System and method for managing information about wafer carrier in buffer

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9190305-B2
Application number	US-201213417471-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 12, 2012
Priority date	Mar 15, 2011
Publication date	Nov 17, 2015
Grant date	Nov 17, 2015

Abstract

The wafer carrier information management system includes a reader unit for reading wafer carrier information from a transmitting/receiving unit attached to a wafer carrier in a buffer, and a reader unit controller for collecting the wafer carrier information from the reader unit. The system may further include a buffer controller for collecting the wafer carrier information from the reader unit controller, and a wafer manager for receiving the wafer carrier information from the buffer controller.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A wafer carrier information management system, comprising: one or more reader units each configured to read at intervals information about a wafer carrier, the wafer carrier loaded in a buffer corresponding thereto, from a transmitting and/or receiving unit attached to the wafer carrier; and at least one reader unit controller configured to receive at intervals wafer carrier information read by at least one of the reader units and store the received wafer carrier information such that reliability of the wafer carrier information is verified using the wafer carrier information received at intervals, wherein the buffer is an area provided at a side of a path through which a wafer transferring vehicle moves, and the buffer is configured to temporarily load and store the wafer carrier out of the path.

2. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a load sensor associated with at least one buffer, and configured to sense whether a wafer carrier is loaded in the associated buffer.

3. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 2 , wherein the reader unit corresponding to the associated buffer reads wafer carrier information from a transmitting and/or receiving unit attached to the wafer carrier loaded in the associated buffer.

4. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a buffer controller configured to receive wafer carrier information stored in the reader unit controller and store the received wafer carrier information.

5. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 4 , further comprising:
a wafer manager configured to receive the wafer carrier information stored in the buffer controller, store the wafer carrier information in a database, and manage the database.

6. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 5 , wherein the reader unit controller is configured to periodically receive and store wafer carrier information stored in the at least one of the reader units.

7. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 5 , wherein the buffer controller is configured to receive at intervals and store at intervals wafer carrier information stored in the reader unit controller.

8. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 5 , wherein the wafer carrier is a front open unified pod (FOUP).

9. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 5 , wherein the transmitting and/or receiving unit attached to the wafer carrier is an RFID tag using a radio frequency (RF) and each of the reader units is an RFID reader configured to receive information from the RFID tag through RF communication.

10. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 4 , wherein the buffer controller is configured to transmit at intervals the received wafer carrier information to the wafer manager.

11. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a wafer manager configured to receive wafer carrier information stored in the reader unit controller, store the received wafer carrier information in a database, and manage the database.

12. The wafer carrier information management system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more reader units are grouped as one or more modules and at least one of the one or more modules includes a plurality of buffers.

13. A wafer carrier information management method, comprising: reading at intervals information about a wafer carrier loaded in a buffer from a transmitting and/or receiving unit attached to the wafer carrier using a reader unit corresponding to the buffer from among one or more reader units; and collecting at intervals the read information from the one or more reader units; and transmitting at intervals the collected information to a wafer manager, wherein the reading at intervals, collecting at intervals, and transmitting at intervals verifies reliability of the information using the information transmitted at intervals and the buffer is an area provided at a side of a path through which a wafer transferring vehicle moves, and the buffer is configured to temporarily load and store the wafer carrier out of the path.

14. The wafer carrier information management method according to claim 13 , wherein the collecting at intervals and transmitting at intervals comprise enabling one or more reader unit controllers that control the one or more reader units to collect at intervals the read information from the one or more reader units and transmit at intervals the collected information to the wafer manager.

15. The wafer carrier information management method according to claim 13 , wherein the collecting at intervals and transmitting at intervals comprise:
enabling one or more reader unit controllers that control the reader units to collect at intervals the read information from the one or more reader units;
enabling a buffer controller that controls the one or more reader unit controllers to collect at intervals the collected information from the one or more reader unit controllers; and
transmitting at intervals the collected information collected by the buffer controller to the wafer manager.

16. The wafer carrier information management method according to claim 15 , further comprising:
Storing at intervals the transmitted information from the buffer controller in a database by the wafer manager.

17. The wafer carrier information management method according to claim 16 , further comprising:
verifying reliability of the database of the wafer manager using the transmitted Information.

18. The carrier information management method according to claim 17 , wherein each of the reading at intervals, collecting at intervals, and transmitting at intervals is performed so that the verifying reliability recovers an error of the transmitted data stored using the collected information transmitted at intervals.

Assignees

• Yi Hyun Jae
• Park Byung Soo
• Park Sang Hyuk
• Kim In Cheol
• Lee Chang Soo
• Samsung Electronics Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yi Hyun Jae
• Park Byung Soo
• Park Sang Hyuk
• Kim In Cheol
• Lee Chang Soo

Classifications

• H10P72/0618 Primary

  using identification means, e.g. labels on substrates or labels on containers · CPC title

• G05B2219/45031

  Manufacturing semiconductor wafers · CPC title

• G05B19/4189

  characterised by the transport system · CPC title

• G05B19/41815

  characterised by the cooperation between machine tools, manipulators and conveyor or other workpiece supply system, workcell · CPC title

• H01L21/67294 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic