Substrate processing apparatus and storage medium having program stored therein

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11436392-B2
Application number	US-201815982814-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 17, 2018
Priority date	May 18, 2017
Publication date	Sep 6, 2022
Grant date	Sep 6, 2022

Abstract

A substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate includes a setting device that sets a plurality of recipe items including operation conditions of the substrate processing apparatus and a recipe generating device that acquires a plurality of recipe models obtained by changing values of the plurality of recipe items and experimenting or simulating a processing result of the substrate and analyzes the plurality of recipe models to generate a recipe, the recipe generating device combining a part or all of the plurality of recipe models to generate the recipe such that a calculation value of a processing result of the substrate by the recipe satisfies a predetermined condition.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A substrate processing apparatus for processing a substrate, the substrate processing apparatus comprising:
a controller configured to set a plurality of recipe items comprising operation conditions of the substrate processing apparatus,
the controller being further configured to acquire a plurality of recipe models obtained by changing values of the plurality of recipe items and experimenting or simulating a processing result of the substrate, each recipe model configured to correspond to one of a plurality of steps included in a recipe, each recipe model including the plurality of recipe items and the processing result by the values of the plurality of recipe items in the recipe model,
the controller being further configured to analyze the plurality of recipe models to generate the recipe and calculate a value of a processing result of the substrate by the recipe, the controller configured to select an order and a combination of a part or all of the plurality of recipe models to generate the recipe such that a calculation value of the processing result of the substrate by the recipe satisfies a predetermined condition, wherein the controller is configured to generate the recipe by analyzing the plurality of recipe models and, when the calculation value of the processing result of the substrate by the recipe does not satisfy the predetermined condition, to add at least one recipe model generated with a simulation or a statistical method without experiment, and to select an order and a combination of a part or all of the plurality of recipe models after the addition to generate a new recipe; and
the controller being further configured to process the substrate based on the generated new recipe that satisfies the predetermined condition,
wherein the controller is configured to generate the at least one recipe model to be added, by determining a set of the plurality of the recipe items which includes a determined value between a value of at least one recipe item of one recipe model and a value of the at least one recipe item of another recipe model, and obtaining the processing result under the condition of the set of the plurality of recipe items with the simulation or the statistical method.

2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller analyzes the plurality of recipe models with a generalized reduced gradient method (GRG).

3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the controller always monitors an actual processing result of the substrate by the substrate processing apparatus and updates the recipe when the processing result does not satisfy the predetermined condition.

4. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the controller always monitors a particle amount on the substrate and updates the recipe when the particle amount does not satisfy a predetermined condition.

5. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the substrate processing apparatus is connected to an external computer via a communication line and acquires the plurality of recipe models generated in the computer.

6. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the predetermined condition is that in-plane uniformity of the substrate to be processed by the recipe is within a predetermined range.

7. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the
substrate processing apparatus is a polishing apparatus including a polishing head, the
plurality of recipe items include a number of revolutions of the polishing head, a number of revolutions of the substrate, a position of the polishing head, and a processing time, and
the processing result is a polishing amount profile or a film thickness distribution of the substrate after the processing.

8. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein the plurality of recipe models are generated by changing a combination of values of the recipe items other than the processing time.

9. A method for processing a substrate, said method comprising:
holding the substrate; and
processing the held substrate, wherein
the processing of the substrate is performed by

(a) setting in advance a plurality of recipe items including operation conditions of a substrate processing apparatus,
(b) acquiring a plurality of recipe models obtained by changing values of the plurality of recipe items and experimenting or simulating a processing result of the substrate, each recipe model configured to correspond to one of a plurality of steps included in a recipe, each recipe model including the plurality of recipe items and the processing result by the values of the plurality of recipe items in the recipe model,
(c) analyzing the plurality of recipe models to generate the recipe and calculating a value of a processing result of the substrate by the recipe, and selecting an order and a combination of a part or all of the plurality of recipe models to generate the recipe such that the calculation value of the processing result of the substrate satisfies a predetermined condition,
wherein generating the recipe includes generating the recipe by analyzing the plurality of recipe models and, when the calculation value of a processing result of the substrate by the recipe does not satisfy the predetermined condition, adding at least one recipe model generated with a simulation or a statistical method without experiment, and selecting an order and a combination of a part or all of the plurality of recipe models after the addition to generate a new recipe, and
(d) processing the substrate by the generated new recipe that satisfies the predetermined condition,
wherein the at least one recipe model to be added is generated, by determining a set of the plurality of the recipe items which includes a determined value between a value of at least one recipe item of one recipe model and a value of the at least one recipe item of another recipe model, and obtaining the processing result under the condition of the set of the plurality of recipe items with the simulation or the statistical method.

10. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the plurality of recipe models are analyzed with a generalized reduced gradient method (GRG).

11. The method according to claim 9 , including always monitoring an actual processing result of the substrate by the substrate processing apparatus and updates the recipe when the processing result does not satisfy the predetermined condition.

12. The method according to claim 9 , wherein the substrate processing apparatus is connected to an external computer via a communication line, the external computer generating the plurality of recipe models and the substrate processing apparatus acquiring the plurality of recipe models from the external computer via the communication line.

13. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having stored therein a computer program for causing a computer to execute:
(a) setting a plurality of recipe items including operation conditions of a substrate processing apparatus;
(b) acquiring a plurality of recipe models obtained by changing values of the plurality of recipe items and experimenting or simulating a processing result of the substrate, each recipe model configured to correspond to one of a plurality of steps included in a recipe, each recipe model including the plurality of recipe items and the processing result by the values of the plurality of recipe items in the recipe model; and
(c) analyzing the plurality of recipe models to generate the recipe and calculating a value of a processing result of the sub

Assignees

• Ebara Corp

Inventors

• Ishii Yu
• Uchiyama Keisuke
• Oishi Kunio
• Takenaka Hiroyuki

Classifications

• H10P72/0612 Primary

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• H10P72/0606

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• H10P72/0604

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• G06N5/01

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