Patent ID: 8255072
Filing Date: 2012-08-28
Classification: C23C,G05B,H01L,Y02P

Abstract:
1. A conditioning method for preparing an environment in a chamber of a substrate processing apparatus, the method comprising: storing, in a storage unit, information on a first film forming process which is performed prior to a second film forming process in the chamber; determining whether or not an accumulated value of film thickness or the number of substrates processed in the first film forming process has reached a predetermined value set in advance as a criterion to determine whether or not to perform an inter-wafer conditioning; acquiring the information on the first film forming process from the storage unit if based on a determination that the predetermined value has not been reached; acquiring, from a process recipe that defines contents of the second film forming process to be performed subsequently in the chamber after the first film forming process, information on the second film forming process; and determining whether to perform an inter-process conditioning, during a period between the first film forming process and the second film forming process, based on the acquired information on the first and the second film forming process, wherein, each of the inter-process conditioning and the inter-wafer conditioning includes a cleaning operation and a precoating operation, and wherein, during the period between the first film forming process and the second film forming process, responsive to a determination that the accumulated value of the film thickness or the number of substrates has reached the predetermined value, the cleaning operation of the inter-wafer conditioning is performed, the precoating operation of the inter-wafer conditioning is not performed, and the precoating operation of the inter-process conditioning is performed.