Wafer adjusting and transferring method and semiconductor equipment

Abstract

The invention discloses a wafer adjusting and transferring method and semiconductor equipment. The wafer is transferred in the multi-station reaction chamber, the vacuum transfer chamber and the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber. The wafer adjusting and transferring method comprises the following steps: grouping a plurality of machines in the multi-station reaction chamber; a plurality of station reference positions are added for the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, and the station reference positions in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber are in one-to-one correspondence with the station reference positions of the machine groups in the multi-station reaction chamber.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present application relates to the field of semiconductor device manufacturing, and in particular to a wafer transfer method. BACKGROUND

[0002] In the field of thin film deposition semiconductor device, for multi-station large chamber machine, the vacuum robot transfers wafers to the process reaction chamber, which defines multiple machine numbers, but in the wafer returning process, the vacuum robot puts wafers into the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber (LL) with only one machine number. Since there is a deviation between the reference positions of the wafers in each station of the process reaction chamber, if the vacuum robot puts wafers into the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber (LL) with the position of one station as the reference of the wafer center, then the wafers transferred from other stations to the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber (LL) may have a too large deviation in wafer transfer.

[0003] For the atmospheric robot to put / take wafers into the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber (LL chamber), the atmospheric robot will put the wafers at the center position (X A ,Y A ), (X B ,Y B ) of the left / right (A / B) chamber of the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber as the reference. Whether there is a deviation of the wafer in the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber, the atmospheric robot will move to this position to perform the taking / putting of the wafer.

[0004] When the vacuum robot sends the wafer back to the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber, it will feedback the deviation value of the wafer position relative to the reference position at this time.

[0005] However, the wafer after passing through the process reaction chamber will have a deviation relative to the reference calibrated position, if the atmospheric robot performs the taking of the wafer at the reference calibrated position every time, once the deviation is too large, it will cause the failure of the taking of the wafer, resulting in the alarm shutdown of the machine and even the breakage of the wafer. The current multi-station large chamber machine transfer method cannot solve the wafer transfer alarm problem caused by the deviation of the wafer position transferred from each station of the process reaction chamber to the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber (LL). In addition, the current atmospheric robot does not have the function of taking the wafer to correct the deviation.

[0006] Therefore, there is an urgent need for a wafer transfer method, which can solve the wafer transfer alarm problem caused by the deviation of the wafer position transferred from each station of the process reaction chamber to the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber (LL), and enable the atmospheric robot to have the function of taking the wafer to correct the deviation. SUMMARY

[0007] In order to overcome the defects of the prior art, the present application provides a wafer transfer method and a semiconductor device adopting the wafer transfer method, wherein the wafer is transferred in a multi-station reaction chamber, a vacuum transfer chamber and a vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber.

[0008] The wafer transfer method of the present application comprises, but is not limited to, the following steps:

[0009] Grouping the plurality of machines in the multi-station reaction chamber;

[0010] Adding a plurality of station reference positions to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, each station reference position in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber corresponding to a station reference position of each machine group in the multi-station reaction chamber.

[0011] In one embodiment, the wafer transfer method of the present application further comprises the following steps:

[0012] When the atmospheric robot takes the wafer to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, for wafers from different machine groups, the wafer taking position of the atmospheric robot is corrected according to the station reference position of the machine group in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber corresponding to the machine group.

[0013] In one embodiment, the correction step comprises, but is not limited to, the following sub-steps:

[0014] When the vacuum robot of the vacuum transfer chamber places the wafer in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, the center coordinates of the wafer are detected, wherein the center coordinates are considered as the deviation value of the actual position of the wafer placed in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber by the vacuum robot from the station reference position in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber;

[0015] The deviation value is converted into a correction value of the wafer taking of the atmospheric robot;

[0016] The atmospheric robot is instructed to perform a wafer taking action at a specified coordinate position, wherein the specified coordinate position is the difference between the station reference position and the correction value.

[0017] In one embodiment, the station reference position of each machine group in the multi-station reaction chamber is a specified position for the vacuum robot to take the wafer in the multi-station reaction chamber.

