CN115274512A - Mechanical arm and method for improving use efficiency of cooling station of semiconductor machine - Google Patents

Mechanical arm and method for improving use efficiency of cooling station of semiconductor machine Download PDF

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Publication number
CN115274512A
CN115274512A CN202211073991.7A CN202211073991A CN115274512A CN 115274512 A CN115274512 A CN 115274512A CN 202211073991 A CN202211073991 A CN 202211073991A CN 115274512 A CN115274512 A CN 115274512A
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wafer
temperature
cooling
temperature measuring
measuring device
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颜琦
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Hangzhou Fuxin Semiconductor Co Ltd
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Hangzhou Fuxin Semiconductor Co Ltd
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Priority to CN202211073991.7A priority Critical patent/CN115274512A/en
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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/67005—Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/67242—Apparatus for monitoring, sorting or marking
    • H01L21/67248—Temperature monitoring
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/67005—Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/67011—Apparatus for manufacture or treatment
    • H01L21/67098—Apparatus for thermal treatment
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
    • H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
    • H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
    • H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
    • H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
    • H01L21/683—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping
    • H01L21/6838—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for supporting or gripping with gripping and holding devices using a vacuum; Bernoulli devices

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
  • Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
  • Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
  • Power Engineering (AREA)
  • Container, Conveyance, Adherence, Positioning, Of Wafer (AREA)

Abstract

The application provides a method for improving the use efficiency of a cooling station of a semiconductor machine, which comprises the following steps of; the method comprises the steps that a first body part with a first temperature measuring device arranged on the surface is extended into an air lock chamber, the first temperature measuring device is used for measuring the temperature of a wafer which is just finished with a process reaction to obtain an initial temperature, and a control device obtains preset cooling time through the initial temperature; the first body part transmits the wafer from the air lock chamber to the cooling station and transmits the storage position information of the wafer in the cooling station to the control device; and after the preset cooling time is cooled, the actual temperature of the wafer is measured again by using the second body part provided with the second temperature measuring device on the surface, the control device obtains the cooling time according to the actual temperature, and if the cooling time is zero, the second body part transmits the wafer out of the cooling station to the wafer box and sends the vacant position information in the cooling station to the control device. The application can greatly improve the use efficiency of the cooling machine, improve the stock running efficiency of the machine and avoid the defects caused by insufficient cooling time.

Description

Mechanical arm and method for improving use efficiency of cooling station of semiconductor machine
Technical Field
The application relates to the technical field of semiconductor manufacturing, in particular to a mechanical arm and a method for improving the use efficiency of a semiconductor machine station cooling station based on the mechanical arm.
Background
In the manufacturing process of semiconductor chips, even if the same process is performed on the same machine, the temperatures required by different products are different, and the temperature rise difference of the chambers of different machines is larger. For example, the temperature of the chamber of an etcher needs to be raised to a certain temperature during the process reaction, the chamber raising temperatures of different tools are usually different, for example, between 40 ℃ and 300 ℃, the wafer temperature in the chamber will be raised to the corresponding temperature, and the temperature required by the wafer of the same tool is likely to be different when the same tool is used for etching different products. An engineer cannot accurately grasp the temperature change of the wafer after the process is finished, so that the cooling time cannot be accurately calculated when the wafer is cooled at the cooling station, if the cooling time is too long, the time occupied by a single wafer at the cooling station is too long, so that the cooling of other wafers is influenced, the use efficiency of the cooling station is greatly reduced, the stock running efficiency of a machine is reduced, and if the cooling time is too short, the temperature of the wafer is too high, so that a plurality of adverse effects are brought to the subsequent process.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a robot and a method for improving the utilization efficiency of a cooling station of a semiconductor machine, which are used to solve the problems caused by the prior art, such as the inability of an engineer to know the temperature change of a wafer after the completion of a process due to the temperature rise difference of chambers of different machines and/or the temperature requirement difference of different processes in the same chamber, and the inability of accurately calculating the cooling time required by the wafer at the cooling station.
In order to achieve the above and other related objects, the present application provides a robot arm, including a temperature measuring device and a body portion for grasping a wafer, where the temperature measuring device is connected to the body portion through a control device, the temperature measuring device is used to measure a temperature of the wafer grasped by the body portion, a calculation module is arranged in the control device, the calculation module is a function model of the temperature and a cooling time, the higher the temperature in the function model is, the longer the cooling time is, and the body portion grasps the wafer according to the cooling time to a next process.
Optionally, the body part comprises a first body part and a second body part, and the temperature measuring device comprises a first temperature measuring device, the first temperature measuring device is connected with the first body part, the first body part is used for grabbing the wafer from the airlock room to the cooling station, and the first temperature measuring device is used for measuring the initial temperature of the wafer grabbed by the first body part from the airlock room.
Optionally, the temperature measuring device further includes a second temperature measuring device, the second temperature measuring device is connected to the second body portion, the second body portion is used for grabbing the wafers in the cooling station to the wafer cassettes one by one according to the cooling time sequence, and the second temperature measuring device is used for measuring the actual temperature of the wafers grabbed by the second body portion from the cooling station.
Optionally, the body portion is provided with a plurality of vacuum suction holes for sucking the wafer, and the temperature measuring device is disposed on one side of the vacuum suction holes.
Optionally, the temperature measuring devices are provided in a plurality and are arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the vacuum adsorption holes.
Optionally, the temperature measuring device is an infrared temperature measuring sensor.
The application also provides a method for improving the use efficiency of the cooling station of the semiconductor machine, which comprises the following steps:
extending the first body part with the first temperature measuring device on the surface into the air lock chamber, measuring the temperature of the wafer which just completes the process reaction by using the first temperature measuring device to obtain an initial temperature, and obtaining preset cooling time by the control device according to the initial temperature;
the first body part transmits the wafer from the air lock chamber to the cooling station and transmits the storage position information of the wafer in the cooling station to the control device;
and after the preset cooling time is cooled, the actual temperature of the wafer is measured again by using the second body part provided with the second temperature measuring device on the surface, the control device obtains the cooling time according to the actual temperature, and if the cooling time is zero, the second body part transmits the wafer out of the cooling station to the wafer box and sends the vacant position information in the cooling station to the control device.
Optionally, if the measured cooling time of the wafer is greater than zero after the wafer is cooled for the preset cooling time, the wafer is cooled again in the cooling station for compensating the cooling time.
Optionally, a cooling rate of the wafer in the cooling station is obtained in advance through experiments, a function model of cooling time required for the wafer to be cooled to a preset temperature in the cooling station is obtained according to the cooling rate, and the function model is set in the control device.
Optionally, the first body part provided with the first temperature measuring device is extended into the airlock, and in the process of measuring the temperature of the wafer which has just completed the process reaction by using the first temperature measuring device to obtain the initial temperature, the first body part is extended into the lower part of the wafer, so that the first temperature measuring device is correspondingly positioned right below the wafer; after the temperature measurement is completed, the first body part grabs the wafer.
Optionally, the plurality of temperature measuring devices on the first body portion and/or the second body portion measure the temperature of the wafer simultaneously, an average value of the obtained results is the measured temperature of the wafer, and if a difference value between the temperature measuring result of a single temperature measuring device and the average value exceeds a threshold value, the first body portion and/or the second body portion sends an alarm message.
As described above, the robot and the method for improving the use efficiency of the cooling station of the semiconductor machine provided by the present application have the following advantages: through the improved structure and flow design, when the initial temperature of the wafer measured for the first time is within an acceptable range, the wafer can be directly transmitted from the airlock room to the atmospheric environment room without being transmitted to the cooling station for cooling, so that the transmission steps can be reduced, unnecessary occupation of the cooling station can be reduced, and the use efficiency of the cooling station and the goods running efficiency of the machine can be improved; according to the cooling rate of the cooling station, the cooling time of each wafer is automatically and accurately matched, the use efficiency of a cooling machine table can be greatly improved, the goods running efficiency of the machine table is improved, and the problems that the subsequent processing procedure is affected by too high temperature of the cooled wafer due to insufficient cooling time and the like can be avoided. Meanwhile, the temperature of the wafer for completing the process reaction is quickly detected, so that an engineer can be helped to debug subsequent process parameters (recipe), and the production efficiency is favorably improved.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a schematic view illustrating an exemplary structure of a robot arm according to the present disclosure.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart illustrating a method for improving the utilization efficiency of a cooling station of a semiconductor tool according to the present disclosure.
Fig. 3 is a schematic diagram of wafer grabbing according to the process of fig. 2.
Fig. 4 shows an exemplary ramp-down rate map obtained by the process of fig. 2.
Description of component reference numerals
11-a body portion; 12-a temperature measuring device; 13-vacuum adsorption holes; 14-wafer.
Detailed Description
The following description of the embodiments of the present application is provided by way of specific examples, and other advantages and effects of the present application will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the disclosure herein. The present application is capable of other and different embodiments and its several details are capable of modifications and/or changes in various respects, all without departing from the spirit of the present application. As in the detailed description of the embodiments of the present application, the cross-sectional views illustrating the structure of the device are not partially enlarged in general scale for convenience of illustration, and the schematic views are only examples, which should not limit the scope of the present application. In addition, the three-dimensional dimensions of length, width and depth should be included in the actual fabrication.
For convenience in description, spatial relational terms such as "below," "beneath," "below," "under," "over," "upper," and the like may be used herein to describe one element or feature's relationship to another element or feature as illustrated in the figures. It will be understood that the spatial relationship terms are intended to encompass other orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. Further, when a layer is referred to as being "between" two layers, it can be the only layer between the two layers, or one or more intervening layers may also be present.
In the context of this application, a structure described as having a first feature "on" a second feature may include embodiments in which the first and second features are formed in direct contact, and may also include embodiments in which additional features are formed in between the first and second features, such that the first and second features may not be in direct contact.
It should be noted that the drawings provided in the present embodiment are only for illustrating the basic idea of the present application, and the drawings only show the components related to the present application rather than the number, shape and size of the components in actual implementation, and the type, quantity and ratio of the components in actual implementation may be changed arbitrarily, and the layout of the components may be more complicated. In order to keep the drawings as concise as possible, not all features of a single figure may be labeled in their entirety.
Please refer to fig. 1 to 4.
As shown in fig. 1, the present application provides a robot arm, including a temperature measuring device 12 and a body 11 configured to grasp a wafer, where the temperature measuring device 12 is connected to the body 11 through a control device (not shown), the temperature measuring device 12 is configured to measure a temperature of the wafer grasped by the body 11, a calculation module is disposed in the control device, the calculation module is a function model of the temperature and a cooling time, and the higher the temperature is, the longer the cooling time is, the body 11 grasps the wafer according to the cooling time to a next process. By arranging the temperature measuring device, when the mechanical arm is used for grabbing the wafer, the initial temperature of the wafer can be rapidly obtained, and a worker can judge whether to convey the wafer to the cooling station or calculate the cooling time required by the wafer in the cooling station according to the initial temperature so as to improve the use efficiency of the cooling station and provide precious reference for the subsequent process. Specifically, if the grasped wafer needs to be sent to the cooling station, the cooling time required for the wafer to be reduced from the initial temperature to the preset temperature can be calculated according to a calculation module arranged by the control device, namely, based on a function model (namely, cooling rate) of the temperature of the cooling station and the cooling time, based on the initial temperature of the wafer detected by the temperature measuring device on the mechanical arm, and after the wafer is sent to the cooling station, the wafer is cooled for a corresponding time length according to the cooling time calculated by the control device, so that the temperature of the wafer is accurately reduced to the preset value; if the initial temperature of the wafer measured for the first time is within the acceptable range (namely the initial temperature is within the preset temperature range and can meet the temperature requirement of the next process), the wafer can be directly transmitted from the airlock chamber to the atmospheric environment chamber, so that the transmission steps can be reduced, the goods running efficiency of the machine can be improved, the reduction of the use efficiency of a cooling station caused by excessive cooling can be effectively avoided, and the high-temperature damage to the subsequent process caused by the over-high temperature of the wafer due to insufficient cooling time can also be avoided. Meanwhile, the temperature of the wafer with the finished process reaction is quickly detected, so that an engineer can be helped to debug subsequent process parameters (recipe), and the production efficiency is improved.
The main body of the robot arm provided by the application can be of different types so as to adapt to different semiconductor process procedures. For example, the material may be ceramic, silicon carbide, or other composite materials. Of course, ceramic is preferred, and ceramic has the advantages of high temperature resistance and chemical corrosion resistance, and can meet most of the process requirements in semiconductor factories, i.e. the ceramic robot has better versatility. The robot arm is designed to ensure the grabbing function thereof, and simultaneously, the contact area between the wafer and the wafer in the process of grabbing the wafer is reduced as much as possible, the thermal diffusion between the wafer is avoided, and the mutual pollution is avoided (for example, the pollution of the next wafer caused by the impurity on the wafer sticking to the robot arm is avoided); distinguishing from the manner of grabbing the wafer, the robot arm may be of a clamping type, an electrostatic adsorption type, but is preferably of a vacuum adsorption type in this embodiment, so that the body portion 11 is provided with a plurality of vacuum adsorption holes 13 for adsorbing the wafer, the number of the vacuum adsorption holes 13 is preferably a plurality (2 or more), in a specific example, the number of the vacuum adsorption holes 13 is, for example, 3, the 3 vacuum adsorption holes 13 are preferably located at three vertices of an equilateral triangle, and when the number is 4 or more, the plurality of vacuum adsorption holes are preferably evenly spaced, and when the body portion of the robot arm is of the aforementioned interdigital structure, 2 of the vacuum adsorption holes 13 are respectively located at 2 fingers. The position of the temperature measuring device 12 can be flexibly set, but it is preferable that the temperature measuring device 12 is disposed on one side of the vacuum adsorption hole 13, for example, 3 temperature measuring devices 12 are disposed in one-to-one correspondence with the vacuum adsorption holes 13, and the temperature measuring device 12 is preferably located on the rear side of the vacuum adsorption hole 13 (the rear side refers to a position where a robot arm enters a gripping space when gripping a wafer), and the distance between the temperature measuring device 12 and the vacuum adsorption hole 13 is preferably 5mm to 20mm, for example, 5mm,10mm,15mm,20mm, or any value in the interval. This has an advantage in that if the temperature measurement is performed after the wafer is sucked, the temperature measured in the vicinity is more accurate when the wafer is firmly sucked by the vacuum suction hole. (however, if the distance is too close to the vacuum suction hole, the measurement result may be affected by heat being taken away due to vacuum suction, and if the distance is too far away, the measurement accuracy may be affected by the uneven surface of the wafer due to the large distance between the temperature measuring device and the wafer, so that the distance between the vacuum suction hole and the temperature measuring device is preferably within the above value range). The temperature measuring device 12 may be of various types, for example, may be a direct contact type or an indirect contact type, and an indirect contact type is preferred in this embodiment, that is, in the temperature measuring process, the wafer does not contact with the temperature measuring device, so as to avoid adverse effects on the wafer caused by the temperature measuring device 12, for example, to avoid marks left on the wafer or wafer contamination caused by impurities on the temperature measuring device. Preferably, the temperature measuring device 12 is an infrared temperature measuring sensor, which has the advantages of high temperature resistance and the like, and can fully meet the temperature measuring requirements of different processes in a semiconductor factory. When there are a plurality of temperature measuring devices 12, the average value of the temperature measuring results of the plurality of temperature measuring devices 12 is usually used as the actual temperature value of the wafer, and the process of calculating the average value can be completed by a control device connected (for example, wirelessly connected) to the temperature measuring devices, that is, the results measured by the temperature measuring devices are transmitted to the remote control device, and the control device performs calculation and controls the next process of the wafer according to the calculation results. Of course, the calculation result may also be completed by the temperature measuring device, i.e. the temperature measuring device may comprise a module with calculation function. Theoretically, after the process is completed, the temperatures of the various points on the wafer should be very close, especially in this embodiment, the three temperature measuring devices are symmetrically distributed around the center of the wafer, that is, the three temperature measuring devices are located on the same circumferential line, and according to the chip layout characteristics on the wafer, the device distribution on the same circumference is usually consistent, so after the process is completed, the temperatures of the various points on the same circumference of the wafer should be very close, if the results measured by the three temperature measuring devices are very different, for example, the difference between the measured value of one temperature measuring device and the average value exceeds 10%, it is indicated that a fault occurs in one of the temperature measuring devices, or the temperatures of the various points on the same circumference of the wafer are indeed very different, and this may be a fault in the process (for example, the wafer is heated seriously unevenly during the process), and in any case, it is necessary to check. Therefore, the plurality of temperature measuring devices can be used for mutual correction and post feedback of the processing equipment. The temperature measuring devices can also be integrated with an alarm function, and alarm information is sent out when the difference value between the measuring result of one temperature measuring device and the average value exceeds a threshold value so as to remind an engineer to take a countermeasure.
