An intelligent full automation controlled flow for a semiconductor furnace tool

Intelligent automatic control process for semiconductor furnace tube machine

The present invention relates to a method for using a furnace tube machine with a front-opening unified pod material (FOUP material) processing system to process a semiconductor wafer process.

As shown in Figure 1, the entire batch of wafers is used as the transport arm of the transport mechanism and sent to the wafer boat in the vacuum reaction chamber. During this transportation process, the reaction chamber must be separated from the wafer storage area. The floodgate that comes. The wafers waiting to be processed must be completely stationary until the process cycle of the batch of wafers currently being processed is completed. The wafers are placed in the wafer boat and lifted by the wafer boat elevator into the process tube. One type of process equipment often includes a load lock reaction chamber, which is used when the wafer boat is lifted into the process tube, the wafer boat closes the lower end of the manifold to seal the process tube.

Once fixed in the reaction chamber, these wafers will be surrounded by various gases, processed at various pressures, and then heated according to the requirements of various wafer manufacturing processes. Once the entire batch of wafers has been processed, while waiting for the wafers to cool down and observing the results of the processed wafers, generally speaking, the furnace tube will not be moved. In the process of processing a batch of wafers, this is the step, so that the next batches of wafers to be processed must first be held in the queue, waiting to be sent into the wafer boat. Therefore, the furnace tube machine is in a state of low utilization, and because the wafer boat has not yet carried the next batch of wafers to be processed before the batch of wafers currently being processed is completed, the furnace tube machine at this time is usually It is in the idle state.

In a fully automated environment, the batch control signal sent by the process controller will trigger the automatic wafer processing system to transfer the FOUP belonging to the batch and load it into the furnace tube machine to start the subsequent process. . In order to maintain quality control, the next batch of wafers in the waiting queue will be loaded into the wafer boat after the current batch of wafers is judged to meet the requirements. This kind of operation is often seen in monitoring stations or measuring stations that use measuring instruments, or even some of them use visual measurement. Such process quality inspection generally reduces the efficiency of the furnace tube machine and increases the cost of wafer processing.

In the aspect proposed in the present invention, the shortcomings of the conventional technology are overcome, because the conventional technology is to load the next batch of wafers at the same time when the batch of wafers that have just completed its process are unloaded. Therefore, the first object of the present invention is basically to provide an operation method that allows the cycles of the two processes to overlap. Therefore, the object of the present invention is to provide a method that includes the following steps: Wafers) are placed in a conveyor to load the furnace tube machine, and then the first batch of wafers are placed in the processing reaction chamber. After the first batch of wafers are already in the processing chamber, load the second batch of wafers into the conveyor, and then pause the processing of the second batch of wafers until the subsequent processing of the first batch of wafers The testing procedure is completed.

According to another embodiment disclosed in the present invention, another object of the present invention is to provide a method for reducing the standby time of each process unit. This method can be applied to the heating or cooling of semiconductor substrates, which includes the following steps: forming The first batch of semiconductor material (wafers), then the first batch of wafers are loaded into the conveyor, and then the first batch of wafers are transferred to the heating mechanism. A second batch of wafers is formed, and the second batch of wafers is loaded into the carrier. When the first batch of wafers is placed in the heating mechanism for heating, the first batch of wafers are transferred to a position between the position closest to the heating mechanism and the position closest to the cooling mechanism, and then they will be placed closest to the cooling mechanism The first batch of wafers in the mechanism is cooled, and after the first batch of wafers completes the above steps, the second batch of wafers is sent to the heating mechanism to reduce the standby time of each process unit.

As mentioned above, the furnace tube system can be divided into two parts, one is the conveying unit and the other is the tube chamber unit. The transfer unit transfers the wafers from the FOUP to the tube chamber unit, removes batches of wafers from the tube chamber unit, and moves the FOUP in and out of the machine. In the prior art, usually when the tube chamber unit is processing wafers, the transfer unit is in a standby state, but when the transfer unit is in operation, the tube chamber unit is in a standby state. Most furnace tubes are designed to use two or more batches and store them in the internal buffer zone of the FOUP to reduce the standby time of the conveyor mechanism.

Please refer to Figure 1. A single wafer is opened at a front end (Front-Opening unified pod) In the furnace tube machine 1, the robotic arm 18 as a transport mechanism is used to transport semiconductor wafers W. Such a transport mechanism carries a batch of wafers and enters the vacuum chamber by the robotic arm 18 through the gate 14 11 and arrive at the wafer boat 6 in it. As is generally understood, it is necessary to wait until the current batch of wafer process cycle is completed before the next batch of wafers will enter the beginning of the process cycle. Therefore, in addition to the wafers of this batch, no other wafers will be placed in the furnace tube machine in the same process cycle before the wafers of this batch complete the process cycle. Once the wafer is placed on the wafer boat 6, it will be lifted by the wafer boat lifter 7 into the process tube 10 to continue the process. Such equipment generally includes a load lock chamber 11 in which the wafer boat 6 is placed vertically. When the wafer boat 6 is lifted and enters the process tube 10, a flange 6a at the lower end of the wafer boat 6 is closed at the lower end of the manifold 3, thereby sealing the process tube 10. When the semiconductor wafer W is lifted into the process tube 10, the air in the surrounding environment where the wafer W is located is exhausted through the exhaust pipe 4 until the internal environment of the machine 1 reaches a vacuum state. Then, depending on the needs of processing wafers, different gases can be fed into the machine 1 through the input pipe 5, and then different heating treatments can be performed according to the requirements of the process. Once this process cycle is completed, another process cycle is performed. The semiconductor wafer W is transported by the robotic arm 18, and a batch of semiconductor wafers W is transported by the robotic arm 18 into the wafer boat 6 for process processing. . It is worth noting that it is necessary to wait for the previous batch of semiconductor wafers W to complete all the processes, that is, after completing the last step of the process cycle, the next batch of semiconductor wafers W to be processed can enter the process cycle Proceed to the first step of processing.

Figure 2 shows the sequential processing steps of the furnace tube machine in the prior art, in which the first semiconductor wafer batch 23 is processed as follows: (a) In the time period T1, the FOUP 16 transfers the first semiconductor wafer The wafer lot 23 is loaded into the internal buffer 30; (b) in the time period T2, the semiconductor wafer W is placed in position; (c) in the time period T3, the wafer boat 6 enters the process tube 10 vertically; (d) In the time period T4, the first semiconductor wafer lot 23 is subjected to the preset processing; (e) in the time period T5, the wafer boat 6 is vertically lowered and moved out of the process tube 10; (f) in the time period T6, The wafer is cooled to a preset temperature; (g) in the time period T7, the wafer is removed from the positioning; (h) in the time period T8, the FOUP 16 is unloaded by the internal buffer 30 of the semiconductor wafer W. In the process of sequentially processing these batches of wafers in the queue, there is no way to start the loading cycle.

After the wafer is lowered from the process tube 10 to the reaction chamber 11, a cooling step is performed in the wafer boat 6. In the production line, the inspection station is the next stop of the main process (such as furnace tube). After the cooling step is completed, the monitor wafer is first unloaded to inspect it.

The manner in which an embodiment of the present invention is shown is shown in terms of a process that is used to provide the first batch of semiconductor wafers and load them into the carrier, and the second Batches of semiconductor wafers complete the process to reduce the waiting time required for transfer to the processing unit. More specifically, please refer to Figure 1. The process for heating and cooling a semiconductor wafer substrate includes the following steps: forming a first batch of semiconductor wafers W, and loading the first batch of semiconductor wafers In the conveyor system including the FOUP systems 15 and 16, the transfer arm 18 transfers the first batch to the heating mechanism 10, and then forms the second batch of semiconductor wafers, which are heated in the heating mechanism 10 in the first batch During processing, load the second batch into the conveyor system at the same time; then transfer the first batch to a position that is closest to the heating mechanism and the closest to the cooling element (not shown), which will be located The first batch of semiconductor wafers in the closest cooling element is cooled; and when the first batch of semiconductor wafers completes the foregoing steps, the monitoring chip to be tested is first unloaded, and at the same time the second batch of semiconductor wafers The circle is transferred to the heating mechanism, thereby reducing the standby time required by the processing unit.

