Substrate processing apparatus and substrate processing method
First Claim
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1. A substrate processing apparatus, comprising:
- a process chamber for performing a prescribed process with respect to a substrate;
an inspection chamber, connected to said process chamber, for performing a prescribed analysis with respect to said substrate;
a transfer assembly to load and unload said substrate between said process chamber and said inspection chamber;
an analytic information storage memory to store analytic information of said substrate received from said inspection chamber; and
an analytic information analyzer which retrieves said analytic information from said analytic information storage memory and analyzes said analytic information while said substrate is transferred to the outside of said inspection chamber by said transfer assembly or after said substrate is transferred to the outside of said inspection chamber by said transfer assembly,wherein at least one of said process chamber and said inspection chamber includes a load lock chamber having a volume less than volumes of the other chambers for changing the atmosphere in said process chamber or inspection chamber into the atmospheric air atmosphere or a vacuum atmosphere.
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Abstract
A substrate such as a semiconductor wafer is transferred to a plurality of process chambers so as to perform prescribed processes. An inspection chamber is air-tightly connected to each of the process chambers. The inspection chamber is provided with a handler which loads and unloads the substrate. A gate valve is disposed between each process chamber and the inspection chamber. By this gate valve, each chamber is air-tightly closed.
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Citations
13 Claims
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1. A substrate processing apparatus, comprising:
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a process chamber for performing a prescribed process with respect to a substrate; an inspection chamber, connected to said process chamber, for performing a prescribed analysis with respect to said substrate; a transfer assembly to load and unload said substrate between said process chamber and said inspection chamber; an analytic information storage memory to store analytic information of said substrate received from said inspection chamber; and an analytic information analyzer which retrieves said analytic information from said analytic information storage memory and analyzes said analytic information while said substrate is transferred to the outside of said inspection chamber by said transfer assembly or after said substrate is transferred to the outside of said inspection chamber by said transfer assembly, wherein at least one of said process chamber and said inspection chamber includes a load lock chamber having a volume less than volumes of the other chambers for changing the atmosphere in said process chamber or inspection chamber into the atmospheric air atmosphere or a vacuum atmosphere. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A substrate processing apparatus, comprising:
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a process chamber for performing a prescribed process with respect to a substrate; an inspection chamber, connected to said process chamber, for performing prescribed analyses with respect to said substrate before and after performing the prescribed process; a transfer assembly to load and unload said substrate between said process chamber and said inspection chamber; and a controller which controls the process chamber, the inspection chamber and the transfer assembly and calculates properties of the substrate in accordance with analysis results from the inspection chamber with respect to the substrate before and after performing the prescribed process. - View Dependent Claims (13)
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Specification