Patent ID: 6643558
Filing Date: 2003-11-04
Classification: H01L

Abstract:
An installation for processing wafers, comprising:a configuration of processing units selected from the group consisting of fabrication units for executing individual fabricating steps and measuring units for checking fabricating steps disposed in at least one clean room; a transport system interconnecting said processing units for transporting wafers to and from said processing units, wherein the wafers are combined into variable batch quantities, adapted to capacities of at least one of said processing units and said transport system, in transport batches for transport on said transport system and processing batches for processing in said processing units; computing units connected to said processing units and said transport system, and a fabrication control connected to said computing units for selectively combining a plurality of wafers into a batch; said fabrication control transmitting a control command to a computing unit of said transport system for compiling a transport batch, the control command including information regarding a size of the batch and a processing unit constituting a destination for the transport batch; the transport batch being dismantled in the respective said processing unit upon reaching said destination, and the wafers of the batch being converted into a processing batch; one of said computing units of one of said processing units constituting said destination transferring a control command to the fabrication control for dismantling a transport batch, causing an identifying marker of the transport batch to be erased from said fabrication control; said fabrication control reading an identifying marker of the processing batch generated in said processing unit into said computing unit of said processing unit; the processing batch being dismantled and converted into at least one transport batch after being processed in said processing unit; said computing unit of the respective processing unit transferring a control command to said fabrication control for dismantling a processing batch, causing said fabrication control to transfer to said computing unit a reply with a control command for compiling at least one transport batch; the identifying marker of the processing batch being erased from the fabrication control upon receiving the control command for dismantling the processing batch sent by the computing unit of the processing unit; and said fabrication control transmitting a control command to a computing unit of said processing unit for compiling the at least one transport batch, and the control command containing an identification, a batch size, and a destination selected from the group consisting of a fabrication unit, a measuring unit, and a storage device of a storage system of the installation.