a component 17 and the like is arranged. The wafer transfer arm 16 takes out the unprocessed semiconductor wafer 2 from the wafer carrier 12 and stores the processed semiconductor wafer 2 in the wafer carrier 14.

A type identification number (hereinafter, ID number) formed on the semiconductor wafer 2 is detected at a position facing the wafer loading / unloading mechanism 18 with the X-direction movement path of the transfer arm driving mechanism 17 interposed therebetween. An ID detection mechanism 19 is provided. This ID
As shown in FIG. 2, the reading mechanism 19 has an ID reader mechanism 20 such as an image recognition mechanism for reading an ID number on the semiconductor wafer 2, and an ID reader mechanism 20 having the semiconductor wafer 2 mounted thereon. A pre-alignment mechanism 21 for aligning the position with the ID number forming section, and an ID reading mechanism control section 22 for controlling the operations of the ID reader mechanism 20 and the pre-alignment mechanism 21.

The semiconductor wafer 2 taken out from the sender mechanism 13 by the wafer transfer arm 15 is transferred onto a pre-alignment mechanism 21 of the ID reading mechanism and pre-aligned.
The ID number on the semiconductor wafer 2 is read by the reader mechanism 20.

The configuration of the control system of such a semiconductor manufacturing device is
A loading / unloading mechanism control unit 31, which controls the operation of the loading / unloading mechanism 18,
The processing unit control section 32, the ID reading mechanism control section 22, and the control sections 22, 31, which control the processing mechanisms 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 and the wafer transfer mechanism 4 of the processing apparatus unit 11, respectively.
The main control unit 33 transmits to the processing information 32 recipe information which is processing content information including predetermined processing procedure information, for example, information such as a transport procedure of a transport system and a set temperature condition of a pre-bake mechanism. The recipe information is stored in the recipe storage unit 34 in advance, and the recipe control unit 35 calculates the recipe corresponding to the semiconductor wafer 2 to be processed from the large number of pieces of recipe information A, B,. It is configured to select information and output the recipe information to the main control unit 33.

The processing operation of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having such a configuration will be described below with reference to the flowchart of FIG.

First, the loading / unloading mechanism controller 31 controls the wafer transfer arm 15.
Is controlled to take out a predetermined semiconductor wafer 2 from the wafer carrier 12 mounted on the sender mechanism 13 (10
1) The semiconductor wafer 2 is transferred to the pre-alignment mechanism 21 of the ID reading mechanism 19 (103). Thus, the operation of the ID reading mechanism 19 is started (102). Thereafter, pre-alignment between the ID reader mechanism 20 and the ID number forming section on the semiconductor wafer 2 is performed (104), and the ID number is read (10).
5), and transmits the read ID information to the main control unit 33 (10)
6). Thereafter, the semiconductor wafer 2 is again held by the wafer transfer arm 16 and transferred out of the ID reading mechanism 19 (10).
7). Thus, the operation of the ID reading mechanism 18 is completed (1.
08).

Thereafter, the semiconductor wafer 2 is transferred to the wafer mounting table 23 of the loading / unloading mechanism 18 and aligned (301), and thereafter, held by the wafer holding mechanism 3 of the wafer transport mechanism 4 and set in advance. Is transported to each processing mechanism according to the work procedure obtained (302), and predetermined processing is performed in the processing mechanism (3).
03).

On the other hand, the ID information transmitted to the main control unit 33 is transmitted to the recipe control unit 35 (201), and the recipe information A, B,... Stored in the recipe storage unit 34 by the recipe control unit 35. Select the recipe information corresponding to this ID information from (20
2). The recipe information thus selected is stored in the main control unit 3 again.
5 (203), and then to the loading / unloading mechanism 31 and the processing unit control unit 32 (204).

The loading / unloading mechanism 31 and the processing unit control unit 32 perform a series of processing based on the received recipe information, for example, the above-described alignment operation (301) of the wafer mounting table 23, transfer of the semiconductor wafer (302), and a series of processing. (303)
Control. Thus, the processed semiconductor wafer 2 is transported again by the wafer transport mechanism 4 to the loading / unloading mechanism 18 and stored in the wafer carrier 14 of the receiver mechanism 15 (304).

As described above, the recipe information corresponding to the ID number formed on the semiconductor wafer 2 is stored in advance, the ID number of the semiconductor wafer 2 to be processed at the time of processing is read, and the recipe information corresponding to this ID number is read. By configuring so that a series of processing operations are controlled based on the read recipe information, even if interrupt production or small lot production is performed, there is no need to change the production plan on the semiconductor manufacturing line side or perform manual operations. Can be performed fully automatically, it is possible to easily cope with low-volume, high-mix production, and the production efficiency can be improved.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to easily cope with low-volume, high-mix production, and to improve production efficiency.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a resist coating and developing apparatus using a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, FIG. 2 is a view showing a control system of the embodiment, FIG. FIG. 5 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the embodiment. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Device main body, 2 ... Semiconductor wafer, 3 ... Wafer holding mechanism, 4 ... Wafer transfer mechanism, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 ...
Processing mechanism, 11 Processing unit, 12, 14 Wafer carrier, 13 Sender mechanism, 15 Receiver mechanism, 16 Transfer arm, 18 Loading / unloading mechanism, 19 ID reading Mechanism 20 ID reader mechanism 21 Pre-alignment mechanism 22 ID reading mechanism control section 31 Loading / unloading mechanism control section 32 Processing unit control section 33 Main control section , 34... Recipe storage unit, 35... Recipe control unit.

Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁶ Identification number Agency reference number FI Technical display location H01L 21/30 502J

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] A processing unit for arranging a plurality of processing mechanisms for performing processing on a processing target based on predetermined processing content information; and a processing mechanism selected from the processing mechanisms for the processing target. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having a loading / unloading mechanism for loading / unloading the workpiece in a predetermined procedure, an identification mechanism for identifying a type of the workpiece, and a storage mechanism for preliminarily storing processing content information for the type of the workpiece. A main control unit for calling processing content information corresponding to the identified type information from the storage mechanism; receiving the processing content information called from the storage mechanism by the main control unit; A loading / unloading mechanism control unit for controlling the unloading mechanism and loading / unloading the processing object into / from the processing mechanism; and the processing called from the storage mechanism by the main control unit. And a processing unit control section for controlling the processing mechanism in accordance with the processing content information and processing the workpiece carried in by the workpiece transport mechanism. Manufacturing equipment.