Semiconductor equipment safety control method, safety control system and control equipment

Abstract

The invention discloses a semiconductor equipment safety control method, a safety control system and control equipment. The safety control method comprises the following steps: S1, inputting an instruction which requires the semiconductor equipment to execute related actions; s2, calling a prohibition condition of an execution mechanism corresponding to the instruction according to the instruction; s3, detecting real-time working parameters of the semiconductor equipment to obtain a detection value; and S4, comparing and analyzing the detection value and the prohibition condition, and judging whether to start an execution mechanism or not. Wherein the forbidding condition has a scanning period, the detection value is obtained according to the scanning period, and when the detection value and the forbidding condition are compared and analyzed, the forbidding condition of the longest scanning period is compared twice. According to the invention, a safety control mode based on safety limiting conditions and executing periodic detection is established, and the reliability of semiconductor equipment control operation is improved.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor processing technology, and in particular to a semiconductor equipment safety control method, and a safety control system or control equipment for implementing the method. Background Art

[0002] Safety is of vital importance when semiconductor equipment such as chemical film deposition equipment, heat treatment equipment or etching equipment is in operation, otherwise it may cause damage to the substrate or other serious production accidents. Therefore, how to ensure the safety and reliability of semiconductor equipment operation is an important technical issue facing the industry. Summary of the invention

[0003] In view of the above-mentioned shortcomings of the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor device safety control method to improve the safety and reliability of the operation of the semiconductor device.

[0004] A semiconductor device safety control method comprises the following steps: S1 inputs instructions requiring semiconductor devices to perform related actions; S2 retrieves the prohibition condition of the corresponding execution mechanism according to the instruction; S3 detects the real-time operating parameters of semiconductor equipment and obtains detection values; S4 compares and analyzes the detection value and the prohibition condition to determine whether to start the actuator; The prohibition condition has a scanning cycle, the detection value is obtained according to the scanning cycle, and when the detection value and the prohibition condition are compared and analyzed, the prohibition condition with the longest scanning cycle is compared twice.

[0005] In one embodiment, the prohibition conditions include the output value of the infrared light receiver being 0, the output value of the proximity sensor being 0, the output value of the rotation sensor being 0, the output value of the temperature sensor being not within a set temperature range, and the output value of the vacuum detector being not a set pressure value.

[0006] Furthermore, the detection values ​​include T, Pv, A, B and C; wherein T is the output value of the temperature sensor, Pv is the output value of the vacuum detector, A is the output value of the infrared light receiver, B is the output value of the proximity sensor, and C is the output value of the rotation detector.

[0007] Furthermore, the method for determining whether to start the actuator is as follows: S41 determines whether A is 0; If yes, then an alarm is raised and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3; if no, then S42 is executed; S42 determines whether T is within the set temperature range; If yes, then execute S43; if no, then alarm and check and remedy the situation before returning to S3; S43 determines whether Pv is the set pressure value; If yes, then execute S44; if no, then alarm and check and remedy the situation, then return to S3; S44 determines whether B is 0; If yes, then an alarm is raised and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3; if no, then S45 is executed; S45 determines whether C is 0; If yes, an alarm is sounded and after inspection and remediation, the process returns to S3; if no, the actuator is started.

[0008] A safety control system, which adopts the semiconductor device safety control method to achieve the purpose of controlling the operation of the semiconductor device according to the judgment result of the prohibition condition, comprises: a storage unit having a prohibition condition stored therein; Start unit; A control unit for controlling the operation of an actuator of a semiconductor device, comprising a prohibition condition calling module, a comparison module and a judgment module; A detection unit for detecting real-time operating parameters of semiconductor equipment; and Alarm module.

[0009] In one embodiment, the prohibition condition is set based on a switch condition of an actuator of a semiconductor processing equipment.

[0010] Further, the starting unit is a button; or, the starting unit is an instruction input by a host computer to require the actuator to perform a related action.

[0011] Furthermore, the actuator includes a motor for controlling the rotation of the carrier, an electric cylinder for controlling the up and down movement of the carrier, a valve, a robotic arm, a heating device, a vacuum pump and a cooling device; the detection unit includes a substrate detection module, a proximity sensor, a rotation detector, a vacuum detector and a temperature sensor.

[0012] Furthermore, the control system also includes a display module, which is used to receive and display the information called out by the prohibition condition calling module.

[0013] A control device comprises a memory, a processor and a computer program stored in the memory and running on the processor. When the processor executes the computer program, the steps of the semiconductor device safety control method are implemented, and the operation of the semiconductor device is controlled according to the judgment result of the prohibition condition.

[0014] Compared with the prior art, the present invention has the following beneficial effects: The present invention sets corresponding prohibition conditions according to relevant actions executed by the semiconductor device. When a certain action is to be executed, the prohibition conditions are judged. If one of them does not meet the requirements, the operation is prohibited and an alarm is issued. When judging the prohibition conditions, it is ensured that the prohibition conditions of the longest scanning cycle are compared twice, so that alarm information can be issued in a timely, rapid and reliable manner, thereby preventing unsafe operations from occurring and improving the safety and reliability of the operation of the semiconductor device. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0015] Figure 1 The figure is a flow chart of a semiconductor device safety control method provided in Embodiment 1 of the present invention.

[0016] Figure 2 The present invention is shown Figure 1 Flow chart for determining whether to start the actuator.

[0017] Figure 3 The figure shows a module block diagram of a safety control system provided in Example 2 of the present invention. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] The present invention is described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Example 1

[0019] See also Figure 1 , this embodiment provides a semiconductor device safety control method, which includes the following steps: S1 inputs instructions that require the semiconductor device to perform related actions.

[0020] S2 retrieves the prohibition conditions of the corresponding actuator according to the instruction. The prohibition conditions include the output value of the infrared light receiver is 0, the output value of the proximity sensor is 0, the output value of the rotation sensor is 0, the output value of the temperature sensor is not within the set temperature range, and the output value of the vacuum detector is not the set pressure value.

[0021] From the perspective of safety, the prohibition conditions are set. This embodiment takes the process of thin film deposition in a reaction chamber as an example. When the substrate is processed in the reaction chamber, it is necessary to ensure that the reaction chamber cannot be opened, the carrier has a certain rotation speed, the environment in the reaction chamber is within a certain temperature range, and the reaction chamber has a certain vacuum degree. Therefore, in this embodiment, the prohibition conditions are set as follows: The output value of the infrared light receiver is 0, wherein the infrared light receiver is used to determine whether there is a substrate in the reaction chamber. If the output value is 0, it means that there is no substrate in the reaction chamber, and operation is prohibited.

[0022] If the output value of the proximity sensor is 0, operation is prohibited, wherein the proximity sensor is installed on the reaction chamber cover plate to detect whether the reaction chamber conflicts with the cover plate to seal the reaction chamber. When the output signal of the proximity sensor is 0, it means that the proximity sensor cannot detect the reaction chamber, that is, the reaction chamber is in an open state at this time.

[0023] If the output value of the rotation detector is 0, the operation is prohibited, wherein the rotation detector is used to detect whether the carrier for carrying the substrate is placed. When the output signal of the rotation detector is 0, it indicates that the carrier is in a non-rotating state.

[0024] If the output value of the temperature sensor is not within the set temperature range, operation is prohibited.

[0025] If the output value of the vacuum detector is not the set pressure value, the operation is prohibited. It should be noted that the temperature range and the set pressure value mentioned in this embodiment need to be adaptively set according to different stages of the semiconductor processing process.

[0026] S3 detects the real-time operating parameters of the semiconductor device and obtains the detection value.

[0027] The detection values ​​include T, Pv, A, B and C. Among them, T is the output value of the temperature sensor, Pv is the output value of the vacuum detector, A is the output value of the infrared light receiver, B is the output value of the proximity sensor, and C is the output value of the rotation detector.

[0028] S4 compares and analyzes the detection value and the prohibition condition to determine whether to start the actuator.

[0029] Please refer to Figure 2 , the method for determining whether to start the actuator is as follows: S41 determines whether A is 0. If yes, an alarm is given and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3; if no, S42 is executed.

[0030] S42 determines whether T is within the set temperature range. If yes, S43 is executed; if not, an alarm is issued and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3.

[0031] S43 determines whether Pv is the set pressure value. If yes, S44 is executed; if no, an alarm is issued and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3.

[0032] S44 determines whether B is 0. If yes, an alarm is given and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3; if no, S45 is executed.

[0033] S45 determines whether C is 0. If yes, an alarm is given and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3; if no, the actuator is started.

[0034] This embodiment is explained by taking the existence of multiple prohibition conditions as an example. Multiple prohibition conditions are arranged in order according to the scanning cycle (i.e., the cycle for updating the prohibition condition state, such as the update cycle of the sensor output value), wherein the scanning cycle refers to the cycle for the system to read the detection value, such as reading the rotation sensor output value, which can be set to the time per rotation, such as 20ms. In specific implementation, the scan cycle with a short scan cycle can be placed in front and judged first. If the prohibition condition is met, an alarm is immediately processed. If a certain action of the semiconductor device has only one corresponding prohibition condition, the prohibition condition is directly judged.

[0035] In this embodiment, when judging whether to start a certain actuator (i.e., to execute a certain action), a mode of at least two cycles is adopted, that is, when it is judged that the start is prohibited in the first cycle, a prompt is given to perform corresponding remedial measures. After the remedial measures are performed, another judgment is performed to determine whether the output value read again is the output value read for the first time. If so, it means that the remedial measures are not effective or the detection value is not updated. Therefore, a third judgment is performed to see whether the updated output value meets the requirements, thereby ensuring the reliability of the judgment. In addition, when multiple prohibition conditions have different scanning cycles, it is necessary to ensure that the prohibition condition corresponding to the longest scanning cycle is judged twice. For example, when judging the output value of the rotation sensor, in the first judgment, the output value reflects the output value of the previous scanning cycle (such as a state value of a register). To ensure safety, the prohibition condition of the longest scanning cycle is judged twice to ensure that the latest state information is obtained.

[0036] In summary, the safety control method of this embodiment sets corresponding prohibition conditions according to the relevant actions performed by the semiconductor device. When a certain action is to be performed, the prohibition conditions are judged. If one of them does not meet the requirements, the operation is prohibited and an alarm is issued. When judging the prohibition conditions, it is ensured that the prohibition conditions of the longest scanning cycle are compared twice, so that the alarm information can be issued in a timely, fast and reliable manner, thereby preventing the occurrence of unsafe operations and improving the safety and reliability of the operation of semiconductor equipment. Example 2

[0037] See also Figure 3 This embodiment provides a safety control system, which adopts the semiconductor device safety control method described in the above embodiment 1 to achieve the purpose of controlling the operation of the semiconductor device according to the judgment result of the prohibition condition. The control system includes a storage unit storing the prohibition condition, a startup unit, a control unit for controlling the operation of the semiconductor device actuator, a detection unit for detecting the real-time working parameters of the semiconductor device, an alarm module and a display module.

[0038] The semiconductor equipment actuator includes a motor for controlling the rotation of the carrier, an electric cylinder for controlling the up and down movement of the carrier, a valve, a mechanical arm, a heating device, a vacuum pump and a cooling device. In this embodiment, the semiconductor equipment completes the corresponding substrate processing through the execution structure, and the actuator is composed of multiple functional modules, wherein the motor is used to control the rotation of the carrier in the reaction chamber of the semiconductor equipment, so as to achieve the purpose of uniformly processing the surface of the substrate. The electric cylinder is used to control the up and down movement of the carrier in the reaction chamber of the semiconductor equipment, so as to achieve the purpose of taking out / sending the substrate into the reaction chamber, and sending the substrate to different temperature areas in the reaction chamber for corresponding processing. The valve is used to control the on and off of the gas / fluid and adjust the flow rate of the gas / fluid through the channel, so as to achieve the purpose of vacuuming the reaction chamber / sending the working gas into the reaction chamber. The mechanical arm plays the role of placing the substrate into the carrier / taking it out of the carrier. The vacuum pump plays the role of vacuuming the reaction chamber. The heating device uses a heating lamp or a heating resistor, which plays the role of heating the environment in the reaction chamber. The cooling device adopts air cooling or water cooling, which plays a role in cooling the reaction chamber to meet the temperature requirements of the process.

[0039] The start unit is a button, or the start unit is an instruction input by the host computer to require the actuator to perform related actions. The prohibition condition is set based on the switch condition of the actuator of the semiconductor processing equipment. In this embodiment, the prohibition condition is recorded and stored in the storage unit. It should be noted that the setting of the prohibition condition can be adapted and changed according to different stages of the semiconductor processing process. The prohibition condition can be set in advance, or the corresponding prohibition condition can be specifically set according to different process processes when judging.

[0040] The control unit includes a prohibition condition retrieval module, a comparison module and a judgment module. After receiving the start signal input by the start unit, the control unit determines the corresponding execution mechanism according to the start signal, and queries and retrieves the prohibition condition corresponding to the execution mechanism in the storage unit through the prohibition condition retrieval module. When the data detected by the detection unit is delivered to the control unit, the comparison module compares the input value with the retrieved prohibition condition, and then the judgment module determines whether the execution mechanism can be executed.

[0041] The detection unit includes but is not limited to a substrate detection module, a proximity sensor, a rotation detector, a vacuum detector and a temperature sensor. The substrate detection module is used to detect whether the substrate is placed on the carrier, and the substrate detection module includes an infrared light transmitter for emitting infrared rays and an infrared light receiver for receiving infrared rays. The proximity sensor is used to detect whether the reaction chamber is closed. The rotation detector is an encoder, which is used to detect whether the carrier rotates.

[0042] The alarm module is a flashing light and a buzzer. When the judgment module determines that the current actuator prohibits execution, the alarm module is triggered to prompt the user to take corresponding remedial measures. The display module is a display screen, which receives and displays the information called out by the prohibition condition calling module, thereby reminding the user to see whether the corresponding operation has been performed.

[0043] In summary, the safety control system of this embodiment can classify and set the prohibited conditions so as to issue alarm information in a timely, rapid and reliable manner, thereby preventing the occurrence of unsafe operations and improving the safety and reliability of the control operation of semiconductor equipment. Example 3

[0044] This embodiment provides a control device, which includes a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and running on the processor. When the processor executes the computer program, the steps of the semiconductor device safety control method as in Example 1 are implemented, and the operation of the semiconductor device is controlled according to the judgment result of the prohibition condition.

[0045] The control device provided in this embodiment is essentially a computer device, which can be an embedded module installed on a follow-up platform or a back-end device independent of a single follow-up platform, such as various intelligent terminals that can execute programs such as tablet computers, laptop computers, desktop computers, rack servers, blade servers, tower servers or cabinet servers.

[0046] The computer device indicated in this embodiment includes at least but is not limited to a memory and a processor that can be connected to each other through a system bus. Among them, the memory is a flash memory, a hard disk, a multimedia card, a card-type memory, a magnetic memory, a disk or an optical disk, etc. In some embodiments, the memory can be an internal storage unit of the computer device, such as a hard disk or memory of the computer device. In other embodiments, the memory can also be an external storage device of the computer device, such as a plug-in hard disk equipped on the computer device.

[0047] The memory is usually used to store the operating system and various application software installed in the computer device. In this embodiment, the memory is used to store the prohibition condition. In some embodiments, the processor can be a central processing unit, a controller, a microcontroller, a microprocessor or other data processing chip, which is usually used to control the overall operation of the computer device. In this embodiment, the processor is used to retrieve the prohibition condition stored in the memory and compare it with the detected value.

[0048] The naming of each component involved is based on its function described in the specification and is not limited to the specific terms used in the present invention. Those skilled in the art may also choose other terms to describe the names of the components of the present invention.

Claims

1. A semiconductor device safety control method, characterized in that: The following steps are involved: S1 inputs instructions requiring semiconductor devices to perform related actions; S2 retrieves the corresponding prohibition condition according to the instruction; S3 detects the real-time operating parameters of semiconductor equipment and obtains detection values; S4 compares and analyzes the detection value and the prohibition condition to determine whether to start the actuator; The prohibition condition has a scanning cycle, the detection value is obtained according to the scanning cycle, and when the detection value and the prohibition condition are compared and analyzed, the prohibition condition with the longest scanning cycle is compared twice.

2. The semiconductor device safety control method according to claim 1, characterized in that: The prohibition conditions include the output value of the infrared light receiver being 0, the output value of the proximity sensor being 0, the output value of the rotation sensor being 0, the output value of the temperature sensor being not within a set temperature range, and the output value of the vacuum detector being not a set pressure value.

3. The semiconductor device safety control method according to claim 2, characterized in that: The detection values ​​include T, Pv, A, B and C; Among them, T is the output value of the temperature sensor, Pv is the output value of the vacuum detector, A is the output value of the infrared light receiver, B is the output value of the proximity sensor, and C is the output value of the rotation detector.

4. The semiconductor device safety control method according to claim 3, characterized in that: The method for determining whether to start the actuator is as follows: S41 determines whether A is 0; If yes, then an alarm is raised and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3; if no, then S42 is executed; S42 determines whether T is within the set temperature range; If yes, execute S43; If not, an alarm is sounded and after inspection and remedy, the process returns to S3; S43 determines whether Pv is the set pressure value; If yes, execute S44; If not, an alarm is sounded and after inspection and remedy, the process returns to S3; S44 determines whether B is 0; If yes, an alarm is raised and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3; If no, execute S45; S45 determines whether C is 0; If yes, an alarm is raised and after checking and remediation, the process returns to S3; If not, start the actuator.

5. A safety control system, which adopts the semiconductor device safety control method as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 to achieve the purpose of controlling the operation of the semiconductor device according to the judgment result of the prohibition condition, characterized in that: include: a storage unit having a prohibition condition stored therein; Start unit; A control unit for controlling the operation of an actuator of a semiconductor device, comprising a prohibition condition calling module, a comparison module and a judgment module; A detection unit for detecting real-time operating parameters of semiconductor equipment; and Alarm module.

6. The safety control system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The prohibition condition is set based on the switch condition of the actuator of the semiconductor processing equipment.

7. The safety control system according to claim 5, characterized in that: The starting unit is a button; Alternatively, the starting unit is an instruction input by a host computer to require the actuator to perform a related action.

8. The safety control system according to claim 7, characterized in that: The actuator includes a motor for controlling the rotation of the carrier, an electric cylinder for controlling the up and down movement of the carrier, a valve, a mechanical arm, a heating device, a vacuum pump and a cooling device; The detection unit includes a substrate detection module, a proximity sensor, a rotation detector, a vacuum degree detector and a temperature sensor.

9. The safety control system according to claim 8, characterized in that: The control system further comprises a display module, which is used to receive and display the information called out by the prohibition condition calling module.

10. A control device comprising a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored in the memory and running on the processor, characterized in that: When the processor executes the computer program, the steps of the semiconductor device safety control method as described in any one of claims 1 to 4 are implemented, and the operation of the semiconductor device is controlled according to the judgment result of the prohibition condition.

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