JP2617790B2 - Processing method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a processing method in which an object to be processed and an object to be monitored are mounted and each processing container is subjected to batch processing. .

(Prior Art) As this type of processing apparatus, a heat treatment apparatus for heat treating a semiconductor wafer can be exemplified.

FIG. 5 shows an example of this heat treatment apparatus. In the figure, a carrier transport path 1 for transporting, for example, a carrier cassette (not shown) loaded with 25 wafers is provided,
A stocker 2 is provided along the carrier transport path 1. The stocker 2 has a multi-stage structure, in which the carrier cassette transported by the carrier transport path 1 is temporarily stored. A wafer transfer device 3 is provided at one end of the carrier transfer path 1. A boat transport device 4 is located at the right end of the carrier transport path 1.
The boat 5 can be moved in the left-right direction in FIG. The wafer transfer device 3 automatically transfers wafers between a carrier cassette that stores and transports wafers and a boat 5 that stores wafers during heat treatment.
4186 and the like.

Next, the boat 5 will be described with reference to FIG.

This boat 5 inserts and supports wafers in grooves formed at equal intervals of a wafer arrangement pitch along the longitudinal direction of the boat made of a heat-resistant material, and is usually arranged on the boat 5. A predetermined number, for example, a number of dummy wafer groups 10, 10 are arranged at both ends of the wafer row. Eleven processing wafers are mounted between the dummy wafer groups 10, 10 at both ends. Further, a monitoring wafer 12 for monitoring the state of the heat treatment in a sampling manner after the heat treatment is mounted on the boat 5.
In the figure, three monitor wafers 12 are mounted at the center and both ends of a processing wafer group 11. In some processes, the monitor wafer is disposed only at the center of the processing wafer 11, or one wafer is disposed at each end of the processing wafer 11.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) As described above, the number of the monitor wafers 12 mounted on the boat 5 is usually at most three, and when the number is small, only one. The loading and unloading of the 12 boats 5 was performed manually by an operator. Thus, the monitor wafer
Since the insertion and removal work of 12 requires manual intervention, one heat treatment apparatus always requires one operator, which is not only labor-saving but also cannot be fully automated. Was. Also, this monitor wafer
There was a high risk that dust and the like would adhere to the wafer due to manual intervention at the time of insertion / removal of the twelve. When the degree of integration reached 4M or more, this caused a decrease in the yield of semiconductor wafers. Furthermore, since the number of people entering the clean room is limited to a few when class 10 is reached, there has been a strong demand for labor saving.

Then, the monitor wafer 12 is manually
In the case of performing the insertion / removal work, the management of the monitor wafers 12 before and after the processing must also be performed manually, that is, in the related art, such management is conventionally performed by the operator to sort the monitor wafers 12. I had to rely on work or memory.

Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to automate the transfer of the object to be monitored, save labor, improve the yield of processing, and facilitate the management of the object to be monitored. It is an object of the present invention to provide a processing method.

[Configuration of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) According to the present invention, processing objects to be monitored are arranged at both ends of a processing container, and the processing objects are automatically arranged between the monitoring objects. In the method, a step of transferring the object to be monitored to a position of arrangement of the object to be monitored on one end side of the processing container; A step of transferring the object to be processed, and a step of transferring the object to be processed between the objects to be monitored after this step.

Further, in the processing method in which the object to be processed and the object to be monitored are mounted in the processing container by the object transfer device and the batch processing is performed for each of the processing containers, the object to be monitored before use is the first object. And transferring the used monitor object taken out of the processing container by the object transfer device to a second monitor container. It is characterized by the following.

(Operation) In the present invention, the operation of transferring the monitor processing object to the processing container is automated using a processing object transfer device for transferring the processing object to the processing container.

Here, such an object to be monitored is often disposed on both sides of the object to be mounted in the processing container, and in addition to these two sides, at any one position near the center of the object to be processed. In some cases, an object to be monitored is mounted.

In the case of performing batch processing by mounting an object to be processed in a processing container, it is necessary to arrange the objects to be processed at equal intervals, and it is necessary to mount the monitoring object on both sides of the object. .

In the case of mounting as described above, first, the object to be monitored is mounted on one end side of the processing container, then the object to be processed is mounted next to the object to be monitored, and finally, the object for monitoring is mounted. What is necessary is just to mount the object to be processed next to the object to be processed,
In such a procedure, the transfer operation cannot be automated.

That is, to automate this work, the object transfer device occupies a predetermined width since it supports a plurality of objects at once, and transfers the monitor object to be mounted last to the processing container. At the time of replacement, a space allowing the movement of the processing object transfer device in the processing container due to the processing object already existing in the processing container could not be secured.

In the present invention, after transferring the monitoring target object to one end side of the processing container, before transferring all of the target objects to the processing container, use the empty space of the target object that has not been transferred yet. Since the object to be monitored is transferred to the other end of the processing container, the object to be monitored can be easily automated using the object transfer device.

(Example) An example in which the method of the present invention is applied to a semiconductor wafer heat treatment apparatus will be specifically described with reference to the drawings.

First, the overall configuration of the apparatus of the present embodiment is as shown in FIG. 5 described above. Further, in the apparatus of the present embodiment, as shown in FIG. The monitor dedicated container 20 and the second monitor dedicated container 22 are housed and arranged. In other words, the stocker 2 has a structure having, for example, six shelves, and the lowermost shelf has the aforementioned first shelf.
1, the second monitor-dedicated containers 20, 22 are accommodated. On the five shelves other than the lowermost shelf, a large number of carrier cassettes 30 each accommodating processing wafers 11 to be subjected to batch processing are accommodated. The first and second monitor dedicated containers 20, 22
The carrier cassette 30 and the carrier cassette 30 have the same configuration, and have grooves for inserting and supporting the processing wafer 11 or the monitoring wafer 12 one by one at, for example, 25 locations at equal intervals. By inserting the monitor wafer 11 or the monitor wafer 12, the monitor wafer 12 can be held vertically. Then, the first monitor dedicated container 20 is
The second monitor dedicated container 22 accommodates the monitor wafer 12a that has not been processed yet.
This is for accommodating the already processed monitor wafer 12b. Regarding the arrangement of the processed monitor wafers 12b in the second monitor-dedicated container 22, in order to clarify the distinction between lots, a space corresponding to one groove is opened between lots. It is arranged.

In the apparatus of this embodiment, in order to mount the processing wafer 11 and the monitoring wafer 12a on the boat 5 on the boat transport device 4, the first monitor dedicated container 20 and the The carrier cassette 30 is conveyed, and the transfer operation for the boat 5 is executed using the wafer transfer device 3. Further, the operation of transferring the processed wafer on the boat 5 to the original carrier cassette 30 and the second monitor dedicated container 22 is also described.
The processing is performed using the wafer transfer device 3.

Here, an example of the wafer transfer device 3 will be described.
This will be described with reference to FIGS. 7 and 8.

The wafer transfer device 3 includes a head 40 that moves up and down in the figure as shown in FIGS.
It has a structure that has a pair of chucks 44, 44 attached to an arm 40 via an arm 42 and that can be opened and closed in the left-right direction in the figure. The pair of chucks 44, 44 have a cap groove (not shown) capable of chucking a wafer one by one, and by reducing the distance between the pair of chucks 44, 44, the wafer is chucked in the groove. Making it possible. On the other hand, a wafer lifting device 50 is provided at a lower position opposed to the pair of chucks 44, 44, and a table 52 capable of contacting and pushing up the lower end of the wafer is vertically movable.

The head 40 and the wafer lifting device 50 can move independently along the rails 54, and can move between the position of the carrier cassette 30 on the carrier transport path 1 and the boat 5 on the boat transport device 4. Respectively.

Then, the carrier cassette 30 or the first and second monitor-dedicated containers 20 and 22 are disposed between the table 52 of the wafer lifting device 50 and the pair of chucks 44 and 44,
By pushing up the table 52, the wafer in each of the containers is pushed up, and the pushed wafer is held by the pair of chucks 44, 44 as shown in FIG. It is possible to take out a wafer from each container. Thereafter, chucks 44, 4 supporting the wafer
The wafer transfer device 4 moves to a position above the boat 5 on the boat transfer device 4 by the horizontal movement of the wafer transfer device 3, and transfers the wafer to the boat 5 using the pair of chucks 44 and 44 and the wafer lifting device 50. It can be mounted on. Conversely, in the case where the processed wafers on the boat 5 are returned to the respective containers, the operations can be performed by performing the reverse process of the transfer operation.

Next, a control system of the above-described embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. First, a host CPU 60 that controls each operation of the semiconductor manufacturing process is provided.
In addition to the control of the heat treatment apparatus as the embodiment apparatus, it controls all the control of a series of semiconductor manufacturing steps before and after the heat treatment apparatus. The host CPU 60 manages the use process for each lot, and particularly performs the following management as a characteristic process management of the apparatus of this embodiment.

