阅读说明：本技术 Cmp机台联动方法及系统 (CMP machine table linkage method and system ) 是由 奚达 郭志田 瞿治军 夏金伟 于 2020-12-23 设计创作，主要内容包括：本申请公开了一种CMP机台联动方法及系统,涉及半导体制造领域。该CMP机台联动系统包括至少2个CMP机台、至少1个缓冲腔室；相邻的2个CMP机台通过1个缓冲腔室连接；每个缓冲腔室包括2个屏蔽门,一个屏蔽门对准第i个CMP机台的机械手,另一个屏蔽门对准第i+1个CMP机台的机械手；i为大于等于1的整数；缓冲腔室内设置有晶圆架,晶圆架用于放置晶圆；解决了故障CMP机台内放置的晶圆容易报废的问题；达到了及时将故障CMP机台中的晶圆放入合适的环境,联动相邻CMP机台对取出的晶圆进行及时处理,避免晶圆报废的效果。(The application discloses a CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) machine table linkage method and system, and relates to the field of semiconductor manufacturing. The CMP machine table linkage system comprises at least 2 CMP machine tables and at least 1 buffer chamber; the adjacent 2 CMP machine tables are connected through 1 buffer chamber; each buffer chamber comprises 2 shielding doors, one shielding door is aligned with the manipulator of the ith CMP machine, and the other shielding door is aligned with the manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine; i is an integer of 1 or more; a wafer frame is arranged in the buffer chamber and used for placing wafers; the problem that wafers placed in a fault CMP machine are easy to scrap is solved; the effect of timely putting the wafer in the failed CMP machine station into a proper environment, linking the adjacent CMP machine stations to timely process the taken wafer and avoiding wafer scrapping is achieved.)

1. A linkage system of CMP machine stations is characterized by comprising at least 2 CMP machine stations and at least 1 buffer chamber;

the adjacent 2 CMP machine tables are connected through 1 buffer chamber;

each buffer chamber comprises 2 shielding doors, one shielding door is aligned to a manipulator of the ith CMP machine, and the other shielding door is aligned to a manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine; i is an integer of 1 or more;

and a wafer frame is arranged in the buffer chamber and used for placing wafers.

2. The system as claimed in claim 1, wherein a nozzle is disposed in the buffer chamber, the nozzle is connected to a liquid transport tube, and the liquid transport tube is used for transporting the wafer protection liquid.

3. The system according to claim 1 or 2, wherein when the structures of the adjacent 2 CMP stations are non-mirror symmetrical, a transfer device is disposed in the buffer chamber, and the transfer device is used for moving the wafer rack;

the bottom of the wafer frame is fixed on the base, and the bottom of the base is connected to the conveying device.

4. The system of claim 1 wherein in each CMP station, the robot is located between a rinse chamber and a blade chamber.

5. A method for linking CMP tools, which is applied to the CMP tool linking system according to any one of claims 1 to 4, the method comprising:

when a chamber fault occurs in the ith CMP machine, controlling a shielding door aligned with the ith CMP machine on the buffer chamber to open, and taking out the wafer in the CMP machine through a manipulator of the ith CMP machine;

and placing the wafer on a wafer rack in the buffer chamber through a manipulator of the ith CMP machine.

6. The method as claimed in claim 5, wherein when the wafer is placed in the buffer chamber, the nozzle in the buffer chamber is controlled to spray the wafer protection solution to the wafer.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

and when the chamber fault of the ith CMP machine is relieved, controlling the manipulator of the ith CMP machine to take out the wafer from the buffer chamber and sending the taken out wafer into the ith CMP machine.

8. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

and when the chamber fault of the ith CMP machine table is not relieved, the mechanical arm of the (i + 1) th CMP machine table takes out the wafer from the buffer chamber and sends the taken out wafer into the (i + 1) th CMP machine table.

9. The method as claimed in claim 7 or 8, wherein when the adjacent 2 CMP stations are non-mirror symmetrical in structure, before the robot of the CMP station takes out the wafer from the buffer chamber, the method further comprises:

detecting whether the wafer frame is close to a manipulator needing to take the wafer or not;

and if the wafer frame is detected not to be close to the manipulator needing to take the wafer, controlling a transmission device in the buffer chamber to transmit the wafer frame with the wafer to a preset position, wherein the preset position is a position close to the manipulator needing to take the wafer.

Technical Field

The application relates to the field of semiconductor manufacturing, in particular to a CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) machine table linkage method and system.

Background

CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) is a process for globally planarizing the surface of a wafer in the current integrated circuit manufacturing process. CMP processes are widely used in various stages of integrated circuit fabrication, such as STI-CMP in the front end of the line, ILD-CMP, W-CMP, Cu-CMP, etc. in the back end of the line.

In the Cu-CMP stage, if a fault alarm occurs in a CMP machine, the machine stops working, and if a flushing chamber of the machine cannot be immediately recovered to operate, since Cu is relatively active, a wafer covered with Cu is exposed for a long time, and the wafer in the machine is scrapped.

Disclosure of Invention

In order to solve the problems in the related art, the application provides a CMP machine table linkage method and a CMP machine table linkage system. The technical scheme is as follows:

in a first aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a CMP station linkage system, including at least 2 CMP stations, and at least 1 buffer chamber;

the adjacent 2 CMP machine tables are connected through 1 buffer chamber;

each buffer chamber comprises 2 shielding doors, one shielding door is aligned to a manipulator of the ith CMP machine, and the other shielding door is aligned to a manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine; i is an integer of 1 or more;

and a wafer frame is arranged in the buffer chamber and used for placing wafers.

Optionally, a nozzle is arranged in the buffer chamber and connected with a liquid conveying pipe, and the liquid conveying pipe is used for conveying the wafer protection liquid.

Optionally, when the structures of the adjacent 2 CMP stations are non-mirror-symmetrical, a conveying device is arranged in the buffer chamber, and the conveying device is used for moving the wafer rack;

the bottom of the wafer frame is fixed on the base, and the bottom of the base is connected to the conveying device.

Optionally, in each CMP station, the robot is located between the rinse chamber and the blade chamber.

In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a CMP station linkage method, which is applied to the CMP station linkage system shown in the first aspect, and the method includes:

when a chamber fault occurs in the ith CMP machine, controlling a shielding door aligned with the ith CMP machine on the buffer chamber to open, and taking out the wafer in the CMP machine through a manipulator of the ith CMP machine;

and placing the wafer on a wafer rack in the buffer chamber by the manipulator of the ith CMP machine.

Optionally, when the wafer is placed in the buffer chamber, the nozzle in the buffer chamber is controlled to spray the wafer protection solution to the wafer.

Optionally, the method further includes:

and when the chamber fault of the ith CMP machine is relieved, controlling the manipulator of the ith CMP machine to take out the wafer from the buffer chamber, and sending the taken out wafer into the ith CMP machine.

Optionally, the method further includes:

and when the chamber fault of the ith CMP machine table is not relieved, the manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine table takes out the wafer from the buffer chamber and sends the taken-out wafer into the (i + 1) th CMP machine table.

Optionally, when the structures of the adjacent 2 CMP stations are non-mirror-symmetric, before the robot of the CMP station takes out the wafer from the buffer chamber, the method further includes:

detecting whether the wafer frame is close to a manipulator needing to take the wafer or not;

and if the wafer frame is detected not to be close to the manipulator needing to take the wafer, controlling a transmission device in the buffer chamber to transmit the wafer frame with the wafer to a preset position, wherein the preset position is a position close to the manipulator needing to take the wafer.

The technical scheme at least comprises the following advantages:

by arranging the buffer cavity between the 2 adjacent CMP machines, when the CMP machines break down and stop running, the mechanical arm of the CMP machine is used for taking out the wafer in the cavity and placing the wafer into the buffer cavity, so that the problem that the wafer placed in the broken CMP machine is easy to scrap is solved; the effect of timely putting the wafer in the failed CMP machine station into a proper environment, linking the adjacent CMP machine stations to timely process the taken wafer and avoiding wafer scrapping is achieved.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the detailed description of the present application or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings needed to be used in the detailed description of the present application or the prior art description will be briefly introduced below, and it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are some embodiments of the present application, and other drawings can be obtained by those skilled in the art without creative efforts.

Fig. 1 is a block diagram illustrating a linkage system of a CMP machine according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a buffer chamber provided in an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view of another buffer chamber provided in embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view illustrating the linkage of two adjacent CMP tools according to an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view illustrating another example of linkage between two adjacent CMP tools according to the present disclosure;

fig. 6 is a flowchart of a method for linking CMP stations according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the present application will be described clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are some, but not all embodiments of the present application. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present application.

