Patent ID: 8731698
Filing Date: 2014-05-20
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
1. A substrate receiving method in a substrate processing system including a substrate processing chamber in which a plasma process is performed on a substrate at a preset vacuum state, a load-lock chamber which is connected with the substrate processing chamber, at least one first substrate storage container and at least one second substrate storage container configured to accommodate substrates, and an atmospheric transfer chamber which connects the load-lock chamber and the at least one first and the at least one second substrate storage container, the method comprising: a checking process of checking whether or not an unprocessed substrate lacking an assigned lot number is accommodated in the at least one first substrate storage container and assigning a lot number to the unprocessed substrate lacking an assigned lot number until all of a plurality of unprocessed substrates accommodated in the at least one first substrate storage container have assigned lot numbers; a processing process of transferring the plurality of unprocessed substrates accommodated in the at least one first substrate storage container to the substrate processing chamber in sequence and performing a plasma process on the unprocessed substrates in the substrate processing chamber; a retreating process of retreating the plasma-processed substrates temporarily to the at least one second substrate storage container by transferring the plasma-processed substrates to the at least one second substrate storage container in sequence; a determining process of determining whether or not the last unprocessed substrate is unloaded from the at least one first substrate storage container; and a re-accommodating process of transferring and re-accommodating the plurality of the processed substrates accommodated in the at least one second substrate storage container into the at least one first substrate storage container in sequence when it is determined that the last unprocessed substrate is unloaded in the determining process.