Material or article handling – Load carried along a horizontal linear path – Multiple loads – having means spacing one load from another load
Reexamination Certificate
2000-11-14
2003-02-18
Underwood, Donald W. (Department: 3652)
Material or article handling
Load carried along a horizontal linear path
Multiple loads, having means spacing one load from another load
C414S744300
Reexamination Certificate
active
06520733
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a substrate transport method and apparatus for transporting a substrate to a processing section to clean the surface of the substrate, and also relates to a substrate processing system having the substrate transport apparatus.
In a photolithographic process of manufacturing the semiconductor devices, it is very important to maintain the surface of the wafer clean. This is because if contaminants, such as particles, organic substances, and metallic ions, are attached to the surface of the semiconductor wafer, they significantly defect a circuit pattern of the semiconductor device. Therefore, in the photolithographic process, the wafer surface is usually washed when necessary. The contaminants are removed from the wafer surface, for example, by rubbing the wafer surface by a brush while a chemical washing solution is poured thereon. Such a washing treatment is usually carried out in a washing apparatus equipped with a spin chuck and a rotatory brush.
As shown in
FIG. 1
, a conventionally used substrate processing system
100
has a processing section
104
for washing the surface of the wafer with a chemical solution and drying it, and a substrate transporting arm mechanism
105
for transporting the wafer W to the processing section
104
. The processing section
104
has three processing units
101
,
102
,
103
. The substrate transport apparatus
105
has three arms
106
a
,
106
b
,
106
c
. The processing units
101
,
102
,
103
have loading/unloading ports
101
a
,
102
a
,
103
a
, respectively. The wafer W is loaded/unloaded into/from units
101
,
102
,
103
through the loading/unloading ports
101
a
,
102
a
,
103
a
, respectively.
The substrate transport apparatus.
105
has an X-axis driving mechanism for moving an arm portion
106
in an X-axis direction, a Z-axis driving mechanism
107
for moving the arm portion
106
in a Z-axis direction, a &thgr;-axis driving mechanism for rotating the arm portion
106
around the Z-axis, and a back-and-forth moving mechanism for moving each of arms
106
a
,
106
b
,
106
c
back and forth. The Z-axis driving mechanism
107
has a single ball screw
110
whose rotation movement is driven by a motor
109
. The motor
109
and the ball screw
110
are surrounded by a cover
108
in the expandable bellows form.
However, when the Z-axis driving mechanism
107
is used for a long time, particles are sometimes generated from the cover
108
in the form of bellows, attaching onto the wafer W.
Furthermore, as shown in
FIG. 2
, the vertical opening length of the loading/unloading port
101
a
in the conventional apparatus is larger than the vertical size of an assembly of three arms
106
a
,
106
b
,
106
c
. Thus, the particles are likely to enter the processing unit
101
when the wafer W is loaded/unloaded. In addition, a shutter
130
is moved in a long distance and thus long time is required to open/shut the loading/unloading port
101
a
. As a result, throughput of the treatment decreases. Furthermore, it take long time to exchange the first arm
106
a
arranged at the uppermost stage and the third arm
106
c
arranged at the lowermost stage, with the result that the throughput decreases.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION.
An object of the present invention is to provide a substrate transporting method and apparatus, and a substrate processing system capable of reducing time required,for loading and unloading a substrate into/from a processing unit, thereby improving the throughput.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a substrate transport apparatus having a driving mechanism which does not allow the particles to leak outside.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method of transporting a substrate by using a substrate transport apparatus which comprises:
first, second, and third arms arranged vertically in multiple stages,
a plurality of processing units each having a load/unload port for loading/unloading the substrate,
the method comprising:
(a) inputting data of processing conditions for processing the substrate;
(b) determining whether a number of processing units required for processing the substrate is an odd number or an even number;
(c1) when a determination result of the step (b) is an odd number,
transporting the substrate, in accordance with the following steps (d1) to (i1):
(d1) taking out the substrate by the second arm from a substrate loading/unloading section;
(e1) loading the substrate by the second arm to an odd-numbered processing unit;
(f1) unloading the substrate by the third arm from an odd-numbered processing unit; except for a final processing unit;
(g1) loading the substrate by the third arm to an even-numbered processing unit;
(h1) unloading the substrate by the second arm from an even-numbered processing unit; and
(i1) unloading the substrate from the final processing unit by the first arm and loading the substrate by the first arm into the substrate loading/unloading section; and
(c2) when a determination result of the step (b) is an even number,
transporting the substrate, in accordance with the following steps (d2) to (i2);
(d2) taking out the substrate by the third arm from the substrate loading/unloading section;
(e2) loading the substrate by the third arm into an odd-numbered processing unit;
(f2) unloading the substrate by the second arm from an odd-numbered processing unit;
(g2) loading the substrate by the second arm into an even-numbered processing unit;
(h2) unloading the substrate by the third arm from an even-numbered processing unit except for a final processing unit; and
(i2) unloading the substrate by the first arm from the final processing unit and loading the substrate by the first arm into the substrate loading/unloading section.
Note that a second substrate to be used next may be taken out from the substrate loading/unloading section in advance by the second arm during a period from the step (e1) to (f1).
Furthermore, the second substrate may be unloaded from an odd-numbered processing unit in advance by the third arm during a period from the step (g1) to (h1).
Moreover, the second substrate may be taken out from the substrate loading/unloading section in advance by the third arm during a period from the step (e2) to (f2).
Still further, the second substrate may be unloaded from an odd-numbered processing unit in advance during a period from the step (g2) to (h2).
According to the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing system comprising:
a substrate loading/unloading section for receiving a plurality of substrates and sending out the substrates sequentially one by one;
a processing section having a plurality of processing units each having a loading/unloading port for loading and unloading the substrates;
a substrate transport apparatus which has first, second, and third arms arranged movable between the substrate loading/unloading section and the processing section and set vertically in multiple stages, and which has an arm back-and-forth moving mechanism for moving each of the first, second, and third arms, back and forth;
a control section for controlling an operation of the substrate transport apparatus; and
data input means for inputting data of processing conditions for processing the substrate into the control section.
The control section controls the substrate transport apparatus by
determining whether a number of processing units required for processing the substrate is an odd number or an even number on the basis of the data of processing conditions;
when a determination result is an odd number,
taking out the substrate, by the second arm, from the substrate loading/unloading section;
loading the substrate by the second arm to an odd-numbered processing unit,
unloading the substrate by the third arm from an odd-numbered processing unit except for a final processing unit;
loading the substrate by the third arm to an even-numbered processing unit;
unloading the substrate by the second arm from an even-numbered processing unit;
unloading the substrate by t
Ataka Hiroyuki
Taniyama Hiroki
Oblon & Spivak, McClelland, Maier & Neustadt P.C.
Tokyo Electron Limited
Underwood Donald W.
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