[0018] In one embodiment, each station reference position in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber is a specified position for the vacuum robot to place the wafer from the vacuum transfer chamber to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber.

[0019] In one embodiment, grouping the plurality of machines in the multi-station reaction chamber comprises:

[0020] The plurality of machines in the multi-station reaction chamber are grouped in such a way that adjacent two machines form a machine group.

[0021] In one embodiment, the multi-station reaction chamber has a plurality of station reference positions, and each of the machine tool groups corresponds to one of the plurality of station reference positions.

[0022] The present application also provides a semiconductor device using the wafer transfer method as described above, which includes but is not limited to the following devices:

[0023] A multi-station reaction chamber having a multi-station robot inside;

[0024] A vacuum transfer chamber having a vacuum robot inside;

[0025] A vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber;

[0026] An automatic wafer centering sensor arranged at the edge of the vacuum transfer chamber for detecting the center coordinates of the wafer;

[0027] Wherein, the wafer is transferred between the multi-station reaction chamber and the vacuum transfer chamber, and between the vacuum transfer chamber and the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber.

[0028] In one embodiment, the semiconductor device further includes a front end module having the atmospheric robot inside.

[0029] In one embodiment, when the wafer passes through the automatic wafer centering sensor, the sensor detects a plurality of point coordinates on the wafer, and calculates the center coordinates of the wafer according to the plurality of point coordinates.

[0030] According to the wafer transfer method of the present application, the vacuum robot increases a plurality of station reference positions when transferring the wafer from the multi-station reaction chamber to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, which respectively correspond to the station reference positions of each station of the multi-station reaction chamber, thereby solving the wafer transfer alarm problem caused by the large position deviation of the wafer transferred from each station of the process reaction chamber to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber. In addition, the present application increases the wafer taking and correcting function of the atmospheric robot, thereby avoiding the wafer taking failure of the atmospheric robot caused by the large position deviation of the wafer. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0031] The above summary of the application and the following detailed description of the application will be better understood when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference numerals refer to identical or similar elements. It should be noted that the accompanying drawings are included as part of the disclosure only and not for interpretation of the claimed application. In the accompanying drawings:

[0032] Figure 1 Fig. 1 shows a semiconductor device according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0033] Figure 2FIG. 4 shows a schematic diagram of a multi-station reaction chamber according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0034] Figure 3 FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a station reference position of a vacuum robot according to an embodiment of the present application;

[0035] Figure 4 FIG. 8 shows a schematic diagram of an atmospheric robot pick correction logic according to an embodiment of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0036] The specific features and advantages of the present application will be described in detail in the following detailed description of the application, which is sufficient to understand the technical content of the present application and to implement it by any person skilled in the art, and according to the description, claims and drawings disclosed in the specification, those skilled in the art can easily understand the related purposes and advantages of the present application. Although the description of the present application will be introduced in combination with the preferred embodiments, it does not mean that the features of the present application are limited to the embodiments. On the contrary, the purpose of introducing the application in combination with the embodiments is to cover other options or modifications that can be extended based on the claims of the present application. In order to provide a deep understanding of the present application, many specific details will be included in the following description. The present application can also be implemented without using these details. In addition, in order to avoid confusion or obscure the focus of the present application, some specific details will be omitted in the description.

[0037] In the description of the present application, it should be noted that unless otherwise explicitly specified and limited, the terms "mounting", "connecting", "connection" should be understood broadly, for example, it can be fixed connection, or detachable connection, or integral connection; it can be mechanical connection, or electrical connection; it can be direct connection, or indirect connection through intermediate medium, or internal communication of two elements. For those skilled in the art, the specific meaning of the above terms in the present application can be understood according to the specific circumstances.

[0038] In addition, in the following description, "up", "down", "left", "right", "top", "bottom", "horizontal", "vertical" should be understood as the orientation shown in the paragraph and the related drawings. The relative terms are only used for the convenience of description, and they do not mean that the devices described should be manufactured or operated in a particular orientation, so they should not be understood as a limitation on the present application.

[0039] It is to be understood that, while the terms "first," "second," "third," etc. can be used herein to describe various elements, channels, components, regions, layers and / or sections, these elements, channels, components, regions, layers and / or sections should not be limited by these terms as these terms are only used to distinguish one element, channel, component, region, layer and / or section from another element, channel, component, region, layer and / or section. Also, the terms "first," "second," "third," etc. are only used to describe different elements, channels, components, regions, layers and / or sections, and do not imply a relative importance of the different elements, channels, components, regions, layers and / or sections.

[0040] As used in this application and the claims, the terms "one," "a," or "an" shall not construe as limiting to only one of an element or component, but rather "one," "a," or "an" shall "include" one and "also" include more than one.

[0041] Some embodiments use numerical descriptors of ingredients, attributes, quantities. It should be understood that such numerical descriptors used in the description of embodiments are, in some examples, modified by the terms "about," "approximately," or "generally." Unless otherwise stated, "about," "approximately," or "generally" indicates that a deviation of ±20% from the stated numerical value is intended. Accordingly, numerical values used in the specification and claims of some embodiments are approximations which can vary depending on the desired properties sought to be obtained in a particular embodiment. In some embodiments, numerical values should be considered in the context of the number of significant figures used in the number and the rounding methods used. Although the numerical ranges and parameters setting forth the broadest scope of some embodiments of the application are approximations, the numerical values set forth in the specific examples are reported as precisely as practicable.

[0042] Also, the use of certain words or terms in various places in the specification is intended to be interpreted under the ordinary and customary meaning for those terms, unless otherwise specifically defined herein. Additionally, the use of "one embodiment," "an embodiment," or "some embodiments" to describe a feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with an embodiment or embodiments is not used to render such feature, structure, or characteristic as being essential to all embodiments or only those embodiments. The novel methods, devices, and systems described herein can be implemented in hardware, software, or a combination thereof. The various embodiments can be implemented in hardware using any programmable or non-programmable computer hardware components. Some embodiments can be implemented in software and / or firmware and / or in a computer program product.

[0043] Figure 1 A semiconductor apparatus is shown in accordance with an embodiment of the present application. The semiconductor apparatus includes a plurality of multi-station reaction chambers (PM) 103, a vacuum transfer chamber (TM) 104, a vacuum-to-atmosphere transition chamber (LL) 105, an equipment front end module 106, an automated wafer centering sensor (AWC sensor) 107.

[0044] In one embodiment, the semiconductor device may include four multi-station reaction chambers (PM) 103 arranged around the left and right sides of a vacuum transfer chamber (TM) 104. For example, two multi-station reaction chambers (PM) 103 are arranged on the left side and two multi-station reaction chambers (PM) 103 are arranged on the right side.

[0045] Each multi-station reaction chamber includes multiple machines.

[0046] Figure 2 A schematic diagram of a multi-station reaction chamber according to an embodiment of the present invention is shown. Figure 2 As shown, the multi-station reaction chamber includes six processing stations, numbered 1 to 6. Each station can perform processing on the wafer. Each station has a support stage 108 for supporting the wafer. A multi-station robot 100 is located in the center of the multi-station reaction chamber, and the multi-station robot 100 transfers the wafer to a vacuum robot.

[0047] return Figure 1 A vacuum manipulator 101 is disposed within a vacuum transfer chamber (TM) 104. The vacuum manipulator 101 transfers wafers from the multi-station manipulator 100 to a vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber (LL) 105. In one embodiment, the vacuum manipulator 101 may have two arms, left and right. The left arm is used to transfer wafers from the two left-side multi-station reaction chambers (PM) 103 to chamber A 109 of the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber (LL) 105. The right arm is used to transfer wafers from the two right-side multi-station reaction chambers (PM) 103 to chamber B 110 of the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber (LL) 105.

[0048] In one embodiment, the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber (LL) 105 may have two chambers, A 109 and B 110, on the left and right sides. Chamber A corresponds to the placement / removal of wafers in the two left multi-station reaction chambers (PM) 103. Chamber B corresponds to the placement / removal of wafers in the two left multi-station reaction chambers (PM) 103.

