JPH08315012A - Process tracking method and manufacturing line device using the method - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To reduce information necessary for the tracking of a process by correspondingly storing lot identification(ID) information and the product ID information of each glass base stored in a container to which the lot ID information is allocated. CONSTITUTION: Lot ID information and prodect ID information are respectively allocated to each lot 1 and each product 2, and when a product 2 in the lot 1 is substituted, the lot ID information is changed. The contents of respective ID information are read out by information readers 3, 4 and 7, 8 at the prestage of an initial process and the post stage of an inspection process. A process tracking device 5 stores relative data between the ID information of the lot 1 through the 1st process and each product in the lot 1 and relative data between the changed ID information of the rot 1 and each product information in the lot 1. At the time of inspecting the manufacturing history of the completed product 2, the history can easily be detected based upon a lot changing process.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a process tracking method and a manufacturing line apparatus using the method.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in the manufacture of a liquid crystal display device, a plurality of glass substrates (product) to be the base thereof are collected in batches and conveyed to a manufacturing line, and completed through several manufacturing steps. It is like this.

In addition, an inspection apparatus is arranged at a required place between these manufacturing steps, and it is checked whether or not the wiring layer formed on the glass substrate is broken. It is like this.

Then, when disconnection or the like occurs at this time and it is determined that the product is defective, the defective product is removed, and a glass substrate determined to be a non-defective product is replenished from another lot through the same steps until now. Then, the process is moved to the next manufacturing process. By doing so, as a result, the number of lots is reduced and the manufacturing efficiency can be improved.

Further, in such a manufacturing line, in the case where a liquid crystal display device completed as a product has a failure portion due to some cause later, the manufacture of the liquid crystal display device is investigated in order to investigate the cause. A so-called process tracking device for investigating history is usually provided.

That is, each glass substrate is provided with information (product identification information) capable of uniquely identifying them, and the process tracking device identifies each glass substrate based on these identification information. It is to be noted that the manufacturing process of each manufacturing process is sequentially recorded.

[0007]

However, since such a process tracking device adopts the method of controlling each glass substrate as described above, the number of liquid crystal display devices produced increases. As a result, it has been pointed out that the amount of information necessary for tracking these processes will be enormous.

The present invention has been made under such circumstances, and an object of the invention is to provide a process tracking method and a manufacturing line apparatus using the process, which can significantly reduce information required for process tracking. To provide.

[0009]

Of the inventions disclosed in the present application, a representative one will be briefly described below.
It is as follows.

That is, among a plurality of products to be processed which are sequentially processed for each lot through a series of processing processes including an inspection process, the products determined to be defective products by the inspection process are processed from other lots. In a process tracking method that includes a process of exchanging with a product, the lot identification information and the product identification information are provided for each lot and product in the process tracking method. When the product in the lot is replaced, the lot identification information is changed, and lot identification information and product identification are performed in the pre-stage of the first process and the post-stage of the inspection process, respectively. Data that associates the process of reading information, the identification information of the lot that has undergone the first process, and each product information in this lot, and the lock that has undergone the inspection process. And a process of detecting a process history of each product based on the process of changing the lot, by referring to the data in which each of the product identification information in the lot is associated with each other. To do.

[0011]

With the process tracking method configured as described above, the data for associating the identification information of the lot having passed the first process with the product information of each lot in the lot and the change identification information of the lot having undergone the inspection process are provided. The process history of each product is detected on the basis of the process of changing the lot by cross-reference with the data in which the product information in each lot is associated with each other.

That is, the manufacturing history of each glass substrate can be detected through the lot changing process.

As a result, the information required for process tracking can be greatly reduced as compared with the conventional case in which the manufacturing history information for each glass substrate is stored sequentially.

[0014]

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a liquid crystal display manufacturing line apparatus which is an embodiment of the manufacturing line apparatus according to the present invention.

In the figure, the glass substrate 2 which is the base of the liquid crystal display device to be manufactured is sequentially conveyed. In this case, each glass substrate 2 is accommodated in a container in a predetermined number, that is, is collectively transported for each lot 1.

Here, it is assumed that each lot 1 is sequentially provided with lot identification information consisting of, for example, A, B, C, ... As an identification name, and the identification information A is provided in this manner. a ₁ in each glass substrate 2 of lot 1,
The non-product identification information consisting of a ₂ , a ₃ , a ₄ , a ₅ , ...
For each glass substrate 2 of the lot 1 to which the identification information B is attached, b
_The non-product identification information consisting of ₁ , b ₂ , b ₃ , b ₄ , b ₅ , ... Is c ₁ , c ₂ , c ₃ , c on each glass substrate 2 of the lot 1 to which the identification information C is attached. Product identification information consisting of ₄ , c ₅ , ... Is attached.

