SUBSTRATE PROCESSING APPARATUS, ALARM MANAGEMENT METHOD OF SUBSTRATE PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND STORAGE MEDIUM

• US 20140203941A1
• Filed: 09/27/2012
• Published: 07/24/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 09/29/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
• Original Assignee: Tokyo Electron Limited
• Inventors: Kaneko, Tomohiro
• Granted Patent: US 9,224,283 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 340/606
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/027 Alarm generation, e.g. communication protocol; Forms of alarm
• CPC Class Codes: G08B 21/18 Status alarms G08B21/02 takes precedence

Abstract

A substrate processing apparatus is provided with: a detection unit (41a through 41d) that detects a factor for which interlock is applied to one or more of a plurality of modules and outputs a detection signal; interlocking means (42 and 43a through 43c) that, based on the detection signal output from the detecting units, applies interlock to the module to be interlocked if the factor has been occurred; and an alarm management unit (4) that determines parent-child relationships between a parent alarm indicating that the factor for which interlock is applied has been detected, and child alarms each indicating that interlock has been applied to each module, and causes a display unit (5) to display in a grouped manner the parent alarm and the child alarm or alarms having the parent-child relationship.

Claims

1. A substrate processing apparatus equipped with a plurality of modules, comprising:

a detection unit that detects a factor for which interlock is applied to one or more of the plurality of modules, and that outputs a detection signal;

interlock means that, based on the detection signal output from the detection unit, applies interlock to the module to be interlocked where the factor has occurred; and

an alarm management unit that determines a parent-child relationship between a parent alarm and a child alarm or alarms, and that causes a display unit to display in a grouped manner the parent alarm and the child alarm or alarms having the parent-child relationship, the parent alarm indicating that the factor for which the interlock is applied has been detected, while the child alarm indicating that the interlock has been applied to the module.

2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the interlock means includes:

an interlock management unit that, based on the detection signal output from the detection unit, outputs an interlock instruction signal to the module to be interlocked if the factor has occurred, and outputs the parent alarm to the alarm management unit, and

module controllers, provided in the respective modules, that each applies interlock to the corresponding module, based on the interlock instruction signal from the interlock management unit, and that each outputs the child alarm associated with the corresponding module to the alarm management unit.

3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the interlock means includes:

an interlock management unit that, based on the detection signal from the detection unit, outputs the parent alarm to the alarm management unit if the factor has occurred, and

module controllers, provided in the respective modules, that each applies interlock to the corresponding module, based on the detection signal received from the detection unit, and that each outputs the child alarm associated with the corresponding module to the alarm management unit.

4. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the module controllers are provided to directly receive the detection signals from the detection unit.

5. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the alarm management unit has a batch recovery function of collectively recovering the parent and child alarms in the parent-child relationship displayed in the grouped manner.

6. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 5,

wherein the alarm management unit has an individual recovery function in addition to the batch recovery function, the individual recovery function allowing a recovery of each child alarm independently from a recovery of the parent alarm, and

wherein the substrate processing apparatus further includes a selection unit that selects execution of the batch recovery function or the individual recovery function.

7. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the module provided with the module controller is a processing module for performing processing on a substrate.

8. An alarm management method of a substrate processing apparatus having a plurality of modules, comprising:

detecting a factor for which interlock is applied to one or more of the plurality of modules, and outputting a detection signal;

sending a parent alarm indicating that the factor for which the interlock is applied has been detected to an alarm management unit;

applying, based on the detection signal, interlock to the module to be interlocked if the factor has occurred;

sending a child alarm indicating that the interlock has been applied to the module to be interlocked, to the alarm management unit; and

determining a parent-child relationship between the parent and child alarms by the alarm management unit, and causing a display unit to display in a grouped manner the parent alarm and the child alarm or alarms which are determined to have the parent-child relationship.

9. The method according to claim 8, further comprising, in accordance with an input of batch recovery instructions to the alarm management unit by an operator, executing by the alarm management unit a batch recovery to collectively recover the parent and child alarms having the parent-child relationship, which are displayed in a grouped manner.

10. The method according to claim 8, further comprising:

causing the display unit to display an indication to prompt an operator to select a batch recovery or an individual recovery by the alarm management unit, and

executing, upon selection, by the alarm management unit a batch recovery for collectively recovering parent and child alarms having the parent-child relationship displayed in a grouped manner, or an individual recovery for performing recovery of each child alarm independently from recovery of the parent alarm.

11. The method according to claim 8, wherein the module provided with the module controller is a processing module for performing processing on a substrate.

12. A storage medium storing a computer program used in a substrate processing apparatus having a plurality of modules,

wherein the program includes steps for performing the method according to claim 8.