JPH11238775A - Robot apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To increase the speed of a reciprocating movement and set the stroke to an arbitrary value by mounting the driving mechanisms for a first and a second holding section installed vertically to hold a work, on one and the same base. SOLUTION: To hold a work in a stationary state and transfer it, this equipment is provided with a first moving body having a first driving section which reciprocates an upper fork 51 for holding a work in the direction as shown by an arrow Y1 and a second moving body having a second driving section which reciprocates a lower fork 52 for holding a work in the direction as shown by an arrow Y2. Furthermore, the equipment is also provided with a third moving body, having a third driving section which reciprocates along the reciprocating directions of the first and the second moving body. This robot apparatus of such a constitution is located on a substrate manufacturing line, and a substrate replacement robot apparatus dedicated to transferring of a substrate is located side by side with a basking furnace. With this method, when the substrate has been processed in the baking furnace and is transferred to another place for other processes, waiting time for the arrival of the robot apparatus for transferring a substrate can be eliminated, thereby realizing shortening of the processing time.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a robot apparatus, and is used for transferring a flat work (substrate) such as a plasma, a liquid crystal display, and a wafer from each processing apparatus and transferring the work to each processing apparatus. The present invention relates to a robot device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a substrate, which is a work, is taken out from a substrate supply unit one by one with the processing surface thereof facing upward, transported, and processed through a plurality of processing devices disposed in a clean room. A self-propelled robot apparatus is used to take out and transport a substrate so that the substrate is returned to a substrate supply unit after the surface is applied.

According to the "substrate transfer device" disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Laid-Open Publication No. 4-63643, a wafer, which is a workpiece after a predetermined processing step, is taken out of the predetermined processing device, and the wafer before processing is substantially the same as the processing device. A robot device for carrying and transferring has been proposed. According to this proposal, two pairs of forks (holding portions) for holding the wafer in the vertical direction are provided so as to be independently driven in the horizontal direction, and a partition plate larger than the outer shape of the fork is provided between the upper and lower forks. This shows that heat transfer between the forks is prevented.

Further, according to the "transporting device" of JP-A-9-186216, a first work holding member and a second work holding member are connected to a common disk which is driven to rotate via a parallel link mechanism. A technology has been disclosed in which the transport speed is improved by mounting the respective components, and the workpiece is moved linearly and in parallel in different directions.

Further, the present applicant has put into practical use a robot device used for photolithography process equipment as one of equipment lines for manufacturing semiconductor wafers and glass substrates such as liquid crystals. According to this process equipment, pre-coating of the substrate as a work, drying after cleaning, cooling, coating of a resist solution, soft drying after coating, cooling, exposure, development after exposure,
In order to perform a series of processes of drying and cooling after development, each processing device is arranged in a so-called in-line manner at a position symmetrical with respect to the trajectory of the transfer robot device, and the substrate is used to perform each processing step They are transported to each processing device by a robot device. For this purpose, a moving body (guide rail, rack and pinion, and motor) is provided on the legs of the robot device when carrying the substrate, and the glass substrate is placed on one of two forks, which are two substrate holders arranged vertically, and then transported. Then, the glass substrate on one fork is transferred to the processing apparatus, the glass substrate on which the predetermined processing is completed is received by the other fork, and a series of movements to move to the next target processing apparatus. Are repeatedly executed. In the configuration of this robot device, the speed of the fork movement is increased by driving the upper and lower forks at an increased speed by a pure mechanical double speed mechanism.

[0006]

However, according to the "substrate transfer device" proposed by the former, the work can be taken in and out by upper and lower forks which are arranged and driven independently, and the space between the upper and lower forks can be reduced. Although heat conduction can be prevented by a partition plate that is larger than the outer shape of the fork, focusing on a drive unit that reciprocates each fork, a first holding unit that is an upper fork on a common base to drive each fork independently. And a drive mechanism for driving the second holding portion, which is a lower fork, is simply mounted. Therefore, the reciprocating speed of each holding unit is determined by the capability of the driving mechanism. Therefore, there is a problem that the reciprocating speed of the work holding unit cannot be improved.

Therefore, it is conceivable to mount a large-sized drive mechanism having a greater reciprocating drive speed on the base. However, such a configuration increases the weight of the entire apparatus, and for example, when configured as a mobile (self-propelled) robot apparatus, there is a problem that the overall balance is lacking.

