JP2706793B2 - Coating and developing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a coating and developing apparatus.

(Prior art) Conventionally, in a coating and developing apparatus, an object to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer, is subjected to various types of processing in a plurality of processing steps. In recent years, with the high integration of the semiconductor wafer, each of the above processing steps has been increasingly performed. Increasing and more complex. In addition, there is a tendency for a small number of rods and many kinds.

On the other hand, in the manufacturing environment of semiconductor devices, a higher degree of cleanliness is required in order to prevent defects of semiconductor elements due to adherence of ducts (dust) due to the miniaturization described above. There is a further need to reduce dust generation.

Therefore, as a resist processing apparatus that can easily cope with complicated processing steps and can also cope with high cleanliness, a wafer loading / unloading mechanism and a plurality of processing mechanisms such as a resist coating mechanism, a developing mechanism, a heating mechanism, etc. A configuration has been developed in which a semiconductor wafer is automatically transferred to each processing mechanism by a wafer transfer mechanism according to a predetermined processing procedure to perform a series of processing.

The arrangement configuration of each processing mechanism in such a coating and developing apparatus differs depending on processing contents, installation conditions, and the like. For example, each processing mechanism is linearly arranged and connected, and the processing mechanism at one end is sequentially switched from the processing mechanism at one end by a wafer transfer mechanism. And a plurality of processing mechanisms are arranged in parallel, and a wafer transfer mechanism is provided in the center to transfer a semiconductor wafer to each processing mechanism for processing.

In addition, in the wafer loading operation in such a coating and developing apparatus, a wafer carrier in which a large number of semiconductor wafers are stacked and housed at a predetermined interval is arranged in a vertically movable wafer loading mechanism, taken out by a wafer transport arm, and transferred. Move to the mechanism. Then, the processed semiconductor wafer that has been subjected to the series of process processing is again accommodated in the wafer carrier accommodating the processed wafer from the wafer transport mechanism by the wafer transport arm.

By the way, a plurality of processing mechanisms are connected and arranged in this way,
In a coating and developing apparatus that sequentially performs processing, sensors for confirming each operation, such as a wafer positioning sensor and a hot plate position sensor in the case of a heating mechanism, are installed in each processing mechanism. It is configured to check whether or not a predetermined operation is being performed in each mechanism, and to proceed to the next operation.

Then, for example, if confirmation by the sensor is not performed within a predetermined time after instructing the operation, an alarm is generated and the progress to the next operation is stopped, thereby preventing a failure of the device itself. .

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in the conventional coating and developing apparatus, as described above, an alarm is simply generated to stop the progress of the process, or the alarm occurrence position and name are displayed. Therefore, there is a problem that it takes a long time to recover the failure location and the history of the failure cannot be sufficiently grasped.

However, as the number of processing steps increases with the recent increase in the degree of integration of semiconductor devices, it has become important to grasp the details of failures that occur momentarily in each mechanism and to control the processing and processing rods. In other words, by controlling the details of failures in correspondence with individual semiconductor wafers, it is possible to pursue the causes of failures of the processed semiconductor wafers, thereby improving the yield, and analyzing the details of failures. By performing the processing promptly, the mobility of the apparatus is improved and the processing quality is also improved. Further, by grasping the location and the number of times of occurrence of the alarm, it is possible to improve the reliability of the device itself by, for example, implementing a remodeling.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to address the above-described problems of the related art, and promptly grasps the history of failure contents of a coating and developing apparatus connected between a plurality of processing mechanisms by a transport mechanism and recovers the failure. It is a first object of the present invention to provide a coating and developing apparatus capable of performing the above-mentioned operations.

It is a second object of the present invention to provide a coating and developing apparatus in which the frequency of failures generated for each rod is tabulated and the apparatus corresponding to the rod is adjusted based on the tabulated data, thereby improving the reliability of the apparatus. Things.

