JPH0729958A - Semiconductor manufacturing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To minimize the defective ratio of products and to improve through- put by eliminating the need for manual operational time required for quality control by transferring out an inspection of defective and non-defective for all the wafers before and after a process automatically and by feeding back the inspection result to the process. CONSTITUTION:The title device is provided with at least one treatment chamber 3 installed in a vacuum preliminary chamber 11 with a transfer robot 10 for transferring a semiconductor wafer and a cassette indexer 5 for transferring-in/out a semiconductor wafer to the vacuum preliminary chamber 11. The vacuum preliminary chamber 11 is provided with an inspection station 1 for measuring quality of a wafer before treatment and a wafer after treatment. A quality control part 2 is also provided for automatically changing process conditions based on measurement data measured by the inspection station 1.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and more particularly to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for performing single-wafer CVD processing, sputtering processing, etching processing, and other surface processing of semiconductor wafers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art As semiconductor devices have become faster and more highly integrated, their manufacturing processes have become more sophisticated, and semiconductor manufacturing equipment has been continuously processing semiconductor wafers (hereinafter simply referred to as "wafers") batchwise. The single-wafer multi-chamber system for processing has been transferred, and this single-wafer multi-chamber system is now the mainstream.

Along with this, work such as foreign matter measurement, film thickness management, and standard value inspection in each process is also increasing. FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of a single-wafer multi-chamber type wafer processing apparatus, which is a type of conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, in which 3 is a processing chamber (chamber) A, 4 is a processing chamber B, and 5 is a cassette. An indexer, 6 is a wafer cassette, 7 is a wafer storage wafer cassette, 8 is a pre-processed wafer, 9 is a post-processed wafer, 10 is a transfer robot, 11 is a vacuum preliminary chamber, and 20 is a quality measuring instrument.

FIG. 8 is a flow chart for explaining the work flow during wafer processing in the conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG. The work flow of FIG. 7 will be described with reference to FIG. The unprocessed wafer 8 is first set in the wafer cassette 6 and then set in the cassette indexer 5 after manually measuring foreign matters and film thickness with the quality measuring device 20 placed outside the processing device (S-31). Loaded (S-
32).

The unprocessed wafer 8 loaded in the cassette indexer 5 is carried into the vacuum preliminary chamber (L / L chamber) 11 (S-33) and processed by the transfer robot 10 installed in the vacuum preliminary chamber 11. It is transported to the chamber A (processing chamber B) and subjected to required processing or processing (S-34). The processed wafer 9 which has been processed or processed is again taken out by the transfer robot 10 into the vacuum preliminary chamber 11 (S
-35), it is returned from the vacuum preliminary chamber 11 to the wafer storing wafer cassette 7 of the cassette indexer 5 (S-3).
6).

The processed wafer 9 is manually inspected by the quality measuring device 20 (S-37), the difference between the measured values before and after the processing is calculated, and the quality confirmation work is performed. According to the result of this quality confirmation work (S-38), the process condition of the processing chamber A (processing chamber B) is changed as necessary (S-39), and the processing of the next processing wafer cassette is started (S. -40). As a result of the quality confirmation work, if the process conditions do not need to be changed, the next processing wafer cassette is prepared as it is (S-40), and the same processing procedure as above is repeated.

In this quality control work, the processing equipment is adjusted and the process conditions are manually changed so that the next processed wafer has the best quality based on the calculated result data. As a disclosure of this type of conventional technique, for example, JP-A-59-10224 is disclosed.
JP-A-2-294018 can be mentioned.

[0008]

In the above-mentioned conventional single-wafer multi-chamber type semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, the number of man-hours increases as the number of processing chambers increases, and the wafer transfer path becomes longer, so that foreign matter adheres. There are more opportunities to do it. Also,
As long as the machine does not stop due to mechanical trouble during processing, the next process is continuously performed, and even if a defective product is manufactured, the quality control process may not be found, Further, since it is a sampling inspection, it may not be possible to find a defective product, and it has been difficult to exclude defective products unless 100% inspection is performed in the final inspection.

As described above, in the prior art, the work time required for quality control is considerably wasted, and the possibility of foreign matter adhering to the wafer during quality control work increases, and even if the product is defective, it is processed. There was a waste of passing the process. The purpose of the present invention is to perform quality inspections on all wafers automatically before and after the process, and feed back the inspection results to the process to minimize the defective rate of products and to improve quality control. It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in which the working time is unnecessary and the throughput is improved.

[0010]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides at least a vacuum preliminary chamber 11 provided with a transfer robot 10 for transferring semiconductor wafers, and at least the vacuum preliminary chamber 11 installed facing the vacuum preliminary chamber 11. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having one processing chamber 3 and a cassette indexer 5 for loading / unloading a semiconductor wafer to / from the vacuum preliminary chamber 11, and carrying out the loaded semiconductor wafer according to required process conditions and then unloading it. In this device, an inspection station 1 for measuring the quality of the unprocessed wafer and the processed wafer is provided in the apparatus, and a quality control unit 2 for automatically changing the process condition based on the measurement data measured by the inspection station 1 is provided. It is characterized by having.

Further, the inspection station may be separately provided for the inspection of the unprocessed wafer and the inspection of the processed wafer, or the inspection station may be installed in the vacuum preliminary chamber.

[0012]

When the unprocessed wafer 8 is loaded into the vacuum preliminary chamber 11, the unprocessed wafer 8 is first transferred to the inspection station 1 and the quality before processing (for example, the thickness of the film already formed and the number of foreign particles).
Is inspected. The inspection data is sent to the quality control unit 2. The inspected wafer is transferred to the processing chamber 3 or 4 and subjected to required processing such as processing. At this time, the previous inspection data is fed back from the quality control unit 2 to the processing chamber 3 or 4, the process conditions based on the data are set, and the processing result is the best quality.

The processed wafer is again inspected at the inspection station 1.
Then, the processing result is inspected. This result is fed back to the processing of the next wafer. With this configuration, all of the wafers are inspected and the results are automatically fed back to the change of the processing process conditions, so that the process conditions of the relevant wafer and the subsequent wafers are automatically set to the optimum quality. Will be.

If the inspection result cannot be dealt with by changing the process condition, an abnormal alarm is output, the processing of the next wafer is stopped, and the abnormal wafer is eliminated.

[0015]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of a first embodiment of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention, in which 1 is an inspection station, 2 is a quality control unit, 3 is a processing chamber A, 4 is a processing chamber B, and 5 is a processing chamber. A cassette indexer, 6 is a wafer cassette, 7 is a wafer storage wafer cassette, 8 is a pre-processed wafer, 9 is a post-processed wafer, 10 is a transfer robot, and 11 is a vacuum preliminary chamber (load lock chamber). Reference numeral 21 is a measurement data processing unit, and 22 is a process condition automatic change control unit.

In FIG. 1, a vacuum cassette 11 contains a wafer cassette 6 containing unprocessed wafers 8 and a wafer cassette 7 for storing wafers containing processed wafers.
A cassette indexer 5 for loading and unloading wafers to and from the vacuum processing chamber 11, a processing chamber A3 and a processing chamber B4 for performing a required deposition process on the wafer, and an inspection station 1. Processing room A above
3 and the processing chamber B4 may perform different deposition treatments or the same deposition treatment. Generally, the treatment chamber B4 and the treatment chamber B4 are provided with electrodes for applying high-frequency power, and a reaction gas is introduced to achieve the required deposition. It has the function of performing a membrane.

FIG. 2 is a flow chart for explaining the flow of wafer processing in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of FIG. The wafer processing of FIG. 1 will be described with reference to FIG. The wafer cassette 6 in which the unprocessed wafer 8 is set is loaded into the cassette indexer 5 (S-1).

The unprocessed wafer 8 is loaded from the wafer cassette 6 into the vacuum preliminary chamber 11 (S-2), and is transported to the inspection station 1 by the transport robot 10. The number of foreign matters, the film thickness, etc. of the transferred unprocessed wafer 8 are measured at the inspection station 1, and the measured data is processed by the measurement data processing unit 21 of the quality control unit 2 and recorded (S-3). .

After collecting the measurement data, the wafer 8 is transferred to the processing chamber A3 by the transfer robot 10 and the required deposition process is executed (S-4). The wafer that has been subjected to the deposition processing is once transferred to the vacuum preliminary chamber 11 by the transfer robot 10 (S-5) and then transferred to the inspection station 1 again to measure and measure the foreign matter and the film thickness after the deposition processing. It is sent to the data processing unit 21.

The measurement data processing unit 21 calculates the difference between the data measured this time and the measurement data of the unprocessed wafer recorded previously (S-6). The process condition automatic change control unit 22 determines, based on the calculation result of the measurement data processing unit 21, whether the process condition needs to be changed according to whether the formed film is thicker or thinner than the standard value. Do (S-
7) If the change is required (NG), the process conditions (deposition time, reaction gas flow rate, electrode interval, etc.) in the processing chamber are automatically updated according to the situation (S-8). This continuously keeps the quality of the wafers to be processed thereafter at the best level.

If the change is unnecessary (OK) in S-7, the remaining number of wafers to be processed is checked (S-9). If there is a wafer to be processed, the process returns to S-2 to continue the processing. Then, the same flow as above is executed, and when the number of wafers to be processed is 0, the wafer cassette is taken out (S-10). Further, after updating the process conditions, the process goes to S-9, and then goes to S-2 or S-1 according to the remaining number of wafers.
Go to 0.

If the foreign matter on the wafer exceeds the standard in S-3 or S-6 or if the film thickness is abnormally isolated from the standard, the apparatus is stopped and an alarm is output. Go and inform the workers, and wait for the action. The non-defective wafer that has been measured at the inspection station 1 is stored in the wafer storage wafer cassette 7, and is passed to the next processing step or the like as a processed wafer.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are flow charts for explaining the detailed flow of the wafer processing process when the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention is applied to a plasma CVD apparatus. One flow chart is shown in FIG. 3 and FIG. Constitute. In FIG. 3, the wafer cassette is set (S-11), and the wafer is transferred to the vacuum preliminary chamber (S-12). The unprocessed wafer transferred to the vacuum preliminary chamber is first transferred to the inspection station for quality control before processing, and (1) foreign matter measurement and (2) film thickness measurement are executed (S-13). This measurement result is recorded as data A in the quality control unit (S-1).
4).

The measured wafer is transferred to the processing chamber A3 and subjected to a predetermined deposition process (S-).
15). The wafer for which the deposition process is completed is transported to the inspection station again, and (1) foreign matter measurement and (2) film thickness measurement for quality control after processing are executed (S-1).
6). The measured data B is transferred to the quality control unit (S
-17) The difference from the previously recorded unprocessed data A is calculated (S-18), and the difference data C is obtained.

According to the calculation result, first, the number of foreign matters in the data C is compared with the standard value (allowable number of foreign matters) (S-19). If the standard value <the number of foreign matters, (1) stop the device, (2) An alarm is output (S-25), the device is returned to its initial state or cleaned (S-26), and the process returns to (S-11). If it is determined in S-19 that the standard value ≧ the number of foreign substances, it is determined whether the film thickness of the data C needs to be changed (S-20). If it is determined that the film thickness is out of the standard value, S− Go to 25.

When the film thickness is within the range of the standard value, it is judged whether or not the process condition needs to be changed (S-21), and when it is necessary, the process condition is automatically changed (S-22). ),
The next wafer is stored in the cassette (S-23), and S
When it is determined that the process condition does not need to be changed in -21, the next wafer is stored in the cassette (S-23), and the number of remaining wafers to be processed (unprocessed wafer 8) is checked (S-24). If there is a remaining portion, the process proceeds to S-12 and the same processing procedure as above is continued. If the remaining portion is 0, the process returns to the next wafer cassette setting (S-11).

According to the above-described first embodiment of the present invention, the processing quality of the wafer can be automatically kept in the optimum state. FIG. 5 shows a second semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.
It is a schematic diagram explaining the structure of an Example, The same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the same part as FIG. In this example,
Pretreatment wafer inspection station 12 in vacuum reserve chamber 11
This is different from the first embodiment in that the post-processing wafer inspection station 13 is separately provided.

That is, in FIG. 5, the unprocessed wafer 8 loaded in the vacuum preliminary chamber 11 from the wafer cassette 6 of the unprocessed wafer 8 set in the cassette indexer 5 is first transferred to the unprocessed wafer inspection station 12. The surface characteristics (number of foreign matters, film thickness, etc.) are measured. The data measured by the pre-processing inspection station 12 is processed by the measurement data processing unit 21 of the quality control unit 2 and recorded as data A.

The measured unprocessed wafer 8 is transferred to the processing chamber A (processing chamber B) by the transfer robot 10 and the required processing is executed. The processed wafer (post-processed wafer 9) is conveyed to the post-processing inspection station 13 to measure foreign matters, film thickness and the like on the surface thereof, and the measurement data is processed by the measurement data processing unit 21 to obtain the data B.
Then, the difference from the previously recorded data A of the unprocessed wafer 8 is calculated.