[0049] An atmospheric manipulator 102 is installed within the front-end module 106 of the equipment. The atmospheric manipulator 102 is used for placing / retrieving wafers from the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber. The atmospheric manipulator 102 may have two manipulators, A and B, distributed vertically. Figure 1 Due to line-of-sight limitations, only one robotic arm is shown. Atmospheric robotic arm A is used to place / remove wafers in chamber A, and atmospheric robotic arm B is used to place / remove wafers in chamber B.

[0050] The semiconductor device of the present application also includes an AWC sensor (automatic wafer centering sensor) 107 arranged at the edge of the vacuum transfer chamber 104. The AWC sensor 107 scans a plurality of points on the wafer passing therethrough to determine the center position of the wafer. In one embodiment, four points on the wafer can be scanned and the center coordinates of the wafer can be calculated based on the coordinate positions of the four points.

[0051] Figure 3 The station reference positions of the vacuum robot according to one embodiment of the present application are shown. The "station reference position" herein refers to the designated station position (designated station coordinates) at which the robot picks up or drops off a wafer. There are a plurality of station reference positions STN10, STN11, STN12 in the multi-station reaction chamber and a plurality of station reference positions STN20, STN21, STN22 in the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber, wherein STN10 corresponds to STN20, STN11 corresponds to STN21, and STN12 corresponds to STN22.

[0052] For example, the vacuum robot transports wafers from the 1st and 2nd stations to the designated position STN20 in the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber. That is, STN10 corresponds to STN20. Figure 1 The semiconductor device shown can divide the six stations of the multi-station reaction chamber (PM) 103 into three groups, each group including two adjacent stations. Each station group shares one station reference position. For example, the 1st and 2nd stations share one station coordinate STN10, the 3rd and 4th stations share one station coordinate STN11, and the 5th and 6th stations share one station coordinate STN12.

[0053] The present application adds a plurality of station reference positions STN20, STN21, STN22 for the vacuum robot to drop off wafers from the vacuum transfer chamber 104 to the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber (LL) 105, each corresponding to one station reference position in the multi-station reaction chamber (PM) 103.

[0054] For example, the vacuum robot transports wafers from the 1st and 2nd stations to the designated position STN20 in the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber. That is, STN10 corresponds to STN20.

[0055] For example, the vacuum robot transports wafers from the 3rd and 4th stations to the designated position STN21 in the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber. That is, STN11 corresponds to STN21.

[0056] For example, the vacuum robot transports wafers from the 5th and 6th stations to the designated position STN22 in the vacuum-atmosphere transfer chamber. That is, STN11 corresponds to STN22.

[0057] Specifically, when transferring the wafer, the wafer is transferred to the vacuum robot with the wafer center in the center of the No. 1 / No. 2 machine as the reference. The wafer position on the vacuum robot at this time is defined as the wafer transfer reference position of the No. 1 / No. 2 machine, and the AWC learning positioning of the vacuum robot TM-PM, TM-LL is performed (the wafer passes through the AWC sensor, and four points on the wafer are scanned to determine the wafer center position). Similarly, the AWC learning positioning of the No. 3 / No. 4 machine and the No. 5 / No. 6 machine positions is performed.

[0058] Figure 4 A schematic diagram of atmospheric robot wafer transfer correction logic according to an embodiment of the present application is shown. Let the plane reference coordinates (also referred to as the station reference coordinates in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber) of the atmospheric robot wafer transfer to chamber A of the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber be A (X A , Y A ), and let the plane reference coordinates (also referred to as the station reference coordinates in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber) of the atmospheric robot wafer transfer to chamber B of the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber be B (X B ,Y B ). A (X A , Y A ) and B (X B ,Y B ) represent the final ideal designated wafer transfer positions of the atmospheric robot to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber. The plane reference coordinates of the wafer transferred from the No. 1 and No. 2 machines are A (X A1 , Y A1 ) and B (X B1 ,Y B1 ) (STN20). The plane reference coordinates of the wafer transferred from the No. 3 and No. 4 machines are A (X A2 , Y A2 ) and B (X B2 ,Y B2 ) (STN21). The plane reference coordinates of the wafer transferred from the No. 5 and No. 6 machines are A (X A3 , Y A3 ) and B (X B3 ,Y B3 ) (STN22). A (X A , Y A ) and B (X B ,Y B ) represent the ideal coordinates of the wafer transferred from any one machine group to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber.

