Patent ID: 6593154
Filing Date: 2003-07-15
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
A process control apparatus for controlling a semiconductor manufacturing system including a processing apparatus for batch-processing a prescribed number of wafers at once and a recycling apparatus for recycling wafers processed by said processing apparatus, wherein said processing apparatus processes said wafers based on a predetermined processing condition, and said prescribed number of wafers include product wafers and non-product wafers, and said recycling apparatus recycles said non-product wafers, and the recycled wafers are repeatedly processed by said processing apparatus,said process control apparatus comprising: a communication circuit for communicating with said processing apparatus and said recycling apparatus; a storage circuit for storing recycling processing procedure corresponding to said processing condition; a detection circuit connected to said communication circuit for detecting non-product wafers included in the processed wafers when the batch-processing by said processing apparatus is completed; and an instructing circuit connected to said communication circuit, said storage circuit, and said detection circuit for instructing said recycling apparatus to perform recycling processing on the detected non-product wafers based on the recycling processing procedure corresponding to the processing condition that was used when said non-product wafers were processed by said processing apparatus.