That is, it manages the carrier cassette number of each lot to be heat-treated, the number of monitor wafers 12a mounted simultaneously with the processing wafers 11 in the carrier cassette 30, their arrangement positions with respect to the boat 5, and the like. In particular, the set number and arrangement of the monitor wafers 12a operate according to a predetermined recipe, and the types of the recipe are as shown in the table below.

The host CPU 60 is connected to a CPU 62 which controls the entire heat treatment apparatus of the present embodiment.
The PU 62 carries out the loading / unloading operation of the carrier cassette 30 and the first and second monitor dedicated containers 20 and 22 from the stocker 2 based on the input command from the host CPU 60, the drive of the wafer transfer device 3, the boat transfer device 4 , And control of the elevator 6 and the like.

Next, the operation of the above-described embodiment apparatus according to the method of the present invention will be described.

First, the host CPU 60 outputs the lot number of the lot to be processed first to the CPU 62. Under the control of the CPU 62, the stocker 2 causes the carrier cassette 30 corresponding to the lot number and the first monitor dedicated container 20 to Are set on the carrier transport path 1. The carrier cassette 30 and the first monitor-dedicated container 20 are transported along the Sharia transport path 1 and driven to the position of the wafer transfer device 3. At this time, in the wafer transfer device 3, the number of the carrier cassettes 30 to be mounted on the boat 5, the arrangement position of the monitoring wafers 12a with respect to the boat 5, and the number thereof are set by the CPU 62. When a recipe corresponding to No. 3 in the above-described table is set as a recipe for the monitor wafer 12a, the wafer transfer device 3 performs a wafer transfer operation according to the following procedure. become. That is,
In the above recipe setting, three monitor wafers 12a
Are mounted at the central position of the processing wafer 11 mounted on the boat 5 and one at each of both end positions.

A transfer method for this will be described with reference to FIGS. 1, 2, and 10. FIG.

First, the first monitor-dedicated container 20 is connected to the pair of arms.
44, 44 and the wafer lifting device 50, and the operation of the wafer transfer device 3 causes the first monitor dedicated container
One monitor wafer 12a on 20 is chucked and supported. FIG. 1A shows such a chuck.
As shown in FIG.
Can be realized by shifting the position and using the groove at the right end of the chucks 44, 44. Thereafter, the pair of chucks 44, 44 and the wafer lifting device 50 are moved, and the supported monitor wafer 12a (MW) is moved to the right end of the boat 5 shown in FIG. (The leading end side of the multi-stage furnace 7) next to the dummy wafer row DM. This state is shown in FIGS. 10 (a) and 10 (b).

Next, the processing wafer 11 (PW) is mounted next to the monitoring wafer 12a. See FIG. 10 (c). Here, assuming that the processing wafers 11 for four carrier cassettes are previously mounted on the boat 5 by a command from the host CPU 60,
Processing wafers 11 in the first two carrier cassettes 30
Will be transferred first. Here, since the pair of chucks 44, 44 can support one cassette of wafers at a time, this transfer is performed in two operations. For this purpose, as shown in FIG. 1B, all the wafers 11 in the carrier cassette 30 are pushed up by the table 52 and supported by the pair of chucks 44, 44, and then moved to the boat 5 side. Perform a transfer. By performing the same operation twice in succession, the boat 5
The wafer 11 as shown in FIG.

Next, one monitor wafer 12a is mounted on the left side of the processing wafer 11 already mounted. That is, as shown in FIG. 1C, one monitor wafer 12a is supported by the grooves at the right ends of the chucks 44, 44, so that the transfer as shown in FIG. 2C can be performed. .

Thereafter, the processing wafers 11 of the remaining two carrier cassettes are mounted on the left side of the monitoring wafer 12a set in the middle part. 5, it becomes impossible to arrange the remaining monitor wafer 12 a between the dummy wafer group 10 and the processing wafer 11. That is, in order to transfer wafers to the boat 5, the table 52 must be raised toward the boat 5,
At this time, the dummy wafer group 10 and the processing wafer 11 which have already been mounted are mounted on the pair of chucks 44, 44 or the table 52.
Will interfere.

Therefore, after the second monitor wafer 12a is mounted on the boat 5, the third monitor wafer 12a is subsequently mounted on the rear side of the boat 5. For this installation,
As shown in FIG. 1 (D), first, the monitoring wafer 12a is chucked by the grooves on the right side of the chucks 44, 44, moved to the boat 5 side, and once received on the table 52. Thereafter, while maintaining the position of the table 52, the chucks 44, 44 are moved to the right as shown in FIG. 1 (E), and the monitor wafer 12a is moved to the left end grooves of the chucks 44, 44.
Change to chuck. Further, by moving the chucks 44 and 44 and the table 50 to the left as shown in FIG. 1 (F), the last monitor wafer 12a is moved to the left end as shown in FIG. 2 (D). Can be mounted next to the dummy wafer group 10. Finally, the wafers 11 for the remaining two carrier cassettes 11
Is transferred to the boat 5 in the same manner as in FIG. 1 (B), so that the space between the second and third monitor wafers 12a, 12a is formed as shown in FIG. 2 (E). It can be mounted on the boat 5 using a pes.

If there is a space between the processing wafer 11 mounted last and the monitor wafer 12a on the left side of the wafer, the wafer transfer device 3 sets the monitor wafer 12a and the dummy wafer group 10 on the left side. It is moved together so that it can be accommodated without space with right justification.

As described above, according to the above transfer method, when the monitor wafer 12a is transferred to the left side of the boat 5,
The monitor wafer 12a can be transferred using an empty space in which the two wafers 11 of the carrier cassette 30 not yet mounted are present, and the transfer device 3 for the processing wafer 11 is used. Thus, the transfer operation of the monitor wafer 12a can be automated.

After the mounting of the processing wafer 11 and the monitoring wafer 12a is completed as described above, the boat transport device 4 is driven to transport the boat 5 to the lower side of the elevator 6. Thereafter, the boat 5 is driven up to a position corresponding to the opening end of the corresponding process tube based on a command given to the elevator 6 via the host CPU 60 and the CPU 62, and thereafter the boat 5 is loaded into the process tube. become. And in this process tube,
Batch processing is started for each boat 5 on which the processing wafer 11 and the monitoring wafer 12a are mounted.

In this embodiment, since the mechanism has the multi-stage furnace 7,
The above-described boat transfer operation to the process tubes in each stage is performed. At this time, since a recipe is prepared in advance for each lot carried into each process tube, the above-described wafer transfer operation is executed based on this recipe. In particular, as for the set number of the monitoring wafers 12a with respect to the boat 5 and the arrangement position thereof, any one of the recipes in the above-described table is set, and one to three monitoring wafers 12a are set based on this recipe. Will be mounted on the boat 5.

Next, the unloading operation for the wafer after the heat treatment will be described.

The unloading drive from the process tube to the boat transport device 4 is performed by performing a process reverse to the above-described loading operation of the boat 5. And the boat transport device 4
After the boat 5 is placed at the upper wafer transfer position, the wafer transfer device 3 transfers the wafers from the boat 5 to the carrier cassette 30 or the second monitor dedicated container 22. Therefore, at the position of the boat transfer device 3 on the carrier transport path 1, the empty carrier cassette 30 and the second monitor dedicated container 22 are previously arranged.

The operation of transferring the wafers on the boat 5 using the wafer transfer device 3 is performed in the reverse order of the order of transferring the wafers at the time of the previous wafer transfer. That is, first, a wafer group corresponding to one carrier cassette among the processing wafers 11 in the left region shown in FIG.
Then, the pair of chucks 44 and 44 and the wafer lifting device 50 are transported to the position of the empty carrier cassette 30. Then, similarly, by using the wafer lifting device and the pair of chucks 44, 44, the processing wafer 11 supported by the chucks 44, 44 is transferred to the carrier cassette 32. Similarly, the processing wafers for the other one carrier cassette 30 in the left area of the boat 5
Perform 11 transfers.

Next, the processed monitor wafer 12b disposed on the left end of the boat 5 is transferred to the second monitor dedicated container 22. Here, the monitoring wafers 12 corresponding to the previous lot are already stored in the second monitoring container 22.
In the case where b is mounted, a space corresponding to one groove of the second monitor dedicated container 22 is opened as shown in FIG. Of these, the first monitor wafer 12b is mounted in the second monitor dedicated container 22. Hereinafter, similarly, the processed monitor wafer 12b disposed in the center of the boat 5, the processing wafer 11 disposed in the right area of the boat 5, and the processing disposed on the right side of the boat 5. In the order of the already-monitored wafer 12b,
Carrier cassette 30 or second monitor dedicated container 22
Then, the transfer of the wafer is performed. As for the second and third monitor wafers 12b of this lot, as shown in FIG. 9, the space of the groove was not opened next to the first monitor wafer 12b of the rod mounted earlier. Will be housed in an array.

