JPH04127555A - Sample transport device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention]

[Industrial Application Field 1] The present invention relates to a sample transport device, and particularly to a sample transport device suitable for an apparatus that continuously processes samples such as semiconductor element substrates. [Prior art] In an apparatus that continuously processes samples such as semiconductor element substrates,
For example, the sample is removed from the cassette and processed. The processed sample is carried from the vacuum processing chamber to the vacuum preliminary chamber, and the carried processed sample is carried out from the vacuum preliminary chamber, carried into a cassette, and collected. Incidentally, related devices of this type include, for example, JP-A-61-246381 and JP-A-62-181439.
For example, the number etc. [Problems to be Solved by the Invention] In the above-mentioned conventional technology, when an error occurs in a conveyance flow having at least two conveyance sections, an executable sequence that is unrelated to the cause of the error is also interrupted after the error occurs. , Therefore, there was a problem that sample loss due to this increased. An object of the present invention is to provide a sample transport device that can reduce sample loss due to errors occurring in the transport flow. [Means for solving the problem] In order to achieve the above object, it is determined whether to continue the sequence downstream from the point where the error occurs in a transport flow having at least two transport sections, and the transport of the sample is continued on the downstream side. This is a sample transport device equipped with a control means. [Function] In a transport flow having two transport sections, the sample is sequentially transported through the transport sections by the sample transport device. If an error occurs in the transport flow, the control means determines whether to continue the sequence downstream from the point where the error has occurred, and continues transporting the sample on the downstream side.In this way, when an error occurs in the transport flow, after the error occurs, the The downstream sequence, which is executable regardless of the cause of the error, is allowed to continue without interruption, and sample loss due to errors in the transport flow is reduced accordingly. One embodiment will be explained with reference to Fig. 1 and Fig. 2. In Fig. 1, a semiconductor element substrate (hereinafter abbreviated as wafer) 19, which is a sample, is connected to a load cassette IO installed in the atmosphere.
In this case, it is carried into the load chamber 11 by the arm transport 15 via isolation means (not shown) such as an isolation valve. After the load chamber 11 is evacuated, the wafer 19 is carried into the load chamber 11. In this case, it is transported into the vacuum processing chamber 12 by the arm transport 16. The wafer 19 carried into the vacuum processing chamber 12 is subjected to a predetermined process in the vacuum processing chamber 12. For example, the wafer 19 is subjected to an etching process and a film forming process using plasma. During this time, a new wafer 19 is loaded into the load chamber 11. After the processing in the vacuum processing chamber 12 is completed, the processed wafer 19 is carried into the unloading chamber 13 by the arm transfer 17 in this case. Further, a new wafer 19 from the load chamber 11 is carried into the vacuum processing chamber 12 from which the processed wafer 19 was taken out, and the wafer 19 is similarly subjected to a predetermined process here. On the other hand, the processed wafer 19 is transferred from the unload chamber 13 to the unload cassette 14 via an isolation means (not shown) such as an isolation valve by the arm transfer 18 after the unload chamber 13 is returned to atmospheric pressure. It is brought in and collected. The transport of the wafer 19 as described above is controlled by a control device (not shown). Here, an error level is set in advance for each cause of error occurrence.For example, conventional error levels indicate that the error that occurs to the operator of the equipment is a severe error that may cause a human disaster, or only a minor error and warning. However, in this case, we take the meaning of the error level one step further and associate the error level with each part of the device. After an error occurs, each part or sequence performs its own processing depending on the error level. I am trying to judge whether it is possible to execute it or not. That is, when an error occurs, when the error level flag is set to a level value depending on the cause of the error, it is determined whether or not to execute each sequence while constantly determining whether the error level is such that it can be processed. Therefore, the same program can be used regardless of whether it is normal or abnormal. By associating the operation of each part of the device with the error level, the part operation side can determine whether the device part can operate or not depending on the error level, and the affected part can be determined.
It will stop immediately, and parts that are not affected will continue, and a warning will be issued to the operator when all operations are completed. For example, in FIGS. 1 and 2, when a load cassette lO operation error occurs, 1 is set in the error level flag. Therefore, the carry-in sequence is not executed for the arm 15 transfer due to the arm transfer flow 20, the arm 16 transfer,
The arm 17 conveyance and the arm 18 conveyance process the conveyance sequence normally because the determination conditions of the arm conveyance flows 21 to 23 are satisfied. As a result, the process ends when all of the wafers 19 in the apparatus are sequentially transferred to the unload cassette 14 and recovered. Note that such control is performed by a control device. In this embodiment, since the sequence is processed even after an error occurs, the following effects are achieved. ■ After an error occurs, the sequence that is not affected by the cause of the error is processed normally, so it is possible to minimize the loss of product wafers due to errors. ■ Since the sequence is not interrupted after an error occurs and executable sequences continue, the operator's manual recovery work after an error can be reduced, and secondary troubles such as mistakes in the recovery work after an error can be prevented. ■ Since the same program is used for both normal and abnormal conditions, there is no need to create a separate sequence program for error handling, which reduces the amount of programs and improves the reliability of the system.

【Effect of the invention】

According to the present invention, since it is possible to continue transporting the sample downstream from the point where an error occurs in the transport flow having at least two sections, it is possible to reduce sample loss due to the occurrence of an error in the transport flow.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a vacuum processing apparatus to which a sample transport device according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a flowchart schematically showing the transport sequence in FIG. 1.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a sample transport device that sequentially transports a sample in a transport flow having at least two transport sections, it is determined whether the sequence should be continued downstream from the point where an error occurs in the transport flow, and the transport of the sample is continued on the downstream side. A sample transport device characterized by comprising a control means.