Please refer to Figure 3. In order to improve efficiency while maintaining product quality, the process based on the controlled process is formulated in accordance with the following method rules: (a) Provide batches of wafers 25 and deliver them (In this embodiment, it refers to the loading or positioning operation of the batch of wafers 25 when the wafer boat 6 performs a vertical operation to remove the current batch of 20 wafers from the process tube 10; The circle 20 is cooled. These two steps are carried out with the operation in the process tube 10, so it can be used to reduce the idle time of the transfer arm 18 and increase the use efficiency of the process tube 10. When the batch While the wafer 20 is being processed in the process tube 10, the transfer arm 18 loads and unloads the FOUP 16. In this way, the automatic wafer processing system has more time to transfer the FOUP 16 to the furnace tube machine Station 1; (b) In addition, the unloading operation of the current lot of wafers 20 and the loading operation of the subsequent lot of wafers 25 are overlapped by the machine transport unit 16 so that a part of each of them occurs simultaneously; (c) and in Before restarting the previously suspended operation, the wafer processing operation is promoted before the wafer boat 6 vertically moves the batch of wafers 25 into the process tube 10 until the monitoring result of the previous batch of wafers 20 is determined to be satisfactory Until the requirement of the preset result or not meet the requirement.

Therefore, given the aforementioned method to increase the utilization rate of the machine 1, according to Figure 3, it can be understood that the present invention provides a method to reduce the standby time of the conveying unit by combining the process cycle 22 and its subsequent batches of wafers. The operation of the process cycle 26 performed by the circle overlaps, so that it can only measure the length of time from the T0 period 31 to the TE period 39. The transport unit 16 is in a standby state when the wafer boat 6 is vertically removed from the process tube 10 and the batch of wafers 20 is cooled. As disclosed in the present invention, the loading of subsequent batches of wafers 25 is The operation described in the previous paragraph occurs during the process cycle, regardless of whether the loading operation of the subsequent batch of wafers 25 will conflict with the operation of the previous batch of wafers 20.

Please refer to Figures 4 and 5, the wafer execution control system (Material Executive Control System: MES) 90 provides a batch of wafers 55 after receiving the control signal generated by the automatic control equipment 15, and the automatic control equipment 15 A step change is initiated for the wafer boat 6 to vertically rise to the process tube 10, and then the automatic control device 15 sends a control signal to activate the FOUP 16 to transfer subsequent batches of wafer tanks, such as batches of wafer 75 , To enter the position waiting to be processed in the furnace tube machine station 1. When the carrier appears in the load port (as shown in Figures 1 and 8), the FOUP16 drive unit itself loads the carrier into the internal buffer 30, many of which are ready to enter the process tube 10 for processing. , Such as lot 19, are stored here.

When the previous batch of wafers 75 stored in the internal buffer 30 starts to operate, and waiting for the process tube 10 to start processing, the loading process of the batch of wafers 75 is started. When the process tube 10 is ready for processing, the batch of wafers 55 that have been cooled starts to be unloaded 60. Once the process tube 10 starts to unload the cooled batch of wafers 55 from 60, the batch of wafers 55 leaves the monitoring position, and the transfer arm 18 can process the batch of wafers 75 in a process overlapping operation mode. As long as the monitoring result meets the specifications, the batch of wafers 55 at the monitoring position will be removed by 60 and unloaded from the machine 1.

In the manufacturing process of the machine 1, the batch of wafers 55 will enter the wafer boat 6, and after the lot of wafers 55 are fixed in position or loaded into the wafer boat 6, the wafer boat 6 will be upward or vertical Move in the direction. As part of the process control, the pause 62 and restart 64 steps in the equipment ensure the quality of the process. When the batch of wafers 75 is ready for processing, the wafer boat 6 then moves upward or vertically to enter the process tube 10, and at this time, it is temporarily stopped due to the monitoring results of the previous batch of wafers 55. During the operation of the batch of wafers, the batch of wafers 75 will continue to be loaded into the wafer boat 6 until the monitoring result or inspection result is completed, and move upward or vertically into the process tube 10.

