TW202137383A - A material classification schduling method to prevent scheduling deadlock - Google Patents

Abstract

A material classification scheduling method for preventing scheduling deadlock, includes: determining the materials to be scheduled; there are process participation materials placed in bottleneck resource position in the materials to be scheduled, sending the information of the materials to be scheduled to the scheduling module for scheduling and outputting scheduling sequence; wherein, the scheduling module schedules the materials, and the outputting scheduling sequence includes: if there are process participation materials in the materials to be scheduled Based on the preset priority rule of the first wafer transport box, the wafer transport box for transmission creates a moving step for the highest priority wafer transport box. The invention solves the technical problem of scheduling calculation deadlock caused by competing for bottleneck resources when a semiconductor device with a storage device schedules multiple transport operations and process operations at the same time, and improves the performance of the machine software, the reliability and equipment capacity of the company, and enhance the customer experience.

Description

A material classification scheduling method for preventing scheduling deadlock

The invention relates to the technical field of semiconductor equipment, in particular to a material classification scheduling method for preventing scheduling deadlock.

Semiconductor vertical furnace equipment is one of the important process equipment in the pre-process of semiconductor production line, used for diffusion, oxidation, annealing, alloy and sintering processes in large-scale integrated circuits, discrete devices, power electronics, optoelectronic devices and optical fiber industries; As the size of wafers continues to increase, wafer manufacturers can use a single wafer to produce more wafers. Since 2000, the wafer standard in the semiconductor industry has been set at 300 mm. In order to simplify transportation and minimize the risk of contamination, wafer manufacturers use front-opening standard wafer cassettes, also known as wafer transfer boxes (Foup), to transport wafers. Each dust-free and ultra-clean wafer transfer box can place multiple wafers, usually 25 wafers. The wafer transfer box can be docked at the front end of most application material machine systems, and the machine can suck in the wafers one by one, automatically. Processing.

Semiconductor vertical furnace equipment includes external loading station (LoadPort), stocker (Stocker), wafer transfer box robot (STR), wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock), wafer robot (WTR) and process module chamber (PM) ).

The semiconductor vertical furnace with stocker has an important feature: in addition to the wafer (Wafer) involved in the transfer, the wafer transfer box (Foup) also participates in the transfer, so the wafer transfer box robot (STR) and the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) become The bottleneck resource of the semiconductor vertical furnace, the moving operation of the wafer transfer box (Foup) and the moving operation participating in the process flow at the same time will cause the scheduling deadlock due to the contention for the bottleneck resource, such as the wafer transfer box robot (STR). The wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) moves the wafer transfer box (Foup), and the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) has the wafer transfer box (Foup) that needs to be removed, and the wafer transfer box robot (STR) is on and the wafer loading and unloading There are wafer transfer boxes (Foup) that need to be moved to the other side on the LoadLock position, that is, at this time, the wafer transfer box robot (STR) and the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) are in a mutual waiting state, that is, the scheduling deadlock is entered, and the upper position The thread of the machine will crash in the case of a scheduling deadlock. If the machine is in an abnormal state, the materials in the processing machine face the danger of being scrapped, and the machine software must be restarted, which seriously affects the normal process flow. Therefore, It is necessary to solve the technical problem of equipment scheduling deadlock, so as to ensure material safety and increase equipment production capacity.

The purpose of the present invention is to overcome the defects of the prior art and provide a material classification scheduling method that prevents scheduling deadlock.

The technical scheme of the present invention is: a material scheduling method for preventing scheduling deadlock in semiconductor equipment, including:

Step S1. Determine the materials to be dispatched. The materials to be dispatched are divided into process participating materials and transmission carrier materials. The process participating materials include the wafers participating in the manufacturing process and the wafer transfer boxes participating in the manufacturing process, and the transmission carrier materials include The wafer transfer box that does not participate in the process; step S2, if there is a process participating material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the material to be scheduled, the information of the material to be scheduled is directly sent to the scheduling module for scheduling, and the scheduling sequence is output Wherein, the scheduling module performs scheduling, and the output scheduling sequence includes: step Z100, receiving the information of the material to be scheduled, generating a list of movable wafers and a list of movable wafer transfer boxes; step Z200, determining whether there are wafers in the material to be scheduled The transfer box is loading or unloading, if yes, go to step Z210, if not, go to step Z220; step Z210, for the wafer transfer box that is loading or unloading, or movable wafers, Create a move step, and then go to Z300; Step Z220, determine whether there is a wafer transfer box in the material to be dispatched, if it is, based on the preset first wafer transfer box priority rule, for the highest priority The wafer transfer box creates a moving step, and go to step Z300; if not, according to whether the wafer transfer box will be loaded or unloaded, based on the preset priority rules of the second wafer transfer box, for the process participating materials The wafer transfer box with the highest priority in the medium creates a moving step, and goes to step Z300; Step Z300, update the movable wafer list or the movable wafer transfer box list, and determine whether all the materials to be dispatched have reached the destination, if not , Return to step Z200, if yes, output all moving steps to form the scheduling sequence.

Further, step Z210 includes: step Z211, judging whether a moving step can be created for the wafer transfer box that is being loaded or unloaded, and if so, create a moving step for the wafer transfer box that is being loaded or unloaded, and Go to step Z212, if not, go directly to step Z212; step Z212, determine whether there is a movement step generated, if yes, go to step Z300, if not, go to step Z213; step Z213, based on preset According to the wafer priority rule of, create a moving step for the wafer with the highest priority among the movable wafers, and go to step Z300.

Further, the bottleneck resource position includes a wafer loading and unloading position and a wafer transfer box robot.

Further, the first wafer transfer box priority rule includes: setting a movement priority for each wafer transfer box according to the moving step of each wafer transfer box and whether the bottleneck resource position is occupied, wherein the bottleneck resource position is occupied The wafer transfer box has the highest priority.

Further, the first priority rule of the wafer transfer box includes: the priority of the wafer transfer box that is scanned by the wafer manipulator and is waiting for the process or the wafer transfer box participating in the process is one level.

Further, the first wafer transfer box priority rule further includes: when the wafer transfer box participating in the process occupies the bottleneck resource position, the wafer manipulator scanning is completed and the priority of the wafer transfer box waiting for the process is level two; When the wafer manipulator scanning is completed and the wafer transfer box waiting for the process occupies the bottleneck resource position, the priority of the wafer transfer box participating in the process is level two.

Further, the priority of the wafer transfer box waiting to be scanned by the wafer manipulator is level three; the priority of the wafer transfer box waiting to be moved to the stocker is level four; placed on the stocker waiting to be moved to the wafer loading and unloading position for wafer mechanical The hand-scanned wafer transfer box has a priority of five levels; the wafer transfer box placed on the stocker waiting to be moved out to the load port has a priority of six.

Further, in step S2, if there is no process-participating material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the material to be scheduled, go to step S3; step S3, if there is any material to be scheduled that is placed on the bottleneck resource position If the material to be dispatched is not placed on the bottleneck resource location, then go to step S5; if yes, go to step S4; Go to step S6; step S5, directly send the information of the material to be scheduled to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the scheduling sequence; step S6, add the transmission carrier type material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the material to be scheduled to the first Batch scheduling processing materials, sending the information of the first batch scheduling processing materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and outputting the first scheduling sub-sequence; step S7, extracting the process participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled , Add to the second batch of scheduling processing materials, send the information of the second batch of scheduling processing materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the second scheduling sequence sub-column; step S8, extract the materials to be scheduled and not place them in the bottleneck resource position The transmission carrier materials on the above are added to the third batch of scheduling processing materials, the information of the third batch of scheduling processing materials is sent to the scheduling module for scheduling, and the third scheduling subsequence is output; step S9; output scheduling sequence, the scheduling sequence It includes a first scheduling subsequence, a second scheduling subsequence, and a third scheduling subsequence.

Further, in step S3, if there is no transmission carrier material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the material to be scheduled, go to step S10; step S10, determine whether there is any material to be scheduled that is not placed on the bottleneck resource position If not, go to step S11, if yes, go to step S12; step S11, directly send the information of the material to be scheduled to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the scheduling sequence;

Step S12: Extract the process participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the second batch of scheduling materials, send the information of the second batch of scheduling materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the first batch of materials for scheduling. Second scheduling sequence sub-column; step S13, extract the transmission carrier materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the third batch of scheduling processing materials, and send the information of the third batch of scheduling processing materials to the scheduling module Perform scheduling and output the third scheduling subsequence; step S14; output the scheduling sequence, the scheduling sequence includes the second scheduling subsequence and the third scheduling subsequence.

