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  Substrate processing apparatus, control method adopted in substrate processing apparatus and programUSPTO Application #: 20060176928Title: Substrate processing apparatus, control method adopted in substrate processing apparatus and program Abstract: A substrate processing apparatus according to the present invention comprises a plurality of processing chambers, discharge systems each provided in conjunction with one of the processing chambers and a common discharge system connected with the discharge systems of at least two processing chambers among the discharge systems provided in conjunction with the individual processing chambers. The common discharge allows a switch-over between a scrubbing common discharge system that discharges discharge gas from each processing chamber after scrubbing the discharge gas at a scrubbing means and a non-scrubbing common discharge system that directly discharges the discharge gas from the discharge system of the processing chamber without scrubbing at the scrubbing means. In this substrate processing apparatus, switch-over control is executed to select either the scrubbing common discharge system of the non-scrubbing common discharge system in correspondence to the type of processing executed in the processing chamber. (end of abstract) Agent: Oblon, Spivak, Mcclelland, Maier & Neustadt, P.C. - Alexandria, VA, US Inventors: Hiroshi Nakamura, Toshiyuki Kobayashi, Shinichiro Hayasaka, Seiichi Kaise USPTO Applicaton #: 20060176928 - Class: 373060000 (USPTO) Related Patent Categories: Industrial Electric Heating Furnaces, Arc Furnace Device The Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060176928. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This document claims priority to Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-032340 filed Feb. 8, 2005, Japanese Patent Application No. 2005-206376 filed Jul. 15, 2005, U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/655,425 filed Feb. 24, 2005, and U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/702,990 filed Jul. 28, 2005, the entire contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference. FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus that includes a scrubbing device for scrubbing discharge gas that is discharged while a substrate such as a semiconductor wafer or a liquid crystal substrate is processed, a control method to be adopted in a substrate processing apparatus and a program. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Substrate processing apparatuses include plasma processing apparatuses that execute processing such as film formation and etching by using specific types of gases on substrates such as semiconductor wafers (hereafter may be referred to simply as "wafers") placed inside processing chambers or clean the inside of the processing chambers with a specific type of gas. [0004] The discharge gas discharged from a processing chamber of such a substrate processing apparatus may be toxic or may contain a substance that places a heavy burden on the environment. Thus, it would be detrimental to the environment to directly release the discharge gas into the atmosphere. This issue is addressed in some substrate processing apparatuses by releasing the discharge gas from a processing chamber via a scrubbing device that scrubs (eliminates noxious elements in) the discharge gas through a heat treatment or the like. [0005] For instance, the substrate processing apparatus shown in FIG. 24 includes scrubbing devices 20A and 20B respectively provided in conjunction with processing chambers 10A and 10B. In this substrate processing apparatus, the scrubbing devices 20A and 20B respectively connected with discharge systems 12A and 12B for the individual processing chambers 10A and 10B scrub the discharge gas from the processing chambers 10A and 10B. This type of substrate processing apparatus, which requires as many scrubbing devices as processing chambers, is bound to take up a large installation space and its manufacturing costs are bound to be high. [0006] These problems are addressed by adopting a structure such as that shown in FIG. 25, which includes a common discharge system 31 connected with discharge systems 12A and 12B of the individual processing chambers 10A and 10B, with the common discharge system 31 connected with a scrubbing device 30 to serve both the processing chambers 10A and 10B so as to scrub the discharge gas from the processing chambers 10A and 10B through a single scrubbing device 30 (see, for instance, Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. H11-8200 and Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. 2004-95643). SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0007] The processing executed in the individual processing chambers may include discharge processing executed at a relatively high pressure, such as roughing vacuum processing executed prior to wafer processing in the processing chamber to reduce the pressure in the processing chamber from atmospheric pressure (one atmosphere) to a predetermined level. Since such roughing vacuum processing is executed before the processing gas is drawn into the processing chambers, it does not necessitate discharge gas scrubbing. [0008] However, the discharge gas from each processing chamber in the structure shown in FIG. 24 or 25 is invariably scrubbed via the scrubbing device and is then discharged, regardless of the type of processing executed in the processing chamber. This means that the gas discharged through the roughing vacuum processing or the like, which is discharged under high pressure conditions and does not require scrubbing, too, has to first undergo scrubbing via the scrubbing device before it is released. As a result, the onus placed on the scrubbing device increases, which leads to a reduced service life of the scrubbing device. [0009] In addition, the significant increase in the size of substrates to undergo processing, such as wafers and liquid crystal panels seen in recent years has necessitated an increase in the size of processing chambers. This, in turn, has resulted in a great increase in the quantities of discharge gas discharged from the processing chambers, and ultimately a greater onus on scrubbing devices. [0010] Furthermore, since the discharge gas is scrubbed through, for instance, a heat treatment at a scrubbing device, the level of energy required for the discharge processing rises as the number of scrubbing devices included in the processing system increases. As a result, the energy efficiency at the plant where such substrate processing apparatuses are installed is lowered and the level of energy consumption at the entire plant rises. Accordingly, from the viewpoint of improving the overall energy efficiency and the overall cost efficiency at the plant, it is crucial to scrub discharge gas while economizing on energy consumption. [0011] This leads to the conclusion that it is more desirable to use fewer scrubbing devices, i.e., it is more desirable to use a common scrubbing device to serve multiple processing chambers, as shown in FIG. 25, than to provide a scrubbing device in correspondence to each of the processing chambers, as shown in FIG. 24. However, in the structure shown in FIG. 25, all the discharge gas from the plurality of processing chambers is gathered into the common scrubbing device and thus, if concurrent processing is executed at the individual processing chambers, the onus on the scrubbing device may increase depending upon the types of processing executed in the processing chambers. [0012] Accordingly, an object of the present invention, having been completed by addressing the problems of the related art discussed above, is to provide a substrate processing apparatus, a control method to be adopted in a substrate processing apparatus and a program, which reduce the onus on a scrubbing means for scrubbing the discharge gas and also reduce the energy and the cost required for the discharge gas scrubbing. [0013] The object described above is achieved in an aspect of the present invention by providing a substrate processing apparatus comprising a plurality of processing chambers in each of which a specific type of processing is executed by using gas supplied thereto, discharge systems each provided in conjunction with one of the processing chambers and a common discharge system connected with the discharge systems of at least two processing chambers among the discharge systems provided in conjunction with the individual processing chambers. The common discharge system in this substrate processing apparatus allows a switch-over between a scrubbing common discharge system that discharges discharge gas from the discharge system of each processing chambers after scrubbing the discharge gas at a scrubbing means and a non-scrubbing common discharge system that directly discharges the discharge gas from the discharge systems of the processing chamber without scrubbing at the scrubbing means, and the substrate processing apparatus further includes a control means that executes switch-over control to select either the scrubbing common discharge system or the non-scrubbing common discharge system in correspondence to the type of processing executed at the processing chamber. [0014] The object described above is achieved in another aspect of the present invention by providing a control method to be adopted in a substrate processing apparatus comprising a plurality of processing chambers in each of which a specific type of processing is executed by using a gas supplied thereto, discharge systems each provided in correspondence to one of the processing chambers and a common discharge system connected with the discharge systems of at least two processing chambers among the discharge systems provided in conjunction with the individual processing chambers, with the common discharge system allowing a switch-over between a scrubbing common discharge system that discharges discharge gas from the discharge system of each processing chamber after scrubbing the discharge gas at a scrubbing means and a non-scrubbing common discharge system that directly discharges the discharge gas from the discharge system of the processing chamber without scrubbing at the scrubbing means. In this control method, switch-over control is executed to select either the scrubbing common discharge system or the non-scrubbing common discharge system in correspondence to the type of processing executed at the processing chamber. [0015] By adopting the apparatus or the control method according to the present invention described above, switch-over control is executed to select the scrubbing common discharge system or the non-scrubbing common discharge system in correspondence to the types of processing executed at the individual processing chambers and thus, the non-scrubbing common discharge system can be selected in correspondence to, for instance, roughing vacuum processing during which a gas that does not need to be scrubbed is discharged under high pressure conditions so as to release the gas without scrubbing at the scrubbing means. As a result, the onus on the scrubbing means for scrubbing discharge gas is reduced and the energy and the cost required for the discharge gas scrubbing are also reduced. [0016] In the apparatus or the control method described above, a specific type of exclusivity control may be executed when concurrent processing is executed in the plurality of processing chambers connected to the common discharge system so that while either first processing constituted with processing executed by switching the common discharge system to the non-scrubbing common discharge system (e.g., roughing vacuum processing executed to reduce the pressure from atmospheric pressure, which does not require discharge gas scrubbing) or second processing constituted with processing executed by switching the common discharge system to the scrubbing common discharge system (e.g., processing one a substrate, which requires discharge gas scrubbing) is in progress in one of the plurality of processing chambers, the other type of processing is not executed in any remaining processing chamber among the plurality of processing chambers. By taking these measures, it is ensured that the first processing and the second processing are not simultaneously executed in different processing chambers. As a result, failure to scrub discharge gas requiring scrubbing can be reliably prevented while, at the same time, reducing the onus on the scrubbing means. [0017] The apparatus described above may include, or the control method described above may employ, an access right reservation information storage means for storing reservation information with regard to an access right of a given processing chamber to the common discharge system. When either the first processing or the second processing is to be executed in a processing chamber among the plurality of processing chambers connected to the common discharge system, the exclusivity control for the individual processing chambers may be executed in conjunction with the access right reservation information storage means by making a decision as to whether or not one type of processing, i.e., either the first processing or the second processing, is currently being executed in any of the other processing chambers among the plurality of processing chambers connected with the common discharge system, executing the other type of processing if the one type of processing is judged not to be in progress in the other processing chambers, and executing reservation processing if the one type of processing is judged to be in progress in any of the other processing chambers. Through the reservation processing, the other type of processing is set in a processing wait state, access right reservation information for the one type of processing with regard to an access right to the common discharge system is stored into the access right reservation information storage means and then the other type of processing is subsequently based upon the reservation information in the access right reservation information storage means. The reservation processing enables execution of the other type of processing in the processing chamber having been set in the processing wait state, after the one type of processing in the other processing chamber is completed. Through such reservation processing, processing can be automatically executed in the processing chamber having been set in the processing wait state. [0018] If a plurality of sets of reservation information indicating access right reservations for the common discharge system corresponding to a plurality of processing chambers have been stored in the access right reservation information storage means, the reservation processing may enable execution of the other type of processing in the order in which the individual sets of reservation information have been stored. In this case, if reservations for the common discharge system are made in correspondence to a plurality of processing chambers, the processing in the individual chambers can be executed in the order in which the reservations are registered. [0019] In the apparatus or the control method described above, the first processing may be, for instance, processing that includes at least processing through which the subject processing chamber is discharged to a pressure level equal to or greater than a predetermined level without requiring discharge gas scrubbing and the second processing may be processing that includes at least processing that generates discharge gas requiring scrubbing. When the first processing and the second processing defined as such are executed under the control described above, the discharge gas discharged under high pressure conditions is not released via the scrubbing means and the discharge gas that needs to be scrubbed is never released without first being scrubbed at the scrubbing means. The onus on the scrubbing means in such an apparatus or in such a control method is thereby reduced [0020] The first processing executed in the apparatus or through the control method may be, for instance, roughing vacuum processing in the subject processing chamber or processing that includes the roughing vacuum processing (e.g., automatic inspection processing or maintenance processing for the processing chamber during which roughing vacuum processing is executed as part thereof). The second processing may be, for instance, processing gas supply processing that necessitates discharge of the processing chamber or processing that includes the processing gas supply processing (e.g., automatic inspection processing or maintenance processing during which processing gas supply processing is executed as part thereof). Since automatic inspection processing or maintenance processing may include roughing vacuum processing or processing gas supply processing, the execution of exclusivity control on the first processing and the second processing in conjunction with such automatic inspection processing or maintenance processing will reduce the onus on the scrubbing means while reliably preventing any discharge gas requiring scrubbing from being released without first going through the process of scrubbing. Continue reading... Full patent description for Substrate processing apparatus, control method adopted in substrate processing apparatus and program Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Substrate processing apparatus, control method adopted in substrate processing apparatus and program patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. 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