In the description of the present application, it should be noted that the terms "center", "upper", "lower", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "inner", "outer", and the like indicate orientations or positional relationships based on the orientations or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only for convenience of description and simplicity of description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present application. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and "third" are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance.

In the description of the present application, it is to be noted that, unless otherwise explicitly specified or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly, e.g., as meaning either a fixed connection, a removable connection, or an integral connection; the connection can be mechanical connection or electrical connection; the two elements may be directly connected or indirectly connected through an intermediate medium, or may be communicated with each other inside the two elements, or may be wirelessly connected or wired connected. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present application can be understood in a specific case by those of ordinary skill in the art.

In addition, the technical features mentioned in the different embodiments of the present application described below may be combined with each other as long as they do not conflict with each other.

The embodiment of the application provides a CMP (chemical mechanical polishing) machine table linkage system, which comprises at least 2 CMP machine tables and at least one buffer chamber.

The adjacent 2 CMP machines are connected through a buffer chamber. Each buffer chamber includes 2 barrier doors.

Each shielding door can be opened and closed.

As shown in fig. 1, a buffer chamber 13 is disposed between the ith CMP station 11 and the (i + 1) th CMP station 12. One shield door of the buffer chamber 13 is aligned with the manipulator of the ith CMP machine, and the other shield door of the buffer chamber 13 is aligned with the manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine.

i is an integer of 1 or more.

When the shielding door of the ith CMP machine table is aligned and opened, the manipulator of the ith CMP machine table can enter the buffer chamber; when the shielding door of the (i + 1) th CMP machine table is aligned to be opened, the mechanical arm of the (i + 1) th CMP machine table can enter the buffer chamber.

When the mechanical arm of the CMP machine does not need to enter and exit the buffer chamber, 2 shielding doors of the buffer chamber are normally closed, and the environment in the buffer chamber is isolated from the external environment.

And a wafer frame is arranged in the buffer chamber and used for placing wafers.

The wafers are arranged in the buffer chamber in a single-layer or multi-layer mode through the wafer frames, and the wafers are in a horizontal state or a vertical state.

In one example, as shown in fig. 2, the wafer 23 is horizontally placed on the wafer rack 21.

In another example, as shown in fig. 3, the wafer 23 is vertically placed on a wafer rack 31.

When a chamber failure occurs in the CMP machine, the wafer in the chamber is taken out by the robot of the CMP machine and placed in the buffer chamber, and in order to protect the wafer in the buffer chamber, a nozzle 24 is disposed in the buffer chamber 13, as shown in fig. 2 and 3. The nozzle 24 is connected with a liquid conveying pipe which is used for conveying wafer protection liquid.

The wafer protection liquid is sprayed to the wafer on the wafer frame through the nozzle, so that the wafer is prevented from being scrapped.

When the wafer is horizontally placed, the nozzles are positioned at the left and right sides of the wafer, as shown in fig. 2; when the wafer is placed vertically, the nozzles are located at the upper and lower sides of the wafer, as shown in fig. 3.

When the structures of the adjacent 2 CMP stations are mirror symmetric, as shown in fig. 4, the distances between the buffer chamber 13 and the ith CMP station 11 and the (i + 1) th CMP station 12 are the same.

When the structures of the adjacent 2 CMP machines are non-mirror-symmetrical, as shown in fig. 5, in order to facilitate the mechanical arm of the CMP machine to take the wafer in the buffer chamber, a conveying device is disposed in the buffer chamber, and the conveying device is used for moving the wafer rack.

As shown in fig. 2 and 3, the wafer holder 21 is fixed to the base 22.

When the structures of the adjacent 2 CMP machines are non-mirror-symmetrical, the bottom of the base 22 in the buffer chamber is connected to the conveying device, and the conveying device drives the wafer frame to move in the buffer chamber, so as to achieve the effect of moving the wafer position.

In one example, the conveyor is a conveyor belt.

Optionally, in each CMP station, the robot is located between the rinse chamber and the blade chamber.

Referring to fig. 6, an embodiment of the present invention provides a flowchart of a method for linking CMP tools, which is applied to the CMP tool linking system shown in fig. 1, and the method at least includes the following steps:

step 601, when a chamber fault occurs in the ith CMP machine, controlling a shielding door aligned with the ith CMP machine on the buffer chamber to open, and taking out the wafer in the CMP machine through a manipulator of the ith CMP machine.

When the chamber of the CMP machine table is failed, the CMP machine table gives an alarm, and the CMP machine table stops running. If the failure of the CMP machine can not be recovered immediately, the wafer in the CMP machine will be scrapped.

When the ith CMP machine table has a chamber fault, the buffer chamber is controlled to be aligned to the shielding door of the ith CMP machine table to be opened, and meanwhile, the wafer in the ith CMP machine table is taken out through the mechanical arm of the ith CMP machine table.

i is an integer of 1 or more.

Optionally, when the 2 nd side of the ith CMP machine is connected with the buffer chamber, the shield door of the buffer chamber in a non-full load state is opened; if the 2 buffer chambers are not fully loaded, the shielding door of any buffer chamber is opened.

Step 602, the wafer is placed on the wafer rack in the buffer chamber by the manipulator of the ith CMP machine.

And when the manipulator of the ith CMP machine station puts the wafer taken out from the ith CMP machine station into the wafer frame of the buffer chamber, the manipulator of the ith CMP machine station withdraws from the buffer chamber, and the shielding door of the buffer chamber is closed.

When the CMP machine table breaks down and stops running, the wafer in the CMP machine table is taken out in time through the mechanical arm and is placed in the buffer chamber, so that the wafer can be prevented from being always in the broken CMP machine table, the wafer is prevented from being exposed in the air for a long time, or the surface of the wafer is prevented from being easily corroded by chemical grinding liquid and the like for a long time, and the situation that the wafer is scrapped is favorably avoided.

In an alternative embodiment based on the embodiment shown in fig. 6, a nozzle is arranged on the wafer rack in the buffer chamber, and the nozzle is connected with a liquid conveying pipe which is used for conveying the wafer protection liquid. When the wafer is placed in the buffer chamber, the nozzle in the buffer chamber is controlled to spray the wafer protection liquid to the wafer.

When a wafer is placed in the buffer chamber, after the chamber fault of the ith CMP machine is relieved, the manipulator of the ith CMP machine is controlled to take out the wafer from the buffer chamber, and the taken-out wafer is sent into the ith CMP machine, and the ith CMP machine processes the wafer according to the process flow of the machine. It should be noted that, after the chamber fault of the CMP machine is resolved, the wafer taken out from the buffer chamber by the manipulator of the ith CMP machine may be the wafer that was sent into the buffer chamber by the ith CMP machine, or may not be the wafer that was sent into the buffer chamber by the ith CMP machine.

When the chamber fault of the ith CMP machine is not relieved, the manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine takes out the wafer from the buffer chamber and sends the taken-out wafer into the (i + 1) th CMP machine; and processing the wafer taken out of the buffer chamber by using an i +1 th CMP machine.

When the structures of the adjacent 2 CMP machines are in non-mirror symmetry, a transmission device is arranged in the buffer cavity and used for transmitting the wafer on the wafer frame, and before the mechanical arm of the CMP machine takes out the wafer from the buffer cavity, the method further comprises the following steps:

detecting whether the wafer frame is close to a manipulator needing to take the wafer or not; if the wafer frame is detected not to be close to the manipulator needing to take the wafer, controlling a transmission device in the buffer chamber to transmit the wafer frame with the wafer to a preset position; and if the wafer frame is detected to be close to the mechanical arm needing to take the wafer, controlling the buffer chamber to open the shielding door, and controlling the mechanical arm of the CMP machine table to take the wafer out of the buffer chamber.

The predetermined position is a position close to a robot hand that is to take a wafer.

Such as: detecting whether a wafer frame in the buffer chamber is close to the manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine table or not when the manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine table takes out the wafer from the buffer chamber; if the wafer frame is not close to the manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine, controlling a transmission device in the buffer chamber to transmit the wafer frame with the wafer to a preset position, wherein the preset position is a position close to the manipulator of the (i + 1) th CMP machine; and if the wafer frame is close to the mechanical arm of the (i + 1) th CMP machine, controlling the buffer chamber to align to the shielding door of the (i + 1) th CMP machine to open, and controlling the mechanical arm of the (i + 1) th CMP machine to enter the buffer chamber to take the wafer.

It should be noted that the control of the ith CMP station, the (i + 1) th CMP station, and the buffer chamber is automatic control, or manual control by an operator, or a combination of automatic control and manual control by an operator.

It should be understood that the above examples are only for clarity of illustration and are not intended to limit the embodiments. Other variations and modifications will be apparent to persons skilled in the art in light of the above description. And are neither required nor exhaustive of all embodiments. And obvious variations or modifications of this invention are intended to be covered by the scope of the invention as expressed herein.