[Configuration of the invention]

(Means for Solving the Problems) That is, a coating and developing apparatus of the present invention includes: a plurality of processing mechanisms for performing processing on an object; a transport mechanism for transporting the object to the processing mechanism; A main control unit that selects a recipe indicating processing content in accordance with an identifier of an object; and a control unit that controls the processing mechanism and the transport mechanism according to the recipe selected by the main control unit. A control unit that sends an alarm signal according to the generated abnormality when an abnormality occurs in the storage unit; and a storage unit that stores in advance a relationship between the alarm signal and the content of the generated abnormality based on the alarm signal from the control unit. Select the corresponding error details from the list, and display the details of the error that has occurred, as well as the details of the error, the type of workpiece to be processed when the error occurred, and the error. Storing abnormality data in the raw time and date, and stored, it is characterized in that optionally has and a corresponding fault display generation data or information retrievable and alarm control unit.

Further, according to a second aspect of the present invention, in the coating and developing apparatus according to the first aspect, an abnormality that occurs when the alarm control unit processes the workpiece based on the input rod number of the workpiece. It is characterized in that it is configured to search the contents and display a history of abnormal contents.

(Operation) The coating and developing apparatus of the present invention can display desired information, for example, the cause of occurrence and a countermeasure, together with the content of the failure based on an alarm signal generated in each processing mechanism, and thus can grasp the failure state. Can be easily performed, and it is possible to take prompt action.

Further, the failure location for each rod is visually displayed as in a list, so that the failure frequency or failure tendency for each rod can be grasped at a glance.

As a result, adjustment of processing and mechanism suitable for each rod can be promptly dealt with. In addition, it is possible to execute a processing step suitable for each rod.

(Embodiment) An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a resist coating and developing apparatus will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In the vicinity of the center of the apparatus main body 1, there is mounted a wafer holding mechanism 3 for holding, for example, by suction, an object to be processed, for example, a semiconductor wafer 2, and moving the wafer holding mechanism 3 in XYZ directions and θ directions. One wafer transfer mechanism 4 is provided. The first wafer transfer mechanism 4 is moved and rotated by a rotation drive mechanism (not shown) such as a stepping motor and a ball screw connected thereto.

Then, along one movement path of the first wafer transfer mechanism 4, for example, the X-direction movement path 5, on one side, for example, the upper side in the drawing, the plurality of wafer processing mechanisms, for example, the adhesion between the semiconductor wafer 2 and the resist film is improved. HMDS processing mechanism 6 for performing the heat treatment, a first pre-bake mechanism 7 for heating and evaporating the solvent remaining on the first-layer resist applied on the semiconductor wafer 2, and heating by the first pre-bake mechanism 7 A first cooling mechanism 8 for cooling the processed semiconductor wafer 2 is sequentially arranged in order. On the other hand, on the side of the moving path 5 facing each of the wafer processing mechanisms 6, 7, 8, a semiconductor wafer is provided. A first coating mechanism 9 for spin-coating a first-layer resist on the upper surface of the semiconductor wafer 2 and a second coating mechanism 10 for spin-coating a second-layer resist on the upper surface of the semiconductor wafer 2 are arranged in order. I have. Each of these wafer processing mechanisms 6, 7, 8,
A first processing unit 11 is constituted by 9 and 10.

In the resist coating / developing apparatus of this embodiment, another processing unit similar to the first processing unit 11 can be added in accordance with a processing step. A standby mechanism 13 including a mounting table 12 for temporarily holding the semiconductor wafer 2 on one side of the unit 11
And a plurality of processing mechanisms, such as a second pre-bake mechanism 14, which are connected to the standby mechanism 13 and correspond to the processing contents.
A second cooling mechanism 15 for cooling the semiconductor wafer 2 heated by the pre-bake mechanism 14, a surface coating layer coating apparatus 16 for coating a CEL film for preventing diffused light reflection on a resist, a second wafer transport mechanism 17, and the like. Second processing unit 18
Will be added.

On the other side of the first processing apparatus unit 11, a sender mechanism 22 mounted with a wafer carrier 21 storing the semiconductor wafer 2 before processing and a receiver mechanism mounted on a wafer carrier 23 storing the semiconductor wafer 2 after processing. 24, a wafer transfer arm 25 for holding the semiconductor wafer 2 by suction and carrying it into or out of the wafer carrier 23, and a transfer arm drive mechanism for moving the wafer transfer arm 25 in the XYZ and θ directions. A wafer carry-in / carry-out mechanism 27 constituted by 26 and the like is arranged.

Then, the unprocessed semiconductor wafer 2 is taken out of the wafer carrier 21 by the wafer transfer arm 25, and
The semiconductor wafer 2 placed on the wafer mounting table 28 is held by the holding mechanism 3 of the first wafer transfer mechanism 4 and moved through the processing mechanisms 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10. The desired processing is performed. Also, the second processing unit 18
When processing is performed in the
It is placed on the upper surface and moved between the processing mechanisms 14, 15, and 16 by the second wafer transfer mechanism 17 to perform desired processing. After the processing is completed, the processed semiconductor wafer 2 is placed on the mounting table 28 by the first wafer transport mechanism via the second wafer transport mechanism 17 and the mounting twelfth, and is placed on the wafer carrier 23 by the wafer transport arm 25. It is configured to be stored.

As shown in FIG. 2, the resist coating and developing apparatus having the above-described structure includes a wafer loading / transporting mechanism 27, a first processing unit 11, and a unit 18 of the second processing unit when a further processing unit is added. The operation is individually controlled by a unit control unit, for example, a carry-in / out mechanism control unit 31, a first unit control unit 32, and a second unit control unit 33. These unit control units 31, 32, and 33 Central control is performed by the main control unit 34.

The processing in each processing mechanism in each of the processing device units 11 and 18 extracts the recipe stored in the recipe information storage unit 35 by the recipe control unit 36 based on the information on the semiconductor wafer sent from the main control unit 34. Then, it is sent to each unit control unit, the carry-in / out mechanism control unit 31, the first unit control unit 32, and the second unit control unit 33, and each processing mechanism such as the first
In the pre-bake mechanism 7, the first coating mechanism 9, and the like, processing according to each semiconductor wafer is performed.

The alarm signal generated in the wafer loading / unloading mechanism 27, the first processing unit 11 and the second processing unit 18 is configured so that the alarm control system 40 performs a desired process. Each processing unit 11,
Sensors for confirming the operation of each of the 18 processing mechanisms 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16 and the wafer transfer mechanisms 4, 17, and the respective mechanisms 22, 24, 26 in the wafer loading / unloading mechanism 27. The signal is sent to each of the unit control units 31, 32, and 33, and a desired process is performed while confirming the operation of each unit according to the processing content. Here, if the operation of each unit is not confirmed, the processing operation is stopped in that state, and each unit control unit 31, 32, 33 sends an alarm signal to the alarm control unit 41.

For example, taking the first pre-bake mechanism 7 in the first processing unit 11 as an example, as shown in FIG. 3, the semiconductor wafer 2 held by the wafer holding mechanism 3 of the first wafer transfer mechanism 4 first Then, the wafer is moved onto the hot plate 71 in the first pre-bake mechanism 7 by a command from the first processing unit control unit 32, and is stopped at a predetermined position by the wafer positioning sensor 72 (FIG. 7A). After the first processing unit controller 32 confirms the signal of the wafer positioning sensor 72, the wafer holding pins 73 are raised to hold the semiconductor wafer 2, and the upper limit signal is set to the upper limit signal by the position sensor 74 of the wafer holding pins 73. When it is confirmed by the first processing unit controller 32, the first wafer transfer mechanism 4 is retracted to a predetermined position (FIG. 1B). When the retreat position of the wafer transfer mechanism 4 is confirmed by the position sensor 75, the first processing unit controller
The hot plate 71 is raised by a command from the 32 and the semiconductor wafer 2 is placed on the hot plate 71 (FIG. 1C). And hot plate 71
Is confirmed by the position sensor 76, a baking process for a predetermined time is performed. Thereafter, the processed semiconductor wafer 2 is sent out according to a procedure reverse to the supply operation of the semiconductor wafer 2.

Here, for example, if the upper limit position confirmation signal of the hot plate 71 does not reach the first processing unit control unit 32 within a predetermined time, for example, 10 seconds after instructing the rising of the hot plate 71, the alarm control unit Transferred to 41.

Similarly, each processing mechanism 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 in the first processing apparatus unit 11 and the first wafer transfer mechanism 4,
Also, each processing mechanism 14 in the second processing unit 18,
In each of the wafer transfer mechanism 17 and the wafer transfer mechanism 17, further, for example, a position sensor is provided so that a predetermined operation is performed, and a predetermined operation is performed by a signal of each sensor. It is checked whether or not an error has occurred, and when an abnormality occurs, it is transferred as an alarm signal from each of the unit controllers 31, 32, and 33 to the alarm controller 41.

When the alarm signal reaches the alarm control unit 41, the alarm control unit 41 extracts the alarm name stored in advance in the alarm name storage unit 42 based on each alarm signal,
In addition to displaying an alarm message on the display unit 43, the contents of the alarm signal, the date and time of occurrence, etc. correspond to the information of the semiconductor wafer 2 being processed when the alarm occurred, for example, the rod number and the ID code of the semiconductor wafer 2. In other words, the history is stored in the alarm content storage unit 44.

The alarm message displayed at this time is, for example, the name of the device where the error has occurred, the name of the alarm, and the like, as shown in FIG. From the alarm message screen, it is also possible to directly instruct the countermeasures against the failure, for example, retry, operation stop, operation continuation, initialization, etc. from the input unit 45. By performing the switching operation, the detailed content corresponding to each alarm signal stored in the alarm detail storage unit 46 is displayed on the display unit 43.

The alarm message in the detailed alarm display is, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, a reason for occurrence, a possible cause, a coping method, and the like.

When retrying, an operation command is transferred from the alarm control unit 41 to the unit control unit separately from a series of operations, and only the operation of the failed part is performed. Then, the sensor signal at the time of retry is transferred from each unit control unit 31, 32, 33 to the alarm control unit 41 separately from the signal in the series of operations, and the result of the retry is displayed on the display unit 43. Check the recovery status. When the fault is restored,
If a continuation operation is selected, a continuation signal is transferred from the alarm control unit 41 to the unit control unit 31, 32, or 33 so as to continue a series of operations.

Since the display and recovery of these alarms are performed for each processing mechanism, the other normally operating processing mechanisms continue to operate unless linked with the processing mechanism that generated the alarm.

On the other hand, the alarm control unit 41 traces the content of the alarm signal, the date and time of occurrence of the alarm signal generated with the passage of time, which is stored in the alarm content storage unit 44, from a certain period unit as necessary, for example, from the latest one. The data is totaled on a monthly basis and displayed on the display unit 43, or printed out from the output unit 47, for example. This display content is displayed as an alarm history screen 100, for example, as shown in FIG. For example, a message code 100A, an alarm code 100B, a block unit number 100C, alarm ON / OFF information 100D, an alarm occurrence date and time 100E, and the like are displayed on the screen. Further, by inputting, for example, a rod number of the processed semiconductor wafer 2, an alarm control unit is displayed on the display unit 43 so as to display an alarm generated when the semiconductor wafer 2 is processed.
Controlled by 41.

The alarm content storage unit 44 can retrieve the alarm content separately from the resist coating and developing apparatus by using an external storage unit such as a magnetic disk device.

