Patent ID: 8424485
Filing Date: 2013-04-23
Classification: C23C,H01L,Y10T

Abstract:
1. Substrate treatment equipment comprising: a substrate treatment chamber, a substrate holder, having a plurality of support slots, that can be inserted into the substrate treatment chamber and that holds substrates in a multistage manner in a substantially vertical direction, a sensing device for sensing a holding condition of the substrates held in the substrate holder, a substrate transfer unit that automatically leaves a substrate determined to be abnormal and at least one of the substrates contacting the abnormal substrate in the substrate holder and transfers the substrates other than the abnormal substrate and the at least one of the substrates contacting the abnormal substrate from the substrate holder without needing manual operation according to a result of the sensing of the holding condition of the substrates using the sensing device, the substrate transfer unit having a transfer unit body including the sensing device and a main tweezers body, and a control device programmed to control the substrate treatment equipment to insert the substrate holder on which substrates are held in the multistage manner in the substantially vertical direction into the substrate treatment chamber, the substrate treatment chamber to perform heat treatment to the substrates, the sensing device to sense the holding condition of the substrates held in the substrate holder, and the substrate transfer unit to transfer the substrates other than the abnormal substrate and the at least one of the substrates contacting the abnormal substrate determined in the substrate holder, wherein in transferring the substrates, when all of a predetermined number of substrates to be carried are determined to be normal in the substrate holder, all of the predetermined number of substrates are carried together, and when at least one of the predetermined number of substrates is determined to be abnormal in the substrate holder, substrates other than the substrate determined to be abnormal in the predetermined number of substrates and the at least one of the substrates contacting the substrate determined to be abnormal in the substrate holder are carried one at a time, a substrate in the normal condition is supported parallel to one of the support slots located at the substrate holder, and a substrate in the abnormal condition is a substrate in which at least a portion of the substrate is shifted in a vertical direction relative to the support slots located at the substrate holder.