Further, according to the latter "transport device", the first work holding member and the second work holding member are mounted on the common disk which is driven to rotate via the parallel link mechanism. Although the transfer speed can be improved, the work cannot be used for transferring a substrate because the work is linearly moved in parallel in different directions. Further, the speed of the fork movement can be increased by driving the fork at an increased speed by the pure mechanical double speed mechanism as described above. However, since the pure mechanical type is used, the moving stroke of the upper and lower forks is fixed. There was a problem that an arbitrary stroke could not be obtained.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Accordingly, the present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and has a drive mechanism for driving a first and a second holding unit provided for holding a workpiece. It is possible to improve the reciprocating movement speed by mounting on a common base provided with, and to minimize the size of the main body dimension with respect to the movable range of the holding unit when configured as a mobile (self-propelled) robot device, for example. It is an object of the present invention to provide a robot device which can improve the overall balance and can set the stroke arbitrarily.

[0010]

Means for Solving the Problems The above-mentioned problems are solved,
According to the present invention, in order to hold a work in a stationary state and perform transfer, a first moving unit including a first driving unit that reciprocates a first holding unit that holds a work. A robot apparatus comprising: a body; and a second moving body having a second driving unit for reciprocatingly driving a second holding unit for holding a work along the reciprocating driving direction, wherein the first moving body includes: A third driving unit for reciprocatingly driving the second moving unit along a reciprocating driving direction of the second moving unit, a third moving unit on which the first moving unit and the second moving unit are mounted, and the first driving unit; And a control unit connected to the second drive unit and the third drive unit, and configured to perform drive control of the reciprocating drive.

The fourth moving body includes at least a self-propelled driving unit that self-propelled on a predetermined track, a lifting driving unit that moves up and down in a vertical direction, and a turning driving unit that makes a turn. It is characterized by being mounted on a moving body.

The holding may be performed by placing the work on the first holding portion or the second holding portion by vertically moving the work at the mounting position, or by suctioning the work at the mounting position. It is characterized by comprising.

[0013] Further, a positioning means for positioning the work at a predetermined position after the holding by the placing operation is further provided.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of a substrate manufacturing line 1 in which a robot apparatus is used, as viewed from the upper left side. In this drawing, a substrate loading / unloading device 2 as a substrate loading / unloading unit for loading / unloading a cassette accommodating a plurality of substrates is loaded on a substrate manufacturing line 1 with the processing surface of the substrate facing upward. As shown, four cassette loading / unloading devices 2 are arranged in a vertical line on the left side of the substrate manufacturing line 1. A pattern exposure device 23 is provided on the right side of the substrate manufacturing line 1 so that the substrate is transported by a self-propelled robot, and the processed substrate is returned to the cassette loading / unloading device 2 again.

A substrate cleaning process and a coating process of applying various liquid coating liquids such as a resist liquid and a slurry in a uniform thin film state with a common transfer rail 8 disposed at the center as shown in FIG. Drying process and pattern exposure device 23
After the exposure of the desired pattern in (1), the processing apparatuses for performing development are arranged in a line (inline), thereby realizing mainly space saving and facilitation of maintenance.

FIG. 2 is an external perspective view which also serves as an operation explanatory view of FIG. 1. A clean room 40 shown by a two-dot chain line in the figure is dust-proof air-conditioned so as to have a class 100 or higher cleanness. For this purpose, as described above, each processing apparatus is disposed at a position symmetrical with respect to the common transport rail 8 as shown in the figure, and the pattern exposure apparatus 23 is disposed at a position facing the cassette loading / unloading apparatus 2. Therefore, the space in the clean room 40 is effectively used without waste. In addition, when maintenance personnel and the like access the control panel 16 and the processing chambers of the multi-stage bake furnaces 14, 21, and 28 and the like in the clean room 40,
It is relatively easy to access.

[0018] Further, in order to perform heating / drying after cleaning of the substrate after the cleaning, spraying for applying an adhesion enhancer for enhancing the wettability of the substrate before application of the coating fluid, and maintaining a constant temperature over the entire substrate application surface. A first multi-stage bake oven 14 for drying and cooling after application of a predetermined application fluid including a resist solution and performing a process called soft drying and soft cooling; After exposure by the exposure device 23 and the peripheral exposure device 25, development by the developing device 27 to form an exposure pattern on the substrate is post-development drying / cooling, which is a process called hard drying or hard cooling. The third multi-stage baking furnace 28 for performing the operation is located on one side of the common traveling rail 8 as shown in the figure, and the heater power supply, air-conditioning-related piping, and signal lines are connected thereto. While so as not complicated, power from the utility device 35 which is disposed next to the right of the third multistage baking oven 28, air pressure is thoughtful to be able to receive a supply of cooling water or the like.

Referring again to FIG. 1, a self-propelled first robot unit 3 for taking out each substrate and returning the processed substrate is provided adjacent to the cassette loading / unloading device 2 described above. ,
It is provided so as to be reciprocally driven in the direction of arrow Y on the traveling rail 4 and can be stopped at a predetermined position. After moving to a position facing one of the cassette loading / unloading devices 2, the substrate is transferred from the cassette. It is configured. For this purpose, the first robot device 3 arranges forks described below up and down, and each fork enters and retracts at a high speed in the cassette of the cassette loading / unloading device 2 and is driven up and down in the arrow Z direction. And also has a function of driving to turn in the direction of arrow R. A second robot device 5 described below,
The third robot device 6, the fourth robot device 7, and the fifth robot device 9 also have the same function as the first robot device 3. Therefore, the common use of the robot devices can be achieved, and the maintenance property during operation is enhanced.

A traveling rail 8, which is a common traveling path, is provided so as to extend across the entire length of the substrate manufacturing line 1 as shown in the drawing, so as to be substantially perpendicular to the traveling rail 4, which is the traveling path of the first robot apparatus. ing. The second on the running rail 8
The robot device 5, the third robot device 6 on the downstream side of the second robot device 5, and the fourth robot device 7 on the further downstream side independently run on the traveling rail 8 in the direction of the arrow X by a predetermined program. Is configured. Also, a fork provided in each robot device enters and retracts at a high speed into and out of the substrate positioning section or the substrate positioning table of each processing device, so that the fork is driven up and down in the direction of arrow Z, and pivotally driven in the direction of arrow R. In this way, each robot apparatus traveling on the traveling rail 8 can freely transfer a substrate between the processing apparatuses. In other words, a robot device traveling on the traveling rail 8 can realize the transfer operation of the substrate to various processing devices disposed at symmetrical positions along the longitudinal direction of the traveling rail 8 which is a common traveling path. ing.

At the right end of the running rail 8, a pair of buffer portions 20 indicated by hatching in the figure is provided. A traveling rail 10 is arranged as shown in the drawing so as to be adjacent to these buffer units 20 and substantially perpendicular to the traveling rail 8, and the fifth robot device 9 travels on the traveling rail 10 to form a pattern. The transfer of the substrate is performed between the entrance / exit section 24 of the exposure apparatus 23 and the buffer section 20. The above is the configuration for transferring the substrate.

Next, the arrangement of each processing apparatus is shown in FIG.
First, a positioning table 19, a buffer section 20 indicated by hatching in the figure, and a low-pressure ultraviolet ray cleaning device 11 are vertically arranged adjacent to and opposed to the left running rail 4. I have. In addition, the common traveling rail 8
Facing the low-pressure mercury-ultraviolet cleaning device 11 with
Two spin scrubber devices 12 are provided. Further, after the substrate is washed with one of the two spin scrubber devices 12 and opposed to one of the spin scrubber devices 12 disposed on the downstream side with the common travel rail 8 interposed therebetween, heating and drying after washing the substrate are performed. A first multi-stage baking furnace 14 for performing spraying for applying an adhesion enhancer for increasing substrate wettability and applying a constant temperature over the entire substrate application surface before applying a coating fluid.
The first multi-stage baking furnace 14 is further provided with a first substrate exchange robot device 15, which has a part of the configuration in common with the above-mentioned transfer robot device. A control panel 16 accessible from a maintenance space 17 is provided on the right side of the first substrate exchange robot device 15.

A coating device 13 for uniformly applying a coating fluid while moving the coating head relative to the substrate is provided opposite the first substrate exchange robot device 15 with the common traveling rail 8 interposed therebetween. I have. Further, a vacuum drying device 18 having a substrate positioning table 19 is provided on the right side of the coating device 13. On the right side of the reduced-pressure drying device 18, an inspection device 30 for inspecting a substrate pattern formed after development, which will be described later, by non-contact by photoelectric conversion and automatically inspecting an abnormal portion by image processing is provided.