As described above, according to the above-described apparatus, the transfer operation of the monitor wafer 12 can be automated by using the wafer transfer device 3 that executes the transfer operation of the processing wafer 11, so that power can be saved. In addition, it is possible to reliably prevent impurities from adhering to the wafer, which has been a problem during the transfer operation due to manual intervention. An advantage of the above-described embodiment is that management of the monitor wafer 12 before and after use can be performed without depending on the memory of the operator. That is, the monitor wafers 12 before and after use are separately stored in the first and second monitor-dedicated containers 20 and 22, respectively, so that the monitor wafers 12 before and after use are mixed. Without distinction. In addition, the used monitor wafer 12b is stored and arranged in a predetermined order in the second monitor-dedicated container 22, so that the processed monitor wafer 12b is taken out in accordance with this order and the monitor is removed. By recognizing this, the lot number and the arrangement position of the monitoring wafer 12 with respect to the boat 5 can be reliably monitored without erroneous recognition.

In this embodiment, the following monitor data is printed out for each lot that has been processed.

Month Day Hour / Minute / Second Tube no. = 1 Batch ID. = A Monitor Recipe = 3 Monitor brock = 1 January Day Hour / Minute / Second Tube no. = 1 Batch ID. = B Monitor Recipe = 3 Monitor brock = 2 Month Day Hour / Minute / Second Tube no. = 1 Batch ID. = C Monitor Recipe = 4 Monitor brock = 3
By performing monitor recognition of each monitor wafer 12b in the monitor dedicated container 22, the monitor recognition can be performed without error.

The present invention is not limited to the above embodiment,
Various modifications can be made within the scope of the present invention.

In the above embodiment, the monitoring wafer 12 is replaced with the processing wafer 11.
The ones placed at both ends and the center of the
According to the method of the present invention, at least a processing wafer as an object to be processed is provided.
What is necessary is just to transfer the monitor wafer 12 to both ends of 11. In the above embodiment, the processing apparatus for heat-treating a semiconductor wafer according to the present invention is applied. However, the type of the object to be processed and the type of processing are not limited to this, and at least The present invention can be applied to various processing apparatuses that mount a body in a processing container and perform batch processing of the body.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the method of the present invention, the operation of transferring the object to be processed and the object to be monitored is automated, thereby saving labor and reducing the yield of the object due to manual intervention. In addition, this automation makes it possible to accurately manage the object to be monitored.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic explanatory view for explaining a method of transferring a semiconductor wafer as one embodiment of the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a state of mounting a wafer on a boat in each step in the transfer method of FIG. FIG. 3 is a schematic explanatory view showing an example of a stocker for storing first and second dedicated containers for monitoring, and FIG. 4 is a control of a heat treatment apparatus which is an example of the apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory view for explaining the overall configuration of a heat treatment apparatus in the apparatus of the embodiment, and FIG. 6 is a dummy wafer group for a boat, a processing wafer,
7 and 8 are front and side views of the wafer transfer device, respectively, and FIG. 9 is a processed state of the second monitor-dedicated container. FIG. 10 is a schematic explanatory view for explaining the storage state of the monitor wafer of FIG.
It is a transfer state explanatory drawing of a figure. 3 wafer transfer apparatus, 5 processing vessel (boat), 11 processing object (processing wafer), 12 monitoring object (monitor wafer), 20 first monitor Dedicated container, 22 ... The second monitor dedicated container.

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A processing method for arranging objects to be monitored at both ends of a processing container, automatically arranging the objects to be processed between the objects to be monitored, and batch-processing each processing container. A step of transferring the object to be monitored to the arrayed position of the object to be monitored on one end side of the processing container; And a step of transferring the object to be processed between the objects to be monitored after this step. 2. A processing method for mounting an object to be processed and an object to be monitored in a processing container by a device for transferring an object to be processed, and performing batch processing for each processing container. Comprises a step of transferring from the first monitor-dedicated container, and a step of transferring the used monitor object removed from the processing container by the object-to-be-processed transfer device to a second monitor-only container. A processing method characterized by comprising: