JPS62230513A - Transfer feeder - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate the necessity for using a transfer feed belt and a rotary introducing machine, by constituting a transfer feeder unit such that a roller is mounted to a rotary shaft of a permanent magnet rotor-electric motor air- tightly sealing a stator, in the case of a transfer feeder in a vacuum processing chamber for thin film forming or the like. CONSTITUTION:A transfer feeder 60 is constituted of transfer feed units 61 fixed to a case C. This case C is constituted of an outer cylinder 70 and an intermediate cylinder 62, and a pair of bar magnets 65, 66 of fan-shaped section are fixed to a rotary shaft 63, penetrating through the intermediate cylinder 62, symmetrically for the axial center further with non-magnetic spaces 67, 68 interposing. And a space part 71 provides three electromagnetic coils 73-75 to be arranged. By this constitution, the rotary shaft 63 is rotated with the electromagnetic coils 73-75 serving as a stator while with the magnets 65, 66 serving as a rotor, and the transfer feed unit 61 is rotated feeding an article to be transferred. This constitution, which eliminates the necessity for using a transfer feed belt and a rotary introducing machine, enables the necessity for dust prevention and shaft alignment to be eliminated.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Industrial Application) The present invention relates to a transfer device within a vacuum processing chamber for forming an FI film, etching, and the like.

(Prior art) A vacuum processing bag 2TL that performs thin film formation, etching, etc. on the surface of a wafer has a load lock chamber 2, a buffer chamber 3, a cleaning chamber 4, and a vacuum processing chamber 5 connected in series, as shown in FIG. It is common to provide a

A gate valve 7 is provided in the load lock chamber 2 so that wafers can be loaded from the autoloader 15. Further, each of the chambers 2 to 5 shown in L communicate with each other via gate valves 8 to 10.

In addition, the load lock chamber 2 and buffer chamber 3 are provided with cassettes 11 to 13 on which wafers A are placed.

The cleaning chamber 4 is provided with an etching stage 4a for sputter cleaning the wafer A and a cooling stage 4b for cooling the wafer B that has been subjected to vacuum processing.

The vacuum processing chamber 5 is provided with a rotary transfer fi5a that rotates and transfers a wafer that has been transferred horizontally to a vertical state, and a heater 5b that heats the wafer A that is transferred to a vertical state, and a heater 5b that emits sputtered atoms. The magnetron cathode 5c that processes the heated wafer A as a film material is connected to the magnetron cathode 5c from the cassette 17 of the autoloader 15 to the load lock chamber 2 → buffer chamber 3 → cleaning chamber 4 → vacuum processing chamber 5 or vacuum processing chamber. Transfer devices 18 and 19 are provided to sequentially transfer the wafers A from 5 to the above direction.

As shown in FIG.
3 and the driven pulley 24, and the pulley 23.2
A transfer belt 25 is wound around the wafer A, and the wafer A is transferred by the movement of the transfer belt 25.

The drive shaft 21 is connected to an input shaft 33 of a rotation introducing machine 32 (see FIG. 7) via a coupler 31.
The positional relationship of the rotation introduction @32 in each chamber is as shown in FIG.

Further, the rotation introduction @32 in each chamber is such that, as shown in FIG. 7, a rotor 34 that rotates integrally with the input shaft 33 and a drive rotary body 35 are magnetically coupled via a seal member 3B. When the drive rotor 35 rotates, the magnetically coupled rotor 34 rotates, causing the input shaft 33 to rotate. and,
A motor (not shown) is connected to the drive rotary body 35.

Therefore, the driving force of the motor is transmitted to the input shaft 33 via the drive rotating body 35 and the rotor 34, and the drive shaft 2
Rotate 1.

(Problems to be Solved by the Present Invention) In the conventional transfer device as described above, the wafer is transferred by rotating the transfer belt 25 wound around the pulleys 23 and 24. There was a problem in that dust was generated due to friction with 23 and 24, which adversely affected vacuum processing.

In order to drive the drive shaft 21 smoothly, it is desirable that the drive shaft 21 and the input shaft 33 of the rotation introduction a32 are aligned on the same axis.

However, since the rotation introduction device 32 attached to each chamber 2 to 5 is attached to a hole 41 (see FIG. 7) provided in the wall of the chamber, its attachment position is determined by the position of the hole 41. For this reason, the rotation introduction device 32 was not installed with precision in its position, and it was difficult to align the drive shaft 21 and the input shaft 33. Moreover, usually there are multiple rotation introduction machines 3 in each chamber 2 to 5.
2, there was a problem in that the axis had to be aligned for each rotation introduction machine.

An object of the present invention is to provide a transfer device that solves the above problems.

(Means for Solving the Problem) In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a transfer device for transferring a flat object such as a wafer within a vacuum processing equipment, in which a stator is hermetically sealed. A plurality of transfer units each having a roller provided on the rotating shaft of a permanent magnet rotor electric motor are provided at predetermined intervals in the transfer direction.

(Operation of the present invention) A rotating shaft is rotated by an electric motor, and as the rotating shaft rotates, a roller rotates to transfer a wafer or the like.

(Effects of the Invention) According to the transfer device of the present invention, since a transfer belt is not used, there is no possibility that dust is generated due to friction between the transfer belt and the pulley as in the conventional device. Furthermore, since no rotation introducing machine is used to rotate the rotary shaft, there is no need for troublesome axis alignment as in the conventional method.

Furthermore, since the rotating shaft is directly rotated by the electric motor, there is no need for a transmission mechanism such as a gear, and the rotating mechanism for the rotating shaft becomes simply cylindrical.