The lot identification information is drawn, for example, at a predetermined portion of each container, and the product identification information is drawn, for example, on the peripheral portion of each glass substrate.

In such a glass substrate 1, the product identification information attached to each glass substrate 1 is first read by passing through the product identification information reading device 3, and the lot identification information reading device 4 is also read. Each lot identification information is read by going through. As each reading device in this case, for example, a method of discriminating each identification information from an image obtained through an imaging device is adopted.

Each information obtained by the product identification information reading device 3 and the lot identification information reading device 4 is the process tracking device 5.
And is stored in a memory (not shown) in the process tracking device 5.

The storage in the memory in this case is as shown in FIG.
, The product identification information a ₁ , a ₂ , a ₃ , a ₄ , a ₅ , ... For the lot identification information A, the product identification information b for the lot identification information B. ₁ , b ₂ , b ₃ ,
b _4, b _5, there ... further, lot identification information under manufacture information c ₁ relative to _{C, c 2, c 3,} c 4, c 5, ... so made and so is There is.

That is, the lot identification information and the product identification information of each glass substrate stored in the container to which the lot identification information is attached are stored in association with each other. .

After such information is read, each glass substrate 2 goes through the process (1) for each lot. In this case, step (1) is assumed to be a step of forming a plurality of wiring layers formed of, for example, gate (scanning) signal lines on the surface of the glass substrate 2.

Thereafter, the inspection device 6 is used to perform a disconnection inspection of each wiring layer. As a result, the broken glass substrate 2 is determined as a defective product, the glass substrate 2 is removed from the manufacturing line, and the lot (identification information A) is vacant in another lot (for example, the identification). The glass substrate 2 from the lot marked with information B) is replenished. Then, the glass substrate 2 from another lot (for example, the lot to which the identification information C is attached) is replenished to the vacant portion generated in the lot (the lot to which the identification information B is attached). Furthermore, the glass substrate 2 from another lot (for example, the lot to which the identification information D is attached) is replenished to the vacant portion generated in the lot (the lot to which the identification information C is attached). The reason why the glass substrate 2 is replaced in this way is to reduce the number of lots as a result and to improve the manufacturing efficiency.

It should be noted that such replacement of the glass substrate 2 is not necessarily limited to the glass substrates in the same production line as described above, but other productions performed in the same process in parallel. The same is true even if replenishment is made from the line.

In this case, the identification information of each lot whose glass substrate 2 has been stored is changed. For example, in the case of the above-mentioned example, the lot identification information A is the lot identification information O, the lot identification information B is the lot identification information P, the lot identification information C is the lot identification information Q, and so on.

Needless to say, in this case, the lot identification information may be changed by changing the container itself or by changing the identification information itself.

The glass substrates 2 of each lot in this case
FIG. 3 shows the state of movement accompanying the replacement of. As is apparent from the figure, the lot with the lot identification information A is changed to the lot identification information O, and the changed lots are the product identification information a ₁ , a ₂ , b ₂ , a ₄ , a. ₅ ,
a _6, b _4, ... are made of glass substrate 2 that is attached, lot identification information B is attached lot is changed to the lot identification information P, the changed lot under manufacture identification information c _1,
It consists of the glass substrate 2 with c ₂ , c ₃ , c ₄ , b ₅ , b ₆ , b ₄ , ... And the lot with lot identification information C is changed to lot identification information Q. The changed lots are the product identification information d ₁ , d ₂ , d ₃ , d ₄ , c ₅ ,
The glass substrate 2 is provided with c ₆ , c ₄ , ...

Then, each glass substrate 1 is further passed through the product identification information reading device 7 so that the product identification information attached to each glass substrate 1 is read and the lot identification information reading device is read. Each lot identification information is read by going through 8.

Each information obtained by the product identification information reading device 7 and the lot identification information reading device 8 is transmitted to the process tracking device 5 and stored in a memory (not shown) in the process tracking device 5. ing.

The storage in the memory in this case is as shown in FIG.
As shown in the data β of the lot identification information O, there is product information a ₁ , a ₂ , b ₂ , a ₄ , a ₅ , a ₆ , b ₄ , ... Product information c ₁ ,
_{c 2, c 3, c 4} , b 5, b 6, b 4, ... There are, furthermore, object product information d ₁ with respect to the lot identification information Q, d _2, d _{3,
d 4, c 5, c 6} , c 4, ... so that the made are such that there is.

That is, the lot identification information and the product identification information of each glass substrate stored in the container to which the lot identification information is attached are stored in association with each other. .

After that, step (2) 9 and step (3)
After 10 times, the inspection is performed by the inspection device 11, and when a defective product is generated at this time, the glass substrate 2 is replaced and the lot identification information is changed by the same method as described above.

Thereafter, the above-described steps are repeated until the liquid crystal display device is completed, and the product identification information reading device and the lot identification information reading device sequentially transmit the above-mentioned information to the process tracking device, and It is supposed to be remembered.

Then, after the above-mentioned respective information is stored in the memory in the process tracking device 5 in this way, a specific glass substrate (completed as a liquid crystal display device)
In order to investigate the manufacturing history of the glass substrate, the manufacturing history of the glass substrate can be known through the lot changing process by inputting the product identification information of the target glass substrate to the process tracking device 5. It has become.

For example, in the case of FIG. 1, when the target product identification information is a ₁ glass substrate, the lot is changed from A to O based on the data α and data β given in advance. It will be easy to detect that there is. Similarly, the target product identification information is b ₅
It can be seen that the lot is changed from B to P in the case of the glass substrate. The data χ shown in the lower part of the figure is not the data that actually exist, but indicates that the change process of the lot can be completely determined based on the data α and β by any designation of the product identification information.

Here, in the case of FIG. 1, the given data are only those obtained by the first inspection, and in reality they consist of a large number of data obtained sequentially after each inspection. Even in this case, it goes without saying that the lot change process can be sequentially detected for the target product information.

From this fact, since the manufacturing history of each glass substrate can be detected without error through the process of changing the lot, there is less information as compared with the conventional case in which the manufacturing history information for each glass substrate is sequentially stored. Will be able to do it.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment according to the present invention and is associated with FIG.

The difference from FIG. 1 is that the changed lot identification information in the data β obtained after the inspection is stored in association with the lot identification information before the change (link), and the changed product identification is performed. Only the information is stored in association with the product identification information before the change.

Even in this case, it goes without saying that the same effect as described above can be obtained.

In the above-described embodiments, the case where the present invention is applied to the manufacture of the liquid crystal display device has been described, but it goes without saying that the present invention can also be applied to other manufacture of semiconductor devices and the like.

[0042]

As is apparent from the above description,
According to the process tracking method and the manufacturing line device using the method of the present invention, the information required for the process tracking can be significantly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing an embodiment of a process tracking method according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing an embodiment of a production line device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a process step of a process tracking method according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing another embodiment of the process tracking method according to the present invention.

[Explanation of Codes] 1 ... lot, 2 ... glass substrate, 3,7 ... product identification information reading device, 4,8 ... lot identification information reading device, 5 ... process tracking device.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A product determined to be defective by the inspection process among a plurality of products to be processed by sequentially performing a series of processing processes including an inspection process for each lot from other lots. In the process tracking method that includes the process of exchanging with the product, the lot identification information and the product identification information are provided for each lot and the product, respectively. When the product in the lot is replaced, the lot identification information is changed, and lot identification information and product identification are performed at the stage before the first process and the stage after the inspection process, respectively. Data that associates the process of reading information, the identification information of the lot that passed the first process, and each product information in this lot, and the change of the lot that passed the inspection process A step of detecting the process history of each product based on the change process of the lot by referring to the identification information and the data in which each product information in this lot is associated with each other. Tracking method. 2. A product determined to be defective by the inspection process among a plurality of products to be processed by sequentially performing a series of processing processes including an inspection process for each lot from other lots. In a manufacturing line device including a process of exchanging with a product, and including a process tracking device that records information about the process history of each product, lot identification information and lot identification information are provided for each lot and product. Product identification information is attached, and when the product in the lot is exchanged, the lot identification information is changed, and the process tracking device is used for the pre-stage of the first process and the inspection process. It is equipped with a device for reading the lot identification information and the product identification information at a later stage, and the identification information of the lot that has undergone the first process and each product information in this lot are provided. And the associated data, respectively Re,
Detection means for detecting the process history of each product based on the process of changing the lot by referring to the change identification information of the lot that has undergone the inspection process and the data in which each product information in this lot is associated with each other. A manufacturing line device comprising: