| 摘要 |
The purpose of the present invention is to accurately deal with a variety of processing conditions and variations thereof, and to improve total throughput by efficiently operating a conveyance arm device in accordance with the processing conditions, even during cleaning. When a first wafer is loaded on a load-lock chamber, a conveyance-sequence category for operating each of a number of steps for a conveyance arm device capable of operating during cleaning is selected in accordance with processing conditions of the wafer, and a plurality of operation patterns are selected, combined and scheduled. The conveyance arm device is controlled in accordance with the scheduled conveyance sequence to control substrate conveyance. |
| 主权项 |
1. A substrate conveyance method of a substrate conveyance device which is provided with a plurality of processing chambers, in each of which a process processing performed by carrying a substrate therein and a cleaning processing performed after the process processing by carrying out the substrate therefrom are repeatedly executed, a load-lock chamber configured to load or unload the substrate, and a conveyance arm device configured to perform carry-out/in between each processing chamber and the load-lock chamber,
wherein the substrate conveyance device includes a storage unit configured to store conveyance-sequence categories which operate the conveyance arm device configured to be operated during the cleaning processing per a number of steps of the conveyance arm device, the storage unit being configured to store a plurality of operation patterns of the conveyance arm device in association with each of the conveyance-sequence categories, and wherein the substrate conveyance method comprises: selecting a conveyance-sequence category among the conveyance-sequence categories based on a processing condition including a process processing time, a cleaning processing time, and a substrate carry-out/in time of the first substrate when the first substrate is loaded in the load-lock chamber when a plurality of substrates is processed in parallel by the plurality of processing chambers, respectively; scheduling a conveyance sequence by selecting operation patterns associated with the selected conveyance category among the plurality of operation patterns of the conveyance arm device which are stored in the storage unit, and combining the selected operation patterns in such a manner of selecting a next pattern according to a conveyance state estimated from an operation pattern configured immediately before the next operation pattern; and controlling the conveyance arm device according to the scheduled conveyance sequence to perform a conveyance control of the substrate. |
