Material scheduling method for semiconductor processing equipment and semiconductor processing equipment

Abstract

The present application provides a material scheduling method for semiconductor processing equipment and semiconductor processing equipment. The method includes obtaining first batch information of materials to be scheduled, the first batch information is related to the process of each actual material in the semiconductor processing equipment; calculating the quantity of virtual materials according to the first batch information, and constructing second batch information of virtual materials, the second batch information is related to the state switching of each virtual material in the third unit; constructing a task scheduling model, taking the first batch information and the second batch information as inputs of the task scheduling model, the objective function of the task scheduling model is to minimize the processing time of the materials to be scheduled in the semiconductor processing equipment, the constraints of the task scheduling model are associated with the first batch information and the second batch information, and the task scheduling model is used to output decision variables of the materials to be scheduled that meet the objective function.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present application mainly relates to the semiconductor field, and in particular to a material scheduling method for semiconductor processing equipment and semiconductor processing equipment. Background Art

[0002] Semiconductor processing often involves multiple steps. The equipment used for semiconductor processing includes cluster tools, which achieve the expected process effect by cooperating with each other and following the set recipe steps. Figure 1 The figure shows a schematic diagram of a combined device. The combined device 100 includes a plurality of process modules (PM), a vacuum lock (LL), a transfer module (TM), and an equipment front end module (EFEM). Among them, the process module PM includes, for example, a process chamber, into which the wafer is sent for process treatment such as thin film deposition. The EFEM mainly includes a wafer loader (LP). The vacuum lock LL can prepare a vacuum environment or an atmospheric environment, so that the wafer switches the environment at the LL. For example, when the wafer needs to be processed, the wafer is first placed in the LP of the EFEM and transferred to the LL by the robot 110. The LL receives the wafer in the atmospheric state and performs a vacuum process to place the wafer in a vacuum environment. Then, the robot 120 in the TM obtains the wafer in the vacuum environment from the LL and transfers the wafer to a PM to be processed.

[0003] The scheduling and control problem of combined equipment is linked to its production capacity. When using combined equipment to perform semiconductor processes, how to maximize the working efficiency of the equipment is an important issue. In the actual processing process, due to factors such as different process times determined by different wafer recipes, limited LL capacity, and long LL vacuum pumping and breaking time, the scheduling problem of combined equipment is very complex and belongs to NP-Hard problem. Summary of the invention

[0004] In response to the technical problem that the current combined equipment scheduling tasks are complex and difficult to optimize, this application provides a material scheduling method and semiconductor processing equipment for semiconductor processing equipment, which can effectively and quickly obtain the optimal scheduling sequence and improve the production capacity of semiconductor processing equipment.

[0005] To solve the above technical problems, the first aspect of the present application provides a material scheduling method for semiconductor processing equipment, wherein the semiconductor processing equipment includes a first unit, a second unit and a third unit, the first unit is in a first state, the second unit is in a second state, and the third unit can switch between the first state and the second state, wherein the semiconductor processing equipment is used to simultaneously schedule and process multiple materials to be scheduled; when the materials to be scheduled are transmitted between the first unit and the second unit, they need to pass through the third unit and switch states in the third unit; the material scheduling method includes: obtaining first batch information of the materials to be scheduled, the materials to be scheduled include at least two actual materials, the first batch information The method is related to the process of each of the actual materials in the semiconductor processing equipment; the quantity of virtual materials is calculated according to the first batch information, and the second batch information of the virtual materials is constructed, and the second batch information is related to the state switching of each of the virtual materials in the third unit; a task scheduling model is constructed, and the first batch information and the second batch information are used as inputs of the task scheduling model, the objective function of the task scheduling model is to minimize the processing time of the materials to be scheduled in the semiconductor processing equipment, the constraints of the task scheduling model are associated with the first batch information and the second batch information, and the task scheduling model is used to output decision variables of the materials to be scheduled that meet the objective function.

[0006] To solve the above technical problems, the second aspect of the present application provides a semiconductor processing device, comprising: a first unit, a second unit, a third unit, a memory and a processor, wherein the first unit is in a first state, the second unit is in a second state, and the third unit can switch between the first state and the second state, and the semiconductor processing device is used to simultaneously schedule and process multiple materials to be scheduled; when the materials to be scheduled are transmitted between the first unit and the second unit, they need to pass through the third unit and switch states in the third unit; the memory is used to store instructions that can be executed by the processor; the processor is used to execute the instructions to implement the material scheduling method as described above.

[0007] The material scheduling method of semiconductor processing equipment of the present application is aimed at semiconductor processing equipment with vacuum lock atmosphere and vacuum environment switching characteristics, and can arrange the full process scheduling sequence of materials\wafers from atmospheric environment to vacuum environment and then back to atmospheric environment. Different from the existing scheduling scheme, the present application takes into account the restrictions of the vacuum lock state on the robot's pick-and-place action to generate a global deadlock-free result, and aims to minimize the full process processing time of materials in semiconductor processing equipment.

[0008] The material scheduling method for semiconductor processing equipment of the present application introduces virtual materials\wafers, decoupling the strong correlation between the vacuum lock switching state and the material\wafer process, so that the number of materials\wafers in the vacuum environment can be as large as possible without causing blockage, so that the slots in the vacuum environment tend to be saturated, allowing the equipment to operate at full load, thereby improving production capacity, and at the same time solving the problem of limited material\wafer capacity in the vacuum lock.

[0009] Furthermore, according to the material scheduling method of the present application, on the basis of introducing virtual materials, a task scheduling model is used to schedule materials\wafers so that the processing time of the materials to be scheduled in the semiconductor processing equipment is minimized, and after obtaining the decision variables given by the model, adjacent processes are merged through post-processing to further optimize the sequence: specific adjacent processes can be simplified and the sub-instructions therein can be executed in parallel, thereby further shortening the time required to complete the overall material scheduling and maximizing the equipment capacity while achieving the same scheduling effect. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0010] The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the present application. They are included and constitute a part of the present application. The accompanying drawings illustrate embodiments of the present application and together with the present specification serve to explain the principles of the present application. In the accompanying drawings:

[0011] Figure 1 Shown is a schematic diagram of a combined device;

[0012] Figure 2 is an example block diagram of a semiconductor processing device in an embodiment of the present application;

[0013] Figure 3 is an exemplary flow chart of a material scheduling method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0014] Figure 4 A schematic diagram showing multiple process sequences corresponding to a number of materials in a material scheduling method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0015] Figure 5 It is a Gantt chart diagram of an optimal scheduling sequence generated by a material scheduling method according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0016] Figure 6 It is a system block diagram of a material scheduling device for semiconductor processing equipment according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0017] In order to more clearly illustrate the technical solutions of the embodiments of the present application, the following is a brief introduction to the drawings required for the description of the embodiments. Obviously, the drawings described below are only some examples or embodiments of the present application. For ordinary technicians in this field, the present application can also be applied to other similar scenarios based on these drawings without creative work. Unless it is obvious from the language environment or otherwise explained, the same reference numerals in the figures represent the same structure or operation.

