JP2002053970A - Liquid treatment system, and manufacturing method of semiconductor apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a liquid treatment system which can efficiently carry and deliver a work for each treatment, and a manufacturing method of a semiconductor apparatus including the liquid treatment. SOLUTION: This liquid treatment system has a first treatment unit for treating the work in a liquid phase, a second treatment unit for performing a pre-treatment or a pre-procedure, or a post-treatment or a post-procedure in the liquid phase, a carrying-in means for holding the work, carrying the work in the first or second treatment unit, and delivering the work thereto, a detecting means for detecting the position of the work to be carried in with reference to the first or second treatment unit for carry-in, and a control means for controlling the carrying-in means so as to correct the position at which the carrying-in means delivers the work to the first or second treatment unit for carry-in with reference to the work based on the position of the detected work to be carried in.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a liquid processing system for performing processing on an object to be processed in a liquid phase and pre-processing and post-processing thereof, and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including such processing. In particular, the present invention relates to a liquid processing system and a method for manufacturing a semiconductor device, which are suitable for efficiently transferring and delivering an object to be processed for each of the above processes.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a semiconductor manufacturing process, a process in a liquid phase such as a plating process has recently been used more frequently instead of a reaction process in a gas phase with the progress of fine processing of semiconductor devices. It has become to.

[0003] An apparatus for performing the treatment in the liquid phase is as follows.
In addition to the unit that performs the main liquid phase process, it usually has another unit that performs post-treatment or pre-treatment that accompanies this process. Further, a housing space for housing the unprocessed and processed workpieces, and a workpiece transfer means (a conveyor or an arm robot) for transporting the workpiece between the housing space and each processing unit or between the processing units. Such)
It is also common to have

Therefore, in order to improve the productivity, it is important not only to efficiently perform each process itself, but also to smoothly transfer the object to be processed which is not a process itself but is in a transition state (transition). Issues.

[0005]

Each processing unit in an apparatus for performing processing in a liquid phase is installed at a fixed position. Further, the object to be transferred to each unit needs to be transferred to correspond to the fixed position. For this reason, it is necessary for the transfer means, particularly the arm robot, to consider whether to firmly hold or slowly move the object to be processed so as not to cause a displacement of the object in the transfer state.

[0006] When the robot is moved slowly, it is unlikely to cause a positional shift, but it tends to take a long time to convey, and when firmly gripping, it usually takes time to shift to the gripping state and release from the gripping state. Therefore, there are limitations in shortening the transition.

The present invention has been made in view of the above situation, and provides a liquid processing system for performing processing on an object to be processed in a liquid phase, pre-processing and post-processing thereof, and an apparatus for performing such processing. In a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device including the above, an object is to provide a liquid processing system capable of performing efficient transfer and transfer when transferring and transferring an object to be processed for each of the above processes, and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device. And

In addition to the above objects, it is another object of the present invention to provide a liquid processing system capable of delivering an object to be processed in a direction that is optimal for each processing, and a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device. .

[0009]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, a liquid processing system according to the present invention comprises a first processing unit for performing processing in a liquid phase on an object to be processed; A second processing unit for performing pre-processing or pre-procedure or post-processing or post-procedure of the processing, and carrying-in of holding the workpiece and loading and delivering the workpiece to the first or second processing unit Means, detecting means for detecting the position of the object to be carried in with reference to the first or second processing unit of the carry-in target, based on the detected position of the object to be carried in, Control means for controlling the carry-in means so as to correct a position at which the carry-in means delivers the object to the first or second processing unit as a carry-in target based on the work-piece. Features.

The position of the object to be carried in is transferred to the original position (that is, to the installed processing unit) by a detecting means for detecting the position of the object to be carried in with reference to the first or second processing unit to be carried in. Position of the object to be processed)
Can be detected. So, based on this shift,
The position where the carrying-in means delivers the object to the first or second processing unit as the destination is corrected based on the object. Therefore, even if there is a shift in the holding position between the loading means and the object, the delivery position of the object itself is a position suitable for the processing unit.

This eliminates the need to consider the holding position deviation between the carrying-in means and the object to be processed as in the prior art.
It is possible to efficiently transfer and deliver the object to be processed for each processing.

[0012] The loading means may include a vertical shaft member having a fixed position in a horizontal plane, and an arm member provided so as to be able to expand and contract horizontally from the shaft member and to be rotatable about the axis of the shaft member. And a holding member provided at an end of the arm member for vacuum-sucking and holding the object to be processed, wherein the first and second processing units are disposed in the horizontal plane of the shaft member of the loading means. It is characterized by being located at a distance of a substantially constant radius centered on the position.

[0013] A high positional accuracy is not required for vacuum suction of the object to be processed. In addition, the transport speed can be increased because the gripping can be firmly performed. Further, since the carrying-in means is located at the center of the plurality of processing units, the transfer time between the processing units is reduced.

Therefore, it is possible to efficiently transport and deliver the object to be processed for each processing.

Here, the detecting means includes an image pickup means fixedly attached to each of the first and second processing units, and an image processing means for processing an image picked up by the image pickup means. Can be. The imaging unit can image the processing target at any position in the loading path of the loading target processing object, and the image processing unit may be configured as, for example, the position of the loading processing target object. Image processing is performed to detect the center position.
Such image processing can be easily performed.

Further, in the liquid processing system according to claim 1, further, a second detecting means for detecting an orientation of the object to be carried in based on the first or second processing unit to be carried in. And, based on the detected orientation of the object to be carried in, the orientation of the object when the carrying means transfers the object to the first or second processing unit to be carried in. And a second control means for controlling the carry-in means so as to correct the above based on the first or second processing unit.

The orientation of the object to be carried in is detected by a detecting means for detecting the orientation of the object to be carried in with reference to the first or second processing unit to which the object is carried in. The direction of the object to be processed)
Can be detected. So, based on this shift,
The direction in which the carrying-in means delivers the object to the first or second processing unit to be carried in is corrected based on the object. Therefore, even if there is a deviation between the direction of the carrying-in means and the object to be processed, the direction of delivery of the object to be processed is a direction suitable for the processing unit.

Therefore, in each process, the object to be processed can be delivered in a direction that is optimal for the process.

The loading means includes a vertical shaft member having a fixed position in a horizontal plane, and an arm member provided so as to be able to expand and contract horizontally from the shaft member and to be rotatable about the axis of the shaft member. And a holding member provided at an end of the arm member for vacuum-sucking and holding the object to be processed, and rotating the object to be vacuum-sucked and held around a vertical axis passing through the object to be processed. And a rotation unit for causing the first and second processing units to be located at a distance of a substantially constant radius centered on a position in the horizontal plane of the shaft member of the carrying-in unit.

Since the object to be processed is vacuum-adsorbed, the object to be processed can be easily rotated on its own axis.

Therefore, in each process, it is possible to easily deliver the object to be processed in a direction that is optimal for the process.

The first processing unit includes a unit for performing a plating process on the object, and the second processing unit includes a unit for cleaning the object and annealing the object. It may include both or one of the units to be processed.

Further, in the method of manufacturing a semiconductor device according to the present invention, the object to be processed is gripped by vacuum suction, and the object to be processed gripped by the vacuum suction is processed in a liquid phase. Or a step of transferring to a second processing unit that performs pre-treatment or pre-procedure or post-treatment or post-procedure of the treatment in the liquid phase,
Based on both or one of the position and the orientation of the object to be transferred, based on the detected position and / or the orientation of the object, the position and / or the orientation of the object to be transferred are determined based on the location and / or orientation of the object to be transferred. Correcting a predetermined position or a predetermined direction based on the first or second processing unit, and receiving the processed object having the corrected position or direction to the first or second processing unit as a transfer destination target And a step of performing a treatment in the liquid phase or a pre-treatment or pre-procedure or a post-treatment or post-procedure on the transferred object to be processed.

