Ebara Corporation

Ryuya Koizumi

Kunio Oishi

Masashi Shimoyama

Takashi Mitsuya

Mizuki Nagai

Koji Nonobe

Jumpei Fujikata

Yuji Araki

Toshio Yokoyama

Yoshio Minami

Tensei Sato

Yoichi Kobayashi

Hideharu Aoyama

Masayuki Fujiki

Hideki Wakabayashi

Kazuma Ideguchi

An optimal number of modules for use is accurately estimated in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. Provided is a method applied to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus including one or a plurality of substrate processing modules each including a plurality of submodules. The present method includes a step of estimating the optimal number of the submodules for use, based on a target production amount and predicted production amount of substrates and a use rate of the substrate processing module, a step of preparing, based on the estimated optimal number for use, a schedule to process a substrate with the optimal number of the submodules for use, a step of updating, based on the prepared schedule, the predicted production amount and the use rate, and a step of repeating the estimating step by use of the updated predicted production amount and use rate, to update the optimal number of the submodules for use.

Method for determining optimal number of submodules for use in semiconductor manufacturing apparatus including substrate processing module including plurality of submodules, and semiconductor manufacturing apparatus

A plating method capable of saving a substrate in an event of a failure of a transporter, a plating tank, or other component when the substrate is being plated is disclosed. The plating method includes: transporting a plurality of substrates to a plurality of plating tanks, respectively, with a transporter; immersing the plurality of substrates in a plating solution held in the plurality of plating tanks to plate the plurality of substrates; detecting a failure that has occurred in the transporter or a post-processing tank; and replacing the plating solution in the plurality of plating tanks with a preservative liquid to thereby immerse the plurality of substrates in the preservative liquid.

Plating method and plating apparatus

A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus including: a first device; a first calculation circuit that calculates one or more feature quantities of the first device from detected physical quantities; and a failure prediction circuit that determines a portion of model data with a minimum deviation between the measured feature quantities vector comprising the measured one or more feature quantities and a feature quantities vector comprising one or more feature quantities at each time in the plurality of pieces of model data, and calculates a predicted time until failure from a difference between the failure time point in the determined piece of model data and a point in time in the determined piece of model data at which the deviation between the measured feature quantities vector and the feature quantities vector at each time of the plurality of portions of model data is the minimum; and stops the receiving of a new substrate to prevent an introduction of defects on the new substrate.

Semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, failure prediction method for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and failure prediction program for semiconductor manufacturing apparatus

One object of the present disclosure is to improve the accuracy of detection of an abnormality of various devices, and/or to advance the timing of detection of an abnormality. There is provided an apparatus for plating a substrate, comprising: an anode placed to be opposed to the substrate; an electric field regulating member placed between the substrate and the anode, provided with an opening, and equipped with an opening adjustment member configured to change a dimension of the opening; a motor configured to drive the opening adjustment member; and a control device configured to obtain an electric current value or a load factor of the motor, to calculate an amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time from the obtained electric current value or the obtained load factor of the motor, and to detect an abnormality of the electric field regulating member when it is detected that the amount of change in the load factor of the motor per unit time exceeds a predetermined threshold value.

Apparatus for plating and method of plating

A method of the present disclosure includes: plating a plurality of substrates using a substrate holder; determining a total number of substrates that have been plated using the substrate holder until a failure occurs in the substrate holder; determining a first processable number and a second processable number; generating a first data set constituted by a combination of first condition data and the first processable number, the first condition data representing a state of a component of the substrate holder; generating a second data set constituted by a combination of second condition data and the second processable number, the second condition data representing a state of a component of the substrate holder; and optimizing a parameter of a prediction model constituted by a neural network using training data including the first data set and the second data set.

Method of constructing prediction model that predicts number of plateable substrates, method of constructing selection model for predicting component that causes failure, and method of predicting number of plateable substrates

Provided is a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, comprising: a first device; one or more sensors that detect physical quantities indicating a state of the first device; a first calculation circuit that calculates one or more feature quantities of the first device from the detected physical quantities; and a failure prediction circuit that monitors a temporal change in the one or more feature quantities calculated in the first calculation circuit, and stops receiving a new substrate when a duration for which a degree of deviation of the one or more feature quantities from those at a normal time is increasing exceeds a first time, and/or when a number of increases and decreases per unit time in the degree of deviation of the one or more feature quantities from those at the normal time exceeds a first number.

A plating system comprising a plating tank for applying plate processing to a substrate, a sensor configured to measure actual plating film thickness of the substrate, and a controller configured to control plating current supplied to the plating tank and plating time for the plate processing of the substrate within the plating tank. The controller is capable of setting target plating film thickness, plating current, and plating time as a plate processing recipe. At least one of the plating current and the plating time is automatically corrected so that the actual plating film thickness and the target plating film thickness become equal to each other, and the result is reflected in the plate processing for the subsequent substrate.

Plating system, a plating system control method, and a storage medium containing a program for causing a computer to execute the plating system control method

A calculation amount and calculation time for a substrate conveyance schedule are reduced. A scheduler is provided which is incorporated in a control section of a substrate processing apparatus including a plurality of substrate processing sections that process a substrate, a conveyance section that conveys the substrate, and the control section that controls the conveyance section and the substrate processing sections, and calculates a substrate conveyance schedule. The scheduler includes: a modeling section that models processing conditions, processing time and constraints of the substrate processing apparatus into nodes and edges using a graph network theory, prepares a graph network, and calculates a longest route length to each node; and a calculation section that calculates the substrate conveyance schedule based on the longest route length.

Scheduler, substrate processing apparatus, and substrate conveyance method

The present invention provides a substrate holding member comprising: a first holding member; a second holding member that cooperates with the first holding member to hold the substrate therebetween; and a transparent portion provided in at least one of the first and second holding members.

Substrate holding member, substrate processing device, method for controlling substrate processing device, and storage medium storing programs

A method is provided, the method including: repeatedly acquiring a state of one or more devices included in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus; providing a first animation indicating an operation of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus by displaying at least an image indicating the state of one or more devices on a display unit each time the state is acquired; storing, in a memory, the acquired state of one or more devices and a time related to the state; receiving an input for switching a display mode; and providing a second animation of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus by displaying, one by one on the display unit, at least one or more images respectively indicating the state of one or more devices related to one or more times including a reference time stored in the memory, after receiving the input for switching a display mode.

Method of controlling display of operation of semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and non-transitory computer readable storage medium therefor, and system for performing display concerning operation of semiconductor manufacturing apparatus

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Tokyo, Japan

Ryuya Koizumi