[0018] As shown in this application, unless the context clearly indicates an exception, the words "a", "an", "a kind" and / or "the" do not refer to the singular, but also include the plural. Generally speaking, the terms "include" and "comprise" only indicate the inclusion of the steps and elements that have been clearly identified, and these steps and elements do not constitute an exclusive list. The method or device may also include other steps or elements.

[0019] Unless otherwise specifically stated, the relative arrangement, numerical expressions and numerical values ​​of the parts and steps set forth in these embodiments do not limit the scope of the present application. Meanwhile, it should be understood that, for ease of description, the sizes of the various parts shown in the accompanying drawings are not drawn according to actual proportional relationships. The technology, methods and equipment known to those of ordinary skill in the relevant art may not be discussed in detail, but in appropriate cases, the technology, methods and equipment should be considered as a part of the specification. In all examples shown and discussed here, any specific value should be interpreted as being merely exemplary, rather than as a limitation. Therefore, other examples of exemplary embodiments may have different values. It should be noted that similar reference numerals and letters represent similar items in the following drawings, and therefore, once a certain item is defined in an accompanying drawing, it does not need to be further discussed in subsequent drawings.

[0020] In the description of the present application, it should be understood that the directions or positional relationships indicated by directional words such as "front, back, up, down, left, right", "lateral, vertical, perpendicular, horizontal" and "top, bottom" are usually based on the directions or positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are only for the convenience of describing the present application and simplifying the description. Unless otherwise specified, these directional words do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a specific direction or be constructed and operated in a specific direction, and therefore cannot be understood as limiting the scope of protection of the present application; the directional words "inside and outside" refer to the inside and outside relative to the contours of each component itself.

[0021] In addition, it should be noted that the use of words such as "first" and "second" to define components is only for the convenience of distinguishing the corresponding components. If not otherwise stated, the above words have no special meaning and cannot be understood as limiting the scope of protection of this application. In addition, although the terms used in this application are selected from well-known and commonly used terms, some terms mentioned in the specification of this application may be selected by the applicant at his or her discretion, and their detailed meanings are explained in the relevant parts of the description of this article. In addition, it is required to understand this application not only by the actual terms used, but also by the meaning implied by each term.

[0022] Flowcharts are used in the present application to illustrate the operations performed by the system according to the embodiments of the present application. It should be understood that the preceding or following operations are not necessarily performed accurately in order. On the contrary, various steps may be processed in reverse order or simultaneously. At the same time, other operations may be added to these processes, or one or more operations may be removed from these processes.

[0023] Figure 2 is an example block diagram of a semiconductor processing device in an embodiment of the present application. Figure 2 As shown, the semiconductor processing equipment 200 to which the material scheduling method of the present application is applicable includes a first unit 210, a second unit 220 and a third unit 230. The semiconductor processing equipment 200 is used to schedule and process multiple materials at the same time, the first unit 210 is used for material processing, and the second unit 220 and the third unit 230 are used for material transmission; when the semiconductor processing process is performed, the first unit 210 is in a first state, the second unit 220 is in a second state, and the third unit 230 can switch between the first state and the second state. When the material is transmitted between the first unit 210 and the second unit 220, it needs to pass through the third unit 230 and switch the state in the third unit 230.

[0024] The material scheduling method of the present application schedules wafers in the semiconductor processing equipment 200 to optimize the overall efficiency of the wafer processing process and improve production capacity.

[0025] It should be noted that the "materials" involved in this application include but are not limited to wafers (also called "substrates", "bases", "substrates", etc.), and other materials or items that can be used to be dispatched between different units or devices belong to the scope of the "materials" to be defined. "First state" and "second state" are used to indicate the environmental state of the unit equipment, including but not limited to air pressure state, temperature state, humidity state, etc. In the specification of this application, the first state is a vacuum state and the second state is an atmospheric state for example, but it is not limited to this.

[0026] Combination Figure 1 and Figure 2In some embodiments, the first unit 210 includes a plurality of substrate processing modules (PM), the second unit 220 includes a plurality of substrate loading and unloading modules (LP), and the third unit 230 includes a plurality of vacuum lock modules (LL). This application specification will use this as a specific embodiment to illustrate the material scheduling method of the present application, but is not limited thereto.

[0027] refer to Figure 1 and Figure 2 As shown, in this embodiment, the first unit 210 includes 4 PMs (PM1~PM4), the second unit 220 includes 3 LPs (LP1, LP2, LP3), and the third unit 230 includes 2 LLs (LLA, LLB). Here, the number of devices included in each unit is only an example. It can be understood that in order to increase production capacity, the more devices in each unit, the better. However, when the number of devices increases, the scheduling of materials will become more complicated. When the scheduling strategy is not appropriate, it will reduce the utilization rate of each unit and reduce production efficiency.

[0028] Figure 1 A dotted line is used to separate the atmosphere side and the vacuum side. The four PMs in the first unit 210 are all located on the vacuum side, that is, all are in a vacuum state. The three LPs in the second unit 220 are all located on the atmosphere side, that is, all are in an atmospheric state. The two LLs in the third unit 230 are both located between the vacuum side and the atmosphere side, and the LLs can switch between the vacuum state and the atmospheric state. Among them, the action of converting from the atmospheric state to the vacuum state is called pumping (Pump), and the action of converting from the vacuum state to the atmospheric state is called breaking the vacuum (Vent).

