TWI645162B - Environment monitoring system - Google Patents

Abstract

An environmental monitoring system is adapted to monitor at least one environmental parameter of the clean room. The environmental monitoring system includes a load port, a carrier unit, and a processor. The load port includes a housing, a wireless communication module, and at least one sensing component. The sensing component and the wireless communication module are disposed in the housing, wherein the sensing component is configured to sense an environmental parameter. The carrier unit includes a guide rail and a carrier mechanism. The rails are routed in a clean room, and the carrier is adapted to pick up the load magazine and carry the load magazine along the rail. The sensing element moves and senses as it loads in the clean room to generate a plurality of sensing information. The processor is coupled to the wireless communication module, and loads and transmits the sensing information to the processor through the wireless communication protocol.

Description

Environmental monitoring system

Embodiments of the present invention are directed to a monitoring system, and more particularly to an environmental monitoring system.

With the advancement of technology and the emergence of electronic products, the semiconductor industry and integrated circuit mass production processes are becoming more and more indispensable. Moreover, with the improvement of mass production manufacturing process technology and materials, and the continuous reduction of the geometric dimensions of semiconductor components, the quality requirements of the clean room operating environment are relatively high, and it is generally hoped to effectively control the impurity particles. And improve, and meet the high process environmental quality requirements of the high-tech industry for product production.

In view of this, the sensor is generally used to monitor environmental parameters such as the amount of impurity particles, temperature, humidity, and the like in the clean room. At present, it is usually necessary to manually move various sensors to each corner of the clean room by a technician to perform measurement, which is quite labor intensive and inefficient. Or it is full of multiple sensors in the entire clean room, however, this method will greatly increase the cost of environmental monitoring. In addition, the results measured by these sensors have to be manually uploaded to the database for arithmetic processing, so that the monitoring results cannot be obtained quickly.

Embodiments of the present invention provide an environmental monitoring system that can improve the efficiency of environmental monitoring and reduce the manpower and cost required for environmental monitoring.

An environmental monitoring system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention is adapted to monitor at least one environmental parameter of a clean room. The environmental monitoring system includes a load port, a carrier unit, and a processor. The load port includes a housing, a wireless communication module, and at least one sensing component. The sensing component and the wireless communication module are disposed in the housing, wherein the sensing component is configured to sense an environmental parameter. The carrier unit includes a guide rail and a carrier mechanism. The rails are routed in a clean room, and the carrier is adapted to pick up the load magazine and carry the load magazine along the rail. The sensing element moves and senses as it loads in the clean room to generate a plurality of sensing information. The processor is coupled to the wireless communication module, and loads and transmits the sensing information to the processor through the wireless communication protocol.

The above described features and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention will become more apparent and understood.

The following disclosure provides many different embodiments or examples for implementing different features of the subject matter provided. Specific examples of elements and arrangements are set forth below to simplify the disclosure. Of course, these are examples only and are not intended to be limiting. For example, in the following description, the first feature is formed on the second feature or the second feature may include an embodiment in which the first feature and the second feature are formed in direct contact, and may also include An embodiment may be formed between the first feature and the second feature such that the first feature and the second feature may not be in direct contact. Additionally, the disclosure may reuse reference numerals and/or letters in various examples. This repetition is for the sake of brevity and clarity and is not a representation of the relationship between the various embodiments and/or configurations discussed.

In addition, for ease of explanation, spatial relativity such as "beneath", "below", "lower", "above", "upper" may be used herein. The words "a" or "an" or "an" The spatially relative terms are intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation illustrated. The device may have other orientations (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein may be interpreted accordingly accordingly.

1 is a schematic diagram of an environmental monitoring system in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the invention. 2 is a block diagram of an environmental monitoring system in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 simultaneously, in an exemplary embodiment, the environmental monitoring system 100 can be used to monitor at least one environmental parameter of the clean room, such as: dust particle amount, temperature, humidity, noise, etc., or the above Any combination of environmental parameters. In the present embodiment, the environmental monitoring system 100 includes a loading cassette 110, a carrier unit 130, and a processor 140. The loading cassette 110 includes a housing 111, a wireless communication module 112, and at least one sensing component 113. The wireless communication module 112 and the sensing component 113 are disposed in the housing 111 and coupled to each other. In some embodiments, the sensing element 113 can include a dust particle sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a noise sensor, and any combination thereof. As such, the sensing element 113 can be used to sense environmental parameters such as the amount of particulate dust, temperature, humidity, noise, etc. in the clean room, and any combination of the above environmental parameters. In the present embodiment, the sensing element 113 may be pluggable and replaceably disposed within the housing 111. As such, the environmental monitoring system 100 can replace the required sensing elements 113 according to actual needs. In some embodiments, the loading cassette 110 further includes a camera disposed in the housing 111 to capture images in the clean room for safe monitoring of the clean room.

In this embodiment, the carrier unit 130 can include a guide rail 132 and a carrier mechanism 134. For example, the guide rails 132 can be disposed in a clean room. In an exemplary embodiment, the rails 132 can be disposed on the ceiling of the clean room, and the carrier mechanism 134 is adapted to operate along the rails 132 to be movably elevated above the clean room. In an exemplary embodiment, the carrier 134 may include a lift arm 134a as shown in FIG. 1 to pick up the load cassette 110 and carry the load cassette 110 along the guide rail 132. In this way, the sensing component 113 can be moved in the clean room with the loading cassette 110 to sense and respectively generate multiple sensing information in multiple places of the clean room. In an exemplary embodiment, the carrier unit 130 can be coupled to an external power source PW as shown in FIG. 2, which can provide power to the carrier unit 130. Moreover, when the carrier unit 130 picks up the load cassette 110, the carrier unit 130 is electrically connected to the load cassette 110 to provide the power required to load the cassette 110.

In an exemplary embodiment, the load port 110 can include a wireless communication module 112 as shown in FIG. 2, and the wireless communication module 112 can be coupled to the wireless communication module of the processor 140. In this manner, the load port 110 can wirelessly transmit the sensing information sensed by the sensing component 113 to the processor 140 through a wireless communication protocol. In some embodiments, the wireless communication module 112 can include a Bluetooth wireless communication module, a WiFi wireless communication module, a WiMAX wireless communication module, a Zigbee wireless communication module, or an infrared wireless communication module. The example is not limited to this.

In the above, the carrier 134 can be circulated along the guide rails 132 at a plurality of locations in the clean room, and the sensing component 113 can sense at these locations to generate corresponding sensing information and sense the sensing. The information is transmitted to the load port 110. At the same time, the carrier unit 130 can also transmit a plurality of location information of the carrier 134 at these locations to the magazine 110. In this manner, the sensing information and the corresponding location information sensed by the sensing component 113 can be transmitted to the processor 140 via the wireless communication module 112, and the processor 140 can further match the location information with the sensing information. The sensing information of the clean room at various locations is obtained, so as to monitor the environmental parameters of the various locations of the clean room. In this embodiment, the loading cassette 110 can transmit the sensed sensing information and corresponding position information to the processor 140 in real time. In some embodiments, the loading cassette 110 can also transmit the sensing information and the corresponding position information sensed by the sensing component 113 to the processor 140 during a predetermined period (for example, every five minutes). For regular data updates.

In this embodiment, the carrier 134 can transmit the location information to the magazine 110 via a wireless communication protocol such as Bluetooth. Of course, in other embodiments, the carrier mechanism 134 can also transmit the location information to the loading cassette 110 by means of wired transmission. For example, when the lifting arm 134a of the carrier mechanism 134 picks up the loading cassette 110, the loading unit 110 can be loaded with the loading cassette 110. The position information of the carrier 134 is transmitted to the load port 110 by means of wired transmission.

3 is a schematic diagram of the configuration of a guide rail and a positioning base of an environmental monitoring system according to some exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 3, for example, the environment monitoring system 100 of the present embodiment may further include a plurality of positioning bases 150, which may be respectively disposed in the clean room CR as shown in FIG. A plurality of locations, and the positioning base 150 is seated on the routing path of the guide rails 132. In this way, when the carrier mechanism 134 is sequentially moved along the guide rails 132 to the above-mentioned preset position, the carrier mechanism 134 can receive the signals sent by the respective positioning bases 150 and transmit the corresponding position information to the loading cassette 110.