Further, a rod information storage unit 48 is provided, and based on information from the main control unit 34, information corresponding to the semiconductor wafer 2 to be processed, such as a rod name, a mask to be used, an operator, a wafer flow, and a processing start time. Etc. are stored.

Then, if necessary, the information is displayed in a list format on the display unit 43, or is printed out from the output unit 47, for example.

This display content is displayed as a rod processing history drawing 101, for example, as shown in FIG.

As described above, in the resist coating / developing apparatus having the above-described configuration, the information of the alarm, the date of occurrence, the time of occurrence, etc., and the information on the processing rod are made to correspond to the semiconductor wafer or the rod type, and the events that occur as time passes are recorded. Since the data is stored with a function, that is, a logging function, it is possible to perform, for example, tallying for each rod type or tallying within a certain period. Therefore, it is possible to easily grasp the frequency of occurrence of the failure of each part of the apparatus and the content thereof, and it is possible to improve the reliability by performing necessary modifications for each part of the apparatus. Further, the cause of the defect in the semiconductor wafer after the processing can be pursued by comparing it with the content of the failure, which can be greatly used for improvement of the processing quality and comprehensive process control.

Further, by displaying the details of the failure, it is possible to promptly deal with the alarm, so that not only the operation rate is improved but also the yield can be prevented.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the coating and developing apparatus of the present invention as described above,
Since it is possible to grasp the history of the details of the failure in each processing step, it greatly contributes to the improvement of the reliability of the apparatus and the improvement of the processing quality, and it is possible to quickly cope with the failure. Furthermore, since the troubled parts for each rod can be counted, the processing and mechanism corresponding to the rod can be adjusted.

Therefore, in the adjusted state, processing and mechanism failures are reduced, and the reliability of the apparatus is improved, and the management of the processing steps corresponding to the large number of products in small quantities becomes easy.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is an explanatory view for explaining the configuration of an embodiment of a coating and developing apparatus of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block explanatory view for explaining a control system of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 4 is an explanatory view for explaining the operation of the first pre-bake mechanism which is a part of FIG. 1, FIG. 4 is an explanatory view for explaining an example of the basic alarm message screen of FIG. 1, and FIG. FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram for explaining an example of an alarm message screen, FIG. 6 is a display explanatory diagram for explaining an example of an alarm history screen displayed on the apparatus of FIG. 1, and FIG. 7 is an example of FIG. It is a display explanatory diagram for performing. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Main body, 2 ... Semiconductor wafer, 4 ... First wafer transfer mechanism, 11 ... First processing equipment unit, 18 ... Second processing equipment unit, 27 ... Wafer loading / unloading mechanism, 31: a loading / unloading mechanism control unit, 32: a first unit control unit, 33: a second unit control unit, 34: a main control unit, 40: an alarm control system, 41: an alarm control unit, 42: Alarm name storage unit, 43: Display unit, 44: Alarm content storage unit, 46: Alarm details storage unit, 48: Rod information storage unit

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A plurality of processing mechanisms for performing processing on an object to be processed, a transport mechanism for transporting the object to be processed to the processing mechanism, and a recipe indicating processing contents according to an identifier of the object to be processed. A main control unit to be selected; and a control unit configured to control the processing mechanism and the transport mechanism according to a recipe selected by the main control unit. A control unit that sends an alarm signal that has been transmitted, based on the alarm signal from the control unit, a corresponding abnormality content is selected from storage means that previously stores a relationship between the alarm signal and the content of the generated abnormality, and the generated abnormality is selected. In addition to displaying the contents, the abnormality contents, the type of the object being processed when the abnormality occurred, the abnormality occurrence data such as the abnormality occurrence date and time, etc. are accumulated and stored, and if desired. And an alarm control unit capable of displaying or extracting the abnormality occurrence data. 2. The coating and developing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the alarm control unit searches for an error that has occurred when processing the object based on the input rod number of the object. A coating and developing apparatus configured to display a history of abnormal contents.