The drying and cooling after the application after the application device 13 has applied the predetermined application fluid including the resist liquid by the application device 13 is opposed to the reduced-pressure drying device 18 and the inspection device 30 with the common traveling rail 8 interposed therebetween. A second multi-stage baking furnace 21 for soft drying and soft cooling is provided. Further, a second substrate exchange robot device 22 is provided in the second multi-stage baking furnace 21. On the right side of the second substrate exchange robot device 22, a third multi-stage baking furnace 28 for performing processing called hard drying and hard cooling as described above is provided. Is the third
A substrate exchange robot device 29 is also provided.

The above-described utility device 35 is disposed adjacent to the third substrate exchange robot device 29, and the positioning table 19 and the buffer unit 20 are disposed as shown in FIG. An enabled control panel 16 is arranged opposite as shown. In addition, near the right end of the common travel rail 8, the two positioning tables 1 are surrounded by the control panel 16.
9 is disposed along the longitudinal direction of the common travel rail 8, and by positioning the board between the two buffer sections 20 disposed at the right end of the common travel rail 8, the fourth
While the substrate is taken in and out by the robot device 7,
The substrate is made to stand by in the buffer unit 20 and the traveling rail 1
Exposure device 23 by the fifth robot device 9 traveling on
It is configured to be able to exchange a substrate with an entrance / exit portion 24 provided at the base.

Further, with the common traveling rail 8 interposed, the third
Three spin developing devices 27 are provided facing the multi-stage baking furnace 28 and the third substrate exchange robot device 29. Further, an i-line exposure device 26 is disposed opposite to the utility device 35 with the common travel rail 8 interposed therebetween. On the right side of the i-line exposure device 26, a peripheral exposure device 25 for exposing the peripheral portion of the substrate is provided.

In the arrangement described above, as shown in FIG. 2, the first robot unit 3 which runs on the traveling rail 4 and the downstream side of the second robot unit 5 which runs on the common traveling rail 8 And the third robot device 6 located at
Fourth robot device 7 located downstream of robot device 6
Then, the fifth robot device 9 which travels on the traveling rail 10 moves and turns in the directions of arrows X, Y, Z, and R, and enters the substrate access chamber 62 provided in each of the multi-stage baking furnaces 14, 21, and 28. On the other hand, it is transferred via an opening (shown by a broken line) 33. Further, forks provided in the first substrate exchange robot unit 15, the second substrate exchange robot unit 22, and the third substrate exchange robot unit 29 move in the directions of arrows X and Z, and the substrate access chamber 6 is moved.
2 is transferred to the upper and lower processing chambers 61, 62, 6
3, 64, 65, 82, 85, etc., and then returned to the substrate entrance chamber 62 again. Thereafter, the first robot unit 3, the second robot unit 5, and the third robot unit 6 perform transfer. The continuous operation is not affected by the heat at the time of transfer and is not affected by the standby time due to the substrate processing in each of the multi-stage baking furnaces 14, 21, and 28.

Next, in the external perspective view of FIG. 3, the function of the first multi-stage baking furnace 14 is to perform a temperature treatment, a drying treatment, and a base treatment on the substrate after cleaning. For this purpose, two hot plate chambers 65 for performing proximity heating for heating the substrate by providing a gap with ruby balls provided on the hot plate from the upper stage, and hexa-hexene, which is an adhesion enhancer, A base treatment chamber 64 for performing a process of improving the wettability of the substrate before application by spraying methyl dithirazane, an air cooling plate chamber 63 for cooling the substrate by air cooling, a second robot unit 5 and a first substrate exchange robot unit 15 A substrate access chamber 62 for exclusive use of taking in and out and positioning of the substrate, and a liquid for uniformly cooling the entire substrate by liquid cooling so as to eliminate a temperature distribution and prevent a change in a coating state in a coating apparatus. The cold plate chamber 61 is provided so as to be a multi-stage vertically as shown. By providing each room in this way, consideration is given to reducing the private space.