If it is necessary to change the process condition based on the calculation result, the process condition automatic change control unit 22 sets the necessary condition, and the process condition of the processing chamber A (processing chamber B) is automatically set. Be changed. The processing procedure described above is the same as in the above embodiment. According to the second embodiment of the present invention described above,
The processing quality of the wafer can be automatically and always kept in the best condition.

FIG. 6 shows a third semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.
It is a schematic diagram explaining the structure of an Example, The same code | symbol is attached | subjected to the same part as FIG. In this example,
The wafer inspection station 14 is installed in the vacuum preliminary chamber 11, and the cassette indexer 5 is installed in the vacuum preliminary chamber 11.
It is the same as each of the above-described embodiments except that it is movably installed.

In the figure, the unprocessed wafer 8 set in the cassette indexer 5 is the cassette indexer 5
After the wafer cassette 6 accommodating the unprocessed wafers of FIG.
It is mounted on the inspection station 14 installed inside. In this state, the surface characteristics of the unprocessed wafer 8 (number of foreign matters,
The film thickness) is measured and the data is transferred to the quality control unit 2. Then, the unprocessed wafer 8 is transferred to the transfer robot 10.
Then, it is loaded into the processing chamber A (processing chamber B) and the predetermined processing similar to that in the above-described embodiment is executed.

After the processing, the processed wafer is again transported to the inspection station 14, its surface characteristics (the number of foreign matters, the film thickness, etc.) are measured, and the measurement data is transferred to the quality control section 2. Thereafter, the process conditions are automatically optimized by the same procedure as in each of the embodiments. According to the third embodiment of the present invention described above, the processing quality of the wafer can be automatically and always kept in the optimum state.

In each of the above embodiments, the number of processing chambers is two.
Although an example in which only one is installed is described, the number of this processing chamber may be one, and by installing three or more processing chambers, a plurality of wafers can be processed at the same time. Furthermore, it is possible to perform different types of deposition processing for each processing chamber.

[0035]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since the inspection of the wafer before processing and the inspection of the wafer after processing are executed for each wafer and this is repeated, the manufactured wafer can always maintain optimum quality, and this work is automatically performed. Since it is carried out, there is no problem that the quality varies depending on the worker, the defect rate of the product is minimized, and the human working time required for quality control is unnecessary, and the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus with improved throughput is provided. What can be provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of a first embodiment of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a flow of wafer processing in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a view showing plasma CVD of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.
It is a partial flowchart explaining the detailed flow of a wafer processing process when applied to an apparatus.

FIG. 4 shows a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention in which plasma CVD is performed.
FIG. 4 is a partial flowchart following FIG. 3, illustrating a detailed flow of a wafer processing process when applied to an apparatus.

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of a second embodiment of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram illustrating the configuration of a third embodiment of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram illustrating a configuration example of a single-wafer multi-chamber type wafer processing apparatus which is a type of conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

FIG. 8 is a flowchart illustrating a work flow during wafer processing in the conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Inspection Station 2 Quality Control Section 3 Processing Room A 4 Processing Room B 5 Cassette Indexer 6 Wafer Cassette 7 Wafer Storage Wafer Cassette 8 Pre-Process Wafer 9 Post-Process Wafer 10 Transfer Robot 11 Vacuum Reserve Room (Load Lock Chamber) 12 Pre-Process Wafer inspection station 13 Post-processing wafer inspection station 14 Inspection station 20 Quality control unit 21 Measurement data processing unit 22 Process condition automatic change control unit.

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[Procedure amendment]

[Submission date] July 29, 1993

[Procedure Amendment 1]

[Document name to be amended] Statement

[Correction target item name] 0001

[Correction method] Change

[Correction content]

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and more particularly to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for performing single-wafer CVD processing, sputtering processing, etching processing, and other surface processing of semiconductor wafers.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A vacuum preliminary chamber provided with a transfer robot for transferring semiconductor wafers, at least one processing chamber installed facing the vacuum preliminary chamber, and loading / unloading of semiconductor wafers to / from the vacuum preliminary chamber. In a semiconductor manufacturing equipment that has a cassette indexer that performs processing according to the required process conditions on the loaded semiconductor wafer and then carries it out, an inspection station for measuring the quality of the unprocessed wafer and the processed wafer is installed in this equipment. A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus provided with a quality control unit for automatically changing the process condition based on measurement data measured at each inspection station.