Applied Materials, Inc.

Amitabh Puri

Michael Teferra

David C Duffin

Eric Andrew Englhardt

Daniel R Jessop

Glade L Warner

Todd J Brill

Jeffrey C Hudgens

Ronald Vern Schauer

Mark Roger Covington

Earl Hunter

Suresh Kumaraswami

Michael Robert Rice

Paul Benjamin Reuter

Douglas Brian Baumgarten

Steven Mark Reedy

Russell Kaplan

Russell Duke

Robert B Lowrance

Nir Merry

Martin R Elliott

Steven Victor Sansoni

Dean C Hruzek

Kirk Van Katwyk

Robert Irwin Decottignies

David Ganon

Steve Szudarski

Peter Irwin

Gerard Crean

Andrew Scott Cornelius

Disclosed are implementations for efficient purging of substrate carriers (and content held therein) and preventing external contaminants from entering a gas purge apparatus by coupling the gas purge apparatus to a substrate carrier, performing a first gas purging session of an environment of the substrate carrier, receiving a first signal of a first signal type, responsive to receiving the first signal, keeping the gas purge apparatus coupled to the substrate carrier, performing a second gas purging session of the environment of the substrate carrier, receiving a second signal of a second signal type, and, responsive to receiving the second signal, decoupling the purge apparatus from the substrate carrier.

Prevention of contamination of substrates during gas purging

Embodiments provided herein provide for methods and apparatus for detecting, authenticating, and tracking processing components, including consumable components or non-consumable components used on substrate processing systems for electronic device manufacturing, such as semiconductor chip manufacturing. The semiconductor processing systems and/or its processing components herein include a remote communication device, such as a wireless communication apparatus, for example, radio frequency identification (RFID) devices or other devices embedded in, disposed in, disposed on, located on, or otherwise coupled to one or more processing components or processing component assemblies and/or integrated within the semiconductor processing system itself. The processing component may include a single component (part) or an assembly of components (parts) that are used within the semiconductor processing tool.

RFID part authentication and tracking of processing components

Implementations described herein generally relate to improved part authentication. In one implementation, a method includes acquiring information related to a part. The information may include identification information of the part and a unique code. The method further includes determining, using a stored algorithm, whether the unique code comprises a result of applying the stored algorithm to the identification information. The method further includes, responsive to determining that the unique code comprises the result of applying the stored algorithm to the identification information, activating a feature of the part or a feature of process equipment associated with the part.

Unique part authentication

Embodiments provided herein provide for methods and apparatus for detecting, authenticating, and tracking processing components including consumable components or non-consumable components used on substrate processing systems for electronic device manufacturing, such as semiconductor chip manufacturing. The semiconductor processing systems and/or its processing components herein include a remote communication device, such as a wireless communication apparatus, for example radio frequency identification (RFID) devices or other devices embedded in, disposed in, disposed on, located on, or otherwise coupled to one or more processing components or processing component assemblies and/or integrated within the semiconductor processing system itself. The processing component may include a single component (part) or an assembly of components (parts) that are used within the semiconductor processing tool.

Embodiments of the invention are directed toward systems and methods that execute legacy semiconductor applications using a non-legacy controller. In some embodiments a hardware abstraction layer and/or an emulator can be used to provide communication between a non-legacy operating system and legacy components including legacy applications. In some embodiments various methods and/or devices can be used to emulate and/or translate communications between legacy and non-legacy components.

Enhanced re-hosting capability for legacy hardware and software

In some embodiments, a linked processing tool system is provided that includes (1) a first processing tool having at least a first transfer chamber configured to couple to a plurality of processing chambers; (2) a second processing tool having at least a second transfer chamber configured to couple to a plurality of processing chambers; (3) a third transfer chamber coupled between the first and second processing tools and configured to transfer substrates between the first and second processing tools; and (4) a single sequencer that controls substrate transfer operations between the first processing tool, the second processing tool and the third transfer chamber of the linked processing tool system. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Linked vacuum processing tools and methods of using the same

Systems, tools, and methods are provided in which a first signal is transmitted from a tool to a Fab indicating that all substrates to be processed have been removed from a specific carrier and that the specific carrier may be temporarily unloaded from a loadport of the tool. A second signal is transmitted from the tool to the Fab indicating that the specific carrier may be returned to the tool. While the carrier is unloaded from the tool, other carriers may be loaded on the vacated loadport. Numerous other features and aspects of the invention are disclosed.

Methods and apparatus for enhanced operation of substrate carrier handlers

In one aspect, a method is provided for electronic device manufacturing. The method includes receiving a request to transfer a carrier to or from a first substrate loading station of an electronic device manufacturing facility, and assigning one of a plurality of carrier supports to carry out the transfer based on a spacing on either side of the assigned carrier being greater than an acceptable spacing. Numerous other aspects are provided.

Methods and apparatus for transferring a substrate carrier within an electronic device manufacturing facility

In at least one aspect, the invention provides an electronic device fabrication facility (Fab) that uses small lot carriers that may be transparently integrated into an existing Fab that uses large lot carriers. A manufacturing execution system (MES) may interact with the inventive small lot Fab as if the small lot Fab is any other Fab component in an existing large lot Fab without requiring knowledge of how to control small lot Fab components (e.g., beyond specifying a processing recipe). A small lot Fab according to the present invention may encapsulate the small lot Fab's internal use of small lot components and present itself to a large lot Fab's MES as if the small lot Fab is a component that uses large lot carriers.

Methods and apparatus for integrating large and small lot electronic device fabrication facilities

Methods and apparatus are provided for managing movement of small lots between processing tools within an electronic device manufacturing facility. In some embodiments, a number of priority lots to be processed is determined and an equivalent number of carrier storage locations are reserved at a substrate loading station of a processing tool. The number of reserved carrier storage locations are made available either by processing and advancing occupying non-priority lots and/or moving unprocessed occupying non-priority lots from the substrate loading station. Priority lots are then transferred to the reserved carrier storage locations. Other embodiments are provided.

Methods and apparatus for material control system interface

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San Jose, CA, United States of America

Amitabh Puri