On the other hand, through the opening / closing opening 66 provided in the processing chambers 65, 64, 63, 61, the substrate access chamber 62 is opened.
The first substrate exchange robot device 15 for loading and unloading the substrate W as a work between the second substrate exchange robot device 22 and the third substrate exchange robot device 29 for performing soft drying / cooling and hard drying / cooling. Since it has functions,
As a representative example of the first substrate exchange robot device 15, an upright support 70 is provided from the right corner of the base plate 60 so as to be adjacent to the common travel rail 8. The upright support column 70 has substantially the same height as the baking furnace 14, and by driving the lifting base 69 in the direction of the arrow Z, the vertical forks 71, 72 provided on the lifting base 69 can be moved in the vertical direction. And the upper and lower forks 71,
The configuration is such that the substrate can be exchanged by invading 72 into each processing chamber through the opening 66. Further, a pair of horizontal correcting devices 79 for positioning the left and right edges of the substrate W are mounted on the lifting base 69.

Further, the second self-running common rail 8
Since the fourth to fifth robot apparatuses 5, 6, and 7 have substantially the same configuration, the robot apparatus 5 will be described as a representative example of the second robot apparatus 5 shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. A base 54, a lifting base 53 mounted on the base 54 and having a function of raising and lowering the vertically rotating base 50 in a vertical direction and rotating the substrate between the spin scrubber device 12, and a mounting on the vertically rotating base 50. And a drive unit for transferring the substrates mounted on the upper and lower forks 51 and 52 by infiltrating the upper and lower forks 51 and 52 into the processing chamber.

FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. In this figure, a pair of claw bodies 51a, 52a made of a special resin are fixed to the upper and lower forks 51, 52 such that the claw bodies 51a, 52a are located at positions where clearances are provided in the dimensions of the board. And transfer it. Also, claw bodies 71a, 72a substantially similar to those provided in the substrate exchange robot device are fixed to upper and lower forks 71, 72 of the substrate exchange robot device shown in FIG. , 58, the arrow X
It is configured to hold the substrate between the claws when independently driven in the direction.

The substrate transfer operation performed by the robot apparatus 5 configured as described above will be described with reference to FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. 3 and FIG.

First, in FIG. 4 (a), the robot apparatus 5 moves the opening 33 of the substrate access chamber 62 of the first baking furnace 14.
, The processed substrate W is taken out of the baking furnace 14, and at the same time, the unprocessed substrate is placed on the upper and lower pins 90. A substrate W is placed between the claws 51a of the upper fork 51 of the robot device 5,
The upper and lower forks 51, 52 are located at standby positions as shown.

From this state, as shown in FIG. 4B, the common base 103, which is the third moving body, and the second moving body 10
7 are driven at the same time, the lower fork 52 is moved at a maximum speed of 2.25 m per second, which is a sum of the moving speeds of the two, and the lower portion of the substrate W mounted on the upper and lower pins 90 in the baking furnace. Go to and stop. At this time, the upper fork 51 is not driven, and is moved toward the opening 33 only by the movement of the common base 103 as shown in the figure.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG.
By raising the robot device 5 in the direction of the arrow Z,
The substrate W placed on the upper and lower pins 90 is moved to the lower fork 5
(2). At this time, the movable range of the fork 52 can be set larger than the size of the robot device by moving the common base 103 as shown in the figure.

Subsequently, as shown in FIG.
With the common base 103 stopped, the second moving body 107 is moved in the direction of the arrow. Before and after this, the first mobile unit 1
11 is driven in the direction of the arrow to prepare to transfer the substrate W placed on the upper fork 51 onto the upper and lower pins 90.
Subsequently, as shown in FIG.
0 is lowered in the arrow Z direction, and the substrate W
Transfer. Thereafter, the common base 103 and the first mobile unit 1
11 are driven at the same time, the upper fork 51 moves at a maximum speed of 2.25 m / sec, which is the sum of the moving speeds of the two, and the transfer to the baking furnace is completed.

Thereafter, the substrate is placed on the upper and lower pins 90 as shown in FIG. Thereafter, the upper fork 51 is retracted by moving in the direction of the arrow and self-propelled to another position.

As described above, in the substrate entry / exit chamber 62, the substrate transfer by the self-propelled robot device and the dedicated substrate exchange robot device that performs only ascending and descending are performed individually.
Since the waiting time for waiting for the end of the processing in the processing chamber can be eliminated or minimized, the processing time can be shortened (speeded up). Further, by using a multi-stage baking furnace, a large number of processing chambers requiring processing time can be provided in the vertical direction, so that the occupied area can be minimized. Although FIGS. 3 and 4 have described the configuration in which the upper and lower pins are not raised and lowered, the upper and lower pins may be provided with a raising and lowering function to transfer the substrate.

Further, when soft drying and hard drying are performed in the processing chamber of the baking furnace, the thermal influence on the upper and lower forks 71 and 72 of the substrate exchange robot apparatus cannot be normally avoided. By performing substrate transfer individually by the self-propelled robot device and a dedicated substrate exchanging robot device that only moves up and down, at least the other first to fourth self-propelled robots that exchange substrates between other processing devices
Heat transfer to the robotic device can be completely shut off.

Next, FIG. 6 is an external perspective view which also explains the operation of transferring the substrate of the robot apparatus. In this figure, the first to fifth robot devices 3, 5, 6, 7, and 9 that run on the common travel rail 8 have substantially the same configuration, and are represented by the robot device shown in FIG. State. The robot device 3 has a motor 48 mounted thereon, and has a driving roller (not shown) that allows the robot device 3 to run on the common traveling rail 8 in the direction of arrow X by itself.
And a column 55 for raising and lowering the swivel base 50 in the vertical direction of the arrow Z and for rotating the substrate with another processing apparatus including the spin scrubber device 12.
Base 53 incorporating a mechanism (not shown) for driving the
And a base 50 fixed on the support 55, and the upper and lower forks 51 and 52 can be moved in the directions of arrows X, Y, Z and R.

A filter device 49 is further mounted on the base 50 to filter dust and the like generated inside so as not to be exhausted into the clean room. Also,
The above-mentioned pair of lateral correction devices 79 are fixed at the left and right edges of the base 50 as shown in the figure. Has the function of preventing the substrate from moving and falling off. The motors 57 and 58 are protruded upward as shown in the figure, and are configured to be as flat as possible in the vertical direction.

Referring next to FIG. 7, which is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG. 6, an upper fork 51 provided with a pair for holding a workpiece on the substrate W is shown in FIG. 3, 4
As described in the above section, a drive unit for reciprocating drive is provided. The lower fork 52 also includes a drive unit that reciprocates as described with reference to FIGS.

Each of these drive units is mounted on a common base, and the common base is also provided with a drive unit, so that they can be simultaneously driven in the same direction to obtain a sum speed. For this purpose, a first driving unit for reciprocatingly driving the upper fork 51 which is a first holding unit for mounting and holding the substrate as described above receives a driving force from a motor 58 fixed to the common base 103. A ball nut 120 meshing with the obtained ball screw 108 is fixed to the bottom surface, and the first moving body 111 is horizontally moved by linear guides 109 and 110. A second driving unit for reciprocatingly driving the lower fork 52 serving as a second holding unit includes a ball nut 120 that meshes with a ball screw 104 that obtains a driving force from a motor 57 fixed to the common base 103.
Is fixed to the bottom surface via a bracket as shown in the figure, and the second moving body 107 is horizontally moved by the linear guides 105 and 106.
2 is fixed to the left and right edges as shown.

On the other hand, the common base 103 is
A ball nut 120 meshing with a ball screw 100 that receives power from a motor 121 fixed thereon is fixed via a bracket as shown in the figure, and is freely movable by linear guides 101 and 102 provided between the base 50 and the ball nut 120. It is configured.

FIG. 7 shows a specific configuration of the driving unit.
Referring to FIG. 8 which is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG.
A motor 121 is fixed below the base 50 so as to be airtight with a cover 126. The ball screw 100 is rotatably held at both ends by radial ball bearings 128 and has a toothed pulley 12 at one end.
4 is fixed, and the motor 1 is
A toothed belt 123 is stretched around a toothed pulley 122 fixed to the output shaft of the motor 21 so that the rotational driving force of the motor 121 in the forward and reverse directions can be transmitted to the ball screw 100 without slipping. Are driven in the arrow Y direction, and the rotation of the encoder desk fixed to the output shaft of the motor 121 is detected to enable position detection. This position detection is sent to the central control means to control the position of the upper and lower forks. Motor 5 above
The first moving body 111 driven by the motor 8 and the second moving body 107 driven by the motor 57 have substantially the same structure as the driving mechanism of the third moving body 103.

