Material or article handling – Process – Of reorienting article
Reexamination Certificate
2000-03-30
2001-12-25
Bowers, Charles (Department: 2813)
Material or article handling
Process
Of reorienting article
C414S222020, C396S611000, C250S206100
Reexamination Certificate
active
06332751
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transfer device centering method in a system including various kinds of processing units for performing various kinds of processing for a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or the like and a transfer device for transferring the substrate between these processing units, and a substrate processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a coating and developing system in processes of semiconductor device fabrication, for example, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer) is coated with a photoresist solution, and by means of photolithography, a circuit pattern or the like is produced and a photoresist film is exposed and developed.
The coating and developing system has a structure in which a cassette station into which a cassette housing wafers is carried and out of which the wafers are carried one by one, a processing station in which various kinds of processing units for performing various kinds of processing for coating and developing for the wafer are multi-tiered, and an interface section for transferring the wafer between an aligner provided adjacent to the processing station for exposing the wafer and the processing station are integrally connected.
In the above coating and developing system, in the cassette station, the wafers are taken out of the cassette and transferred to the processing station one by one. After being cleaned in a cleaning unit, the wafer undergoes hydrophobic processing in an adhesion unit, and it is cooled in a cooling unit and then coated with a photoresist film in a resist coating unit. Thereafter, the wafer undergoes baking processing by being heated in a baking unit.
Subsequently, the wafer is transferred from the processing station to the aligner via the interface section, and a predetermined pattern is exposed in the aligner. After being exposed, the wafer is transferred again to the processing station via the interface section. The exposed wafer undergoes baking processing (post-bake) after a developing solution is applied to thereby form the predetermined pattern in a developing unit. After a series of processing described above is completed, the wafer is transferred to the cassette station and is housed in the wafer cassette.
Incidentally, in the aforesaid series of coating and developing processing, a wafer transfer device for transferring the wafer between a plurality of processing units for performing various kinds of processing such as cleaning processing, coating processing, developing processing, baking processing, and the like is provided to be movable vertically in the processing station.
The wafer transfer device has tweezers movable horizontally, and the wafer transfer device itself is ascendable and descendable vertically (in a Z-direction) and rotatable in a &thgr;-direction. Thus, the wafer transfer device receives and sends the wafer from/to each processing unit with the tweezers, and the wafer transfer device itself ascends and descends vertically (in the Z-direction) and rotates in the &thgr;-direction to thereby get access to various processing units.
It is required to carry out centering for adjusting the position of tweezers in predetermined timing so that the wafer is accurately mounted on a mounting table when the wafer transfer device delivers the wafer to the mounting table in each of various processing units while the wafer is mounted on the tweezers. Namely, it is necessary to adjust a position at which the tweezers finally delivers the wafer to the mounting table after moving while the wafer is mounted thereon.
Aforesaid centering of the wafer transfer device is performed for each processing unit at the time of initialization of the coating and developing system, and also in other cases, centering of the transfer device is regularly or irregularly performed. There is, however, a demand that the aforesaid centering be performed automatically without spending much time.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention is to provide a transfer device centering method and a substrate processing apparatus each capable of performing centering of a substrate transfer device automatically in a short time.
To attain the aforesaid object, a first aspect of the present invention is a transfer device centering method for centering a transfer device so that the transfer device transfers a substrate to a predetermined delivery position on a mounting table in a substrate processing apparatus comprising a processing unit for performing predetermined processing for the substrate mounted on the mounting table and the transfer device for carrying the substrate into/out of the processing unit, comprising a transferring step of transferring the substrate onto a mounting table in the processing unit by means of the transfer device, a detecting step of detecting a positional deviation amount of the substrate with respect to a delivery position on the mounting table, a computing step of computing a positional deviation amount of the transfer device based on a detection value of the positional deviation amount of the substrate, and a correcting step of correcting a position at which the transfer device delivers the substrate to the mounting table of the processing unit based on the computed positional deviation amount of the transfer device.
As described above, the substrate is transferred onto the mounting table in the processing unit by means of the transfer device, a positional deviation amount of the substrate with respect to a delivery position on the mounting table is detected, a positional deviation amount of a position at which the transfer device delivers the substrate is computed based on a detection value of the positional deviation amount of the substrate, and the position at which the transfer device delivers the substrate is corrected by the obtained positional deviation amount of the transfer device, whereby centering can be performed automatically without help of an operator, thus enabling prompt centering of the transfer device, for example, at the time of initialization of the processing unit.
A second aspect of the present invention is a transfer device centering method for centering a transfer device so that the transfer device transfers a substrate to a predetermined delivery position specified by a center position of a processing plate and upper end positions of a plurality of lift pins which are raised in a substrate processing apparatus comprising a processing unit which has the processing plate with the plurality of lift pins, moves the substrate between a mounting position and a transfer position by means of the lift pins, and performs predetermined processing for the substrate at the mounting position and the transfer device for carrying the substrate into/out of the processing unit, comprising a detecting step of detecting the center position of the processing plate and the upper end positions of the plurality of raised lift pins by means of detecting means while moving the detecting means provided above the processing plate over the processing plate by the transfer device, a step of grasping a positional deviation amount of a position at which the transfer device delivers the substrate based on the detection values of the center position and the upper end positions, and a correcting step of correcting the position at which the transfer device delivers the substrate based on the positional deviation amount of the transfer device.
As described above, while the detecting means is being moved over the processing plate by the transfer device, the center position of the processing plate and the upper end positions of a plurality of lift pins which are raised are detected by the detecting means, thereafter a positional deviation amount of a position at which the transfer device delivers the substrate is grasped based on these detection values of the center position and upper end positions, and then the position at which the transfer device delivers the substrate is corrected based on the p
Iida Naruaki
Kozawa Seiji
Ookura Jun
Bowers Charles
Pert Evan
Rader & Fishman & Grauer, PLLC
Tokyo Electron Limited
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