Apparatus and method for centering a rotation assembly in a substrate processing system

Abstract

To provide an apparatus and method for centering a rotating assembly in a substrate processing system.SOLUTION: A system and method for centering a rotating assembly is disclosed. Rotation assemblies may be used in substrate processing systems to move substrates between reaction chambers within the system, and centering thereof is important for process quality. The present disclosure provides a substrate processing apparatus having a rotation arm centering function, including a predetermined number of reaction chambers configured to process a substrate, a rotation assembly disposed at centers of the reaction chambers, a chamber wall surrounding the reaction chambers, a sending unit disposed on a rotation plate, the sending unit being configured to send a signal to a receiver, and a plurality of sensors disposed at designated locations on the chamber wall, each of the sensors being configured to receive the signal sent from the sending unit.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 1

Description

[Technical Field]

[0001] FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE The present disclosure relates generally to substrate processing systems, and more particularly to substrate processing systems having a rotating assembly centering feature and a method for centering a rotating assembly of a substrate processing system. [Background technology]

[0002] Conventionally, substrate processing systems may have multiple reaction chambers for processing substrates. In these systems, the substrate may be switched between the reaction chambers for each processing step, and a substrate transfer mechanism may be provided.

[0003] The rotation assembly may be used to move a substrate between reaction chambers in a multi-chamber substrate processing system, and the substrate movement may be rotation. For processing quality, the substrate should be accurately positioned in the center of the reaction chamber during processing (etching, deposition, etc.).

[0004] In order to place the substrate at the proper position, the rotating assembly should be positioned at the center of rotation and at the proper altitude (height), but after repeated processing, the position of the rotating assembly may deviate a little from the proper position, and this inaccuracy should be corrected as soon as possible for better substrate process quality.

[0005] Therefore, there is a great need to position the rotating assembly correctly during substrate processing. Summary of the Invention

[0006] This Summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are described in more detail below in the Detailed Description of Example Embodiments of this Disclosure. This Summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter.

[0007] According to one embodiment, a substrate processing apparatus with a rotary arm centering function may be provided, comprising: a predetermined number of reaction chambers configured to process substrates; a rotary assembly disposed at the center of the reaction chambers; a chamber wall surrounding the reaction chambers; a transmitting unit disposed on the rotating plate, the transmitting unit configured to transmit a signal to a receiver; and a plurality of sensors disposed at designated locations on the chamber wall, each of the sensors configured to receive a signal transmitted from the transmitting unit.

[0008] In one aspect, the rotation assembly comprises a rotation plate positioned at the center of the reaction chamber and a predetermined number of rotation arms attached to the rotation plate, the rotation arms configured to move substrates between the reaction chambers.

[0009] In an extended embodiment, the system may further comprise a horizontal adjustment unit configured to adjust the position of the rotating plate horizontally, and a vertical adjustment unit configured to adjust the position of the rotating plate vertically.

[0010] In an extended embodiment, a system may be provided further comprising a controller unit electrically coupled to the sensors, the horizontal adjustment unit, and the vertical adjustment unit, the controller unit configured to monitor and evaluate signals from each of the sensors, and further configured to control the horizontal adjustment unit and the vertical adjustment unit to position the rotating assembly.

[0011] In an enhanced embodiment, a system may be provided further comprising a user interface coupled to the controller and configured to receive input from a human operator and display signals from each of the sensors and / or a current position of the rotating assembly.

[0012] In one aspect, the controller is further configured to control the leveling unit to position the rotating assembly in a predetermined position.

[0013] In one aspect, the controller is further configured to control the vertical adjustment unit to position the rotating assembly at a predetermined height.

[0014] In one embodiment, the input is the horizontal and / or vertical position of the rotating arm.

[0015] In one embodiment, the signal is one of a laser, an infrared beam, an electromagnetic beam, and an ultrasound.

[0016] In one aspect, the controller is further configured to evaluate the signal by comparing it to the input.

[0017] According to another embodiment, there may be provided a method for centering a rotating arm used in a substrate processing apparatus, the method including providing a transmitter on the rotating assembly and a predetermined number of sensors on predetermined spots on a chamber wall, transmitting a signal from the transmitter to each of the sensors, evaluating the received signal from each of the sensors by a controller, and positioning the rotating assembly by the controller according to the value of the evaluation.

[0018] In an extended embodiment, it may be provided that the positioning further includes positioning the rotating assembly horizontally using a horizontal adjustment unit and positioning the rotating assembly vertically using a vertical adjustment unit.

[0019] In an enhanced embodiment, a method may be provided further including obtaining input via a user interface and displaying the position status by the value via the user interface.

[0020] BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS It will be understood that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of the illustrated embodiments of the present disclosure. [Brief explanation of the drawings]

[0021] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram of a substrate processing system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 2] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a substrate processing system according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 3] FIG. 2 is another schematic diagram of a substrate processing system according to another embodiment of the present disclosure. [Figure 4] 1 is a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0022] DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENTS While certain specific embodiments and examples are disclosed below, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the scope of the invention extends beyond the specifically disclosed embodiments and / or uses of the invention, and obvious variations and equivalents thereof. It is therefore not intended that the scope of the disclosed invention should be limited by the specific disclosed embodiments described below.

[0023] As used herein, the term "substrate" may refer to any single or multiple underlying materials, including any single or multiple underlying materials that may be modified or upon which a device, circuit, or film may be formed. A "substrate" may be continuous or discontinuous, rigid or flexible, solid or porous, and combinations thereof. A substrate may be in any form, such as a powder, a plate, or a workpiece. Substrates in plate form may include wafers of various shapes and sizes. Substrates may be made of semiconductor materials, such as, for example, silicon, silicon germanium, silicon oxide, gallium arsenide, gallium nitride, and silicon carbide.

[0024] For example, the substrate in powder form may have applications in pharmaceutical manufacturing. The porous substrate may comprise a polymer. Examples of workpieces may include medical devices (e.g., stents and syringes), jewelry, tooling devices, components for battery manufacturing (e.g., anodes, cathodes, or separators), or components of photovoltaic cells, etc.

[0025] The continuous substrate may extend beyond the boundaries of the process chamber in which the deposition process occurs. In some processes, the continuous substrate may move through the process chamber so that the process continues until the edge of the substrate is reached. The continuous substrate may be supplied from a continuous substrate supply system to enable the manufacture and production of continuous substrates in any suitable form.

[0026] Non-limiting examples of continuous substrates may include sheets, nonwoven films, rolls, foils, webs, flexible materials, bundles of continuous filaments or fibers (e.g., ceramic or polymer fibers). Continuous substrates may also include carriers or sheets onto which non-continuous substrates are placed.

[0027] The illustrations presented herein are not meant to be actual representations of any particular materials, structures, or devices, but merely idealized representations used to describe embodiments of the present disclosure.

[0028] The specific implementations shown and described are illustrative of the invention and its best mode and are in no way intended to otherwise limit the scope of aspects and implementations. Also, for the sake of brevity, conventional manufacturing, association, preparation, and other functional aspects of the systems may not be described in detail. Furthermore, connecting lines shown in the various figures are intended to represent example functional relationships and / or physical couplings between the various elements. Many alternative or additional functional relationships or physical connections may be present in an actual system and / or may not be present in some embodiments.

[0029] It should be understood that the configurations and / or approaches described herein are exemplary in nature, and that these specific embodiments or examples are not to be construed in a limiting sense, as numerous variations are possible. The specific routines or methods described herein may represent one or more of any number of processing strategies. As such, the various illustrated operations may be performed in the order illustrated, in other orders, or omitted in some cases.

[0030] The subject matter of the present disclosure includes all novel and non-obvious combinations and subcombinations of the various processes, systems, and configurations, and other features, functions, operations and / or properties disclosed herein, as well as all equivalents thereof.

[0031] FIG. 1 shows a schematic diagram of a substrate processing system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0032] One embodiment of system 100 may include reaction chambers (RC1, RC2, RC3, RC4) 110, 120, 130, 140. While the number of reaction chambers and / or the location of the reaction chambers may vary, the present disclosure uses a system having four reaction chambers to simplify the explanation.