In an exemplary embodiment, the upper surface 152 of the positioning base 150 may be provided, for example, with a laser emitter or other suitable signal emitter. The bottom of the carrier mechanism 134 may be correspondingly provided with a charge-coupled device. , CCD) or other suitable sensor. Thus, when the carrier mechanism 134 is moved above the positioning base 150 as shown in FIG. 1, the photosensitive coupling element of the carrier mechanism 134 can receive the laser signal from the positioning base 150, and the carrier unit 130 can use this signal with the built-in The database is compared to obtain the location information of the carrier 134, and the location information is transmitted to the load port 110, and the load port 110 wirelessly transmits the location information to the processor 140. In this manner, the processor 140 can match the location information of the location with the sensing information sensed by the sensing component 113, thereby obtaining sensing information of the clean room CR at the location. Therefore, the environment monitoring system 100 of the present embodiment can utilize the set density of the positioning base 150 to control the data density of the environmental monitoring in the clean room CR.

According to the above, after obtaining the sensing information of the plurality of positions in the clean room CR, the processor 140 can effectively monitor the environmental parameters such as the amount of dust particles, temperature, humidity, noise, etc. in the clean room CR. . In an exemplary embodiment, the environmental monitoring system 100 further includes a display (not shown) coupled to the processor 140 to display the amount of dust particles, temperature, humidity, and noise throughout the clean room CR. The latest state of the environmental parameters, so that the technician can control the environment of the clean room CR. In some embodiments, when the processor obtains that the sensing information measured at a certain location in the clean room CR is greater than a preset value, the display may jump out of a warning window to alert or ask the technician whether to perform corresponding measures. . In some embodiments, the processor 140 may also automatically perform the corresponding measure when the sensing information is greater than the preset value. For example, when the processor 140 obtains the temperature of the clean room CR somewhere higher than the preset value, the corresponding cooling measures can be automatically executed.

4 is a schematic illustration of a load port of an environmental monitoring system, in accordance with certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1 and FIG. 4 , in the embodiment, the number of sensing elements 113 is multiple, for sensing a plurality of different environmental parameters, for example, for sensing the amount of dust particles in the clean room CR, Any combination of temperature, humidity, noise, etc. The loading cassette 110 can be a loading cassette as shown in FIG. 4, and includes a plurality of card slots 114 and a plurality of electrical contacts 116. The plurality of sensing elements 113 can be respectively disposed in the card slot 114 and associated with Electrical contacts 116 form an electrical connection. The top of the loading cassette 110 can further include a handle 118 that is adapted to grip the handle 118 to pick up and carry the loading cassette 110.

In an exemplary embodiment, the load cassette 110 can be a standard mechanical interface Cassette (SMIF Cassette) for loading a wafer (or mask) in a semiconductor process, and a front open wafer transfer cassette. (Front Opening Universal Pod, FOUP), Front Opening Shipping Pod (FOSP), Mask Package Pod or Standard Mechanical Interface Reticle SMIF Pod (RSP), etc. The carrier unit 130 can be an overhead hoist transport (OTT) that picks up and carries the standard mechanical interface in a semiconductor process. In general, the overhead lift carrier is sequentially moved to a plurality of storage stations within the clean room CR to pick up or place a standard mechanical interface containing the wafer (or reticle). Therefore, the environment monitoring system 100 of the present embodiment can utilize the above-mentioned storage station as the positioning base 150, so that the overhead lifting carrier carries the standard mechanical interface equipped with the sensing element 113 to the respective storage stations in the clean room CR. The environment sensing is performed, and the standard mechanical interface transmits the sensing information sensed by the sensing component 113 and the location information of the corresponding storage station to the processor 140 through the wireless communication module 112. With such a configuration, the present embodiment can utilize the existing devices in the clean room CR for environmental monitoring without additional installation of new equipment, thereby effectively reducing the cost of environmental monitoring, and increasing the space and equipment in the clean room. Utilization.

In summary, the environmental monitoring system of the embodiment of the present invention sets a sensing component for sensing environmental parameters in a loading magazine, and picks up and carries the loading clip through the carrier unit, so that the sensing component can be cleaned. The indoor movement is to obtain sensing information of multiple locations in the clean room, and the sensing information is transmitted to the processor through the wireless communication module loaded with the cymbal. As such, the environmental monitoring system of the embodiment of the present invention can monitor the state of environmental parameters throughout the clean room, and can quickly obtain monitoring results. In addition, the environmental monitoring system of the embodiment of the invention does not need to spread the sensing component in the clean room, and does not need to manually move the sensing component, thereby reducing the manpower and cost required for environmental monitoring, and improving the efficiency of environmental monitoring.

In addition, the environmental monitoring system of the embodiment of the present invention can perform environmental monitoring by using the existing processing equipment in the semiconductor manufacturing process, for example, using a standard mechanical interface of loading a wafer (or a reticle) as a loading raft to load the sensing component. An overhead lift carrier that picks up and carries this standard mechanical interface is used as a carrier unit to carry the load weir. As such, the environmental monitoring system of the embodiment of the present invention can perform environmental monitoring without adding new equipment, thereby effectively reducing the cost of environmental monitoring, and increasing the space in the clean room and the utilization of existing equipment.

The embodiments of the present invention have been disclosed in the above embodiments, and are not intended to limit the embodiments of the present invention. Any ones of ordinary skill in the art can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the embodiments of the present invention. The scope of protection of the embodiments of the present invention is defined by the scope of the appended claims.

100: Environmental monitoring system 110: loading cassette 111: housing 112: wireless communication module 113: sensing element 114: card slot 116: electrical contact 118: handle 130: carrier unit 132: rail 134: carrier mechanism 134a : Lifting arm 140: Processor 150: Positioning base 152: Upper surface CR: Clean room PW: External power supply

The various aspects of the embodiments of the invention may be best understood from the following detailed description. It should be noted that various features are not drawn to scale in accordance with standard practice in the art. In fact, the dimensions of the various features may be arbitrarily increased or decreased for clarity of discussion. 1 is a schematic diagram of an environmental monitoring system in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the invention. 2 is a block diagram of an environmental monitoring system in accordance with some demonstrative embodiments of the invention. 3 is a schematic diagram of the configuration of a guide rail and a positioning base of an environmental monitoring system according to some exemplary embodiments of the present invention. 4 is a schematic illustration of a load port of an environmental monitoring system, in accordance with certain exemplary embodiments of the present invention.

Claims (9)

An environmental monitoring system, configured to monitor at least one environmental parameter of a clean room, the environmental monitoring system comprising: a loading device comprising a housing, a wireless communication module, and at least one sensing component, the at least one sensing The component and the wireless communication module are disposed in the loading port and coupled to the loading port, wherein the at least one sensing component is configured to sense the at least one environmental parameter; a carrier unit includes a guide rail and a carrier mechanism, The rail is disposed in the clean room, the carrier is adapted to pick up the loading cassette and carry the loading cassette along the rail, and the sensing element moves and senses with the loading chamber in the clean room to generate a plurality of sensing information; and a processor coupled to the wireless communication module, the loading device transmitting the sensing information to the processor via a wireless communication protocol, wherein the loading unit is adapted to couple the loading port to Transmitting a plurality of location information of the carrier to the plurality of locations to the load port, and the location information is transmitted to the processor via the wireless communication module. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1, further comprising a plurality of positioning bases respectively disposed at the positions, and when the carrier moves to the respective positions along the guide rail, the carrier receives the respective A signal of the positioning base, and accordingly, the corresponding location information is transmitted to the loading port. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1 or 2, wherein the processor matches the location information with the sensing information to obtain the sensing information of the clean room at the locations. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the wireless communication module comprises a Bluetooth wireless communication module, a WiFi wireless communication module, a WiMAX wireless communication module, a Zigbee wireless communication module or an infrared wireless communication module. group. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the number of the at least one sensing element is plural, and the loading cassette is a loading cassette including a plurality of card slots, and the sensing elements are disposed on the In some card slots. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the at least one sensing element comprises a dust particle sensor, a temperature sensor, a humidity sensor, a noise sensor, and any combination thereof. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the at least one environmental parameter comprises a dust particle amount, a temperature, a humidity, a noise, and any combination thereof. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the loading cassette is more suitable for loading and coupling a camera. The environmental monitoring system of claim 1, wherein the carrier unit is connected to an external power source.