In an example, the body portion includes a first body portion and a second body portion, the temperature measurement device includes a first temperature measurement device coupled to the first body portion, the first body portion to grasp a wafer from the airlock to the cooling station, the first temperature measurement device to measure an initial temperature of the wafer grasped by the first body portion from the airlock. In a further example, the temperature measuring device further includes a second temperature measuring device, the second temperature measuring device is connected to the second body portion, the second body portion is used for grabbing the wafers in the cooling station to the wafer cassettes one by one according to the cooling time sequence, and the second temperature measuring device is used for measuring the actual temperature of the wafers grabbed by the second body portion from the cooling station. The structures of the first body part and the second body part and the arrangement of the temperature measuring devices on the surfaces of the first body part and the second body part are preferably the same, that is, the structures shown in fig. 1 are preferably adopted, and specific reference is made to the foregoing contents, which are not described herein again.
The robot arm provided by the embodiment can be applied to various processing machine tables, for example, wafer transmission on vapor deposition equipment and etching equipment, as most of the two machine tables are multi-cavity, a plurality of processing process cavities share one cooling station, and by adopting the robot arm provided by the invention, wafers can be transmitted between the process cavities and the cooling station, the cooling time required by each wafer at the cooling station can be quickly obtained, accurate temperature control is facilitated, the use efficiency of the cooling station is improved, and the equipment output is improved.
The application also provides a method for improving the use efficiency of the cooling station of the semiconductor machine, which comprises the following steps:
s1: the method comprises the steps that a first body part with a first temperature measuring device arranged on the surface is extended into an air lock chamber, the first temperature measuring device is used for measuring the temperature of a wafer which is just finished with a process reaction to obtain an initial temperature, and a control device obtains preset cooling time through the initial temperature; the first body portion may adopt a plurality of different mechanical arms having a temperature measurement function, but preferably adopts any one of the foregoing schemes, and particularly preferably adopts the aforementioned interdigital shape, the first body portion is provided with a plurality of vacuum adsorption holes 13, the plurality of first temperature measurement devices are correspondingly arranged near the vacuum adsorption holes one by one, and the first temperature measurement devices preferably adopt a structure of an infrared temperature measurement sensor, more descriptions of the mechanical arm of this type may refer to the foregoing contents, and are not repeated for the sake of brevity, and in this embodiment, the mechanical arm shown in fig. 1 is mainly used for illustration; the first body portion grabs the wafer 14 schematically as shown in fig. 3, the free end of the interdigital structure first extends into the airlock, the first body portion moves to a position right below the wafer 14, the first temperature measuring device is correspondingly located right below the wafer 14, and the temperature measurement process can be performed after the wafer is adsorbed on the first body portion, or performed before the temperature measurement, that is, after the first temperature measuring device measures the temperature of the wafer 14, the first body portion grabs the wafer again, and the vacuum adsorption hole 13 provides negative pressure adsorption force to adsorb the wafer, in this example, the order of the wafer grabbing and temperature measurement is not strictly limited; if the initial temperature of the wafer measured for the first time is within an acceptable range (namely the initial temperature is within a preset temperature range and can meet the temperature requirement of the next process), the wafer can be directly conveyed out of the airlock room to the atmospheric environment room without being conveyed to a cooling station for cooling, namely, subsequent steps are not required, the conveying steps can be reduced, and the stock-out efficiency of a machine table is improved; it should be noted that the method provided by the present application is applicable to a single chamber machine, i.e. only one process chamber (e.g. vapor deposition chamber or etching chamber) and one cooling station in one apparatus, and only one robot arm may be used to transfer wafers between the several stations of the process chamber-cooling station-wafer cassette, but the present application is more advantageous when used in a cluster tool (cluster), i.e. when used in an apparatus in which a plurality of process chambers share one cooling station; when a plurality of process chambers share a cooling station, in order to avoid mutual interference and improve the transfer efficiency, a plurality of body parts are usually required, for example, a first body part is used for transferring wafers between the process chambers (airlock chambers) and the cooling station, and a second body part is used for transferring wafers between the cooling station and a wafer cassette (atmospheric environment chamber), in this embodiment, a robot arm having both the first body part and the second body part is mainly taken as an example, and the first body part and the second body part may be of the same type, and the surface of each of the first body part and the second body part is provided with a temperature measuring device, for example, the structure described in any one of the foregoing aspects is adopted;
s2: the first body part transmits the wafer from the air lock chamber to the cooling station and transmits the storage position information of the wafer in the cooling station to the control device;
s3: after the preset cooling time is cooled, the actual temperature of the wafer is measured again by using the second body part provided with the second temperature measuring device on the surface, the control device obtains the cooling time through the actual temperature, if the cooling time is zero, the second body part transmits the wafer out of the cooling station to the wafer box and sends the vacant position information in the cooling station to the control device, namely, if the initial temperature measured for the first time is greater than the preset temperature, the preset cooling time required for the wafer to be cooled from the initial temperature to the preset temperature in the cooling station (the preset temperature is, for example, the process temperature of the next process, which may be a fixed value or a numerical range, usually the latter) is obtained based on the initial temperature; the method for calculating the preset cooling time can acquire the cooling rate (temperature change value in unit time) of the cooling station based on the equipment related information provided by the equipment manufacturer, and calculate the preset cooling time required by the wafer to be cooled from the initial temperature to the preset temperature in the cooling station by the second temperature measuring device or the remote control device based on the cooling rate; in other preferred examples, considering that the process parameters (such as power, cooling medium used, etc.) are different in each semiconductor factory, and the performance of the equipment may vary after a period of time, it is preferable to experimentally obtain the cooling rate of the wafer in the cooling station in advance, obtain a temperature-versus-time variation curve similar to that shown in fig. 4, obtain a function model of the cooling time required for the wafer to be cooled down to a preset temperature in the cooling station according to the cooling rate, and set the function model in the control device; the test process is usually carried out before the start of the manufacturing process, the cooling rate obtained after the test can be repeatedly used for many times, and a verification test can be carried out regularly to ensure that the cooling rate for calculating the preset cooling time is completely consistent with the real-time condition of the cooling station; setting the cooling station according to the measured cooling time; if the measured cooling time of the wafer is greater than zero after the cooling for the preset cooling time, cooling the wafer for the compensation cooling time in the cooling station, for example, if the measured actual temperature of the wafer is not the preset temperature after the cooling for the preset cooling time, the control device calculates the compensation cooling time required for the wafer to be cooled from the actual temperature to the preset temperature, cools the wafer for the compensation cooling time in the cooling station, and then measures the wafer again, and the steps are repeated until the wafer is cooled to the preset temperature. Of course, in other examples, after the wafer is found to be cooled for the preset cooling time, the wafer is not cooled to the preset temperature, and the wafer may be stopped for detection without performing compensation cooling, so as to see whether the cooling station and/or the temperature measuring device is faulty or not, and to find out the problem of the device in time, thereby avoiding the enlargement of the adverse effect caused by the fault of the device.