[0033] The rotating assembly 160 may be disposed inside and at the center of the reaction chambers 110, 120, 130, and 140. The rotating assembly 160 may include a rotating plate 161 at its center and multiple rotating arms 162, 163, 164, and 165 attached to the rotating plate 161. In this embodiment, there are four reaction chambers and therefore four rotating arms 162, 163, 164, and 165, each corresponding to a reaction chamber 110, 120, 130, and 140, respectively. Each rotating arm can move a substrate disposed on its corresponding reaction chamber.

[0034] A chamber wall 150 may surround the chambers 110, 120, 130, 140 as well as the rotating assembly 160. A number of sensors 171, 172, 173, 174 may be positioned at predetermined locations on the chamber wall 150. The sensors 171, 172, 173, 174 may receive signals transmitted from a transmitter 170 attached to the top of the rotating plate 161.

[0035] The location of the transmitter 170 on the rotating plate 161 can be selected to be exactly at the center of the rotating assembly 160. The altitudes (heights) of the transmitter 170 and sensors 171, 172, 173, 174 are described below.

[0036] Prior to processing, transmitter 170 can transmit a signal to each of sensors 171, 172, 173, and 174. Sensors 171, 172, 173, and 174 can receive the transmitted signal. By observing sensors 171, 172, 173, and 174, it can be determined whether rotation assembly 160 is positioned properly (center of chamber). An operator may then calibrate the position before substrate processing begins.

[0037] Another embodiment of the present disclosure is shown in Figure 2. In this embodiment, calibration of centering the rotating assembly can be performed automatically.

[0038] Each of the sensors 171, 172, 173, 174 may be electrically connected to the controller 180. The controller 180 may be configured to monitor and evaluate signals from each of the sensors 171, 172, 173, 174.

[0039] The controller 180 may be connected to a horizontal adjustment unit 181 and a vertical adjustment unit 182 shown in FIG.

[0040] FIG. 3 shows a side view of the system illustrated in FIG. 2, with the rotating arm and reaction chamber omitted for easier illustration.

[0041] The rotating plate 160 may be positioned at a height "h" above the floor of the chamber 151 of the system 300. For simplicity, the horizontal adjustment unit 181 and the vertical adjustment unit 182 are depicted inside the chamber 151, but they may also be located below the chamber 151. The height "h" may be an accurately calculated height from the floor of the chamber 151 so that the transmitter 170 may be at the appropriate height.

[0042] The horizontal adjustment unit 181 may be configured to horizontally move the rotating assembly 160. This means that the horizontal adjustment unit 181 can move the rotating assembly 160 disposed thereon in the xy plane.

[0043] The vertical adjustment unit 182 may be configured to vertically move the rotating assembly 160. This means that the vertical adjustment unit 182 can move the rotating assembly 160 disposed thereon in the z direction. This means that the height "h" can be changed.

[0044] The mechanisms of horizontal adjustment unit 181 and vertical adjustment unit 182 may be electric motors, gears, or cams, either alone or in combination, and the signal transmitted from transmitter 170 may be a laser, ultrasonic, or infrared beam, or any other electromagnetic or sonic beam.

[0045] A user interface 183 may be connected to the controller 180. The user interface 183 may be configured to receive input "A" from an operator and display the centering and leveling status "B" of the rotating assembly 160. Input "A" may be a value for the position of the rotating assembly 160 at a perfectly centered position and good altitude.

[0046] Centering of the rotating plate 161 (ie, rotating assembly 160) can be achieved as follows.

[0047] First, transmitter 170 transmits signals L1, L2, L3, and L4 to sensors 171, 172, 173, and 174. Each sensor may indicate whether the signal it receives is correct in strength and angle (azimuth). In this case, an operator may check out the sensor and manually calibrate the center position of rotating assembly 160. Alternatively, each sensor may transmit the signal it receives to controller 180. Controller 180 may monitor and evaluate signals L1, L2, L3, and L4 to calculate a position value of rotating assembly 160 to which transmitter 170 is attached. Input "A" may also be compared to the position value of rotating assembly 160 derived from the signal, and the comparison may be transmitted by controller 180 to horizontal adjustment unit 181 and vertical adjustment unit 182 for centering and leveling of rotating assembly 160 in accordance with input "A."

[0048] The sensors 171, 172, 173, 174 may be mounted on the chamber wall 150 at a height "h1" above the floor of the chamber 151 that is different from "h".

[0049] FIG. 4 shows a flowchart of a method according to an embodiment of the present disclosure.

[0050] In method step 410, a position value may be input into user interface 183. The input value may reside in user interface 183 and / or controller 180. In method step 420, transmitter 170 may transmit a signal to each of the sensors attached to chamber wall 150. After 420, controller 180 may monitor and / or evaluate signals obtained from the sensors in method step 430. In step 430, input "A" may be compared to the signal value from the sensor to obtain a difference value.

[0051] In method step 440, the controller 180 controls the horizontal adjustment unit 181 and the vertical adjustment unit 182 to change the horizontal and vertical positions of the rotating assembly 160 by the differential values ​​so that the desired center and level of the rotating assembly 160 can be maintained at any point during substrate processing. Also, in method step 450, the user interface 183 can display the status of the rotating assembly 160 (i.e., the position value of the rotating assembly 160).

[0052] The above-described arrangements of apparatus and method are merely illustrative of the application of the principles of the present invention, and numerous other embodiments and modifications may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. The scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined not with reference to the above description, but should instead be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with their full scope of equivalents. [Explanation of symbols]

[0053] 100 systems 110 Reaction Chamber 120 Reaction Chamber 130 Reaction Chamber 140 Reaction Chamber 150 Chamber wall 160 Rotating Assembly 170 Transmitter 180 Controller 181 Leveling unit 182 Vertical adjustment unit 183 User Interface

Claims

1. A substrate processing apparatus having a rotation arm centering function, a predetermined number of reaction chambers configured to process substrates; a rotation assembly disposed at the center of the reaction chamber; a chamber wall surrounding the reaction chamber; a transmitting unit disposed on the rotating assembly, the transmitting unit configured to transmit a signal to a receiver; a plurality of sensors disposed at designated locations on the chamber wall, each of the sensors configured to receive signals transmitted from the transmitting unit; A substrate processing apparatus comprising:

2. the rotating assembly a rotating plate disposed at the center of the reaction chamber; The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , further comprising: a predetermined number of rotating arms attached to the rotating plate, the rotating arms configured to move the substrate between the reaction chambers.

3. a horizontal adjustment unit configured to adjust the horizontal position of the rotating assembly; a vertical adjustment unit configured to adjust the vertical position of the rotating assembly; The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

4. 4. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 3, further comprising: a controller unit electrically coupled to the sensors, the horizontal adjustment unit, and the vertical adjustment unit, the controller unit configured to monitor and evaluate the signals from each of the sensors, and further configured to control the horizontal adjustment unit and the vertical adjustment unit to position the rotation assembly.

5. 5. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 4, further comprising: a user interface coupled to the controller, the user interface configured to receive input from a human operator and display the signals from each of the sensors and / or a current position of the rotation assembly.

6. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the controller is further configured to control the leveling unit to position the rotation assembly at a predetermined position.

7. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the controller is further configured to control the vertical adjustment unit to position the rotation assembly at a predetermined height.

8. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the input is a horizontal position input value and / or a vertical position input value of the rotating assembly.

9. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the signal is one of a laser, an infrared beam, an electromagnetic beam, and an ultrasonic wave.

10. The substrate processing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the controller is further configured to evaluate the signal by comparing it to the input.

11. 1. A method for centering a rotary arm used in a substrate processing apparatus, comprising: Providing a transmitter on a rotating assembly and a predetermined number of sensors on predetermined spots on a chamber wall; transmitting a signal from the transmitter to each of the sensors; evaluating, by a controller, the transmitted signal of each of the sensors; positioning the rotating assembly by the controller in response to the evaluation; A method comprising:

12. The positioning is horizontally positioning the rotating assembly using a leveling unit; vertically positioning the rotating assembly using a vertical adjustment unit; The method of claim 11 further comprising:

13. obtaining input via a user interface; displaying a positional status by value through the user interface; The method of claim 11 further comprising:

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