This manufacturing method has the same operation and effect as the liquid processing system described above.

[0025]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a plating system, which is an embodiment of a liquid processing system according to the present invention, which performs a plating process on a semiconductor wafer and a process or a procedure accompanying the plating process.

As shown in FIG. 1, the plating system 1 includes a carrier station 2 for transferring a wafer 6 in and out, and a process station 3 for actually processing the wafer 6.

The carrier station 2 accesses the mounting table 4 for storing the wafers 6 and the carrier cassette 5 mounted on the mounting table 4 to take out the wafers 6 stored therein and to process the processed wafers. And a sub-arm 7 serving as a second transfer means for accommodating the transfer arm 6.

In the carrier cassette 5, a plurality of wafers 6, for example, 25 wafers 6 are accommodated in the vertical direction while being kept horizontally at equal intervals. On the mounting table 4, for example, four carrier cassettes 5 are arranged in a vertical direction in the figure.

The sub arm 7 has a structure capable of moving on rails arranged in the vertical direction in the figure and moving up and down in a vertical direction, that is, a direction perpendicular to the plane of the paper in the figure, and rotatable in a horizontal plane. An unprocessed wafer 6 is taken out of the carrier cassette 5 by accessing the carrier cassette 5 placed on the carrier 4, and the processed wafer 6 is stored in the carrier cassette 5.

The sub arm 7 transfers the wafer 6 before and after the process to and from the process station 3 described later via the relay table 14.

The process station 3 has a rectangular parallelepiped or cubic appearance, and its entire periphery is covered with a housing 8 made of a corrosion-resistant material, for example, a resin or a metal plate whose surface is coated with a resin. .

A processing space is formed in the housing 8, and a bottom plate 9 is attached to the bottom of the processing space.

In the processing space, a plurality of processing units, for example, plating units 12 and 13, cleaning unit 10,
Annealing processing units 11 are arranged, for example, around a main arm 15 described below, for example, in a processing space. Note that, in addition to the processing units 10 to 13, another processing unit may be provided above these in the vertical direction (that is, in a two-stage configuration).

At the approximate center of the bottom plate 9, a main arm 15 as first transfer means for transferring a wafer is provided. The main arm 15 is vertically movable and rotatable in a horizontal plane. The main arm 15 further includes a wafer holding member that expands and contracts substantially in a horizontal plane. Wafers before and after processing can be taken in and out of the installed processing units 10, 11, 12 and 13.
Note that the wafers before and after the processing can be loaded or unloaded from / to the carrier station 2 via the relay table 14.

Incidentally, when the processing unit has a two-stage configuration, the main arm 15 can move vertically to enter and exit the upper processing unit. , And vice versa. It is also possible to carry a wafer from an upper processing unit to a lower processing unit.

Further, as a function of the main arm 15, the above-mentioned wafer holding member can hold the wafer by, for example, vacuum suction, and can rotate the vacuum-sucked wafer in a horizontal plane.

The main arm 15 has a function of turning the held wafer upside down, and has a structure capable of turning the wafer upside down while transferring the wafer from one processing unit to another processing unit. . Note that the wafer reversing function is not an essential function of the main arm 15.

By arranging a plurality of processing units around the main arm 15, the movement of the main arm 15 can be made more efficient.

The procedure for processing a wafer as the plating system 1 in the case of including the plating units 12, 13, the cleaning unit 10, and the annealing unit 11 is as follows. First, an unprocessed wafer is transferred from the carrier cassette 5 to the processing space. It is transported and carried into either the plating unit 12 or the plating unit 13. When the processing in the plating unit is completed, the wafer is moved and carried into the cleaning unit 10 to clean the wafer. After the cleaning in the cleaning unit 10 is completed, the wafer is moved and carried into the annealing processing unit to perform an annealing process on the formed plating layer.

An opening is provided in a housing 8a of the housing 8 of the process station 3 which is provided at a position facing the carrier station 2. The opening corresponds to the relay stand 14 and is used when an unprocessed wafer taken out by the sub arm 7 from the carrier cassette 5 is loaded into the process station 3. At the time of loading, the opening is opened, and the sub-arm 7 holding the unprocessed wafer extends and accesses the wafer holding member into the processing space, and places the wafer on the relay table 14. The main arm 15 accesses the relay stand, holds the wafer placed on the relay stand 14, and carries it into a processing unit such as a plating unit.

The opening of the housing 8a can be provided at a position directly corresponding to the cleaning unit 10 or the annealing unit 11. By doing so, the wafer subjected to these processes can be taken out to the carrier station 2 side without passing through the main arm 15.

Above the wafer loading / unloading path of the main arm 15 of each of the processing units 10 to 13, image pickup devices 16, 17, 18, and 19 are provided so as to image these paths. With these imaging devices 16 to 19, the position and orientation of the wafer carried by the main arm 15 are imaged. The captured image is sent to a processing device for image processing, and based on the processing result, the main arm 1
5 is corrected.

FIG. 2 is a front view of the plating system shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, the elements already described are given the same numbers, and
Is a top plate of the process station 3.

The images picked up by the image pickup devices 16 to 19 are
The image is guided to the image processing unit 21. When a predetermined process is performed in the image processing unit 21, the result is supplied to the main arm control unit 22, and the main arm control unit 22 sets a path through which the main arm 15 loads the wafer into each of the processing units 10 to 13. Correct the wafer transfer position and orientation to be appropriate for the unit. This is to optimize the position and orientation of the wafer held by the holding member of the main arm 15 by vacuum suction with reference to the processing units 10 to 13 to be loaded. The details of this correction operation will be described later.

Next, an arm robot that can be used as the main arm 15 of the plating system 1 described above will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 1 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of an arm robot.

This arm robot has seven degrees of freedom, and can take any value in each of the X, Y, and Z directions and each of the rotation directions Θx, Θy, and Θz around these directions. X, Y, and Z relate to the position of the gripped wafer, and Θx, Θy, and Θz relate to the posture of the gripped wafer.

To explain the structure, the cylinder shaft member 31 will be described.
The shaft is provided vertically with the position in the horizontal plane fixed. First arm member 32 having a horizontal portion and a vertical portion
Is provided so that a vertical portion is fitted to the cylinder shaft member 31, the whole is movable in the z direction, and rotates in the θ1 direction about the cylinder shaft member 31 as an axis.

As shown, the second arm member 33 having a horizontal portion and a vertical portion is provided at the end of the horizontal portion of the first arm member 32 so as to be rotatable in a horizontal plane. It rotates in the θ2 direction.

As shown in the figure, the clamp-shaped third arm member 34 has one vertical portion rotatably provided in the horizontal plane at the end of the horizontal portion of the second arm member 33 in the horizontal plane. Rotate. With these θ1, θ2, and θ3, the X and Y positions of the wafer held by the holding member 37 can be arbitrarily set. Generally speaking, only two degrees of freedom are sufficient to set the X position and the Y position arbitrarily.
Having three degrees of freedom of θ1, θ2, and θ3 is redundant. In this example, this redundancy is provided in order to increase the flexibility of position movement.

As shown, the fourth arm member 35 having a horizontal portion is provided at the end of the other vertical portion of the third arm member 34 so as to be rotatable around the X axis and rotates in the θx direction.

The fifth arm member 36 having a horizontal portion is provided at the end of the fourth arm member 35 so as to be rotatable around the Y axis and rotates in the θy direction, as shown in the figure.

Although the axes of θx and θy are perpendicular to each other, θ1, θ2, θ
Due to each state such as 3, the directions do not always coincide with the X and Y directions shown. In addition, θx and θy are degrees of freedom that do not need to be used as an arm robot in the sense of the minimum implementation of the present invention, and therefore may be fixed at a position where the holding member 37 is kept horizontal.

The holding member 37 is provided at the end of the fifth arm member 36 and rotates in the θz direction so as to hold the wafer by vacuum suction and rotate the wafer.

When the operation of moving the wafer by the above configuration is arranged, the X, Y positions of the gripped wafer are moved from a predetermined position to another predetermined position by changing θ1, θ2, and θ3.

At this time, the direction of the wafer is changed by changing θz as necessary. Note that z is adjusted to the height of the processing unit or the relay board to be delivered.

Next, control in the case where such a robot arm is used as the main arm 15 in the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described. FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an example of a screen in which one of the imaging devices 16 to 19 images the wafer and the main arm 15 carried into the corresponding processing unit.

As shown in the figure, the screen 41 captures a wafer 42 and a fifth arm member 36 as the main arm 15. The wafer 42 is held on a holding member 37 at the tip of the fifth arm member 36 by vacuum suction. In this figure, the wafer 42 is held by the holding member 37 from below, but may be held from above the wafer 42 due to the nature of vacuum suction.

As shown in the figure, the holding position of the wafer 42 with respect to the holding member 37 is generally not constant and shifts. Conversely, in the present invention, the holding member 37
When the state shifts to a state of holding the wafer 42 by vacuum suction, the positional accuracy may be roughened. It takes a relatively long time to accurately perform a state transition such as a transition to a held state. According to the present invention, such time can be saved.

The shift of the holding position of the wafer 42 with respect to the holding member 37 is detected from this screen, and the operation of the main arm 15 is corrected during the movement of the wafer 42.

Here, correction of the operation of the main arm 15 during the movement of the wafer 42 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 11 is a flowchart showing a process for correcting the operation of the main arm 15.

First, a screen 41 as shown in FIG. This screen 41 can be inevitably obtained on the way of loading the wafer 42 into the corresponding processing units 10 to 13. Here, the position where the holding member 37 is captured on the screen 41 is a fixed position corresponding to a predetermined moving path of the holding member. Here, for example, the holding member 37 is
In the following description, it is assumed that the movement route is set so as to be located at the center of the moving image.

When the screen 41 is captured, the image processing unit 21
The center of the wafer 42 is detected (Step 51). This can be achieved, for example, by extracting the wafer 42 from the captured image, binarizing the image, and calculating the center of gravity of the wafer 42. The center of the wafer 42 detected in this way is the illustrated wafer center 43.

Next, the image processor 21 calculates the deviation of the obtained wafer center 43 from the normal position (step 52). In this case, since the center of the screen is a regular position, it is a deviation from the center. For example, this deviation is calculated as how many mm each in the vertical and horizontal directions of the screen 41.

Next, the main arm control unit 22 converts the position of each of the processing units 10 to 13 into an actual positional deviation at the transfer location (step 53). This is a calculation of how far the wafer 42 arrives at a position serving as an actual transfer location when the holding member 37 is moved as determined in advance. In this case, the shift amount on the screen calculated in step 52 is multiplied by a coefficient to obtain the actual position shift at the transfer location.

Next, the main arm control unit 22 controls the wafer 4 at the actual transfer location of each of the processing units 10 to 13.
In order to correct the positional deviation of 2, the degree of freedom of the main arm 15 is converted using the coordinate values of the degrees of freedom (step 54). Specifically, in order to correct such a displacement, θ1, θ2, and θ3 may be corrected in the schematic diagram of the arm robot shown in FIG. Such conversion is conversion of a coordinate system, and a method of preparing a reference table stored in a memory can be used to simplify hardware.

Next, the main arm 15 is corrected and controlled based on the corrected θ1, θ2, and θ3 (step 5).
5). Thus, even when the wafer is held with a positional shift with respect to the holding member 37 as in the screen 41 shown in FIG. It is delivered not based on the position but on the position of the wafer 42.

Therefore, the main arm 15 and the wafer 4
Since it is no longer necessary to consider the holding position deviation from the position 2 as in the related art, it is possible to efficiently transfer and transfer a wafer for each processing.

Next, the operation of the main arm 15 is
Another example of the correction during the movement of No. 2 will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG.
19 is a diagram showing another example of a screen in which any one of Nos. 1 to 19 images the wafer and the main arm 15 carried into the corresponding processing unit.

In this example, each of the processing units 10 to 10
When the wafer 62 is transferred to the processing unit 13, the wafer 62 is transferred and mounted so that the orientation of the wafer 62 is also suitable for each of the processing units 10 to 13.

As shown in FIG. 6, the screen 61 captures the wafer 62 and the fifth arm member 36 as the main arm 15. The wafer 62 is held by a holding member 37 at the tip of the fifth arm member 36 by vacuum suction. In this case as well, the wafer 62 is held from below by the holding member 37, but may be held from above the wafer 62 due to the nature of vacuum suction.

As shown in FIG. 6, the wafer 62
The holding position with respect to the holding member 37 is displaced, and its direction is not constant.

Therefore, the shift of the holding position of the wafer 62 with respect to the holding member 37 and the orientation of the wafer 62 are detected from this screen, and the operation of the main arm 15 is corrected during the movement of the wafer 62.

Correcting the operation of the main arm 15 during the movement of the wafer 62 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a process for correcting the operation of the main arm 15.

First, a screen 61 as shown in FIG. 6 is obtained by one of the imaging devices 16 to 19. This screen 61 can be inevitably obtained during the loading of the wafer 62 into the corresponding processing units 10 to 13. Here, the position where the holding member 37 is captured on the screen 61 is a fixed position corresponding to a predetermined moving path of the holding member. Here, for example, the holding member 37 is
In the following description, it is assumed that the movement route is set so as to be located at the center of the moving image.

When the screen 61 is captured, the image processing unit 21
The center of the wafer 62 and the specific point are detected (Step 7)
1). The specific point may be any part as long as the direction of the wafer 62 can be detected. In this case, the specific point is the center of the outer peripheral flat portion of the wafer 62. Such a specific point can be detected by, for example, cutting out a portion of the wafer 62 from a captured image, binarizing the cut out portion, and performing pattern recognition. The detection of the center is the same as that in FIG. The center and the specific point of the wafer 62 detected in this manner correspond to the illustrated wafer center 6.
3 and a wafer specific point 64.

Next, the image processor 21 calculates the deviation of the determined wafer center 63 and the specified wafer point 64 from the normal positions (step 72). As for the wafer center 63, the center of the screen is a regular position, and therefore, it is a deviation from the center. Regarding the wafer specific point 64, the orientation of the wafer 64 captured on the screen 61 when the processing unit reaches the desired delivery direction is used as a reference and is a deviation from the orientation.
For example, these shifts are calculated as how many mm each in the vertical and horizontal directions of the screen 61.

Next, the main arm control unit 22 converts the position of each of the processing units 10 to 13 into a positional deviation at the actual delivery place (step 73). This is a calculation of how much the center and the specific point of the wafer 42 are shifted from each other at a position serving as an actual transfer location when the holding member 37 is moved in a predetermined manner.

Next, the main arm control unit 22 controls the wafer 4 at the actual transfer location of each of the processing units 10 to 13.
In order to correct the deviation of the position and the direction of No. 2, how to correct the coordinates with the respective degrees of freedom of the main arm 15 is converted (step 74). Specifically, in order to correct such a displacement, θ1, θ2, θ3, and θz may be corrected in the schematic diagram of the arm robot shown in FIG. This is because the position can be corrected by correcting θ1, θ2, and θ3, and the direction can be corrected by correcting θz. Such conversion is conversion of a coordinate system, and a method of preparing a reference table stored in a memory can be used to simplify hardware.

Next, the corrected θ1, θ2, θ3, θz
To control the main arm 15 (step 75). Accordingly, even when the wafer is displaced with respect to the holding member 37 and held in an inconsistent direction with respect to the holding member 37 as in the screen 61 shown in FIG.
13, when each of the processing units 10-1
3 is transferred at a desired position and orientation of the wafer 62.

Therefore, the main arm 15 and the wafer 4
Since it is no longer necessary to consider the holding position deviation from the position 2 as in the related art, it is possible to efficiently transfer and transfer a wafer for each processing.
In addition, it becomes possible to transfer the wafer in a direction that is optimal for processing in each processing unit.

Here, a supplementary explanation will be given of the positions at which the imaging devices 16 to 19 capture the wafers carried into the corresponding processing units 10 to 13. Basically, this position may be on any of the paths carried into the processing units 10 to 13. For example, the imaging devices 16 to 16 shown in FIG.
In addition to the position 19, the position of the imaging device as shown in FIGS. FIGS. 8 and 9 are views showing the wafer 82 loaded into the processing unit 11 together with the position of the imaging device 17, and the elements already described are given the same reference numerals.

Next, a plating process using the plating system shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the plating system.

When a certain process is completed, the object to be processed (wafer) is gripped by the main arm 15 in the processing unit or the relay stand 14 for a certain process (step 101). Next, the gripped wafer is transferred to a target processing unit. At this time, a position correction and a direction correction operation are made to function on the way to the processing unit (step 102). As a result, the position and orientation are corrected, and the wafer is delivered to the target processing unit (step 103). When the wafer is delivered to the target processing unit, the processing is performed in the processing unit (step 10).
4).

When the processing in the processing unit is completed, the processing is executed again from step 101 for the next processing, or the operation is performed to take out the wafer from the processing station 3.

In FIGS. 1 and 2, the processing units mainly include the plating units 12 and 13 and the cleaning unit 1.
0, the annealing unit 11 has been described as an example,
The same applies to the case where other processing units are incorporated. For example, it is a unit for modifying the plating seeding layer prior to the plating.

[0087]

As described in detail above, according to the present invention,
The detecting means for detecting the position of the object to be carried in based on the first or second processing unit to be carried in is used as a reference. (The position of the body) can be detected, and based on this shift, the position at which the carry-in means delivers the object to the first or second processing unit as the carry-in target is corrected based on the object. I do. Therefore, even if there is a shift in the holding position between the loading means and the object, the delivery position of the object itself is a position suitable for the processing unit.

This eliminates the need to consider the holding position deviation between the carrying-in means and the object to be processed as in the related art.
It is possible to efficiently transfer and deliver the object to be processed for each processing.

Further, the detecting means for detecting the orientation of the object to be carried in with reference to the first or second processing unit to which the object is carried in is used. (The direction of the object to be delivered) can be detected, and based on this deviation, the direction in which the carrying-in means delivers the object to the first or second processing unit to be carried in is determined by the processing object. Correct based on body.
Therefore, even if there is a deviation between the direction of the carrying-in means and the object to be processed, the direction of delivery of the object to be processed is a direction suitable for the processing unit.

Therefore, in each processing, the object to be processed can be delivered in a direction that is optimal for the processing.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a plating system that is an embodiment of a liquid processing system according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic front view of the plating system shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a configuration of an arm robot that can be used as a main arm 15 of the plating system 1.

FIG. 4 shows a wafer and a main arm 1 in which one of the imaging devices 16 to 19 is carried into a corresponding processing unit.
The figure which shows the example of the screen which imaged No. 5.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing a process for correcting the operation of the main arm 15;

FIG. 6 shows a wafer and a main arm 1 in which one of the imaging devices 16 to 19 is carried into a corresponding processing unit.
The figure which shows another example of the screen which imaged No. 5.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing another process for correcting the operation of the main arm 15;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a wafer 82 carried into the processing unit 11 together with the position of the imaging device 17;

FIG. 9 is a diagram showing a wafer 82 carried into the processing unit 11 together with a position in another case of the imaging device 17;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating the operation of the plating system.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Plating processing system 2 Carrier station 3 Process station 9 Bottom plate 10 Cleaning unit 11 Annealing processing unit 12, 13 Plating processing unit 14 Relay stand 15 Main arm 16, 17, 18, 19 Imaging device 21 Image processing unit 22 Main arm control unit 31 Cylinder shaft member 32 First arm member 33 Second arm member 34 Third arm member 35 Fourth arm member 36 Fifth arm member 37 Holding member 42, 62, 82 Wafer

