Semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and its diagnosis apparatus and operating system

• US 6,901,306 B2
• Filed: 02/27/2002
• Issued: 05/31/2005
• Est. Priority Date: 02/27/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Kondo, Hideaki, Nakamoto, Shigeru, Arima, Juntaro
• Primary Examiner(s): Gandhi, Jayprakash N.
• Application Number:
  US10/083,254
• Publication Number:
  US 20030163217A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,189 Days
• Field of Search: 700/117, 700/1, 700/90, 700/121, 700/108, 700/109, 714/31, 714/33, 324/73.1
• US Class Current: 700/121
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 17/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33284 Remote diagnostic
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/33324 What to diagnose, whole system, test, simulate
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 2219/45031 Manufacturing semiconductor wafers
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 23/0272 Presentation of monitored results, e.g. selection of status reports to be displayed; Filtering information to the user
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67276 Production flow monitoring, e.g. for increasing throughput program-control systems per se G05B19/00, e.g. total factory control G05B19/418
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 Management or planning

Abstract

A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus allows the user to accurately determine the state of the apparatus and the cause of an abnormal condition for a short time. The apparatus includes a main unit for processing raw materials and forming a semiconductor, recording means for recording information of an operation to be executed by the main unit as predetermined data, operating means for operating the operation of said main unit and simulating the operation by using the predetermined data, and display means located remotely from the main unit and for displaying the simulated result.

Claims

1. A sample processing apparatus comprising:

a main unit for processing a sample having at least one processing chamber in which the sample is disposed for being processed;

a recording device which records information of an operation executed by the main unit as predetermined data;

calculating means for calculating and simulating the operation executed by the main unit using the predetermined data recorded during the operation which was executed by the main unit according to an instruction which is given by a user of the sample processing apparatus after the operation which was executed by the main unit;

a display which is located remotely from the main unit and displays the simulated operation simulated by the calculating means including occurrence of an abnormality.

2. A sample processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined data includes the information at a time when the abnormality takes place in the sample processing apparatus.

3. A sample processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the display displays information about the abnormality.

4. A diagnosis apparatus of a sample processing apparatus comprising a recording device which records information of an operation executed by the sample processing apparatus for processing a sample through a communicating device as predetermined data, an input device for inputting a user instruction concerned with the information of the operation after the execution of the operation, and a display located remotely from the sample processing apparatus for displaying a result supplied by calculating means for calculating the operation of the sample processing apparatus and for simulating the operation which has been previously executed corresponding to the user instruction, wherein the result includes an occurrence of an abnormality.

5. A diagnosis apparatus of a sample processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the predetermined data includes the information at a time when the abnormality takes place in the sample processing apparatus.

6. A diagnosis apparatus of the sample processing apparatus according to claim 5, wherein the display displays information about the abnormality.

7. A program for a sample processing apparatus for processing a sample comprising the steps of:

receiving an instruction from an input device given by a user inputting the instruction which is concerned with information of an operation executed by the sample processing apparatus, the information being received from a supplier supplying the information of the executed operation through a communicator and recorded as predetermined data, the instruction being inputted after the operation has been executed by the sample processing apparatus; and

displaying a simulated result supplied by a calculating means for calculating the operation of the sample processing apparatus and for simulating the previously executed operation according to the instruction, wherein the simulated result includes occurrence of an abnormality.

8. A program for a sample processing apparatus for processing a sample according to claim 7, wherein the predetermined data includes the information at a time when the abnormality takes place in the sample processing apparatus.

9. A program for a sample processing apparatus for processing the sample according to claim 8, wherein the step of displaying includes displaying information about the abnormality.