The robot apparatus constructed as described above is arranged on a substrate manufacturing line, and a dedicated substrate exchange robot apparatus for transferring substrates is provided in a bake furnace. It is possible to eliminate the waiting time of the arrival of a robot device that transfers a substrate to another processing step after the processing is completed, and it is possible to realize a substrate manufacturing line that can realize a significant reduction in processing time, and at a high speed. Since the upper and lower forks can be moved, higher speed can be realized. Also, in FIG.
The moving speeds of the moving body 111 and the second moving body 107 in the directions indicated by the arrows Y1 and Y2 are each set to a maximum of 1.5 m / sec.
It has been confirmed that by setting the moving speed in the direction of arrow Y3 of FIG. 3 at a maximum of 0.75 m / s, the moving speed can be 2.25 m / s, and the motor is small and sufficient.

In each of the processing apparatuses in the photolithography process equipment, the transfer height of the glass substrate with the first to fifth transfer robot devices is set so as to be as high as possible. By setting the substrate entry / exit chamber, which is the path area of the above, at the same height, the lifting and lowering operation of the transfer robot itself is made as small as possible, and the tact time can be further shortened.

It is needless to say that the robot device can be used as a so-called general-purpose robot device other than the one for the substrate production line as described above. For example, a portion above the base 50 is fixed to a predetermined station. There are a robot device and a robot device in which a suction portion for performing substrate suction other than mounting a substrate is disposed on upper and lower forks. Examples of the work include a normal article other than the substrate. For example, there is a case where various kinds of parts are automatically transported and placed on an automatic assembly line.

[0049]

As described above, according to the present invention,
The reciprocating speed can be improved by mounting the drive mechanism for driving the upper and lower first holding units and the second holding unit provided for holding the work on the common base having the drive mechanism, and for example, When configured as a mobile (self-propelled) robot device, it is possible to provide a robot device capable of reducing the reduction in the size of the main body with respect to the movement stroke of the holding unit, improving the overall balance, and setting the stroke arbitrarily.

[0050]

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is an external perspective view showing an overall configuration of a substrate manufacturing line 1 in which a robot device is used.

FIG. 2 is an operation explanatory diagram of the production line 1.

FIG. 3 is an external perspective view showing a multi-stage baking furnace 14, a robot device 5, and a substrate exchange robot device 15.

4 is a cross-sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 1 and also serves to explain the operation of the substrate access chamber 62. FIG.

FIG. 5 is a diagram also used to explain the operation following FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is an external perspective view of the robot device.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view taken along line AA of FIG. 6;

8 is a sectional view taken along line XX of FIG. 7;

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate manufacturing line 2 Cassette loading / unloading device 3 1st robot device 4 Traveling rail 5 2nd robotic device 6 3rd robotic device 7 4th robotic device 8 Common traveling rail 9 5th robotic device 10 Traveling rail 11 Low pressure ultraviolet cleaning device 12 Spin scrubber device 13 Coating device 14 First multi-stage bake furnace 15 First substrate exchange robot device 16 Control panel 21 Second multi-stage bake oven 22 Second substrate exchange robot device 23 Exposure device 25 Peripheral exposure device 26 i-line exposure device 27 Spin developing device 28 Third multi-stage baking furnace 29 Third substrate exchange robot device 48 Motor 50 Base 51 Upper fork 51a Claw body 52 Lower fork 52a Claw body 57 Motor 58 Motor 69 Elevating base 70 Upright column 71 Upper fork 71a Claw body 72 Lower fork 72a Claw body 103 common base (Third mobile) 107 second moving body 111 first moving body W substrate

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A first moving body including a first driving unit for reciprocatingly driving a first holding unit for holding a work in order to hold a work in a stationary state and perform transfer. And a second moving body including a second driving unit for reciprocatingly driving the second holding unit along the reciprocating driving direction, wherein the first moving unit and the second moving unit reciprocate. A third driving unit for reciprocatingly driving along the driving direction, a third moving unit on which the first moving unit and the second moving unit are mounted, the first driving unit, the second driving unit, A robot device comprising: a control unit connected to a third drive unit for performing drive control of the reciprocating drive. 2. A self-propelled driving unit that self-propelled on a predetermined trajectory, a vertical driving unit that moves up and down in a vertical direction,
And a turning drive unit for turning.
The robot apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the robot apparatus is mounted on a moving body. 3. The method according to claim 1, wherein the holding is performed by placing the work on the first holding portion or the second holding portion by vertically moving the work at the placement position, or by performing a suction operation of the work at the placement position. The robot apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the robot apparatus is configured. 4. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising positioning means for positioning the work at a predetermined position after the holding by the placing operation.
The robot device according to any one of the preceding claims.