The present invention has the following beneficial effects: by setting operation priority rules for the wafer transfer box for the transfer operation, and sorting and scheduling the materials to be dispatched in batches, it solves the problem of multiple transfer operations and process operations of the semiconductor equipment with a stocker. At the same time, during scheduling, due to contention for bottleneck resources, technical problems of scheduling calculation deadlock will be caused, which improves the reliability of machine software operation and equipment production capacity, and further improves customer experience.

The following disclosure provides many different embodiments or examples of different components for implementing the disclosure. Specific examples of components and configurations are described below to simplify the disclosure. Of course, these are only examples and are not intended to be limiting. For example, in the following description, a first member formed on or on a second member may include an embodiment in which the first member and the second member are formed in direct contact, and may also include additional members therein An embodiment that can be formed between the first member and the second member so that the first member and the second member may not directly contact. In addition, the present disclosure may repeat reference numbers and/or letters in each example. This repetition is for the purpose of simplification and clarity and does not in itself indicate the relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed.

In addition, for ease of description, spatially relative terms such as "below", "below", "below", "above", "upper" and the like can be used herein to describe one element or component and another(s) The relationship between components or components is illustrated in the figure. Spatial relative terms are intended to cover different orientations of devices in use or operation other than those depicted in the figures. The device can be oriented in other ways (rotated by 90 degrees or in other orientations) and therefore the spatial relative descriptors used in this article can also be interpreted.

Although the numerical ranges and parameters stated in the broad scope of this disclosure are approximate values, the numerical values stated in the specific examples should be reported as accurately as possible. However, any value inherently contains certain errors inevitably due to the standard deviation seen in the respective test measurement. Furthermore, as used herein, the term "about" generally means within 10%, 5%, 1%, or 0.5% of a given value or range. Alternatively, the term "approximately" means within one acceptable standard error of the mean when considered by a general technician of the technology. Except in the operation/working example, or unless explicitly specified in other ways, such as the total numerical range of the quantity of materials disclosed in this article, the duration of time, temperature, operating conditions, the ratio of quantities and the like, Quantities, values and percentages should be understood as modified by the term "about" in all examples. Correspondingly, unless otherwise indicated, the numerical parameters stated in the scope of this disclosure and the accompanying invention application are approximate values that can be changed as needed. At the very least, each numerical parameter should be explained at least in view of the number of significant digits reported and by applying ordinary rounding techniques. Ranges can be expressed herein as from one endpoint to the other or between two endpoints. All ranges disclosed herein include endpoints, unless otherwise specified.

As shown in Figure 1, the semiconductor vertical furnace includes an external loading station (LoadPort), a stocker (Stocker), a wafer transfer box robot (STR), a wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock), a wafer robot (WTR) and a process Module chamber (PM).

External loading platform (LoadPort): It is a bridge between the outside and the equipment. The external loading platform (LoadPort) can be placed on the wafer transfer box (Foup), and the external loading platform (LoadPort) has a door opening mechanism to open the wafer transfer box (Foup) The door. The external loading platform (LoadPort) generally has two ports, LoadPortA and LoadPortB.

Wafer transfer box manipulator (STR): Responsible for transferring the wafer transfer box (Foup), and includes the function of scanning (Map). During the scanning (Map) process, the door of the wafer transfer box (Foup) must be opened and kept still. The robot arm of the wafer transfer box manipulator (STR) is equipped with an infrared probe, and the transfer of the wafer can be learned by moving the robot arm up and down. The storage information of the wafer (Wafer) in the box (Foup). The wafer transfer box robot (STR) is used to transfer the wafer transfer box (Foup) between the external loading station (LoadPort), the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) and the shelf (Shelf) of the stocker (Stocker).

Stocker: used to place the wafer transfer box (Foup), a stocker (Stocker) can place multiple wafer transfer boxes (Foup), and the stocker (Stocker) can place wafer transfer boxes (Foup) The part is called a shelf (Shelf).

Wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock): The wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) can be placed on the wafer transfer box (Foup), with a door opening mechanism, which can open the door of the wafer transfer box (Foup), used to remove the wafer from the wafer transfer box (Foup) Take out the wafer (Wafer) and put it on the boat (Boat) or take out the wafer (Wafer) from the boat (Boat) and put it into the wafer transfer box (Foup), namely charging (Charge) or unloading (DisCharge), wafer loading and unloading LoadLock is the bridge for wafer (Wafer) to enter the process module chamber (PM). The chip loading and unloading position (LoadLock) generally has two ports, LoadLockC and LoadLockD.

Wafer Robot (WTR): Responsible for the transfer of the wafer (Wafer), and also includes the function of scanning (Map), which can load and unload the wafer in the wafer transfer box (Foup) on the LoadLock and the process module chamber (PM) The boat (Boat) scans (Map). During the scan (Map), the wafer transfer box (Foup) on the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) is in a static state when the door is opened. The boat (Boat) is at the starting point (Home position), and the wafer There is an infrared probe on the single finger (Arm) of the robot (WTR), and the single finger (Arm) moves up and down to obtain the storage information of the wafer in the wafer transfer box (Foup) and the wafer on the boat (Wafer) )Information. The wafer robot (WTR) can transfer wafers from the wafer transfer box (Foup) at the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) and the boat (Boat) in the process module chamber (PM). The wafer manipulator (WTR) is divided into 1 finger and 5 fingers, and can pick and place 1 wafer (Wafer) or 5 wafers (Wafer) at a time.

Process module chamber (PM): used for corresponding process operations, there is a boat (Boat) in the process module chamber (PM) for placing wafers (Wafer). The number of wafers participating in the process in the process module chamber (PM) is determined by the number of slots in the boat (Boat).

Before the process starts, the wafer transfer box robot (STR) first transfers the wafer transfer box (Foup) loaded with wafers (Wafer) to the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock), and the wafer robot (WTR) performs scanning (Map), After the scanning (Map) is completed, the wafer transfer box manipulator (STR) transfers the wafer transfer box (Foup) to the corresponding shelf (Shelf) of the stocker (Stocker).

After the manufacturing process starts, the specific process is as follows:

1) The wafer transfer box robot (STR) transfers the wafer transfer box (Foup) from the shelf (Shelf) of the stocker (Stocker) to the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock);

2) The wafer robot (WTR) transfers the wafer (Wafer) in the wafer transfer box (Foup) in the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) to the boat (Boat) in the process module chamber (PM);

3) The wafer robot (WTR) scans (Map) all wafers in the boat (Boat) of the process module chamber (PM);

4) The wafer transfer box manipulator (STR) puts the wafer transfer box (Foup) in the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) back on the shelf of the stocker (Stocker);

5) All wafers (Wafer) complete the process operation in the boat (Boat) of the process module chamber (PM);

6) After the process is over, the wafer manipulator (WTR) first goes to the boat (Boat) of the process module chamber (PM) to scan (Map) before discharging (DisCharge) all the wafers (Wafer);

7) The wafer transfer box robot (STR) takes the wafer transfer box (Foup) participating in the process from the shelf (Shelf) corresponding to the stocker (Stocker) and places it on the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock);

8) The wafer robot (WTR) takes out the finished wafer (Wafer) from the boat (Boat) of the process module chamber (PM) and places it on the corresponding wafer transfer box (Foup) on the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) In the slot.

9) The wafer transfer box robot (STR) puts the wafer transfer box (Foup) on the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) back on the shelf (Shelf) corresponding to the stocker (Stocker).

As shown in Figure 2, a material scheduling method for preventing scheduling deadlock in semiconductor equipment includes:

Step S1. Determine the materials to be dispatched. Among them, the materials to be dispatched are divided into process participating materials and transmission carrier materials. The process participating materials include wafers participating in the manufacturing process (Wafer) and wafer transfer boxes participating in the manufacturing process (Foup), and the transmission carrier Class materials include wafer transfer boxes (Foup) that are not involved in the manufacturing process;

There are 25 slots in the wafer transfer box (Foup) for storing wafers (Wafer), if the wafer in the wafer transfer box (Foup) needs to be processed in the process module chamber (PM) Process operation, the wafer (Wafer) and wafer transfer box (Foup) are process participating materials, if the wafer (Wafer) in the wafer transfer box (Foup) does not require corresponding process operations in the process module chamber (PM) , The wafer transfer box (Foup) is a transport carrier material.

Step S2: Determine whether there are process-participating materials placed on the bottleneck resource position in the materials to be dispatched, and if so, directly send the information of the materials to be dispatched to the dispatching module, and the dispatching module will dispatch and output the dispatching sequence;

A semiconductor vertical furnace with a stocker has an important feature: In addition to wafers (Wafer), the wafer transfer box (Foup) also participates in the transfer, so the wafer transfer box robot (STR) and the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) become the semiconductor vertical The bottleneck resources of the furnace, when there are process-participating materials placed in the bottleneck resource position, namely the wafer transfer box robot (STR) and/or the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) in the materials to be dispatched, the materials to be dispatched are directly The information is sent to the scheduling module for scheduling, and the scheduling sequence is output;

As shown in Figure 3, the scheduling module performs scheduling, and the output scheduling sequence includes:

Step Z100, receiving information about materials to be dispatched, and generating a list of movable wafers and a list of movable wafer transfer boxes;

Step Z200: Determine whether there is a wafer transfer box in the material to be dispatched being loaded or unloaded, if yes, go to step Z210, if not, go to step Z220;

Step Z210, create a moving step for the wafer transfer box that is loading or unloading, or the movable wafer, and then go to Z300;

Step Z210 further includes:

Step Z211: Determine whether a moving step can be created for the wafer transfer box that is being loaded or unloaded, if yes, create a moving step for the wafer transfer box that is being loaded or unloaded, and go to step Z212, if not , Then go directly to step Z212;

Step Z212: Determine whether a movement step has been generated, if yes, go to step Z300, if not, go to step Z213;

Step Z213: Based on the preset wafer priority rule, create a moving step for the wafer with the highest priority among the movable wafers, and go to step Z300.

A box of wafer transfer box (Foup) can have up to 25 wafers (Wafer). When participating in the process (job), Wafer takes out the wafer (Wafer) from the wafer transfer box (Foup) and places the wafer on the boat (Boat) The order of (Wafer) is in succession. The order is the chip priority rule. The priority is based on the selection mode (Mode) of the position of the wafer (Wafer) on the boat (Boat) set by the user, and through different modes (Mode) From the corresponding algorithm calculation, the method of calculating the chip priority belongs to the prior art.

Step Z220: Determine whether there is a wafer transfer box currently being transferred in the materials to be dispatched. If so, create a moving step for the wafer transfer box with the highest priority based on the preset first wafer transfer box priority rule, and go to Step Z300; if not, based on whether the wafer transfer box will be loaded or unloaded, based on the preset second wafer transfer box priority rule, create a movement for the wafer transfer box with the highest priority among the materials involved in the process Step, and go to step Z300;

Step Z300, update the movable wafer list or the movable wafer transfer box list, and determine whether all the materials to be dispatched have reached the destination, if not, return to step Z200, if yes, output all the moving steps to form a scheduling sequence.

The first wafer transfer box priority rule is to set priority rules for the wafer transfer box (Foup) participating in the carrier operation.

The first priority rule of the wafer transfer box includes: according to the moving step of each wafer transfer box and whether the bottleneck resource position is occupied, the movement priority is set for each wafer transfer box. Among them, the priority of the wafer transfer box that occupies the bottleneck resource position The highest level.

The priority of the wafer transfer cassettes that are scanned by the wafer robot and waiting for the process or the wafer transfer cassettes participating in the process is level one.

If the wafer transfer box (Foup) participating in the process occupies the bottleneck resource chip loading and unloading position (LoadLock), the priority of the wafer transfer box (Foup) participating in the process is level 1, and the wafer manipulator scanning in the stocker (Stocker) is completed And the priority of the wafer transfer box (Foup) waiting to be processed is two;

If the wafer robot scanning is completed and the wafer transfer box (Foup) waiting for the process occupies the bottleneck resource wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock), the wafer robot scanning in the stocker (Stocker) is completed and waiting for the wafer transfer of the process The priority of the box (Foup) is level 1, and the priority of the wafer transfer box (Foup) that participates in the process is level 2.

The priority of the wafer transfer box (Foup) waiting for the wafer robot (WTR) to scan is three levels;

The wafer transfer box (Foup) placed on the external load port (LoadPort) waiting to be moved to the stocker (Stocker) has a four-level priority;

The priority of the wafer transfer box (Foup) placed on the stocker (Stocker) waiting to be moved to the wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock) for wafer robot scanning (Foup) is five;

The wafer transfer box (Foup) placed on the stocker (Stocker) waiting to be moved out to the external loading station (LoadPort) has a priority of six.

The above sets the operation priority for all wafer transfer boxes (Foup) participating in the carrier operation of the machine. The smaller the priority number is, the movable material will be preferentially selected in the scheduling cycle. The higher the priority number, the After being selected as a movable material in the scheduling cycle.

The second wafer transfer box priority rule is to set the operation priority for the wafer transfer boxes in the process participating materials. There are 4 types of wafer transfer boxes (Foup) participating in the process (job), namely P (Product) and M (Monitor), ED (Extra Dummy), SD (Side Dummy) four types. For these four types of priority, the user can set the priority order by himself when creating the job, that is, the priority rule of the second wafer transfer box, and then participate in the wafer transfer of the job during the execution of the job. The box (Foup) operates according to the set priority rule of the second wafer transfer box.

As shown in Figure 4, if there are no process participating materials placed on the bottleneck resource position in the materials to be dispatched, the materials to be dispatched need to be classified at this time, and the various types of materials to be dispatched are sent to the dispatching module in batches for dispatch. And output different scheduling sequences.

In the above step S2, if it is determined that there is no process participating material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the materials to be dispatched, then go to step S3;

Step S3: Determine whether there is a transmission carrier material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the materials to be dispatched, and if so, go to step S4;

Step S4: Judge whether there are process-participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position in the materials to be dispatched, if not, go to step S5, if yes, go to step S6;

Step S5, directly sending the information of the materials to be dispatched to the dispatching module for dispatching, and outputting the dispatching sequence;

Step S6: Add the transmission carrier material placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled to the first batch of scheduling processing materials, and send the information of the first batch of scheduling processing materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the first scheduling sub sequence;

Step S7. Extract the process-participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the second batch of scheduling materials, and send the information of the second batch of scheduling materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the second batch of materials for scheduling. Scheduling sequence sub-column;

Step S8: Extract the transmission carrier materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the third batch of scheduling processing materials, and send the information of the third batch of scheduling processing materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the third batch Scheduling subsequence;

Step S9: Output a scheduling sequence, the scheduling sequence including a first scheduling subsequence, a second scheduling subsequence, and a third scheduling subsequence.

According to the above method, it can be seen that the materials to be dispatched are divided into three batches. The first batch is transmission carrier materials placed on the bottleneck resource position; the second batch is process participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position; The third batch is transmission carrier materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position.

In step S3, if it is determined that there is no transmission carrier material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the materials to be scheduled, then go to step S10;

Step S10: Judge whether there are process-participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position in the materials to be dispatched, if not, go to step S11, if yes, go to step S12;

Step S11, directly sending the information of the materials to be dispatched to the dispatching module for dispatching, and outputting the dispatching sequence;

Step S12: Extract the process participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the second batch of scheduling materials, and send the information of the second batch of scheduling materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the second batch of materials for scheduling. Scheduling subsequence;

Step S13: Extract the transmission carrier materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the third batch of scheduling processing materials, send the information of the third batch of scheduling processing materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the third batch Scheduling subsequence;

Step S14: Output a scheduling sequence, the scheduling sequence includes a second scheduling subsequence and a third scheduling subsequence.

In this step, since there is no transmission carrier material placed on the bottleneck resource position, the materials to be dispatched are divided into two batches. The first batch is process participation materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position; the second batch is Transport carrier materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position.

