JPS62136388A - Transfer equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) [Summary] This bulletin contains application data before electronic filing, so abstract data is not recorded.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a technology that is generally applicable and effective for transfer devices used for transferring thin plate-like objects such as wafers.

[Background Art] There is a transfer device for transferring a plate-shaped object such as a wafer used in the manufacture of semiconductor devices from one jig to another jig.

Taking a wafer transfer device as an example, one is known that has a structure in which a hand portion for holding a wafer is provided at the tip of an operating arm.

By the way, the wafer holding means of the hand section may be one that chucks the wafer from both ends, one that clamps one end of the wafer, or one that vacuum-chucks a flat portion of the wafer.

However, with regard to the first two, since an operating mechanism is required near the wafer to perform chucking or clamping, the inventor has clarified that this may become a source of dust and may stain the wafer with 7η. .

Regarding the latter, when placing the wafer on the jig from the hand section, the vacuum suction is released and the wafer is allowed to fall freely, but at this time the wafer end collides with the jig, causing damage to the wafer. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to control the falling speed. In this regard, according to the inventor's experiments, if a wafer is dropped from a height of, for example, 0.5 μl, the falling speed is approximately 100 m/sec, which may cause damage. Therefore, in order to drop the wafer at a dropping speed of about 20 fl/sec without fear of damage, the height of the drop must be about 0.02 mm. However, maintaining the above-mentioned drop height accurately is difficult due to issues such as the accuracy of the jig or the accuracy of the operation control of the hand, and even if it is possible, it is difficult to maintain the falling height accurately, and even if it is possible, the manufacturing cost of the jig is high or the equipment is difficult to maintain. It has been revealed by the inventor that this is complicated.

An example of a detailed explanation of the wafer transfer technique is Japanese Patent Publication No. 19656/1983.

[Object of the Invention] An object of the present invention is to prevent contamination or damage and realize highly reliable transfer of plate-shaped members.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[Summary of the Invention] A brief overview of typical inventions disclosed in this application is as follows.

In other words, it has a hand part that is fixedly connected to an arm that is moved up and down by a drive mechanism, and the weight support position of the object as it passes through the hand part on both sides of the mounting jig or inside the central opening. By adopting the structure of a transfer device for plate-shaped objects in which the object is transferred by movement, there is no need to provide an operating mechanism that can be a source of dust around the object, thereby preventing contamination of the object during transfer work. can do.

Furthermore, since the object is transferred by moving its own weight supporting position, the transfer operation can be performed without damaging the object.

[Embodiment 1] Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing a hand portion of a transfer device which is an embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the entire transfer device, and Fig. 3 is a perspective view showing a hand portion of a transfer device according to an embodiment of the present invention. It is a partial sectional view showing a mounting state.

The transfer device 1 of the first embodiment is for transferring, for example, a wafer 2 from a boat jig 3 to a transfer cassette jig 4, or from the cassette jig 4 to the boat jig 3.

The transfer device 1 has a head 6 movable in the X direction on the rail 5.
An arm 7 is attached to the hendro, which is movable in the Y direction and the Z direction under the control of the head 6.

A plurality of cassette jigs 4 are arranged on the side of the rail 5 in parallel with the rail 5, and a CV
A boat jig 3 to be inserted into a processing device (not shown) such as D device is located. In addition, in Figure 2, boat jig 3
A plurality of wafers 2 are placed upright on top.

At the tip of the arm 7, there is a hand 8 that holds the wafers 2 one by one, and in the first embodiment, the hand 8 is made of a material with good rust resistance such as aluminum or stainless steel. .

At the tip of the hand 8, there are two branch arms 7a.

7b extends perpendicularly to the arm 7, and branch arms 7a extend substantially parallel to each other;
At the tips of the arms 7b, holding portions 10a, 10b are provided with holding grooves 9a, 9b formed obliquely upward in the direction of the other branch arms 7b, 7a. The holding part 10
Reference characters a and 10b support the side edges of the wafer 2 at two locations, and can be obtained by molding resin, quartz, or the like.

As shown in FIG. 3, these holding parts 10a and 10b are formed at a small distance (each with a wider interval than the width direction of the cassette jig 4 or the boat jig 3) and at a position that can support the side edge of the wafer 2. There is.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be explained.

First, a boat jig 3 with a plurality of wafers 2 placed upright
is placed on the transfer device 1 of the first embodiment, the head 6
is moved on the rail 5 and positioned at a predetermined location.

Next, the arm 7 starts moving due to the operation of the head 6, and as shown in FIG. a.

7b straddles a predetermined wafer 2, and its holding parts 10a and 10b are positioned below the wafer 2.

At this position, the arm 7 then begins to rise vertically.

With this rise, the holding grooves 9a of the holding parts IQa, 10b,
9b accommodates the side edge of the wafer 2, and the wafer 2 is held in the holding section 1.
0a, I(lb) is maintained. In this way,
According to this embodiment, the wafer 2 is scooped up and held by the holding parts 10a and 10b that are fixedly connected to the hand 8. Therefore, there is no need to provide an operating mechanism such as a chuck or a clamp mechanism around the wafer 2. Therefore, it is possible to prevent contamination of the wafer 2, which is caused by the operating mechanism.

Moreover, the mounting of the wafer 2 on the jig 4 side is performed as follows.

The arm 7 moves with the wafer 2 held by the holding parts 10a and 10b, and when the arm 7 is positioned on a predetermined jig 4, the arm 7 starts to descend due to the operation of the head 6. Here, the holding part 10a.

When the wafer 10b passes by the side of the jig 4, the support position of the wafer 2 due to its own weight moves from the holding parts 10a and 10b onto the jig 4, so that the wafer 2 is left on the jig 4. R is placed.

As described above, according to the first embodiment, the speed at which the wafer 2 lands on the jig 4 can be adjusted by controlling the operation of the head 6, so that damage to the wafer 2 can be prevented, unlike mounting using a falling ring. I can do it.

[Embodiment 2 FIG. 4 shows fi! which is another embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a partial cross-sectional view showing a state in which a wafer is placed on the mounting device.

The tip of the hand 21 of the second embodiment is formed into an L-shape relative to the arm 7, and a holding portion 23 that can pass through the central opening 22a of the jig 22 is formed at the tip. There is. The holding of the wafer 2 by the hand 21 is performed as follows.

As the hand 21 rises, the wafer 2 placed on the jig 22 is scooped up by the holding portion 23 of the hand 21 and held on the hand 21 side.

On the other hand, the hand 21 is placed on the jig 22.
As the wafer 2 is lowered, the wafer 2 is left on the jig 22 from the holding part 23. in this way,
According to the second embodiment, since there is no operating mechanism around the wafer 2 due to the simple hand structure, contamination of the wafer can be effectively prevented, and when placing the wafer on the jig 22, the hand 2 Damage to the wafer 2 can be prevented by controlling the descending speed of the wafer 2 .

[Effect (1): It has a hand part that is fixedly connected to an arm that is moved up and down by a drive mechanism! ! By adopting a plate-shaped object transfer device structure in which the object is transferred by moving the weight supporting position of the object as the hand portion passes through both ends or the central opening of the direct cooling device, the periphery of the object can be transferred. Since there is no need to provide an operating mechanism that is a source of dust generation, it is possible to prevent objects from being contaminated during transfer work.

(2) According to (1) above, the object can be transferred without damaging the object because the object is transferred by moving the weight supporting position of the object as the hand passes.

(3) According to (1) and (2) above, the yield of wafers can be improved.

Although the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically explained above based on Examples, it goes without saying that the present invention is not limited to the Examples and can be modified in various ways without departing from the gist thereof. Nor.

For example, in the embodiment, only a hand with a structure of holding a wafer one by one with a single groove was described, but the hand is not limited to this, and a hand with a structure of holding multiple wafers at the same time by drilling multiple grooves is described. It may be of a structure.

[Field of Application] In the above explanation, the invention made by the present inventor was mainly applied to the field of application, which is a so-called wafer transfer device. This is an effective technique that can be applied to any type of transfer device.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the hand portion of the transfer device according to the first embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing the entire transfer device according to the first embodiment, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view showing a wafer placed state in Example 2. FIG. 1... Transfer device, 2... Wafer, 3... Boat jig, 4... Cassette jig, 5... Rail, 6...
Head, 7...Arm, 7a. 7b... Branch arm, 8... Hand, 9a. 9b... Holding groove, 10a, 10b... Holding part, 21
...Hand, 22...Jig, 22a...Central opening, 23...Holding part. Figure 1 Figure 2 Figure 3 Figure 4

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A transfer device for a plate-shaped object, which has a hand portion fixedly connected to an arm that is moved up and down by a drive mechanism,
A transfer device characterized in that the object is transferred by moving the weight supporting position of the object as the hand portion passes through both end sides or the central opening of the placement jig. 2. The hand part has two object support parts fixed to the arm, and the object support parts are provided outside of the object support position of the mounting jig. A transfer device according to claim 1. 3. The transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the object support portion of the hand portion is provided inward from the object support position of the placement jig. 4. The transfer device according to claim 1, wherein the plate-shaped object is a wafer for manufacturing semiconductor devices.