Apparatus for treating substrate, method for measuring height difference between lift pins, and computer readable recording medium having processing program stored therein

{
  "publication_number": "US2022020575A1",
  "country": "US",
  "kind": "A1",
  "title": "Apparatus for treating substrate, method for measuring height difference between lift pins, and computer readable recording medium having processing program stored therein",
  "abstract": "A method for measuring a height difference between lift pins includes receiving a first center position being a position of the center of a substrate with respect to a reference position that is measured before a transfer robot loads the substrate onto a support unit provided in a process chamber, the support unit including a plurality of lift pins, receiving a second center position being a position of the center of the substrate with respect to the reference position that is measured after the transfer robot picks up the substrate unloaded from the support unit, and deriving a difference in height between at least one of the plurality of lift pins and the other lift pins from a vector difference between the first center position and the second center position.",
  "claims": [
    "1. An apparatus for treating a substrate, the apparatus comprising: a chamber configured to provide a treatment space in which the substrate is treated; a support unit provided in the treatment space and configured to support the substrate, the support unit including a plurality of lift pins configured to move upward or downward to locate the substrate; a transfer robot configured to load the substrate into the treatment space or unload the substrate from the treatment space; a position measurement sensor configured to measure a first center position being a position of the center of the substrate with respect to a reference position that is measured before the transfer robot loads the substrate onto the support unit and a second center position being a position of the center of the substrate with respect to the reference position that is measured after the transfer robot picks up the substrate unloaded from the support unit; and a processor configured to derive a difference in height between at least one of the plurality of lift pins and the other lift pins from a vector difference between the first center position and the second center position. 2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the position measurement sensor is an auto wafer centering (AWC) sensor installed on the top or bottom of an opening of the chamber and is configured to measure a position of the substrate passing through the opening of the chamber. 3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the first center position and the second center position includes an x-coordinate and a y-coordinate. 4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of lift pins are coupled to a support plate, and wherein the support plate is connected to an actuator configured to provide a driving force to raise and lower the support plate in an up/down direction. 5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the processor of the apparatus is configured to: cause to perform an operation of loading the substrate onto the support unit and unloading the substrate from the support unit a plurality of times; cause to measure the first center position a plurality of times in response to loading the substrate onto the support unit the plurality of times and measures the second center position a plurality of times in response to unloading the substrate from the support unit the plurality of times; and derive the difference in height between the at least one of the plurality of lift pins and the other lift pins from a vector difference between an average value of a plurality of first center positions measured the plurality of times and an average value of a plurality of second center positions measured the plurality of times. 6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein at a time before the second center position is measured and after the first center position is measured, the plurality of lift pins are raised and lowered a plurality of times, with the substrate loaded onto the support unit. 7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the plurality of lift pins include three lift pins circumferentially spaced apart from each other at an angle of 120 degrees with respect to the center of the support unit. 8. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein in response to the derived difference in height, the processor is further configured to cause at least one of the plurality of lift pins to move up or move down to compensate the difference in height. 9. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising: an alarm configured to generate a sound during a time when the difference in height between the at least one of the plurality of lift pins and the other lift pins is derived. 10.- 19. (canceled) 20. A non-transitory computer readable medium for storing a program code, wherein the program code, which executed by a processor, cause the processor to: obtain a first center position being a position of the center of a substrate with respect to a reference position that is measured before a transfer robot loads the substrate onto a support unit provided in a process chamber, the support unit including a plurality of lift pins; obtain a second center position being a position of the center of the substrate with respect to the reference position that is measured after the transfer robot picks up the substrate unloaded from the support unit; and derive a difference in height between at least one of the plurality of lift pins and the other lift pins from a vector difference between the first center position and the second center position."
  ],
  "description_excerpt": "Embodiments of the inventive concept described herein relate to an apparatus for treating a substrate, a method for measuring a height difference between lift pins, and a computer readable recording medium having a processing program stored therein for executing the method. Heights of lift pins are set to a target height from a top side of a wafer support unit (e.g., an electrostatic chuck (ECS)) by using a jig after assembly of the lift pins. A method for additionally measuring a height difference between the lift pins after the heights of the lift pins are set is not proposed up to now. The heights of the lift pins are set by using the jig. Therefore, even though there is an error in the jig itself or the height setting step, there is no way to identify, after assembly of a process chamber (PM), occurrence or non-occurrence of a height difference between the lift pins.\n\nEmbodiments of the inventive concept provide a substrate treating apparatus for identifying occurrence or non-occurrence of a height difference between lift pins even after a process chamber (PM) is completely assembled, a lift pin height difference measurement method using the substrate treating apparatus, and a computer readable recording medium having a processing program stored therein for executing the method.",
  "cpc": [
    "H01J 37/32715",
    "B25J 11/0095",
    "B25J 9/1679",
    "G01B 21/04",
    "G05B 19/4155",
    "G05B 2219/40269",
    "G08B 3/10",
    "H01J 2237/20235",
    "H01J 2237/24578",
    "H01J 37/32743",
    "H01L 21/68",
    "H01L 21/68707",
    "H01L 21/68742",
    "H10P 72/0454",
    "H10P 72/0461",
    "H10P 72/0464",
    "H10P 72/0606",
    "H10P 72/0612",
    "H10P 72/3202",
    "H10P 72/3302",
    "H10P 72/3306",
    "H10P 72/50",
    "H10P 72/7602",
    "H10P 72/7612"
  ],
  "ipc": [
    "B25J 11/00",
    "B25J 9/16",
    "G01B 21/04",
    "G05B 19/4155",
    "G08B 3/10",
    "H01J 37/32",
    "H01L 21/68",
    "H01L 21/687"
  ],
  "assignees": [
    "SEMES CO LTD"
  ],
  "inventors": [
    "KWON MING SUNG",
    "LEE YOONGHEE"
  ],
  "filing_date": "2021-06-14",
  "publication_date": "2022-01-20",
  "priority_date": "2020-06-15",
  "application_number": "US-202117347431-A",
  "family_id": "78893035",
  "citations": [
    "KR101408164B1",
    "US2004168633A1",
    "US2010094452A1",
    "US2013086786A1",
    "US2018301369A1",
    "US2019096735A1",
    "US2021028052A1",
    "US2021210366A1",
    "US2022106705A1",
    "US6990430B2"
  ]
}