Since the stator is sealed, it is possible to eliminate the influence of gas emitted from the stator during thin film formation in a vacuum processing chamber.

(Embodiment of the present invention) FIG. 1 shows a transfer device 60, which is composed of a plurality of transfer units 81.

This transfer unit 61 includes a holding member 8 provided on a base 83.
As shown in FIGS. 2 to 4, this case C includes an outer cylinder 70 fixed to the holding member 82, and an inner cylinder installed inside the outer cylinder 70. It consists of 62.

Large diameter portions 82a are formed at both ends of the middle tube 62, and the large diameter portions 82a are brought into close contact with the inner periphery of the outer tube. The rotary shaft 63 is supported by a bearing 64 provided on the large diameter portion 62a.

A pair of bar magnets 85.8 having a fan-shaped cross section are attached to the rotating shaft 83.
6 (see Fig. 3) is fixed parallel to its axis and symmetrically with respect to the axis, and the magnetic poles of the bar magnets 85.86 are as shown in the figure, and there is a gap between the bar magnets 65.6G. , a non-magnetic spacer 67, and θ8 are fixed. The bar magnet 65.6B is preferably composed of a rare earth magnet in order to obtain a strong magnetic flux density.

Three electromagnetic coils 73 to 75 are arranged in the space 71, and these electromagnetic coils 73 to 75 are connected to terminal terminals 77 to 7B provided on the outer cylinder 70, and are connected to an external power source. I have to. And this electromagnetic coil 73~
75 constitutes a stator, and the magnets 85. The ELS constitutes a rotor, and the stator and rotor constitute an electric motor that directly rotates the rotating shaft B3.

The middle cylinder 82 and the electromagnetic coils 73 to 75 constitute a stator of the electric motor.

Note that the bearing 84 is fixed by a retaining ring 72 attached to the inner peripheral surface of the large diameter portion 62a of the middle cylinder B2, and by removing this retaining ring 72, the rotating shaft 63 etc. can be removed from the case C. We are making it possible to do so.

On the other hand, rollers 80 that rotate integrally with the rotating shaft 63 are attached to both ends of the rotating shaft 63, and a Piton O-ring 81 is fitted around the outer circumference of the roller 80 to reduce friction with the wafer A (see FIG. 1). The wafer A is made larger to facilitate linear transfer of the wafer A.

When transferring a plate-shaped object A such as a wafer using this transfer device, the object A is placed between the rollers 80 of the transfer unit 61 and the rollers 80 are rotated by driving the electric motor. let When the roller 80 rotates, the object A placed on the roller 80 moves in the direction of the arrow 8.
It moves in the 0 direction and is transported to the target location while being sequentially fed to the next transport unit 61 in line.

If the diameter of the roller 80 is set to about 30 layers and a pulse voltage of about 5 cycles/second is applied to the terminals 77 to 79, rotation of about 30 Or, p, m is obtained, and the object A can be rotated by about 30 Or, p, m. The transfer speed can be approximately 150 m/s. However, it goes without saying that the transfer speed may be adjusted depending on the purpose.

Furthermore, when the object A is to be transferred in a direction opposite to the above-mentioned transfer direction, the direction of the above-mentioned pulse voltage may be reversed.

In this way, the wafer can be transferred without using a transfer belt, so there is no dust generated due to friction between the transfer belt and the pulley as in the conventional method, and there is no need to use a rotating introduction machine. Since the one-rotation shaft B3 is directly rotated by the electric motor without being used, there is no need for alignment as in the conventional case.

Since the transfer bag 7980 is constituted by the transfer unit 81, in the event of malfunction of rotation of the rotating shaft B3, the transfer unit itself can be replaced, so that repair is easy.

Further, since the bar magnet 85.8B is provided on the rotating shaft 63 and the rotating shaft 63 is directly rotated by the electromagnetic coil, a transmission mechanism such as a gear is not required, and the rotating mechanism of the rotating shaft 83 is simplified.

Since the electromagnetic coils 73 to 75 are installed in the sealed space BB71, the influence of the gas emitted from the electromagnetic coils 73 to 75 can be eliminated when forming the Vj film in the vacuum processing chamber 5.

In the transfer apparatus of the above embodiment, all of the transfer units 81 are equipped with electric motors, but depending on the size of the wafer and the arrangement of the transfer units, for example, every other unit is equipped with an electric motor, and the others are It can also be an idler.

Although this embodiment describes a transfer device for a sputtering device, it is of course applicable to other applications such as a CVD device, a dry etching device, an autoloader, and the like.

Although the electric motor is composed of two magnets and three electromagnetic coils, the number of magnetic poles is not limited to these.
Furthermore, a plurality of rotors may be provided only on one side of the electric motor.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the transfer device of the embodiment, Fig. 2 is a sectional view of the transfer unit of the embodiment, Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along the knee N line of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the transfer unit of the embodiment. FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of a vacuum processing system, FIG. 6 is an illustration of a conventional transfer device, and FIG. 7 is an illustration of a rotation introduction machine. 1... Vacuum processing equipment, 2... Load lock chamber, 5...
...Vacuum processing chamber, 60...Transfer device, 61...Transfer unit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a transfer device that transfers a flat object such as a wafer in a vacuum processing apparatus, a plurality of transfer units each having a roller provided on the rotating shaft of a permanent magnet rotor electric motor whose stator is hermetically sealed are used. A transfer device characterized in that the transfer device is provided at a predetermined interval in the transfer direction.