[0029] In the current combined equipment, usually only the process on the vacuum side is considered, and the scheduling scheme mainly involves how to efficiently assign the robot 120 in the TM to transfer wafers, etc., and rarely considers the action process on the atmospheric side and the state switching process of the LL. The LL itself has some constraints, such as capacity constraints, that is, the number of wafers that can be accommodated in all LLs in the equipment must be less than the number of slots in the reaction chamber on the vacuum side where wafers can be placed. In addition, the number of wafers that can be transferred to the corresponding environment in a single vacuum pumping and vacuum breaking is limited, making the LL a bottleneck for feeding wafers into the PM, thereby affecting efficiency. One scheduling scheme is a polling scheduling scheme. Taking a single wafer as an example, its simple transmission and processing path is, for example: LP → LL → PM1 → LL → LP. The polling scheduling method will check all LL slots when transferring a wafer from LP to a LL. If there is a slot that is idle and in the atmospheric state, the wafer transfer is executed. Otherwise, the LL cavity where an idle slot is located is switched to the atmospheric environment before the transfer. If there is no idle LL slot, the transfer operation is suspended and waits for the required execution conditions. Similarly, transferring a wafer from LL to a PM requires checking whether the slots in all PM cavities that can execute the recipe are free. If they are free, transfer them; if they are busy, wait. This polling scheduling method has problems such as non-global optimality, instability, and deadlock. Among them, non-global optimality means that each step of the polling scheduling method will inevitably execute the operation when the executable conditions are met, and there is no global perspective of the overall scheduling sequence. Therefore, the scheduling sequence obtained by this method does not guarantee optimality. Instability means that since the decision of each step depends on the current machine status at the time of polling, and the instability of the machine status will be passed to the decision, the final results of multiple scheduling of the same task will be different, which cannot meet the demand for outputting a stable scheduling sequence. Deadlock means that since the decision does not have a global perspective, the EFEM side and the TM side will compete for the shared resource of LL, resulting in all LL slots being occupied and the wafers that have been processed on the vacuum side cannot be taken out.

[0030] The material scheduling method of the present application is different from the above-mentioned polling scheduling method and can overcome the problems it has.

[0031] Figure 3 is an exemplary flow chart of a material scheduling method according to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 3 As shown, the material scheduling method 300 of this embodiment includes the following steps:

[0032] Step S310: Acquire the first batch information of the materials to be scheduled, where the materials to be scheduled include at least two actual materials, and the first batch information is related to the process of each actual material in the semiconductor processing equipment.

[0033] Step S320: Calculate the quantity of virtual materials according to the first batch information, and construct the second batch information of the virtual materials, where the second batch information is related to the state switching of each virtual material in the third unit.

[0034] Step S330: Construct a task scheduling model, and use the first batch information and the second batch information as inputs of the task scheduling model. The objective function of the task scheduling model is to minimize the processing time of the materials to be scheduled in the semiconductor processing equipment. The constraints of the task scheduling model are associated with the first batch information and the second batch information. The task scheduling model is used to output decision variables of the materials to be scheduled that meet the objective function.

[0035] The above steps S310 to S330 are described in detail below.

[0036] In step S310, the materials to be scheduled include wafers, and the actual materials include physical wafers that need to actually enter the semiconductor processing equipment 200. It can be understood that the processing of wafers is usually batch-based. For a batch of multiple wafers, they have corresponding batch information, and the batch information is related to the process to be performed on each wafer in the semiconductor processing equipment 200.

[0037] In some embodiments, the first batch information includes but is not limited to part or all of the process sequence that each wafer needs to go from LP to the internal process module PM and then back to LP, the theoretical execution time required for each process in the process sequence, the set of chamber numbers supported by each process, etc.

[0038] refer to Figure 2 In some embodiments, the first unit 210 includes at least one processing chamber, each of which includes at least one processing slot for carrying materials, and the third unit 230 includes at least one storage chamber, each of which includes at least one storage slot for carrying materials. Figure 1 The first unit 210 includes a plurality of PMs, each of which may include one or more processing chambers. When there are multiple processing chambers, the multiple processing chambers may simultaneously process multiple wafers at the same time or moment. In some embodiments, a processing chamber may include multiple processing slots, each of which is used to accommodate a wafer, and the processing chamber may process multiple wafers at the same time. Wafers correspond to processing slots one by one. In some embodiments, each PM may process one or two wafers at the same time, thereby dividing the PM into a single-chamber PM or a dual-chamber PM.

[0039] The third unit 230 includes a plurality of LLs, each of which may include one or more storage cavities, and each storage cavity includes a plurality of storage slots. For example, each LL has a plurality of storage slots arranged in a vertical direction, and each storage slot is used to store a wafer. For example, one LL is used to store 25 wafers.

[0040] like Figure 1 As shown, in some embodiments, there may be one or more, for example, two, robots 120 in the TM, and the robots 120 may be classified into single-arm robots and dual-arm robots. For a dual-arm robot, the first batch information may include different process sequences such as two wafers are transferred by the dual-arm robot to two chambers of the same PM at the same time, or are transferred to the respective chambers of two PMs.

[0041] Figure 4 A schematic diagram showing multiple process sequences corresponding to a number of materials in a material scheduling method according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. Figure 4 As shown, five actual materials in the batch of materials to be scheduled are shown, including wafer 1 to wafer 5. Taking wafer 1 as an example, its process sequence in the combined equipment is: LP→LL (the actual wafer is transferred from LP to LL), Pump (vacuuming process of LL containing wafers), LL→PM3 (the actual wafer is transferred from LL to PM3), PM3 (the actual wafer is subjected to semiconductor process treatment in PM3), PM3→LL (after completing the process treatment, the actual wafer is transferred from PM3 to LL), Vent (vacuum breaking process of LL containing wafers), LL→LP (the actual wafer is transferred from LL to LP). Different wafers can be transferred to the same PM for process treatment, for example, wafer 2 and wafer 4 are both transferred to PM2; they can also be transferred to different PMs for process treatment, for example, wafer 1 is transferred to PM3, wafer 2 is transferred to PM2, etc. Through such a process sequence, the process of each wafer can be decomposed into multiple different processes, for example, LP→LL and Pump each represent a process.

[0042] In some embodiments, the processing chamber and the storage chamber are collectively referred to as chambers, and each chamber is numbered, so that each processing chamber and storage chamber can be identified according to the chamber number, which is conducive to confirming the chamber where the process is located in the task scheduling model. The processing slots and storage slots are collectively referred to as slots, and each slot can be numbered to identify each slot according to the slot number, which is conducive to confirming the slots involved in the process in the task scheduling model. It can be understood that a chamber can accommodate at least one wafer at a time, and a slot is used to place or carry one wafer at a time.

[0043] In some embodiments, the first batch information includes the start time and end time of the i-th actual material in its process, performing the o-th process in the p-th slot of the j-th chamber, wherein the chamber includes all processing chambers and all storage chambers, the slot includes all processing slots and all storage slots, and i, o, j, and p are all natural numbers. According to these embodiments, it is advantageous to express the first batch information in a mathematical manner so that it can be used for optimization calculations in the task scheduling model.