[0059] The steps of atmospheric robot wafer transfer correction are as follows:

[0060] 401: The vacuum robot puts the wafer into the vacuum-atmosphere transition chamber.

[0061] 402: The detected wafer center data is reported, and the deviation values (x1, y1), (x2, y2) of the A-chamber, B-chamber and reference coordinate positions are recorded. It should be noted that the ideal position of the wafer center is (0, 0), and the actual position of the wafer center detected by the AWC sensor is (x1, y1), that is, the (x1, y1) reflects the deviation value generated when the wafer is transferred from the vacuum transfer chamber to the vacuum-atmosphere transition chamber.

[0062] 403: The deviation value of the wafer put by the vacuum robot is converted into the correction value (-x1, -y1), (-x2, -y2) of the wafer taken by the atmospheric robot.

[0063] 404: The host computer sends instructions to the atmospheric robot, and the atmospheric robot A / B respectively executes the wafer taking action to the specified coordinate position.

[0064] 405: The atmospheric robot A takes wafer A to the specified coordinate position (X A -x1, Y A -y1).

[0065] 406: The atmospheric robot B takes wafer B to the specified coordinate position (X B -x2, Y B -y2).

[0066] The wafer transfer method of the present application includes but is not limited to the following steps:

[0067] Grouping the multiple machines in the multi-station reaction chamber;

[0068] Adding multiple station reference positions to the vacuum-atmosphere transition chamber, and each station reference position in the vacuum-atmosphere transition chamber corresponds to the station reference position of each machine group in the multi-station reaction chamber.

[0069] In one embodiment, the wafer transfer method of the present application further includes the following steps:

[0070] When the atmospheric robot takes the wafer to the vacuum-atmosphere transition chamber, for wafers from different machine groups, the wafer taking position of the atmospheric robot is corrected according to the station reference position in the vacuum-atmosphere transition chamber corresponding to the machine group.

[0071] In one embodiment, the correction step includes but is not limited to the following sub-steps:

[0072] detecting a center coordinate of the wafer when the vacuum robot places the wafer into the vacuum-to-atmosphere transfer chamber, wherein the center coordinate is considered as a deviation value between an actual position of the wafer placed by the vacuum robot into the vacuum-to-atmosphere transfer chamber and a station reference position in the vacuum-to-atmosphere transfer chamber;

[0073] converting the deviation value into a correction value for the atmospheric robot to pick up the wafer;

[0074] instructing the atmospheric robot to perform a pick-up action at a specified coordinate position, wherein the specified coordinate position is a difference between the station reference position and the correction value.

[0075] In one embodiment, the station reference position of each group of machines in the multi-station reaction chamber is a specified position for the vacuum robot to pick up the wafer in the multi-station reaction chamber.

[0076] In one embodiment, each station reference position in the vacuum-to-atmosphere transfer chamber is a specified position for the vacuum robot to place the wafer from the vacuum transfer chamber to the vacuum-to-atmosphere transfer chamber.

[0077] In one embodiment, grouping the multiple machines in the multi-station reaction chamber comprises:

[0078] grouping the multiple machines in the multi-station reaction chamber in such a way that each group of machines includes two adjacent machines.

[0079] In one embodiment, the multi-station reaction chamber has multiple station reference positions, and each group of machines corresponds to one station reference position among the multiple station reference positions.

[0080] The present application also provides a semiconductor device employing the wafer transfer and pick-up method as described above, which includes but is not limited to the following devices:

[0081] a multi-station reaction chamber having a multi-station robot therein;

[0082] a vacuum transfer chamber having a vacuum robot therein;

[0083] a vacuum-to-atmosphere transfer chamber;

[0084] an automatic wafer centering sensor arranged at an edge of the vacuum transfer chamber for detecting a center coordinate of the wafer;

[0085] wherein the wafer is transferred between the multi-station reaction chamber and the vacuum transfer chamber, and between the vacuum transfer chamber and the vacuum-to-atmosphere transfer chamber.

[0086] In one embodiment, the semiconductor device further comprises a front end module, and the atmospheric robot is disposed in the front end module.

[0087] In one embodiment, when the wafer passes through the automatic wafer centering sensor, the sensor detects a plurality of point coordinates on the wafer, and calculates the center coordinates of the wafer according to the plurality of point coordinates.

[0088] In one embodiment, the plurality of multi-station reaction chambers are four, and are arranged on the left and right sides of the vacuum transfer chamber.

[0089] In one embodiment, the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber has a chamber A and a chamber B. The chamber A corresponds to the film loading / unloading of the left two multi-station reaction chambers (PM). The chamber B corresponds to the film loading / unloading of the right two multi-station reaction chambers (PM).

[0090] According to the wafer film transfer method of the present application, the vacuum robot increases a plurality of station reference positions when transferring the film from the multi-station reaction chamber to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, and each of the plurality of station reference positions corresponds to the station reference position of each station of the multi-station reaction chamber, thereby solving the film transfer alarm problem caused by the large position deviation of the wafer transferred from each station of the process reaction chamber to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber. In addition, the present application increases the film taking correction function of the atmospheric robot, thereby avoiding the failure of the atmospheric robot to take the film due to the large position deviation of the wafer.

[0091] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative components, modules, blocks, units, circuits, systems and steps described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be implemented by hardware, software (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.), or combinations thereof. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, units, circuits, systems and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled persons can implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present application.

[0092] Flow diagrams have been used herein to illustrate the operations or steps performed by systems in accordance with embodiments of the present application. It will be understood that the foregoing or following operations or steps need not necessarily be performed in the precise order described. Rather, various operations or steps can be handled in reverse order, or performed concurrently, or handled or performed in another order. Other operations or steps can also be added or removed from these processes, or one or more of these operations or steps can be removed from these processes.

[0093] The order of the processing elements and sequences, unless otherwise specified in the claims, is not intended to be a limitation, but is instead done for the ease of presentation. The use of numbering or letters in the claims to identify steps in a process, unless otherwise specified in the claims, is not intended to be a limitation, but is instead done for the ease of presentation.

[0094] Furthermore, aspects of the present application can be provided, for example, as a computer product including a computer-readable medium having stored thereon computer program codes.

[0095] A computer readable signal medium can include a propagated data signal with computer program code embodied therein, for example, in baseband or as part of a carrier wave. Such a propagated signal can take any of a variety of forms, including, but not limited to, electro-magnetic, optical, or any combination thereof. Computer program code embodied on a computer readable signal medium can be transmitted using any appropriate medium, including, but not limited to, wireless, wire line, optical fiber cable, R.F., or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

[0096] Computer program code for carrying out operations of aspects of the present application can be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Scala, Smalltalk, Eiffel, JADE, Emerald, C++, C#, VB.NET, Python, or the like, conventional procedural programming languages, such as the "C" programming language, Visual Basic, Fortran 2003, Perl, COBOL 2002, PHP, ABAP, dynamic programming languages such as Python, Ruby and Groovy, or the like, and / or other programming languages. The program code can execute entirely on the user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer can be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection can be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments, electronic program code can be downloaded from an on-demand computing platform, such as Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, or the like, or used as a service, such as Software as a Service (SaaS).

[0097] Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals can be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that can be referenced throughout the above description can be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

[0098] The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein can be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. A software module can reside in RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An exemplary storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium can be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium can reside in an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC). Alternatively, the processor and the storage medium can reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0099] In one or more exemplary embodiments, the functions described can be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software as a computer program product, the functions can be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. A storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Also, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital subscriber line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0100] The terminology and phraseology employed herein are for descriptive purposes and should not be regarded as limiting. The use of such terminology and phraseology does not exclude any equivalent of the features described (or include where such are not excluded) and it is recognized that various modifications are possible within the scope of the claims. Other modifications, variations, and alternatives are also possible. Accordingly, the claims should be regarded as encompassing all such equivalents.

[0101] For the same reasons, it should be noted that the foregoing description of embodiments of the application is sometimes in terms of implementing aspects of one or more applications, and occasionally will describe features that would be useful in some implementations more than others. The skilled artisan will recognize that not all implementations need implement all features or implementations of one or more applications. Thus, the skilled artisan will recognize that, in some contexts, where subclaims are present in the claims below and they do not have the word "means" associated with them, the claims can be understood to be implementing structural circuity claims, as opposed to means-plus-function claims that refer to actions that are performed by a specified apparatus. Conversely, where subclaims refer to specified apparatuses configured to perform specified actions, the claims can be understood to be implementing means-plus-function claims.

[0102] Also, it is noted that, as used herein, "and / or", where used, means "and / or", both terms can individually be present. Conjunctive language such as the transitional phrase "at least one of," unless specifically stated otherwise, conjunctive language such as the transitional phrase "at least one of," is to be interpreted in the alternative (i.e., "or" rather than "and"). Conjunctive language such as the transitional phrase "at least one of," unless otherwise specifically stated, conjunctive language such as the transitional phrase "at least one of," is to be interpreted in the alternative (i.e., "or" rather than "and").

Claims

1. A wafer modulation and transfer method, wherein, The wafer is transported within a multi-station reaction chamber, a vacuum transport chamber, and a vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, characterized in that it includes: Group the multiple machines within the multi-station reaction chamber; Multiple workstation reference positions are added to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, and each workstation reference position in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber corresponds one-to-one with the workstation reference position of each machine group in the multi-station reaction chamber.

2. The wafer transfer method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, Also includes: When the atmospheric robot retrieves a wafer from the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, for wafers from different machine groups, the robot's wafer retrieval position is corrected according to the workstation reference position in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber corresponding to the machine group.

3. The wafer modulation method as described in claim 2, characterized in that, The correction steps include: When the vacuum robot in the vacuum transfer chamber places the wafer into the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, it detects the center coordinates of the wafer. The center coordinates are considered as the deviation between the actual position of the wafer placed in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber by the vacuum robot and the workstation reference position in the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber. The deviation value is converted into a correction value for the image taken by the atmospheric manipulator; The command instructs the atmospheric robot to move to a designated coordinate position to perform a film-picking action, wherein the designated coordinate position is the difference between the workstation reference position and the correction value.

4. The wafer modulation method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The reference position of each machine group in the multi-station reaction chamber is the designated position for the vacuum robot to pick up the wafer in the multi-station reaction chamber.

5. The wafer modulation method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, Each workstation reference position within the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber is a designated position for the vacuum robot to place the wafer from the vacuum transfer chamber to the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber.

6. The wafer modulation method as described in claim 1, characterized in that, The multiple machines within the multi-station reaction chamber are grouped as follows: The multiple machines in the multi-station reaction chamber are grouped according to the method of forming a machine group with two adjacent machines.

7. The wafer modulation method as described in claim 6, characterized in that, The multi-station reaction chamber has multiple workstation reference positions, and each machine group corresponds to one of the multiple workstation reference positions.

8. A semiconductor device employing the wafer transfer method as described in any one of claims 1 to 7, comprising: A multi-station reaction chamber, wherein a multi-station robotic arm is installed in the multi-station reaction chamber; A vacuum transfer chamber is provided, wherein a vacuum manipulator is installed within the vacuum transfer chamber; Vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber; An automatic wafer alignment sensor, located at the edge of the vacuum transfer chamber, is used to detect the center coordinates of the wafer; The wafer is transferred between the multi-station reaction chamber and the vacuum transfer chamber, and between the vacuum transfer chamber and the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber.

9. The semiconductor device as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that, Also includes: A device front-end module coupled to a vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber, wherein the device front-end module is equipped with an atmospheric manipulator, which retrieves a wafer from the vacuum-atmosphere conversion chamber.

10. The semiconductor device as claimed in claim 8, characterized in that, When the wafer passes the automatic wafer alignment sensor, the sensor detects the coordinates of multiple points on the wafer and calculates the center coordinates of the wafer based on the multiple point coordinates.

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