Substrate processing apparatus, method for manufacturing semiconductor device, and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9966289-B2
Application number	US-201415024539-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 19, 2014
Priority date	Sep 30, 2013
Publication date	May 8, 2018
Grant date	May 8, 2018

Abstract

An apparatus and method capable of reducing the footprint of substrate processing system. An apparatus includes a housing chamber including a housing cabinet which houses housing containers for housing substrates, and a housing container carrying mechanism provided on the ceiling of the housing chamber and configured to carry the housing containers.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A substrate processing apparatus comprising:
a housing of the apparatus;
a cabinet in the housing including a plurality of vertically arranged shelves, wherein each of the plurality of vertically arranged shelves includes a lateral opening and a horizontally-movable placement unit;
a load port charging/discharging containers between inside and outside the substrate processing apparatus;
a container carrying mechanism provided on a ceiling of the housing inside the apparatus and configured to carry the containers within the housing, wherein the container carrying mechanism includes a traveling route provided on the ceiling, a movable part moving along the traveling route, a holding unit holding each of said containers, and an elevation unit lifting or lowering the holding unit;
a pod opener installed separately from the cabinet, facing to a delivery space of the container carrying mechanism and opening/closing a lid of each of the containers, wherein the traveling route is branched at a position to access at least either the load port or the pod opener; and
wherein each horizontally-movable placement unit of the plurality of shelves horizontally move between a respective standby position that houses the containers and a respective delivery position that delivers a respective the container to the container carrying mechanism, wherein in the respective standby position the container on the placement unit and other containers are vertically arranged in the cabinet and the holding unit is not able to access to above the containers, and in the respective delivery position the placement unit protrude from the shelves into the delivery space of the container carrying mechanism, both of the standby position and the delivery position are within the housing; and
wherein delivery of each of the containers between the container carrying mechanism and the placement unit includes placing of the respective container from the container carrying mechanism onto the placement unit and catching of the the respective container from the placement unit by the holding unit with elevation operation of the container carrying mechanism.

2. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the cabinet includes the placement units for each of the containers in the cabinet, and the placement units are independently and horizontally movable.

3. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein when the container carrying mechanism holds and carries one of the containers, the one of the containers is carried at a height where a lower face of the one of the containers is lower than a top face of an other container housed on an uppermost shelve in the cabinet and higher than a lowermost face of another container.

4. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the placement unit is configured to horizontally move each of the containers from the standby position to the delivery position at same time as the container carrying mechanism moves above the delivery position of the placement unit.

5. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein the elevation unit of the container carrying mechanism performs the elevation operation to a height for placing the containers on placement unit of destination while the movable part is moving along the traveling route.

6. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the container carrying mechanism carries each of the containers with a plane of the container faced in a traveling direction.

7. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein a space between a top face of each of the containers in the standby position and an upper shelf is narrower than a height needed to insert a robot hand.

8. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 7 , wherein each of the placement units comprising:
a horizontal movement mechanism configured to horizontally move the placement unit;
a placement position sensor configured to detect a position of the placement unit; and
a pod sensor configured to determine a presence of one or more of the containers on the placement unit.

9. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the traveling route is consisted only on straight lines.

10. The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the traveling route is consisted only on one straight line alongside the cabinet.

Assignees

• Hitachit Kokusai Electric Inc
• Hitachi Int Electric Inc

Inventors

• Kamimura Daigi
• Odake Shigeru
• Taniyama Tomoshi
• Nogami Takashi
• Morita Osamu
• Komae Yasuaki

Classifications

• H10P72/3404 Primary

  Storage means · CPC title

• B65G1/026

  Racks equipped with a displaceable load carrying surface to facilitate loading or unloading · CPC title

• H01L21/67769 Primary

  Electricity · mapped topic