[0044] In step S320, the present application proposes the concept of virtual materials. Compared with actual materials, virtual materials are not real physical wafers, but virtual wafers created to obtain the optimal scheduling sequence. The quantity of virtual materials is calculated based on the first batch information.

[0045] In some embodiments, calculating the quantity of virtual materials according to the first batch information includes: calculating the quantity of virtual materials using the following formula: :

[0046]

[0047] in, Indicates the first process duration of the actual material in the first unit 210; Indicates the state switching duration of the third unit 230; Indicates the capacity of the third unit 230 that can accommodate materials; is a constant balancing term, and round means rounding.

[0048] It should be noted that the first process duration Indicates the total time that the actual material executes the process in PM. In some embodiments, the first process duration It refers to the average time of all recipes executed by the actual material in PM. First process time You can set it based on your actual experience. It is the actual time for the material to be vacuumed or broken in the LL. In some embodiments, the state switching time It is the average of the actual material vacuuming and breaking time in LL. It can also be obtained based on practical experience or through experiments. It is the capacity of a single LL, which varies according to different LLs. The above calculation of the number of virtual materials The formula shows that the ratio of the process time in PM to the time for vacuuming or breaking the vacuum in LL is positively correlated with the amount of virtual materials, while the capacity of LL is negatively correlated with the amount of virtual materials.

[0049] After the quantity of the virtual materials is obtained in step S320, second batch information of the virtual materials is constructed, where the second batch information is related to the state switching of each virtual material in the third unit.

[0050] In some embodiments, the second batch information includes the start time and end time of the oth process performed by the i-th virtual material in the p-th slot of the j-th chamber during its process. The chamber here includes the processing chamber and storage chamber described above, and the slot includes the processing slot and the storage slot, which is similar to the first batch information. The actual materials and virtual materials are collectively referred to as materials, and each material can be numbered or indexed, which is conducive to setting the process of each material in the task scheduling model to optimize the scheduling of tasks.

[0051] In some embodiments, the virtual material includes a first virtual material and a second virtual material arranged in pairs, wherein the process of the first virtual material includes a first switching process, and the process of the second virtual material includes a second switching process, wherein the first switching process is that the material switches from the second state to the first state in the third unit 230, and the second switching process is that the material switches from the first state to the second state in the third unit 230. Figure 1 , the first switching process is that the first virtual wafer switches from the atmospheric state to the vacuum state at LL, i.e., evacuation; the second switching process is that the second virtual wafer switches from the vacuum state to the atmospheric state at LL, i.e., breaking the vacuum. According to these embodiments, the virtual wafers for performing the vacuuming process and the virtual wafers for performing the vacuum breaking process are arranged in pairs, and the virtual wafers for performing the vacuum breaking process can be introduced in the front section of the scheduling sequence, so that more wafers enter the vacuum environment, and the virtual wafers for performing the vacuuming process are introduced in the back section of the scheduling sequence, so that the wafers that enter the vacuum side due to the switching of the virtual wafers to the LL environment at the front section are transferred to the atmospheric environment after completing the process.

[0052] refer to Figure 4 , which also shows 4 virtual wafers, used to illustrate the process sequence of the virtual wafers. For example, the process sequences of virtual wafer 1 and virtual wafer 3 only include one vacuum breaking process Vent, and the process sequences of virtual wafer 2 and virtual wafer 4 only include one vacuum pumping process Pump. Then the second batch information includes all the process sequences of virtual wafers 1 to 4, as well as the start and end times of executing the relevant processes.

[0053] In step S330, a task scheduling model is constructed, the input of which includes first batch information corresponding to actual materials and second batch information corresponding to virtual materials; and the output includes decision variables of materials to be scheduled that satisfy the objective function.

[0054] This application does not limit the specific task scheduling model. In some embodiments, the task scheduling model is a mixed integer programming (MIP) model. That is, the scheduling task optimization problem to be solved is modeled as a MIP problem, and the scheduling scheme is constructed using the solved binary decision variables and the start time of each wafer process. The specific implementation of the task scheduling model will be described in detail later.

[0055] In some embodiments, the decision variables in step S330 include and ,in, Indicates Material The start time of a process, Represents the process assignment variable, indicating the Material Is the process in Cavity Slot execution, yes takes 1, no takes 0. After the task scheduling model is optimized and calculated, the two decision variables are obtained, and the first Material The start time of each process, Material Is the process in Cavity The slots are executed, so that multiple materials can be sorted to obtain an optimal scheduling sequence, so that the semiconductor processing equipment can schedule multiple materials according to the optimal scheduling sequence.

[0056] In some embodiments, after obtaining the decision variables of the materials to be scheduled that satisfy the objective function in step S330, it also includes generating an optimal scheduling sequence according to the decision variables.

[0057] According to step S330, virtual materials and actual materials participate in the construction and calculation process of the task scheduling model together. During task scheduling, the problem of unsaturated materials on the vacuum side is caused by the limited capacity of the third unit 230. Unsaturated materials on the vacuum side means that the chamber capable of executing semiconductor processes is not operating at full efficiency, and there is room for optimization. In the material scheduling method of the present application, the introduction of virtual materials decouples the third unit 230 from the material process, making the third unit 230 an independent module rather than being strongly related to the material. For example, if virtual materials are not used, when each wafer entity is transferred to the vacuum environment, the LL switches the state accordingly, and then can only wait for a wafer to be transferred to the EFEM end before switching back to the atmospheric state, and then new wafers to be processed can be loaded. This waiting time occupies LL, making it impossible to allow more wafers to enter the vacuum environment. The virtual material indirectly decouples the wafer process from the LL, allowing the LL to switch the environment independently to improve efficiency.

[0058] According to the material scheduling method of the present application, the number of wafers in the vacuum environment is as large as possible without causing blockage, so that the slots in the vacuum environment tend to be saturated and the equipment operates at full capacity. At the same time, the problem of limited capacity of the third unit 230 can also be solved.

[0059] Figure 5 FIG. 1 is a Gantt chart showing an optimal scheduling sequence generated by a material scheduling method according to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 5 As shown, rectangles with different filling patterns represent different processes, and the * indicates that the process is the process corresponding to the virtual material. Processing represents the process of semiconductor processing of the actual wafer in PM. To simplify the diagram and facilitate understanding, the capacity of a single LL is 2. This embodiment includes 2 virtual wafers, one performs the Pump process and the other performs the Vent process. The horizontal axis represents time t. The vertical axis is divided into multiple columns, each column represents the position or cavity where the wafer may be located. Combined with Figure 1 As shown, Figure 5 From top to bottom along the vertical axis are PM4, PM3, PM2, PM1, TM Robot (the manipulator 120 in TM), LLB, LLA, EFEM Robot (the manipulator 110 in EFEM). Figure 5As shown, in the initial stage, the robot 110 transfers a total of 3 physical wafers to the LL, of which the first physical wafer W1 is placed in the LLB, and the LLB starts to perform vacuuming earlier; the following two physical wafers W2 and W3 are placed in the LLA, and the LLA starts to perform vacuuming later than the LLB. After the LLB is vacuumed, the physical wafer W1 can be sent to PM4 by the robot 120 for processing. At this time, the LLB is vacant and cannot be used. Therefore, the virtual wafer VW1 is introduced, and a vacuum breaking process of the virtual wafer VW1 is added to the LLB, so that the LLB is released, so that new wafers to be processed from the EFEM can be received, such as the actual physical wafers W4 and W5. Therefore, 5 processing processes corresponding to 5 physical wafers can be seen in multiple PMs. In the second half of the process, since the wafers that have completed the process need to be transferred to the LL, both the LLB and the LLA need to return to the vacuum state and introduce the virtual wafer VW2 at one time, adding a vacuum pumping step for the virtual wafer VW2 at the LLB, so that the LLB can receive the wafers that have completed the processing from the vacuum side.

[0060] according to Figure 5 As shown, by adopting the material scheduling method of the present application, by introducing virtual materials, the strong correlation between the third unit 230 and the material process is decoupled, and more actual materials can be switched and transmitted through the third unit 230, thereby improving production capacity.

[0061] The task scheduling model in step S330 is described below.

[0062] In some embodiments, the constraints of the task scheduling model in step S330 include: for each material, the start time of the current process is greater than or equal to the end time of the previous process; and the start time of each process is non-negative, and the materials include actual materials and virtual materials.

[0063] In some embodiments, the task scheduling model in step S330 is represented by the following formula:

[0064]

[0065]

[0066] (1)

[0067] (2)

[0068] in, represents the objective function, which is to minimize the processing time of the scheduled materials and virtual materials in the semiconductor processing equipment. The constraints are expressed by formula (1) and formula (2). The meanings of the letters included are as follows:

[0069] I represents the set of materials, I = {I1, I2, ..., In}, materials include actual materials and virtual materials;

[0070] n represents the quantity of the material;

[0071] i represents the index of a single material, i=1,2,…,n;

[0072] O represents the process set of a single material, O = {O1, O2, ..., Ok};

[0073] k represents the number of processes to be executed for a single material;

[0074] o represents the index of the process to be executed, o=1,2,…,k;

[0075] Indicates the execution time of the oth process of the i-th material;

[0076] Indicates the start time of the oth process of the i-th material;

[0077] Indicates the latest end time when all processes of the material to be scheduled are completed.

[0078] The constraint condition expressed by formula (1) is: for each material, the start time of the current process Greater than or equal to the end time of the previous process The constraint condition expressed by formula (2) is: the starting time of each process Non-negative.

[0079] In some embodiments, the constraints of the task scheduling model also include: The first Each process is performed on only one slot in one cavity.

[0080] In some embodiments, the task scheduling model includes a constraint represented by the following formula (3):

[0081]

[0082] in,

[0083] J represents the cavity set, J = {J1, J2, ..., Jm};

[0084] m represents the total number of the cavities;

[0085] j represents the index of the cavity, j=1,2,…,m;

[0086] P represents the set of slots in a cavity, P = {P1, P2, ..., Ph};

[0087] h represents the number of slots in a cavity;

[0088] p represents the index of a slot in a cavity;

[0089] Represents the process assignment variable, indicating whether the o-th process of the i-th material is executed in the p-th slot of the j-th chamber. If yes, it takes 1, otherwise it takes 0.

[0090] Formula (3) uses process assignment variables to represent the Material Is the process in Cavity The slot is executed, and the value is 1 if yes, and 0 if no. Therefore, the constraint condition expressed by formula (3) is: The first Each process is performed on only one slot in one cavity.

[0091] In some embodiments, the constraint conditions of the task scheduling model also include: processes of different materials do not occupy the same slot at the same time.

[0092] In some embodiments, the task scheduling model includes constraints represented by the following formulas (4) and (5):

[0093] (4)

[0094] (5)

[0095]

[0096] in,

[0097] Represents the index of a single material, i=1,2,…,n;

[0098] Represents the index of the process to be executed, o=1,2,…,k;

[0099] M represents a very large natural number;

[0100] Indicates the order of any two processes, indicating whether the oth process of the ith material precedes the o^'th process of the i^'th material. If yes, the value is 1, otherwise, the value is 0.

[0101] Formula (4) and Formula (5) use Indicates the order of any two processes, Material Is the first process before the Material If yes, it takes 1, otherwise it takes 0. Then according to formula (4) and formula (5), it can be limited that the processes of different materials do not occupy the same slot at the same time.

[0102] In formula (4) and formula (5), M can be a very large natural number selected based on experience, such as 100000. M is set to ensure that the formula on the right side of the less than or equal to sign in the formula is always greater than or equal to the formula on the left side.

[0103] In such Figure 1 During the use of the combined device shown, LL-related processes such as LP→LL, Pump, LL→PM, etc. require LL to perform actions or interact with LL, and the manipulator performs wafer picking and wafer placement. These processes are strongly related to the LL cavity, and they all act on the same slot of the same LL. Therefore, in some embodiments, the constraint conditions of the task scheduling model also include: for multiple adjacent related processes acting on the same storage slot of the same storage cavity, the process assignment variables of the multiple related processes are equal, wherein the process assignment variables are used to represent the first The first Is the process in Cavity Slot execution, where i, o, j, and p are all natural numbers.

[0104] In some embodiments, the task scheduling model includes a constraint represented by the following formula (6):

[0105] (6)

[0106] in, The process indexes o=1, 2, and 3 in the formula respectively represent three adjacent processes acting on the same slot p of the same cavity j in the third unit 230. For example, o=1, 2, and 3 represent the process indexes of the three processes LP→LL, Pump, and LL→PM. Formula (6) is used to restrict the process assignment variables of multiple adjacent related processes acting on the same storage slot of the same storage cavity to be equal.

[0107] refer to Figure 1In the actual process, considering that both the TM side and the EFEM side will access the LL, in order to avoid conflicts when the TM side interacts with the LL when it is in an atmospheric environment or when the EFEM side interacts with the LL when it is in a vacuum environment, there are corresponding constraints to prevent errors when both sides access the LL. Therefore, in some embodiments, the constraint conditions of the task scheduling model also include: for a storage cavity, if the number of the first switching process and the second switching process that have been executed is equal, the state of the storage cavity is the second state, and the process of transferring materials from the second unit 220 to the storage cavity can be executed, otherwise the process of transferring materials from the second unit 220 to the storage cavity cannot be executed.

[0108] In some embodiments, the mathematical expression is expressed as using a quadratic term The number of vacuuming and breaking operations performed by LL before the current robot accesses LL is recorded, so as to obtain the current environmental state of LL. The subscript o of the quadratic term can represent the vacuuming or breaking operation, and o' represents a process that needs to interact with LL. When both binary variables are 1, it is considered that the LL chamber j has performed vacuuming or breaking once before the o' process, so as to avoid accessing the LL chamber with an illegal environment.

[0109] In some embodiments, the task scheduling model includes a constraint represented by the following formula (7):

[0110]

[0111] (7)

[0112] Among them, u represents the index of a single material, The process index o=1 in represents the process of transferring the material from the second unit 220 to the storage chamber, The process index o=2 in represents the first switching process. The process index o=3 in represents the second switching process, and c is a balance item related to the cavity capacity.

[0113] Combination Figure 1 , process index 1 represents LP→LL, process index 2 represents Pump, and process index 3 represents Vent. The process assignment variables in formula (7) are When 1 is taken, it means that the wafer is placed in the LL slot {j,p}. This action needs to meet the premise that LLj is currently in the atmospheric environment. The mathematical description is as follows: The term is 0, which records the number of Pump and Vent actions executed in LLj before the process {i,1}. If Pump and Vent are offset one by one, the current state of this LL is the atmospheric state, and the process {i,1} can be executed; where c is a balance term related to the LL capacity, ensuring that this formula can accurately describe the state of LL. Formula (7) constrains the environmental state of LL to avoid illegal access actions.

[0114] In some embodiments, the above formulas (1) to (7) can be used as constraints of the task scheduling model at the same time. Under the constraints of these constraints, solving the task scheduling model can obtain the optimal scheduling sequence of the materials to be scheduled that meets the objective function.

[0115] In some embodiments, for some actual materials, special chamber assignment is required, for example, the process of wafer 1 can only be executed in PM1, or can only be executed in two chambers, PM1 and PM3, or the execution permission of PM2 needs to be disabled. Such PM assignment is usually because each PM may have different gas path structures, and some hardened (physically unchangeable) conditions do not support the execution of certain recipes. It is necessary to add constraints to the design materials with such special requirements.

[0116] In some embodiments, the task scheduling model includes a constraint condition represented by the following formula (8) or formula (9) or formula (10):

[0117] (8)

[0118] (9)

[0119] (10)

[0120] in, Indicates The cavity index set specified by the material, , express The index of any cavity in Indicates except The index of the cavity outside. Formulas (8) to (10) are derived from formula (3). The meaning of the relevant letters can be found in the description of formula (3).

[0121] Let's take an example. Let the set of chamber numbers supported by the process steps of wafer 1 be , then the above formula (8) is specifically:

[0122] ,

[0123] The chamber index representing the assigned chamber of wafer 1 is 1.

[0124] Or, the above formula (9) is specifically:

[0125] ,

[0126] The chamber indexes representing the assigned chambers of wafer 1 are 1 and 3.

[0127] Or, the above formula (10) is specifically:

[0128] ,

[0129] The index of the chamber indicating that wafer 1 cannot be set is 2.

[0130] Formulas (8) to (10) are based on formula (3) and tighten the constraint range of formula (3), thereby realizing the function of restricting the execution cavity through the cavity number set.

[0131] In some embodiments, the task scheduling model can be solved by a solver through heuristic and branch-cut algorithms. Several decision variables in the above-mentioned task scheduling model mainly include process assignment variables, the start execution time of each process, etc. This task scheduling model belongs to a mathematical programming model. When solving large-scale input tasks, the solution space is too sparse and the solution time is long, which makes it impossible to apply to real-time combined equipment scheduling. In response to this problem, these embodiments use empirical heuristic algorithms to quickly locate the first feasible solution, tighten the upper and lower bounds of variables in the model, and set the initial values ​​of model variables to compress the solution time to an acceptable range, which is suitable for real-time task scheduling of semiconductor processing equipment. In addition, in the material scheduling method of the present application, since different scheduling actions of materials can share the same resource, on the basis of considering the synchronization problem between actions, a planning model is used to solve the shared resource scheduling problem that usually needs to be solved with the help of concepts such as places, transitions, and tokens in Petri nets.

[0132] In some embodiments, after obtaining the optimal scheduling sequence, the material scheduling method of the present application further includes some post-processing processes to re-optimize the output optimal scheduling sequence in combination with experience in the field. For example, in some embodiments, after obtaining the optimal scheduling sequence of the materials to be scheduled in step S330, it also includes:

[0133] Then optimize the optimal scheduling sequence, including: merging the adjacent first process and second process in the optimal scheduling sequence into a third process, wherein the first process and the second process are opposite processes acting on different materials respectively. The opposite process here means that the first process and the second process are two opposite actions performed by the same manipulator on different materials between two stations. Figure 1For example, if the LL→PM of one wafer and the PM→LL of another wafer are adjacent to each other, these two processes are considered as a TM Swap process and are merged and replaced. After the robot 120 obtains and drives one wafer to perform LL→PM, it can obtain and drive the wafer in another PM to perform PM→LL. Swap is a common method for fast wafer exchange in combined equipment, which enables the two replaced actions to execute some of their sub-actions in parallel, so that one Swap action is faster than the time taken by two actions and presents the same result state.

[0134] Similarly, the two adjacent actions LP→LL and LL→LP can also be merged and replaced with the EFEM Swap action. Each time the merged post-processing is performed, the subsequent processes associated with this process need to be moved forward by the corresponding difference time to achieve the effect of optimizing the overall scheduling sequence.

[0135] refer to Figure 5 As shown in the figure, there is a TM Swap process. For example, the process of the fifth physical wafer W5 is LL→PM, and the process of another physical wafer is PM→LL. The two are adjacent, so they are merged. From the length of the rectangle along the horizontal axis on the Gantt chart, it can be seen that the TM Swap process is shorter than the sum of the lengths of one LL→PM and one PM→LL, that is, it takes less time.

[0136] In some embodiments, after obtaining the optimal scheduling sequence, it also includes: outputting the optimal scheduling sequence to a host computer to guide the equipment to process the current batch of materials.

[0137] The present application also includes a semiconductor processing device, including a first unit, a second unit, a third unit, a memory, and a processor. The first unit is in a first state, the second unit is in a second state, and the third unit can switch between the first state and the second state. The semiconductor processing device is used to simultaneously schedule and process multiple materials to be scheduled; when the materials to be scheduled are transmitted between the first unit and the second unit, they need to pass through the third unit and switch states in the third unit. For the description of the first unit, the second unit, and the third unit, please refer to Figure 2 The memory is used to store instructions executable by the processor; the processor is used to execute the instructions to implement the material scheduling method for semiconductor processing equipment described above.

[0138] Figure 6 FIG. 1 is a partial structural block diagram of a semiconductor processing device according to an embodiment of the present application. Figure 6As shown, the semiconductor processing device 600 may include an internal communication bus 601, a processor 602, a read-only memory (ROM) 603, a random access memory (RAM) 604, and a communication port 605 in addition to the first unit 210, the second unit 220, and the third unit 230. When applied to a personal computer, the semiconductor processing device 600 may also include a hard disk 606. The internal communication bus 601 can realize data communication between the components of the semiconductor processing device 600. The processor 602 can make judgments and issue prompts. In some embodiments, the processor 602 can be composed of one or more processors. The communication port 605 can realize data communication between the semiconductor processing device 600 and the outside. In some embodiments, the semiconductor processing device 600 can send and receive information and data from the network through the communication port 605. The semiconductor processing device 600 may also include different forms of program storage units and data storage units, such as a hard disk 606, a read-only memory (ROM) 603 and a random access memory (RAM) 604, which can store various data files used for computer processing and / or communication, as well as possible program instructions executed by the processor 602. The processor 602 executes these instructions to implement the main part of the method, including controlling the transfer of materials between the first unit 210, the second unit 220 and the third unit 230, and controlling the first unit 210, the second unit 220 and the third unit 230 to perform the program of the semiconductor processing process. The program of the semiconductor processing process includes but is not limited to a thin film deposition process, a semiconductor etching process, a cleaning process, etc. The result of the processing by the processor 602 is transmitted to the user device through the communication port 605 and displayed on the user interface.

[0139] It should be understood that the embodiments described above are only illustrative. The embodiments described herein may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or any combination thereof. For hardware implementation, the processor may be implemented in one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DSPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, and / or other electronic units designed to perform the functions described herein, or a combination thereof.

[0140] Some aspects of the present application may be performed entirely by hardware, entirely by software (including firmware, resident software, microcode, etc.), or by a combination of hardware and software. The above hardware or software may be referred to as "data blocks", "modules", "engines", "units", "components" or "systems". The processor may be one or more application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), digital signal processors (DSPs), digital signal processing devices (DAPDs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, or combinations thereof. In addition, various aspects of the present application may be represented as computer products located in one or more computer-readable media, which include computer-readable program codes. For example, computer-readable media may include, but are not limited to, magnetic storage devices (e.g., hard disks, floppy disks, tapes ...), optical disks (e.g., compact disks CDs, digital versatile disks DVDs ...), smart cards, and flash memory devices (e.g., cards, sticks, key drives ...).

[0141] A computer-readable medium may include a propagated data signal containing computer program code, such as in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. The propagated signal may have a variety of manifestations, including electromagnetic, optical, etc., or a suitable combination. A computer-readable medium may be any computer-readable medium other than a computer-readable storage medium, which may be connected to an instruction execution system, device or apparatus to communicate, propagate or transmit a program for use. The program code on the computer-readable medium may be propagated via any suitable medium, including radio, cable, fiber optic cable, radio frequency signal, or similar medium, or any combination of the above mediums.

[0142] At the same time, the present application uses specific words to describe the embodiments of the present application. For example, "one embodiment", "an embodiment", and / or "some embodiments" refer to a certain feature, structure or characteristic related to at least one embodiment of the present application. Therefore, it should be emphasized and noted that "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" or "an alternative embodiment" mentioned twice or more in different positions in this specification does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment. In addition, some features, structures or characteristics in one or more embodiments of the present application can be appropriately combined.

[0143] In some embodiments, numbers describing the number of components and attributes are used. It should be understood that such numbers used for the description of the embodiments are modified by the modifiers "about", "approximately" or "substantially" in some examples. Unless otherwise specified, "about", "approximately" or "substantially" indicate that the numbers are allowed to vary by ±20%. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the numerical parameters used in the specification are approximate values, which can be changed according to the required characteristics of individual embodiments. In some embodiments, the numerical parameters should take into account the specified significant digits and adopt the method of general digit retention. Although the numerical domains and parameters used to confirm the breadth of the range in some embodiments of the present application are approximate values, in specific embodiments, the setting of such numerical values ​​is as accurate as possible within the feasible range.

Claims

1. A material scheduling method for semiconductor processing equipment, characterized in that: The semiconductor processing equipment comprises a first unit, a second unit and a third unit, wherein the first unit is in a first state, the second unit is in a second state, and the third unit can switch between the first state and the second state, wherein the semiconductor processing equipment is used to simultaneously schedule and process a plurality of materials to be scheduled; when the materials to be scheduled are transmitted between the first unit and the second unit, they need to pass through the third unit and switch their states in the third unit; the material scheduling method comprises: Acquire first batch information of the materials to be scheduled, the materials to be scheduled include at least two actual materials, and the first batch information is related to the process of each of the actual materials in the semiconductor processing equipment; Calculating the quantity of virtual materials according to the first batch information, and constructing second batch information of the virtual materials, wherein the second batch information is related to the state switching of each of the virtual materials in the third unit; Constructing a task scheduling model, wherein the task scheduling model is a mixed integer programming model, wherein the first batch information and the second batch information are used as inputs of the task scheduling model, wherein the objective function of the task scheduling model is to minimize the processing time of the material to be scheduled in the semiconductor processing equipment, wherein the constraint conditions of the task scheduling model are associated with the first batch information and the second batch information, and wherein the task scheduling model is used to output decision variables of the material to be scheduled that satisfy the objective function; Among them, calculating the quantity of virtual materials according to the first batch information includes: calculating the quantity of virtual materials according to the ratio of the first process time of the actual material in the first unit to the state switching time of the third unit, and the capacity of the third unit that can accommodate materials, wherein the ratio is positively correlated with the quantity of the virtual materials, and the capacity is negatively correlated with the quantity of the virtual materials.

2. The material dispatching method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The first unit includes at least one processing chamber, each of which includes at least one processing slot for carrying materials. The third unit includes at least one storage chamber, each of which includes at least one storage slot for carrying the materials. The first batch information includes the start time and end time of the oth process performed by the i-th actual material in the p-th slot of the j-th chamber during its process, wherein the materials include all actual materials and virtual materials, the chamber includes all the processing chambers and all the storage chambers, the slots include all the processing slots and all the storage slots, and i, o, j, and p are all natural numbers.

3. The material dispatching method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The decision variables include and ,in, Indicates Material The start time of a process, Represents the process assignment variable, indicating the Material Is the process in Cavity Slot execution, yes takes 1, no takes 0; the material scheduling method also includes: generating an optimal scheduling sequence according to the decision variables.

4. The material dispatching method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The second batch information includes the start time and the end time of the oth process performed by the i-th virtual material in the p-th slot of the j-th cavity during its process.

5. The material dispatching method according to claim 3, characterized in that: The virtual material includes a first virtual material and a second virtual material arranged in pair, wherein the process of the first virtual material includes a first switching process, and the process of the second virtual material includes a second switching process, wherein the first switching process is that the material is switched from the second state to the first state in the third unit, and the second switching process is that the material is switched from the first state to the second state in the third unit.

6. The material dispatching method according to claim 1, characterized in that: Calculating the quantity of virtual materials according to the first batch of information includes: calculating the quantity of the virtual materials using the following formula: : ， in, Indicates the first process duration of the actual material in the first unit; Indicates the state switching duration of the third unit; Indicates the capacity of the third unit that can accommodate materials; is a constant balancing term, and round means rounding.

7. The material dispatching method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The constraints of the task scheduling model include: for each material, the start time of the current process is greater than or equal to the end time of the previous process; and the start time of each process is non-negative, and the materials include the actual materials and the virtual materials.

8. The material dispatching method according to claim 7, characterized in that: The constraints of the task scheduling model also include: The first Each process is performed on only one slot in one cavity.

9. The material dispatching method according to claim 8, characterized in that: The constraint conditions of the task scheduling model also include: processes of different materials do not occupy the same slot at the same time.

10. The material dispatching method according to claim 9, characterized in that: The constraint conditions of the task scheduling model also include: for a plurality of adjacent related processes acting on the same storage slot of the same storage cavity, the process assignment variables of the plurality of related processes are equal, wherein the process assignment variables are used to represent the first The first Is the process in Cavity Slot execution, where i, o, j, and p are all natural numbers.

11. The material dispatching method according to claim 10, characterized in that: The constraint conditions of the task scheduling model also include: for a storage cavity, if the number of the first switching processes and the second switching processes that have been executed is equal, the state of the storage cavity is the second state, and the process of transferring materials from the second unit to the storage cavity can be executed; otherwise, the process of transferring materials from the second unit to the storage cavity cannot be executed.

12. The material dispatching method according to claim 1, characterized in that: After the step of obtaining the optimal scheduling sequence of the materials to be scheduled, the method further includes: Re-optimizing the optimal scheduling sequence includes: merging adjacent first and second processes in the optimal scheduling sequence into a third process, wherein the first process and the second process are opposite processes acting on different materials respectively.

13. The material dispatching method according to claim 7, characterized in that: The task scheduling model is expressed by the following formula: And the constraints expressed by the following formula: in, I represents a set of materials, I = {I1, I2, ..., In}, and the materials include the actual materials and the virtual materials; n represents the quantity of the material; i represents the index of a single material, i=1,2,…,n; O represents the process set of a single material, O = {O1, O2, ..., Ok}; k represents the number of processes to be executed for a single material; o represents the index of the process to be executed, o=1,2,…,k; Indicates the execution time of the oth process of the i-th material; Indicates the start time of the oth process of the i-th material; Indicates the latest end time when all processes of the material to be scheduled are completed.

14. The material dispatching method according to claim 8, characterized in that: The task scheduling model includes constraints expressed by the following formula: in, J represents the cavity set, J = {J1, J2, ..., Jm}; m represents the total number of the cavities; j represents the index of the cavity, j=1,2,…,m; P represents the set of slots in a cavity, P = {P1, P2, ..., Ph}; h represents the number of slots in a cavity; p represents the index of a slot in a cavity; Represents the process assignment variable, indicating whether the o-th process of the i-th material is executed in the p-th slot of the j-th chamber. If yes, it takes 1, otherwise it takes 0.

15. The material dispatching method according to claim 9, characterized in that: The task scheduling model includes constraints expressed by the following formula: in, Represents the index of a single material, i=1,2,…,n; Represents the index of the process to be executed, o=1,2,…,k; M represents a very large natural number; Indicates the order of any two processes, indicating whether the oth process of the ith material precedes the o^'th process of the i^'th material. If yes, the value is 1, otherwise, the value is 0.

16. The material dispatching method according to claim 10, characterized in that: The task scheduling model includes constraints expressed by the following formula: in, The process indexes o=1, 2, 3 in respectively represent three adjacent processes acting on the same slot p of the same cavity j in the third unit.

17. The material dispatching method according to claim 11, characterized in that: The task scheduling model includes constraints expressed by the following formula: Among them, u represents the index of a single material, The process index o in is equal to 1, indicating the process of transferring the material from the second unit to the storage chamber, The process index o in is equal to 2, indicating the first switching process, The process index o in is equal to 3, indicating the second switching process, and c is a balance item related to the cavity capacity.

18. The material dispatching method according to claim 13, characterized in that: The task scheduling model includes constraints expressed by any of the following three formulas: in, Indicates The cavity index set specified by the material, , express The index of any cavity in Indicates except The index of the cavity outside.

19. The material dispatching method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The material includes substrates, the first unit includes a plurality of substrate processing modules, the second unit includes a plurality of substrate loading and unloading modules, and the third unit includes a plurality of vacuum lock modules.

20. The material dispatching method according to claim 5, characterized in that: The first state is a vacuum state, the second state is an atmospheric state, the first switching process is a vacuum pumping process, and the second switching process is a vacuum breaking process.

21. A semiconductor processing device, characterized in that: include: A first unit, a second unit, a third unit, a memory and a processor, wherein the first unit is in a first state, the second unit is in a second state, the third unit can switch between the first state and the second state, and the semiconductor processing equipment is used to schedule and process multiple materials to be scheduled at the same time; when the materials to be scheduled are transmitted between the first unit and the second unit, they need to pass through the third unit and switch their states in the third unit; The memory is used to store instructions executed by the processor; The processor is used to execute the instructions to implement the material scheduling method as described in any one of claims 1-20.

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