According to the method provided by the application, through the improved process design, when the initial temperature of the wafer measured for the first time is within an acceptable range, the wafer can be directly conveyed out of the airlock room to the atmospheric environment room without being conveyed to the cooling station for cooling, so that the conveying steps can be reduced, unnecessary occupation of the cooling station can be reduced, and the use efficiency of the cooling station and the goods running efficiency of a machine table can be improved; according to the cooling rate of the cooling station, the cooling time of each wafer is automatically and accurately matched, the use efficiency of a cooling machine table can be greatly improved, the goods running efficiency of the machine table is improved, and the problems that the subsequent processing procedure is affected by too high temperature of the cooled wafer due to insufficient cooling time and the like can be avoided. Meanwhile, the temperature of the wafer after the process reaction is quickly detected, so that an engineer can be helped to debug the subsequent process parameters, and the production efficiency is improved.
When the number of the temperature measuring devices is multiple, the plurality of temperature measuring devices on the first body part and/or the second body part (preferably, the plurality of temperature measuring devices are simultaneously arranged on the first body part and the second body part, for example, 3 or more) measure the temperature of the wafer, the average value of the obtained results is the measured temperature of the wafer, if the difference value between the temperature measuring result of a single temperature measuring device and the average value exceeds a threshold value, for example, exceeds 10%, the temperature measuring device may malfunction or the wafer may be seriously heated unevenly in the front-stage process, and at this time, the first body part and/or the second body part may send alarm information to remind an engineer to take measures as soon as possible, for example, to check the temperature measuring devices or to overhaul the front-stage process equipment.
The method provided by the application is particularly suitable for wafer transmission when a plurality of process chambers share one cooling station, for example, the method can be used for wafer transmission of an etching machine and can also be used for wafer transmission of a vapor deposition chamber (such as chemical vapor deposition), and the method can obviously improve the use efficiency of the cooling station and improve the equipment yield while realizing rapid and accurate cooling.
In summary, the present application provides a method for improving the utilization efficiency of a cooling station of a semiconductor machine, the method comprising; the method comprises the steps that a first body part with a first temperature measuring device arranged on the surface is extended into an air lock chamber, the first temperature measuring device is used for measuring the temperature of a wafer which is just finished with a process reaction to obtain an initial temperature, and a control device obtains preset cooling time through the initial temperature; the first body part transmits the wafer from the air lock chamber to the cooling station and transmits the storage position information of the wafer in the cooling station to the control device; and after the wafer is cooled for the preset cooling time, the actual temperature of the wafer is measured again by using the second body part provided with the second temperature measuring device on the surface, the control device obtains the cooling time according to the actual temperature, and if the cooling time is zero, the second body part transmits the wafer out of the cooling station to the wafer box and sends spare position information in the cooling station to the control device. This application is through improved structure and flow design, according to the cooling rate of cooling station, the cooling time of each wafer is matchd automatically accurately, if initial temperature when the wafer takes out from the airlock room is within predetermineeing the temperature range, then directly spread the wafer out to the atmospheric environment room from the airlock room, avoid unnecessary the taking up of cooling station, can greatly improve the availability factor of cooling board, improve the stock efficiency of board, also can avoid because the cooling time is not enough, the wafer after the cooling is still high in temperature and brings harmful effects scheduling problem for follow-up processing procedure. Meanwhile, the temperature of the wafer after the process reaction is quickly detected, so that an engineer can be helped to debug the subsequent process parameters (recipe), and the production efficiency is improved. Therefore, the application effectively overcomes various defects in the prior art and has high industrial utilization value.
The above embodiments are merely illustrative of the principles and utilities of the present application and are not intended to limit the application. Any person skilled in the art can modify or change the above-described embodiments without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application. Accordingly, it is intended that all equivalent modifications or changes which can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and technical concepts disclosed in the present application shall be covered by the claims of the present application.