Applying the scheduling method of the present invention, it is assumed that two transmission carrier materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position and one process-participating material that is not placed on the bottleneck resource position enter the existing scheduling calculation at the same time, because the bottleneck resource at this time The materials that are not involved in scheduling are extracted first, and the materials participating in the process that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position are first extracted and input to the scheduling module for scheduling calculation, and the second scheduling sub-sequence is output, and then the transmission that is not placed on the bottleneck resource position is extracted The two materials of the carrier material are input to the scheduling module for scheduling calculation, and the third scheduling sub-sequence is output. The final output scheduling sequence is: the second scheduling sub-sequence + the third scheduling sub-sequence, when the process participates in the wafer transfer of the type materials After the box (Foup) moves to the bottleneck resource wafer loading and unloading position (LoadLock), the loading starts, that is, the wafer (Wafer) is taken out of the wafer transfer box (Foup), placed on the boat (Boat), and the loading and wafer transfer is completed After the box (Foup) returns to the stocker (Stocker), the 2 wafer transfer boxes (Foup) that transport carrier materials will go to the bottleneck resource chip loading and unloading position (LoadLock) for scanning (Map), effectively avoiding bottleneck resources The mutual waiting state avoids scheduling deadlock.

The present invention sets operation priority rules for the wafer transfer box for the transfer operation, and sorts and dispatches the materials to be dispatched in batches, thereby solving the problem that semiconductor equipment with a stocker may be caused by multiple transfer operations and process operations when multiple transfer operations and process operations are scheduled at the same time. The technical problem of scheduling and computing deadlock caused by the competition for bottleneck resources has improved the reliability of machine software operation and equipment production capacity, and further improved the customer experience.

The foregoing content summarizes the features of several embodiments, so that those familiar with the art can better understand the aspect of the disclosure. Those familiar with the technology should understand that they can easily use the present disclosure as a basis for designing or modifying other processes and structures for implementing the same purpose and/or achieving the same advantages of the embodiments described herein. Those familiar with this technology should also understand that these equivalent structures do not depart from the spirit and scope of this disclosure, and they can make various changes, substitutions and alterations in this article without departing from the spirit and scope of this disclosure.

LoadPortA, LoadPortB: external loading port STR: wafer transfer box manipulator Shelf: shelf Stocker: Stocker LoadLockC, LoadLockD: chip loading and unloading port WTR: Wafer Robot Boat: Boat PM: Process module chamber

When read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, the aspect of the present disclosure is best understood from the following detailed description. It should be noted that according to standard practice in the industry, the various components are not drawn to scale. In fact, the size of various components can be increased or decreased arbitrarily for the sake of clarity of the discussion. Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of the structure of a semiconductor vertical furnace equipment in an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 2 is a flowchart of a scheduling method for process-participating materials placed on bottleneck resource positions among materials to be scheduled in an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 3 is a flowchart of the scheduling algorithm in the scheduling module in the embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 4 is a flowchart of sorting and scheduling of materials to be scheduled in an embodiment of the present invention.

LoadPortA, LoadPortB: external loading port

STR: wafer transfer box manipulator

Shelf: shelf

Stocker: Stocker

LoadLockC, LoadLockD: chip loading and unloading port

WTR: Wafer Robot

Boat: Boat

PM: Process module chamber

Claims (9)

