Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Article handling
Reexamination Certificate
1998-09-11
2001-06-12
Ellis, Christopher P. (Department: 3651)
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Article handling
C700S214000, C700S228000, C700S229000, C414S217000, C901S001000, C901S020000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06246923
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention is applied to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and best relates to the realization of an efficient carrying action for a work carrying robot in a multi-chamber type manufacturing system wherein a plurality of process chambers are provided which are adjacent to one transfer chamber provided with a work carrying robot. This work carrying robot carries a work such as a wafer or an LCD from one process chamber to another process chamber.
BACKGROUND ART
This kind of multi-chamber type manufacturing apparatus is comprised, for example, as shown in FIG.
16
.
In
FIG. 16
, around the periphery of a transfer chamber
2
wherein a wafer carrying robot
1
is disposed are provided process chambers
3
a
to
3
e
which implement various types of semiconductor processes on wafers, a work carry in chamber
4
that carries in the work from an external location, and a work carry out chamber
5
that carries out the work to an external location.
Adjustable open/close gate valves
6
a
to
6
g
are disposed between process chambers
3
a
to
3
e
and transfer chamber
2
, between transfer chamber
2
and work carry in chamber
4
, and between transfer chamber
2
and work carry out chamber
5
. By means of opening these gate valves
6
a
to
6
g
, each chamber is made to connect. Further, transfer chamber
2
, process chambers
3
a
to
3
e
, work carry in chamber
4
and work carry out chamber
5
are maintained in a vacuum state. Further, the degree of vacuum is made to grow larger in order from work carry in chamber
4
and work carry out chamber
5
→transfer chamber
2
→process chambers
3
a
to
3
e
. Gate valves
6
a
to
6
g
are restricted in that two or more gate valves cannot be opened simultaneously in order to maintain the degree of vacuum. In other words, when one gate valve opens, opening control of required gate valves starts in a state in which all the other gate valves are closed.
Moreover, a work carry in robot
9
and a work carry out robot
10
are disposed on a work carry in station
7
and a work carry out station
8
, respectively. Work carry in station
7
and work carry out station
8
are disposed adjacent to work carry in chamber
4
and work carry out chamber
5
. These work carry in robot
9
and work carry out robot
10
implement a carry in and a carry out of the work (wafer) between the carrying system and an external location. In addition, the region on side A in
FIG. 16
is an unmanned region and the region on side B is a manned clean room.
In contrast, as shown in
FIG. 17
, wafer carrying robot
1
disposed in transfer chamber
2
is, for example, a so-called frog-leg type robot comprised by two arms
11
,
12
which have a rotation degree of freedom, and a hand
13
shaped like a platform. A wafer detection sensor (not shown in figure) is housed within hand
13
. This wafer detection sensor detects whether a wafer W is loaded. Further, wafer W is supported by a lifter (not shown in figure) that can rise and fall. When wafer W loads onto hand
13
of robot
1
, the lifter falls.
In this composition, the procedure when wafer carrying robot
1
transfers wafer W from process chamber
3
c
to process chamber
3
d
is shown below.
At first, when the lifter that is supporting wafer W within process chamber
3
c
is lowered and wafer W is loaded onto hand
13
of wafer carrying robot
1
(
FIG. 17
point P
1
), the wafer detection sensor housed within hand
13
turns ON. When this ON state is confirmed, robot
1
tightens arms
11
,
12
and wafer W moves to point P
2
. Then, when wafer W completes the move to point P
2
, robot
1
stops at this point P
2
once and then outputs a withdrawal completion signal to a system controller (not shown in figure) that controls the entire system.
When the above-mentioned withdrawal completion signal is received in the system controller, control starts to close gate valve
6
c
, Thereafter, when the system controller confirms the closure of gate valve
6
c
, control executes to open gate valve
6
d
. In addition, gate valve
6
d
is made to open after gate valve
6
c
closes due to the above-mentioned restriction in which two or more gate valves cannot open simultaneously during the open/closing of gate valves
6
c
,
6
d.
In contrast, when robot
1
outputs a withdrawal completion signal to the system controller, the open/close action of gate valves
6
c
,
6
d
occurs side-by-side and the robot moves from point P
2
to point P
3
. When point P
3
is reached, the procedure stops once again. Then, after robot
1
confirms the open/close state of gate valve
6
d
at the time when movement stops at point P
3
and then confirms the opening of gate valve
6
d
, movement to point P
4
starts. In other words, robot
1
waits at point P
3
until the opening of gate valve
6
d
can be confirmed.
During the movement to point P
4
, robot
1
extends arms
11
,
12
to position P
4
where wafer W of process chamber
3
d
should be loaded and then after a positioning stop occurs at position P
4
, the robot outputs a movement completion signal to the system controller.
The system controller that received the movement completion signal raises the lifter of process chamber
3
d
and then loads wafer W onto the lifter from the hand of robot
1
. The procedure above is the chain of events in a wafer carrying action.
FIG.
8
(
a
), FIG.
9
(
a
) and FIG.
10
(
a
) show each type of movement speed pattern according to the above-mentioned conventional technology.
Furthermore, in these figures, T is the time (fixed time characteristic to system) required from when gate valve
6
c
starts to open until gate valve
6
d
completes the close. This is common to all gate valves.
As is clear from FIG.
8
(
a
), FIG.
9
(
a
) and FIG.
10
(
a
), according to the above-mentioned conventional technology, the robot always stops once at the withdrawal point (P
2
) from the movement origin process chamber and at the entrance point (P
3
) toward the transfer destination process chamber. Because of this, time is required for wafer carrying making it impossible to achieve efficient wafer carrying and in addition the throughput (number of processes per unit time) of the process wafer has not improved once at the present.
Thereupon, the temporary stop at above-mentioned points P
2
and P
3
is simply eliminated. For this case, there are no problems when the distance between the process chambers is sufficiently distant (when the rotation angle is large) although when the distance between the process chambers is short (when the rotation angle is small), if the movement time from point P
2
to point P
3
becomes shorter than the above-mentioned time T required to open/close the gate valves, the wafer will protrude into the gate valves. Moreover, if this fact is taken into consideration and the robot speed reduced, it will become impossible to determine why the temporary stop at points P
2
and P
3
is eliminated.
The object of the present invention is to take the above-mentioned points factors into consideration and provide a control device for a work carrying system that can achieve a high-speed work transfer with a transfer speed as short as possible as well as eliminating a temporary stop of the robot as much as possible.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
The first invention that corresponds to claim
1
is such that in a work carrying system comprising: a work processing device having a transfer chamber to which a work carrying robot is disposed, a plurality of process chambers disposed adjacent to the transfer chamber which implement various types of processes on a work, and a plurality of gate means each being disposed between each of the process chambers and the transfer chamber; the work carrying robot being adopted to transfer the work positioned at a transfer origin process chamber among the plurality of process chambers to a transfer destination process chamber along a predetermined movement path through the gate means of the transfer origin process chamber, the transfer chamber and the gate means of the t
Nose Matsuo
Sugimura Shunsuke
Butler Michael E.
Ellis Christopher P.
Komatsu Ltd.
Welsh & Katz Ltd.
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