According to the foregoing embodiment disclosed in the present invention, it includes the following steps: providing a first batch of semiconductor wafers 20, and then loading the first batch of wafers into a carrier (transfer arm) 18 to transfer them Enter the semiconductor manufacturing processing machine 1, and provide the second batch of semiconductor wafers 25 when performing the process on the first batch, and stop the process operation of the second batch of wafers 25 until the first batch of wafers 20 Complete its manufacturing process to reduce the standby time of the process.

According to what is disclosed in the present invention, there is still another preferred embodiment of the method for controlling the semiconductor manufacturing process, which includes the following steps: loading the first batch of semiconductor material on the conveyor, carrier or carrier, and performing the second batch Before the secondary semiconductor material is processed and cooled, the first batch of semiconductor material is placed in the processing reaction chamber. Please refer to Figures 4 and 5, the sequential batch control process is as follows: furnace tube machine 1 loads batch 55 into wafer boat 6, and batch 55 is placed in process tube 10, when batch When 55 is in the process tube 10, go to step 81, the wafer boat 6 is loaded with semiconductor material by the transfer arm 18; then go to step 82, suspend the completion of the MES operation 90, and the automatic control device 15 goes to step 91 to determine the monitoring Whether the operation has been completed, and if it has been completed, the process operation proceeds to step 92 to determine whether the result of the process processing of the batch of wafers 55 meets the requirements on the specification. If the result after step 91 is that the monitoring operation is not completed, the automatic control device 15 performs step 94, that is, performs a waiting procedure, until the result of step 91 shows that the monitoring operation is completed. If the result of step 92 is that the result of the process processing of the batch of wafers 55 does not meet the specification requirements, proceed to step 98 to perform the process engineer's intervention step, and before the process processing of the batch of wafers 55 is completed, By not loading and installing FOUP, the operation speed of the automatic control device 15 of the furnace tube machine 1 can be accelerated.

It can be seen from the above-mentioned preferred embodiments of the present invention that the above-disclosed embodiments are only illustrative examples. Those who are familiar with the art can easily infer other changes, changes and substitutions after the disclosure of the present invention, so subsequent applications for patents The scope should not be limited to the foregoing illustrated examples, but in fact should include the foregoing embodiments and their inferred changes.

Although the present invention has been disclosed as above in the preferred embodiment, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone familiar with the art can make various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention The scope of protection shall be subject to the scope of the attached patent application.

<p>1Boiler tube machine</p><p>3Manifold</p><p>4Exhaust pipe</p><p>5Input tube</p><p>6Crystal Boat</p><p>6aFlange</p><p>7 Crystal Boat Lifter</p><p>10Process tube</p><p>11Vacuum chamber</p><p>14Gate</p><p>15Automatic control equipment</p><p>16Transport unit</p><p>18Robot arm</p><p>19Batch of wafers</p><p>20Batch wafer</p><p>22Process cycle</p><p>23First batch of semiconductor wafers</p><p>25Batch wafer</p><p>26Process cycle</p><p>30Internal buffer</p><p>55Batch wafer</p><p>60Load carrier</p><p>62Pause</p><p>64Restart</p><p>75lots of wafers</p><p>80Operation of furnace tube machine</p><p>81The crystal boat is fully controlled by the transfer arm</p><p>82Suspension of MES operation</p><p>83Restart the machine</p><p>90Wafer Execution Control System</p><p>91Decide whether the monitoring operation is completed</p><p>92Decide whether the process result meets the specification requirements</p><p>94Waiting procedure</p><p>96Operation of Weights and Measures Machines</p><p>98Process engineer operation intervention steps</p><p>T1~T8,T0~TETime</p>

In order to make the above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention more obvious and understandable, a preferred embodiment is specially cited below, and is described in detail as follows in conjunction with the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 shows a plan view of the processing reaction chamber and automatic control process equipment.

Figure 2 shows a schematic diagram of the sequential loading process according to the prior art.

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing the process of an overlapped parallel loading process according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing the operation mode of an intelligent automatic control flow equipment according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 shows a control flow chart of an intelligent automatic control flow device according to another preferred embodiment of the present invention.