A material scheduling method for preventing scheduling deadlock in semiconductor equipment includes: Step S1: Determine the materials to be dispatched. The materials to be dispatched are divided into a process-participating material and a transmission carrier material. The process-participating material includes a wafer participating in the process and a wafer transfer box participating in the process. Materials include wafer transfer boxes that are not involved in the manufacturing process; Step S2: If there is the process participating material placed on a bottleneck resource position in the material to be scheduled, the information of the material to be scheduled is directly sent to the scheduling module, and the scheduling module performs scheduling and outputs a scheduling sequence; Wherein, the scheduling module performs scheduling, and outputting the scheduling sequence includes: Step Z100: Receive the information of the material to be dispatched, and generate a list of movable wafers and a list of movable wafer transfer boxes; Step Z200: Determine whether there is a wafer transfer box in the material to be dispatched being loaded or unloaded, if yes, go to step Z210, if not, go to step Z220; Step Z210: Create a moving step for the wafer transfer box that is loading or unloading, or the movable wafer, and then go to Z300; Step Z220: Determine whether there is a wafer transfer box currently being transferred in the material to be dispatched. If so, create a movement step for the wafer transfer box with the highest priority based on a preset priority rule for the first wafer transfer box, and Go to step Z300; if not, according to whether the wafer transfer box is about to be loaded or unloaded, based on a preset second wafer transfer box priority rule, the highest priority wafer transfer among the materials involved in the process Box creation move step, and go to step Z300; Step Z300: Update the list of movable wafers or the list of movable wafer transfer boxes, determine whether all the materials to be dispatched have reached the destination, if not, return to step Z200, if yes, output all moving steps to form the scheduling sequence . The method according to claim 1, wherein step Z210 includes: Step Z211: Judge whether it is possible to create a moving step for the wafer transfer box that is being loaded or unloaded, if yes, create a moving step for the wafer transfer box that is being loaded or unloaded, and go to step Z212, if not , Then go directly to step Z212; Step Z212: Determine whether a move step has been generated, if yes, go to step Z300, if not, go to step Z213; Step Z213: Based on the preset wafer priority rules, create a moving step for the wafer with the highest priority among the movable wafers, and go to step Z300. The method according to claim 1, wherein the bottleneck resource position includes a wafer loading and unloading position and a wafer transfer box robot. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first wafer transfer box priority rule includes: setting a moving priority for each wafer transfer box according to the moving step of each wafer transfer box and whether the bottleneck resource position is occupied, wherein , The wafer transfer box that occupies the bottleneck resource position has the highest priority. The method according to claim 4, wherein the first wafer transfer box priority rule includes: the priority of the wafer transfer box that is scanned by the wafer manipulator and is waiting for the process or the wafer transfer box participating in the process is level one. The method according to claim 5, wherein the first wafer transfer box priority rule further includes: when the wafer transfer box participating in the process occupies the bottleneck resource position, the wafer manipulator scanning is completed and waiting for the wafer transfer box for the process The priority is level two; when the wafer manipulator scanning is completed and the wafer transfer box waiting for the process occupies the bottleneck resource position, the priority of the wafer transfer box participating in the process is level two. The method according to claim 6, wherein the priority of the wafer transfer cassette waiting to be scanned by the wafer robot is three; the priority of the wafer transfer cassette waiting to be moved to the stocker is four; The priority of the wafer transfer cassette scanned by the wafer robot at the wafer loading and unloading position is five levels; the priority of the wafer transfer cassette placed on the stocker waiting to be moved out to the loading port is six. The method according to any one of claim items 1-7, wherein in step S2, if there is no process-participating material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the material to be scheduled, go to step S3; Step S3: If there is a transmission carrier type material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the material to be dispatched, go to step S4; Step S4: Determine whether there are process-participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position in the materials to be dispatched, if not, go to step S5, if yes, go to step S6; Step S5: directly send the information of the material to be scheduled to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the scheduling sequence; Step S6: Add the transmission carrier material placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled to the first batch of scheduling materials, and send the information of the first batch of scheduling materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output a first batch of materials for scheduling. Scheduling subsequence; Step S7: Extract the process participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the second batch of scheduling materials, send the information of the second batch of scheduling materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output a The second scheduling sequence sub-column; Step S8: Extract the transmission carrier materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the third batch of scheduling processing materials, and send the information of the third batch of scheduling processing materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output a The third scheduling subsequence; Step S9: Output the scheduling sequence. The scheduling sequence includes the first scheduling subsequence, the second scheduling subsequence, and the third scheduling subsequence. The method according to claim 8, wherein in step S3, if there is no transmission carrier material placed on the bottleneck resource position in the material to be dispatched, go to step S10; Step S10: Determine whether there are process participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position in the materials to be dispatched, if not, go to step S11, if yes, go to step S12; Step S11: directly send the information of the material to be scheduled to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output the scheduling sequence; Step S12: Extract the process participating materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the second batch of scheduling materials, send the information of the second batch of scheduling materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output a The second scheduling sequence sub-column; Step S13: Extract the transmission carrier materials that are not placed on the bottleneck resource position among the materials to be scheduled, add them to the third batch of scheduling processing materials, send the information of the third batch of scheduling processing materials to the scheduling module for scheduling, and output a The third scheduling subsequence; Step S14: output the scheduling sequence, the scheduling sequence including the second scheduling subsequence and the third scheduling subsequence.

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