Dynamic Transfer Mechanism Selection for Wafer Retention Reduction
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Solution Overview
Problem
The productivity of coating and developing apparatuses is limited due to deviations in the number of transfer processes among transfer arms, leading to inefficient use of processing modules and prolonged retention times of wafers in processing modules.
Innovation Solution
A coating and developing apparatus with a control unit that selects the most efficient transfer mechanism based on transfer status, determining delay times for each transfer mechanism to minimize deviations in transfer processes and reduce wafer retention times by choosing the mechanism with the shorter delay time for subsequent transfers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a fixed transfer schedule is predetermined for all wafers, then the transfer process is simple to manage, but deviations in the number of transfer processes among transfer arms occur, limiting productivity
Solution Approach 1:
The transfer schedule is changed from a fixed predetermined plan to a dynamic adaptive schedule. The control unit continuously monitors the number of transfer processes performed by each transfer arm and adjusts the transfer schedule in real-time to balance the workload among transfer arms, preventing any single arm from becoming a bottleneck while maintaining operational simplicity through automated control.
2Device complexity
If wafers are retained in processing modules until all transfer processes are complete, then transfer coordination is simplified, but wafer retention time increases, reducing processing efficiency
Solution Approach 1:
The control unit implements a feedback mechanism that continuously monitors the status of transfer arms and processing modules. Based on this real-time information, the control unit dynamically adjusts the transfer schedule to determine the optimal timing for transferring wafers between modules. This allows wafers to be transferred as soon as their required processing is complete, minimizing retention time while the control unit manages transfer coordination to maintain system simplicity.
Data Source
AI summary
A coating and developing apparatus includes: first and second transfer mechanisms for transferring a substrate from a first mount module to a second mount module, one of the first and second transfer mechanisms being selected each time when the substrate transfer should be performed; first and second processing modules for performing substrate processing, for which the transfer of substrates is performed by the first and second transfer mechanisms, respectively; and a control unit. The control unit controls the transfer mechanisms for the substrate transfer by determining a delay time, representing a delay caused by the transfer of the substrate to the second mount module to the timing of transfer of a substrate from the first/second processing module, in regard to each of the first and second transfer mechanisms and selecting one of the first and second transfer mechanisms whose delay time is the shortest.