JP2002043290A - Maintenance method of processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a maintenance method of a processor by which device operation can be combined optionally. SOLUTION: The single operation of a part to be the maintenance object of the processor is registered in advance (S10). The single operation registered at the S10 is combined optionally to prepare a maintenance macro file as sequence operations and/or parallel operations (S20). The prepared maintenance macro file is carried out and maintenance is performed by this (S30). The performed sequence operations and parallel operations are evaluated (S40).

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a maintenance method for a processing apparatus, and more particularly to a maintenance method for a processing apparatus for performing processing such as etching and film formation on a processing target such as a semiconductor wafer or a substrate for a liquid crystal display. About.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In semiconductor device processing,
There are various processes such as etching, film forming process, ashing, and sputtering, and various semiconductor processing apparatuses corresponding to these processes are used. As a conventional processing apparatus of this type, for example, a multi-chamber processing apparatus in a so-called cluster apparatus capable of performing a plurality of processes in one apparatus is widely used. In this type of apparatus, a plurality of vacuum processing chambers are connected to a common transfer chamber, and a semiconductor wafer as a substrate to be processed is loaded / unloaded from a loading / unloading chamber connected to the transfer chamber via a preliminary vacuum chamber having a load lock function. To achieve high integration of semiconductor devices,
Suitable for high throughput and prevention of contamination of the object.

[0003] Once such a device breaks down, it must be stopped for a long time in order to repair it, resulting in a decrease in throughput. In order to prevent failure of the apparatus, improve the yield of semiconductors to be processed, and maintain a predetermined throughput, maintenance of parts of the processing apparatus is important. Conventionally, a test of the device operation, which is an item of maintenance, and collection of device inspection data are performed in advance by forming a program in accordance with the program.

[0004]

However, if the test contents of the device operation or the acquired contents of the device inspection data are changed, it is necessary to reconfigure the program each time or to manually execute the test and the inspection items. did not become. These operations were very complicated and time-consuming. A semiconductor substrate processing system in which the transfer order of semiconductor wafers can be set arbitrarily is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 4-364752.
However, it has been desired that any operation of the apparatus other than the transfer of the semiconductor wafer can be arbitrarily set.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem, and an object of the present invention is to provide a maintenance method for a processing apparatus which allows any combination of apparatus operations.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for maintaining a processing apparatus, comprising the steps of: A pre-registering step, a macro description step of describing the maintenance macro as the single operation unit and / or the combination of the single operation as a sequence operation and / or a parallel operation, and a maintenance macro described in the macro description step. And a macro execution step of performing a maintenance by executing the macro execution step. As a result, even when the operation test or the content of data to be acquired is changed, it can be easily handled by editing the existing macro file, so that it is not necessary to reconfigure the program from scratch or to manually operate the program.

Further, as set forth in claim 2, the sequence operation performed in the macro execution step and / or
Alternatively, if the apparatus is configured to include an evaluation step of evaluating a parallel operation, the apparatus can be evaluated. In addition, it is preferable that the single operation includes an inspection operation of the maintenance target part, and the single operation includes the maintenance target part. It is preferable to include the initialization operation of.

The macro description step may include an arrival monitoring operation macro description step for writing a macro for monitoring whether or not a single operation of the maintenance target part has reached a control value. If included, it is possible not to shift to the next operation until the operation reaches the set value. Further, if the macro description step includes a loop macro description step for describing a macro for repeating a single operation of the maintenance target part, the designated operation can be repeatedly performed. , Endurance test, etc. become possible.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the drawings. First, the schematic configuration of the processing apparatus will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 are a schematic plan view and a schematic side view, respectively, of a processing apparatus for etching a semiconductor wafer as an object to be processed. This device
A vacuum processing chamber 1 for etching a semiconductor wafer W;
It has a load lock chamber 3 as a vacuum spare chamber. The load lock chamber 3 is detachably attached to one side of the transfer chamber 5 as a rectangular common transfer path.

On the other side of the transfer chamber 5, there are provided a plurality of wafer cassettes 6 as accommodation means for mounting several tens of wafers W at predetermined intervals. Alignment stage 7
Is provided. That is, the transfer chamber 5
A cassette table as a load port on which a plurality of wafer cassettes 6 can be placed is provided in front of the cassette table. The wafer cassette 6 can be hermetically sealed by providing a lid.
The inside supports a large number of wafers in multiple stages.

The transfer chamber 5 is provided with an arm 8 for carrying a wafer W in and out of the wafer cassette 6 so as to be movable in the longitudinal direction of the transfer chamber 5. One wafer W is taken out of the wafer cassette 6 by the arm 8, carried into the pre-alignment stage 7, pre-aligned, gripped and carried into the load lock chamber 3, and carried into the vacuum processing chamber 1. It is supposed to.

In the vacuum processing chamber 1, an etching process is performed on the wafer W, and the processed wafer W is carried out to the load lock chamber 3 and transferred to the arm 8. The arm 8 returns the processed wafer W to the wafer cassette 6.

A vacuum side gate valve 13 is provided at a connection between the vacuum processing chamber 1 and the load lock chamber 3, and an atmosphere side gate valve 14 is provided at a connection with the transfer chamber 5.

Next, a method for maintaining a processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a maintenance method for the processing apparatus according to the embodiment of the present invention. First, a single operation of a part to be maintained in the processing apparatus is registered in advance (S
10). The single operation differs depending on parts. For example, in the case of a gate, the operation unit is only an open operation or only a close operation. At this time, it is preferable to register the inspection operation of the parts and the initialization operation of the parts.

Next, a maintenance macro file is created as a sequence operation and / or a parallel operation by arbitrarily combining the single operations registered in S10 (S2).
0). Here, the sequence operation is a permutation operation in which the operations are sequentially performed, and the parallel operation is a parallel operation in which the operations are performed in parallel. At this time, it is preferable to create a loop macro that repeats a single operation of the part as necessary. For example, a loop macro is effective for performing a durability test. Also,
It is preferable to create a macro including an arrival monitoring operation macro for monitoring whether a single operation of a part has reached a control value.

Next, the maintenance macro file created in S20 is executed to perform maintenance (S30). At this time, it is also possible to reserve execution of a plurality of maintenance macro files. It is also possible to suspend, suspend, and resume during execution.

The apparatus data and related data during execution of the maintenance macro file are stored as a file.
Based on this data, the performed sequence operation and parallel operation are evaluated (S40).

FIG. 4 shows an example of a macro editor screen used when creating a macro in S20. In the screen, "LM" in the "module" column is an abbreviation for a loader module (loading / unloading room). The “command” column describes a part that actually operates, and is “arm” here. The “set value 1” column describes a set value for the part described in the command column. Here, the “LLM standby position” means an operation of moving the arm toward the front side of the load lock chamber.
The “LP1 standby position” means an operation of moving the arm toward the front of the first load port.

That is, a device operation combining a single operation in which the arm moves toward the front of the load lock chamber and a single operation in which the arm moves toward the front of the first load port is described. Since 10 in the screen indicates the number of times these operations are repeatedly performed, when this macro is executed, the above operation is repeated 10 times. FIGS. 5A and 5B show the state when the arm has moved to the LLM standby position and the LP1 standby position, respectively. 5, the same or similar parts as those in FIG. 1 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and the description of each part is omitted.

The created macro can be saved as a file by operating a macro save button at the bottom of the screen.
The saved macro file can be recalled when needed by operating the macro read button. You can also edit the called macro file. For example, when inserting a step or deleting a step, a desired operation can be set by operating a step insertion or step deletion button, respectively. Thus, single operations can be arbitrarily combined using such a macro editor. Further, even when the test contents of the device operation or the acquired contents of the device inspection data are partially changed, it can be easily dealt with by calling the previously created macro file and partially editing the macro file.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, an arbitrary device operation can be executed by writing a macro in which the operations of parts are arbitrarily combined and executing the macro. Thus, the adjustment and inspection processes can be automated. Even if the operation test or the content of the acquired data is changed,
Since it can be easily handled by calling an existing macro file and editing a part of it, there is no need to reconfigure the program from scratch or to manually operate it. In addition, a durability macro or the like can be executed by writing a loop macro for repeating a single operation and executing the loop macro.

Although an example in which the present invention is applied to the operation of the arm has been described above, the present invention is not limited to this.
It goes without saying that maintenance can be performed on other parts related to the processing device by describing and executing the macro file in the same manner.

While the preferred embodiment according to the present invention has been described with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to such an example. It is clear that a person skilled in the art can conceive various changes or modifications within the scope of the technical idea described in the claims, and it is obvious that the technical scope of the present invention is not limited thereto. It is understood that it belongs to.

[0024]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention, an arbitrary device operation can be executed by arbitrarily combining the operations of the parts and describing the macro as a macro and executing the macro. Even if the contents of the test of the equipment operation and the acquisition contents of the equipment inspection data are partially changed,
It can be easily handled by recalling a previously created macro file and partially editing it, so there is no need to rebuild the program from scratch or manually operate it.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a semiconductor processing apparatus.

FIG. 2 is a schematic side view of a semiconductor processing apparatus.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a maintenance method according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an example of a macro editor screen according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a moving state of an arm.

[Explanation of symbols]

 Reference Signs List 1 vacuum processing chamber 3 load lock chamber 5 transfer chamber 6 wafer cassette 7 pre-alignment stage 8 arm 13, 14 gate valve

 ────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Shigeaki Kato 650 Misawa, Hosaka-cho, Nirasaki-shi, Yamanashi Prefecture Tokyo Electron Yamanashi Co., Ltd. F-term (reference) 5F004 AA15 BC06 CA08 5F045 BB08 BB10 EB05 GB15

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A method for maintaining a processing apparatus, comprising:
A registration step of pre-registering a single operation for each maintenance target part of the processing device; a macro description step of writing a maintenance macro as a single operation unit and / or a combination of the single operation as a sequence operation and / or a parallel operation; A macro execution step of performing maintenance by executing the maintenance macro described in the macro description step. 2. The maintenance method according to claim 1, further comprising an evaluation step of evaluating a sequence operation and / or a parallel operation performed in the macro execution step. 3. The maintenance method according to claim 1, wherein the single operation includes an inspection operation of the maintenance target part. 4. The maintenance method according to claim 1, wherein the single operation includes an operation of initializing the maintenance target part. 5. The macro description step includes an arrival monitoring operation macro description step for describing a macro for monitoring whether a single operation of the maintenance target part has reached a control value. The maintenance method for a processing apparatus according to any one of 1, 2, 3, and 4. 6. The macro macro description step according to claim 1, further comprising a loop macro description step for describing a macro for repeating a single operation of the maintenance target part. A maintenance method for a processing apparatus according to any one of the above.