Claims (11)

1. The mechanical arm is characterized by comprising a temperature measuring device and a body part used for grabbing a wafer, wherein the temperature measuring device is connected with the body part through a control device and used for measuring the temperature of the wafer grabbed by the body part, a calculating module is arranged in the control device and is a function model of the temperature and the cooling time, the higher the temperature in the function model is, the longer the cooling time is, and the body part grabs the wafer to the next procedure according to the cooling time.
2. The robot arm of claim 1, wherein the body portion comprises a first body portion and a second body portion, and wherein the temperature measurement device comprises a first temperature measurement device coupled to the first body portion, the first body portion configured to grasp a wafer from the airlock to the cooling station, the first temperature measurement device configured to measure an initial temperature of the wafer grasped by the first body portion from the airlock.
3. The robot arm as claimed in claim 2, wherein the temperature measuring device further comprises a second temperature measuring device, the second temperature measuring device is connected to the second body portion, the second body portion is used for grabbing the wafers in the cooling station one by one to the wafer cassettes according to the cooling time sequence, and the second temperature measuring device is used for measuring the actual temperature of the wafers grabbed by the second body portion from the cooling station.
4. The robot arm as claimed in claim 1, wherein the body portion has a plurality of vacuum holes for sucking the wafer, and the temperature measuring device is disposed at a side of the vacuum holes.
5. The robot arm as claimed in claim 4, wherein the number of the vacuum suction holes is plural, and the number of the temperature measuring devices is plural, and the temperature measuring devices are disposed in one-to-one correspondence with the vacuum suction holes.
6. A robot arm as claimed in any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the temperature measuring device is an infrared temperature measuring sensor.
7. A method for improving the utilization efficiency of a cooling station of a semiconductor machine, comprising:
the method comprises the steps that a first body part with a first temperature measuring device arranged on the surface is extended into an air lock chamber, the first temperature measuring device is used for measuring the temperature of a wafer which is just finished with a process reaction to obtain an initial temperature, and a control device obtains preset cooling time through the initial temperature;
the first body part transmits the wafer from the air lock chamber to the cooling station and transmits the storage position information of the wafer in the cooling station to the control device;
and after the wafer is cooled for the preset cooling time, the actual temperature of the wafer is measured again by using the second body part provided with the second temperature measuring device on the surface, the control device obtains the cooling time according to the actual temperature, and if the cooling time is zero, the second body part transmits the wafer out of the cooling station to the wafer box and sends spare position information in the cooling station to the control device.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein if the measured cooling time of the wafer is greater than zero after the preset cooling time, the wafer is cooled again in the cooling station by the compensation cooling time.
9. A method as set forth in claim 7, characterized in that the cooling rate of the wafer in the cooling station is obtained experimentally beforehand, a function model of the cooling time required for the wafer to be cooled down to a predetermined temperature in the cooling station is obtained in dependence on the cooling rate, and the function model is set in the control device.
10. The method of claim 7, wherein the first body portion having the first temperature measuring device is extended into the airlock, and during measuring the initial temperature of the wafer after the completion of the process reaction by the first temperature measuring device, the first body portion is extended under the wafer so that the first temperature measuring device is correspondingly located under the wafer; after the temperature measurement is completed, the first body part grabs the wafer.
11. The method as claimed in any one of claims 7 to 10, wherein the plurality of thermometric devices on the first body part and/or the second body part measure the temperature of the wafer simultaneously, the average value of the results is the measured temperature of the wafer, and if the difference between the measured temperature of a single thermometric device and the average value exceeds a threshold value, the first body part and/or the second body part sends an alarm message.
CN202211073991.7A 2022-09-02 2022-09-02 Mechanical arm and method for improving use efficiency of cooling station of semiconductor machine Pending CN115274512A (en)

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CN202211073991.7A CN115274512A (en) 2022-09-02 2022-09-02 Mechanical arm and method for improving use efficiency of cooling station of semiconductor machine

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202211073991.7A CN115274512A (en) 2022-09-02 2022-09-02 Mechanical arm and method for improving use efficiency of cooling station of semiconductor machine

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