Wafer processing based on sensor detection and system learning

• US 8,897,906 B2
• Filed: 09/20/2011
• Issued: 11/25/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 08/23/2011
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Hitachi High-Technologies Corporation (Hitachi, Ltd.)
• Inventors: Ohashi, Tomohiro, Makino, Akitaka, Kitada, Hiroho, Kihara, Hideki
• Primary Examiner(s): Ali, Mohammad
• Assistant Examiner(s): Booker, Kelvin
• Application Number:
  US13/236,818
• Publication Number:
  US 20130053997A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,162 Days
• Field of Search: 700/112, 901/3, 901/46, 438/5
• US Class Current: 700/103
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/67742 Mechanical parts of transfer devices robots in general in B25J
• CPC Class Codes: H01L 21/68 for positioning, orientation or alignment
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/03 Teaching system
• CPC Class Codes: Y10S 901/46 Sensing device

Abstract

A vacuum processing apparatus includes a robot connected to a vacuum container to carry a wafer on one of its two arms to or from a processing chamber; a unit to detect an amount of deviation of the wafer from a predetermined wafer mounting position on the arm that may occur when the robot carries the wafer into or out of the processing chamber; and an adjusting device to adjust the operation of the robot based on the detected amount of deviation. The adjusting device adjusts the robot operation based on the result of a teaching operation performed in advance. After being subjected to the initial teaching operation, the robot again undergoes a second teaching operation according to the information on the amount of wafer position deviation that is detected by moving the wafer in a predetermined transfer pattern, before the wafer processing is performed.

Claims

1. A vacuum processing apparatus comprising:

a vacuum container having a processing chamber and a specimen holder installed in the processing chamber, the processing chamber having its interior depressurized to process a wafer as an object to be processed, the specimen holder being adapted to hold the wafer on an upper surface thereof by an electrostatic attraction;

a vacuum transfer chamber which is depressurized and connected to the vacuum container, the wafer being transferred to the processing chamber from an interior space of the vacuum transfer chamber or transferred into the interior space of the vacuum transfer chamber from the processing chamber;

a robot which is installed in the vacuum transfer chamber to transfer the wafer on one of two arms thereof to or from the specimen holder in the processing chamber;

a unit which detects an amount of deviation of the wafer from a predetermined wafer mounting position on the arm that may occur when the robot transfers the wafer into or out of the processing chamber; and

an adjusting device which adjusts an operation of the robot based on the detected amount of deviation;

wherein the adjusting device adjusts the robot operation based on the result of an initial teaching operation that relates information from sensors representing detected positions of the arms to actual positions of the arms, and

wherein, after being subjected to the initial teaching operation, the robot undergoes a second teaching operation before processing the wafer, in the second teaching operation, an amount of wafer position deviation being detected during a wafer transfer operation in each of predetermined plural patterns which include a first pattern of transferring the wafer into or out of the processing chamber using only one of the arms and a second pattern of transferring the wafer into or out of the processing chamber using the two arms, and

the information from the sensors in the initial teaching operation is adjusted such that the amount of wafer position deviations in the first pattern and the second pattern can be matched.

2. A vacuum processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, in the second teaching operation, a reference position of one of the two arms is set in a way that matches the amount of deviation detected during the wafer transfer operation in the first pattern to the amount of deviation detected during the wafer transfer operation in the second pattern.

3. A vacuum processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein, in the second teaching operation, an average of the amounts of deviations detected during the transfer operation of one or more wafers in the first pattern is matched to an average of the amounts of deviations detected during the wafer transfer operation in the second pattern.

4. A vacuum processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein, based on the information on the position deviation amounts detected by executing a plurality of wafer transfer patterns using a combination of the two arms, the second teaching operation is performed in a way that matches the position deviation amounts detected during some of the plurality of transfer patterns that exceed a predetermined allowable range to the position deviation amounts detected during the other transfer patterns that fall within the predetermined allowable range.

5. A vacuum processing method, which includes steps of putting a wafer on one of two arms of a robot installed in a vacuum transfer chamber, transferring the wafer on the arm from the transfer chamber onto a specimen holder in a processing chamber of a vacuum container connected to the transfer chamber, holding the wafer on the specimen holder by electrostatic attraction, producing a plasma in the processing chamber to process the wafer then, after processing the wafer, moving the arm of the robot into the processing chamber to retrieve the wafer from the specimen holder onto the arm, and transferring the wafer from the processing chamber into the transfer chamber;

the vacuum processing method comprising;

a step of preparing a unit and an adjusting device, the unit detecting an amount of deviation of the wafer on the arm in the vacuum transfer chamber from a reference position, the adjusting device adjusting an operation of the robot based on the detected amount of deviation;

a step of, after an initial teaching operation that links information from sensors detecting in advance the position of the arm to an actual position of the arm, performing a second teaching operation, the second teaching operation including, before processing the wafer, a step of detecting an amount of wafer position deviation being detected during a wafer transfer operation in each of predetermined plural patterns which include a first pattern of transferring the wafer into or out of the processing chamber using only one of the two arms and a second pattern of transferring the wafer into or out of the processing chamber using the two arms, and a step of adjusting the information from the sensors in the initial teaching operation such that the amounts of wafer position deviations in the first pattern and the second pattern can be matched; and

a step of adjusting the operation of the robot by the adjusting device according to a result of the second teaching and transferring the wafer for processing.

6. A vacuum processing method according to claim 5, wherein, in the second teaching operation, a reference position of one of the two arms is set in a way that matches the amount of deviation detected during the transfer operation in the first pattern with the amount of deviation detected during the transfer operation in the second pattern.

7. A vacuum processing method according to claim 6, wherein, in the second teaching operation, an average of the amount of the deviation detected during the transfer operation of one or more of the wafers min the first pattern is matched to an average of the deviation amount detected during the transfer operation in the second pattern.

8. A vacuum processing method according to claim 5, based on the information on the position deviation amounts detected by executing a plurality of wafer transfer patterns using a combination of the two arms, the second teaching operation is performed in a way that matches the position deviation amounts detected during some of the plurality of transfer patterns that exceed a predetermined allowable range to the position deviation amounts detected during the other transfer patterns that fall within the predetermined allowable range.