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page F term (reference) 4K022 AA31 AA41 EA01 EA02 5F031 CA02 FA01 FA11 FA12 FA15 JA04 JA34 KA11 KA13 MA02 MA25

Claims (7)

[Claims] 1. A first processing unit for performing processing in a liquid phase on an object to be processed, and a second processing unit for performing pre-processing or pre-procedure or post-processing or post-procedure of processing in the liquid phase. Loading means for holding the processing object and transferring the processing object into and out of the first or second processing unit; and setting the position of the processing object to be transferred to the first or second processing unit.
Or a detecting means for detecting the object to be carried in based on the second processing unit; and the first or second object to which the object is carried in by the carrying means based on the detected position of the object to be carried. And a control means for controlling the carry-in means so as to correct a position to be transferred to the processing unit based on the object to be processed. 2. The loading device according to claim 1, wherein said loading means includes a vertical shaft member having a fixed position in a horizontal plane, and an arm member provided so as to be able to expand and contract horizontally from said shaft member and to be rotatable around the axis of said shaft member. And a holding member provided at an end of the arm member for vacuum-sucking and holding the object to be processed, wherein the first and second processing units are arranged in the horizontal plane of the shaft member of the loading unit. 2. The liquid processing system according to claim 1, wherein the liquid processing system is located at a distance of a substantially constant radius centered on the position. 3. The detecting means includes: an image capturing means fixedly attached to each of the first and second processing units; and an image processing means for processing an image captured by the image capturing means. The image capturing means captures an image of the object to be processed at any position on a loading path of the loaded object, and the image processing means determines a position of the central part as the position of the loaded object. The liquid processing system according to claim 1, wherein image processing is performed to detect an image. 4. The liquid processing system according to claim 1, further comprising: setting a direction of the object to be carried in to the first object to be carried in.
A second detection unit that detects the target object based on a second processing unit; and the first or the second target unit that the target object is a destination of the target object based on the detected orientation of the target object to be transferred. Second control means for controlling the carry-in means so as to correct the orientation of the object to be transferred to the second processing unit on the basis of the first or second processing unit. The liquid processing system according to claim 1, wherein: 5. The loading means comprises a vertical shaft member having a position in a horizontal plane fixed, and an arm member provided so as to be able to expand and contract horizontally from the shaft member and to be rotatable about the axis of the shaft member. And a holding member provided at an end of the arm member for vacuum-sucking and holding the object to be processed, and rotating the object to be vacuum-sucked and held around a vertical axis passing through the object to be processed. 5. A rotating means for rotating the first and second processing units, wherein the first and second processing units are located at a distance of a substantially constant radius around a position in the horizontal plane of the shaft member of the carrying-in means. The liquid processing system as described in the above. 6. The first processing unit includes a unit that performs a plating process on the object to be processed, and the second processing unit includes a unit that performs a cleaning process on the object to be processed and an annealing unit that anneals the object to be processed. The liquid processing system according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein both or one of the processing units is included. 7. A step of gripping an object to be processed by vacuum suction, and a first processing unit for performing processing of the object to be processed in a liquid phase on the object to be processed, or Transferring to a second processing unit for performing pre-treatment or pre-procedure or post-treatment or post-procedure of processing in a liquid phase; and detecting and / or detecting the position and / or orientation of the transferred object to be processed. Based on both or one of the detected position and orientation, the position and / or orientation of the object to be processed is corrected to a predetermined position or direction based on the first or second processing unit to be transferred. And transferring the processed object whose position or orientation has been corrected to the first or second processing unit to be transferred to the target object. Processing or before The method of manufacturing a semiconductor device characterized by having a step of performing physical or pre-procedure or post or post-procedure.