JPH05291236A - Automatic immersion and treatment apparatus for semiconductor substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a semiconductor substrate from becoming defective such as from being overetched because a conveyance robot cannot be operated due to its trouble when the semiconductor substrate is treated automatically with a chemical liquid by means of the conveyance robot. CONSTITUTION:When a controller 35 receives a trouble signal from a conveyance robot and recognizes that the treatment time of a semiconductor substrate being treated with a chemical liquid has elapsed by a prescribed time, the controller 35 opens an inner-tank liquid-discharge valve 12 and an outer-tank liquid- discharge valve 14 until an inner-tank empty detection sensor 16 and an outer- tank empty detection sensor 18 detect an empty state in order to wholly replace the chemical liquid inside a chemical-liquid tank with ultrapure water; after that, the controller opens a water-supply valve 20. Thereby, when the conveyance robot cannot be operated, it is possible to prevent the semiconductor substrate from becoming defective such as from being overetched or the like without depending on an operator.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and more particularly to a chemical liquid immersion processing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional automatic semiconductor substrate immersion treatment apparatus is
A loader 25 for setting a semiconductor substrate as shown in FIG.
And a chemical solution tank 1 for treating the chemical solution, and a washing tank 26 for washing with water,
Dryer 27 for drying, unloader 28 for storing the semiconductor substrate after drying, and transfer robot 3 for transferring the semiconductor substrate
It has a controller 4 for controlling the movement of each part, a display 5 for displaying the state of the device, an alarm lamp 7 that lights up when the device is abnormal, and an alarm buzzer 9 that sounds.

Next, the structure of the chemical liquid tank 1 will be described with reference to FIG. 4 according to the present invention. The conventional chemical liquid tank 1 has an inner tank 29.
A liquid supply valve 30 for supplying a chemical solution to the inner tank 29 and a water supply valve 20 for supplying ultrapure water; an outer tank 31 for storing the chemical solution overflowing from the inner tank 29; A pump 32 and a filter 33 for sending the liquid to the tank 29, and an inner tank drain valve 1 for discharging the liquid in the inner tank 29.
2, an outer tank drain valve 14 for draining the liquid in the outer tank 31,
Overflow drain pipe 34 that drains the liquid in the outer tank 31 before it overflows, inner tank empty detection sensor 16 that detects the absence of liquid in the inner tank 29, and outer tank empty detection that detects the absence of liquid in the outer tank 31. And a sensor 18.

Next, the operation will be described. The semiconductor substrate set in the loader 25 is carried to the chemical solution tank 1 by the transfer robot 3 and processed for a predetermined time, and then transferred to the water washing tank 26. After the water washing processing, it is carried to the dryer 27 and dried, It is carried to the unloader 28.

In the chemical tank 1, the inner tank 29 and the outer tank 31 are filled with the chemical solution by opening the liquid supply valve 30, and the chemical solution in the outer tank 31 is filtered by the pump 32 and the filter 33 and supplied to the inner tank 29. By doing so, the semiconductor substrate 2 is processed in the inner tank 29 while improving the cleanliness of the chemical liquid in the inner tank 29.

In the conventional automatic semiconductor substrate dipping processing apparatus, the control of the controller 34 when the transfer robot 3 fails and cannot operate will be described with reference to FIG.

When the transfer robot 3 fails and cannot move (step 22), the controller 4 causes the display 5 to move.
The failure status is displayed on the screen (step 6), and the alarm lamp 7
Was turned on (step 8), the alarm buzzer 9 was sounded (step 10), the operator was called, and the subsequent treatment depended on the operator.

[0008]

In this conventional automatic semiconductor substrate immersion processing apparatus, when the transfer robot fails and cannot move while processing a semiconductor substrate in the chemical bath,
Since it cannot be taken out of the chemical bath even after a predetermined time has passed, the quality of the semiconductor substrate due to overetching depends on the operator's treatment.

In recent years, the FA factory has been promoted to FA, the number of workers has been drastically reduced, and there has been a problem that the defect occurrence rate of this kind tends to increase more and more.

An object of the present invention is to provide an automatic semiconductor substrate dipping processing apparatus which prevents a defect such as over-etching of a semiconductor substrate due to a transfer robot having failed and not operating.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, an automatic semiconductor substrate dipping treatment apparatus according to the present invention has a controller, and semiconductor substrates are continuously dipped in a chemical solution, washed with water, and dried with a transfer robot. An automatic semiconductor substrate dipping processing device for processing, wherein a controller is provided in a chemical bath for chemical treatment of a semiconductor substrate and operates in a state where a semiconductor substrate being processed is present and a transfer robot for transferring the semiconductor substrate fails. It has a function of replacing the chemical liquid in the chemical liquid tank with ultrapure water after receiving a signal indicating that the semiconductor substrate is being processed and recognizing that the processing time of the semiconductor substrate being processed has passed a predetermined time.

[0012]

When the signal indicating the failure of the transfer robot is received, the failure status is displayed on the display, the alarm lamp is turned on, the alarm buzzer is sounded, and at the same time the semiconductor substrate processing time in the chemical solution tank elapses for a predetermined time, Replace all liquid in the inner and outer tanks with ultrapure water.

[0013]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a chemical liquid tank according to the present invention.

In FIG. 4, the chemical tank according to the present invention overflows from the inner tank 29, the liquid supply valve 30 for supplying the chemical solution to the inner tank 29, the water supply valve 20 for supplying the ultrapure water, and the inner tank 29. An outer tank 31 for storing the chemical liquid, a pump 32 and a filter 33 for feeding the chemical liquid in the outer tank 31 to the inner tank 29 while filtering the chemical liquid, an inner tank drain valve 12 for discharging the liquid in the inner tank 29, and an outer tank Outer tank drain valve 1 for draining 31 liquid
4, an overflow drain pipe 34 that drains the liquid in the outer tank 31 before it overflows, an inner tank empty detection sensor 16 that detects the liquid in the inner tank 29, and an outside that detects the liquid in the outer tank 31. It has a tank empty detection sensor 18 and a controller 35.

The controller 35 is provided in a chemical bath for chemical treatment of a semiconductor substrate, and receives a signal indicating that the transport robot for transporting the semiconductor substrate fails and does not operate in the state where the semiconductor substrate being processed exists. It has a function of replacing the chemical liquid in the chemical liquid tank with ultrapure water after recognizing that the processing time of the semiconductor substrate being processed has passed a predetermined time.

The other structure is the same as that of FIG.

FIG. 1 is a flow chart when a transfer robot fails in one embodiment of the present invention.

While the semiconductor substrate 2 is being processed in the chemical bath 1, if the transfer robot 3 cannot operate due to some trouble (step 22), the controllers 4 and 35 are provided.
Performs the following control.

First, the controller 4 includes a display 5
The failure status is displayed on the screen (step 6), and the alarm lamp 7
Is turned on (step 8) and the alarm buzzer 9 is activated (step 10).

Further, the controller 35 receives the signal indicating that the transfer robot 3 is out of order due to the failure of the transfer robot 3 in the state where the semiconductor substrate being processed is present, the setting processing time and the execution processing time in the chemical liquid tank 1. When they are compared with each other (step 11), the inner tank drain valve 12 of FIG. 4 is opened (step 13), and the outer tank drain valve 14 of FIG. 4 is opened (step 15).

When the inner tank empty detection sensor 16 detects that the inner tank is empty (step 17), the controller 35 closes the inner tank drain valve 12 based on the signal (step 2).
3) When the outer tank empty detection sensor 18 detects empty (step 19), the outer tank drain valve 14 is closed (step 2).
4).

Next, the controller 35 controls the water supply valve 20.
Is opened (step 21), and this state is maintained until the worker arrives and the reset operation is performed.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. FIG. 2 is a flowchart when a transfer robot fails in the second embodiment of the present invention. The controller 4 at the time of failure of the transport robot displays the failure state on the display 5 (step 6), turns on the alarm lamp 7 (step 8), and sounds the alarm buzzer 9 (step 10).

On the other hand, the controller 35 compares the set processing time and the execution processing time in the chemical liquid tank 1 and if they match (step 11), the water supply valve 20 is opened (step 2).
1) Hold this state until the worker arrives and resets.

In the present embodiment, the chemical liquid is drained from the outer tank overflow drain pipe, the liquid concentration gradually decreases, and finally the liquid is replaced with water.

Therefore, since the semiconductor substrate is replaced with water without contact with air, there is an advantage that particles can be prevented from adhering.

[0027]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the transfer robot fails and cannot operate during the chemical processing of the semiconductor substrate, the controller receives the transfer robot failure occurrence signal and the chemical solution in the chemical tank is received. Since pure water is replaced with pure water, over-etching and film reduction of the semiconductor substrate due to the chemical solution do not occur even if the operator does not take any action, and it is possible to prevent the occurrence of defects in the semiconductor substrate due to the inability to operate the transfer robot.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a flowchart showing the operation of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of the second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a conventional operation.

FIG. 4 is a configuration diagram showing a chemical liquid tank according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an automatic semiconductor substrate immersion treatment apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 chemical tank 2 semiconductor substrate 3 transfer robot 4 controller 5 display 7 alarm lamp 9 alarm buzzer 12 inner tank drain valve 14 outer tank drain valve 16 inner tank empty detection sensor 18 outer tank empty detection sensor 20 water supply valve 25 loader 26 water washing Tank 27 Dryer 28 Unloader 29 Inner tank 30 Liquid supply valve 31 Outer tank 32 Pump 33 Filter 34 Overflow drainage pipe 35 Controller

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An automatic semiconductor substrate dipping processing device having a controller, which successively carries out a chemical liquid dipping process, a water washing process, and a drying process on semiconductor substrates by a transfer robot, wherein the controller is a chemical liquid tank for chemically treating the semiconductor substrate. In the state where the semiconductor substrate being processed is present, a signal indicating that the transfer robot that transfers the semiconductor substrate has failed and has stopped operating, and the processing time of the semiconductor substrate being processed has passed a predetermined time After recognizing the above, an automatic semiconductor substrate dipping treatment device having a function of replacing the chemical liquid in the chemical liquid tank with ultrapure water.