CN1071259C - 300 mm microenvironment pod with door on side - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention discloses a vessel used for forming microenvironment, which comprises a housing 10, a door 90 and a plurality of peculiarly designed supports 60, wherein the supports are parallel to one another and are separated from one another according to a certain distance so as to firmly clamp articles, such as silicon wafers 80, the supports can be dismounted, and an electric passage way is arranged on the vessel and is used for enabling the supports to be grounded. The vessel also has moveable connection structures 44 to 46 so as to put the vessel on the surface, and thus, for example, the door can be properly aligned to the mouth of a wafer processing tool.

Description

There are 300 mm microenvironment pods of door the side

Background of invention

The I invention field

In general, the present invention relates to article packing.More particularly, the present invention relates to customized design and be used for making manufacturing electronic semi-conductor's element and circuit material of using and packing that pollution is isolated.Be particularly suitable for this comprising such as substrate, wafer, memory disk, photomask, flat-panel monitor, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) etc.

The explanation of II prior art

For centuries, people use various containers that article are transported to another place from a place.For example, this container can be used to provide a kind of in the space restricted articles so that the method for effectively storing.This container also provides a kind of easy method of carrying article.The Another important function that packing and container provide is protection.

Be used to make semiconductor circuits, the substrate of memory, hard disk, photomask, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) and flat-panel monitor is highstrung.Must take effective measure to protect these article, exempt from damages such as moisture, particle, static.Also must take measures to protect article to exempt from the damage that vibration in the packing and impact cause.Equally, must take measures to prevent venting and generation particle.If be stored in article and the interior different surfaces scraping of packing in the packing, friction or impact will produce particle.

These question synthesis get up to make that suitable packing of design is very difficult.These problems only are related with the environment that uses these packings.

The suitable packing that is used to store and transport wafer, memory disk, photomask, LCD plates and flat-panel monitor is very expensive.Therefore, wish that very this class packing can reuse, and structure durable.In addition, this packing must clean easily and up hill and dale.At last, when packing was used to make quartz conductor, then it must be suitable for using robot transport and automatic manufacturing equipment.

Empak company has produced many corresponding packings that can be used for handling and transporting these class article in the past.US Patent 5,273,159 and US Patent 5,423,422 represented some examples of this class packing.Though verified, this package design is unusual actvies for less article,, owing to many reasons, this design is not suitable for storage and transportation outside dimension at 300 millimeters or in larger scope article.

The invention outline

The cell therefor that is used for wafer, photomask, memory disk, LCD plates and flat-panel monitor must satisfy several important design regulations.Their weight is essential light, and craft and robot transport work are carried out easily.It is minimum that the internal capacity of container should reduce to, to reduce the storage space requirement and to increase storage density.It is minimum that container height should reduce to, so that improve the accumulation of container.In transportation and storing process, surround that the polymer surfaces of article is long-pending should to reduce to minimum, reducing inorganic and organic pollution, and the poly-mer adverse effect of exitting.

Container constructed in accordance satisfies above-mentioned design regulation.This container also has several other distinct advantages.At first, by container is placed around the article line of centers, the accumulation of tolerance can be reduced to minimum, thereby can increase the positional precision that is stored in the article in this container.So just strengthened the validity of using the robot device to insert article and take out article from container.The second, this container can reduce the danger by the damage of generation of static electricity.In a preferred embodiment, this point reaches like this: promptly be supported to the external movement connection flat board of container from the internal objects that consumes static, a connected to chassis conductive channel is set.It is to be used for container is placed on the different equipment that this motion connects flat board.The 3rd, the Vessel Design of the present invention cleaning that becomes can under the state of taking apart or not taking apart, wet.The 4th, because container of the present invention can be for not needing the unit design of independent carriage, therefore, container can keep interrelating with specific a collection of article.This can make the workman of factory can follow the tracks of a collection of article better, therefore, can reduce to occur handling wrong chance.The 5th, owing to do not need independent box, this unit design is greatly reducing packing number of parts and the occupied space of these parts that the stock needs.The 6th, the box that unit design does not need accurately can take out is placed in the container, and with its locking.At last, unit design can utilize less and less part to make, and therefore can reduce manufacturing cost.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a kind of container of isolation, it can protect the article in the container, is not subjected to particle or moisture contamination.

Another object of the present invention is that a kind of container will be provided, and it can protect the article that are stored in wherein, is not subjected to because the damage that causes of shock and vibration and not being subjected to because article scraping, friction or impact the damage that the different surfaces of container causes.

A further object of the invention is that a kind of container that can reuse and clean easily will be provided.

It is that a kind of like this container will be provided that the present invention has a purpose again, and its inner structure is not easy to wear, or is difficult for producing particle, and these particles tend to pollute the content of packing.

A further object of the invention is that a kind of like this container will be provided, and is unusual actv. when it uses with automatic processing or haulage equipment.

It is a kind of easily by the structure of people's carrying, manipulation and transportation that the present invention has a purpose to provide again.

These and other some purposes reach by a kind of container is provided, and this container has a housing, and opening is arranged on the housing, are used for inserting and taking out article; The door that can effectively seal this opening; Many article retaining meanss in housing, they are holding articles securely, and makes article spaced apart each other; It is dull and stereotyped that motion connects, and it can help container to aim at the mouth of the equipment that is used for handling article in factory; With the handle by the ergonomics principle design, these handles can be used for manually or by the robot device handling effectively.In order to reduce the pollution that internal tank is caused by particle, the article supporting is made by resistant to elevated temperatures conductive material.Special supporting also with the external ground (will describe in detail below) of container.The structure of entire container is to make supporting that article are provided and protection reach maximum, and the easiest carrying and within the possible range reduces the height and the weight of container to greatest extent.

By below in conjunction with the accompanying drawing description of a preferred embodiment, the present invention may be better understood.Although illustrate and accompanying drawing is specially at the microenvironment pod of silicon wafer, described invention also is applicable to other application scenarios.For example photomask, memory, hard disk, LCD plates, the storage of flat-panel monitor etc. and transportation.

Brief description of drawings

Fig. 1 is the transparent view of shell of tank constructed in accordance;

Fig. 2 is the top view of shell of tank;

The container cross section of Fig. 3 for being got by the A-A line of Fig. 2;

The container cross section of Fig. 4 for being got by the B-B line of Fig. 2;

Fig. 5 is the lateral plan that comprises container of the present invention;

Fig. 6 is the cross-sectional plane by the container of the C-C line of Fig. 5;

The container view of Fig. 7 for seeing from door opposite one side;

Fig. 8 connects dull and stereotyped figure for motion;

Fig. 9 is the cross-sectional plane that connects flat board by the motion of the D-D line of Fig. 8;

Figure 10 is the cross-sectional plane that connects flat board by the motion of the E-E line of Fig. 8;

Figure 11 is the cross-sectional plane that connects flat board by the motion of the F-F line of Fig. 8;

Figure 12 is the transparent view of a handle in the ergonomics handle that is adopted in the design;

Figure 13 is the end view of handle;

Figure 14 is the cross-sectional plane by the handle of the G-G line of Figure 13;

Figure 15 for respect to shell of tank be in off position container the door planar view;

Figure 16 is the transparent view of cushion rubber, and it can be fixed on the inside face of door, so that in storage and transportation, assistance will be left the article supporting in the container in and be remained on the appropriate location; With

Figure 17 is the cross-sectional plane of two relative dividing plates of expression and wafer.

The explanation of most preferred embodiment

As shown in Figure 1, container of the present invention has shell 10.Shell 10 has six sides 12,14,16,18,20 and 22.

Side 12 comprises doorframe 6, and doorframe 6 has two relative not end parts 7 and two lateral parts 8 again.The side 14 and 16 of shell 10 is generally the straight wall that is extended out by the relative end portion 7 from doorframe 6 and constitutes.Wall 18 extends between wall 14 and 16, and it is shaped as the part cylinder.The radius of curvature of wall 18 generally with leave container in the radius of curvature of wafer identical.End face 20 and bottom surface 22 constitute a complete container altogether.The reinforcement 26 that wall 20 and 22 generally has flat surface 24 and outwards gives prominence to from this plane surface 24.Reinforcement 26 can prevent container, particularly wall 20 and 22 warpages.Reinforcement 26 has four shanks 28,30,32 and 34.Between two shanks 30, crossing wall 18 has cross-tie 31 to stretch out.Equally, cross-tie 33 extends between two shanks 32.If wall of a container face 18 is placed down, then cross-tie 31 and 33 is used in this shell 10 of plane surface upper support.

Represented also on Fig. 1 that motion connects dull and stereotyped 40.Fig. 1-5 has represented in more detail that with Fig. 8-11 this motion is connected dull and stereotyped structure.This flat board utilizes many mounting column 42 (see figure 5)s to be fixed on the wall 20.In motion connection dull and stereotyped 40, do to have three independent link slots 44,45 and 46.These grooves be designed to the treatment facility (not shown) on pillar coupling, the opening 8 of coming in and going out is aimed at the mouth on the treatment facility.As Figure 10 the most clearly represented, groove 44,45 and 46 was a gamma-form, and it comprises narrower, darker central through hole 47 and broad, not too dark upper channel 48.Upper channel 48 is used for the stanchions of aiming at treatment facility, and guides it to enter in the central aisle 47, obtains suitable aligning.When the central aisle 47 of three aligning pillars on the treatment facility (not shown) and groove 44,45 and 46 cooperates, can obtain suitable aligning.

Motion connects dull and stereotyped 40 and is made by conductive material.Slab design becomes to comprise two screw fabricated sections 49.As following will the explanation, each part 49 can hold a screw, this screw be used to make motion connect dull and stereotyped 40 be connected on the wafer supporting 60 that is placed on internal tank is electric.This is electrically connected and forms a passage, and by this passage, wafer supporting can ground connection, consumes the electric charge on wafer or the wafer supporting, therefore can prevent the damage to wafer that static causes.

Fig. 1 has also represented a pair of handle 50.These handles are placed on the center of gravity place of container.Handle is according to the ergonomics principle design, and therefore, staff can be easy to hold handle from different angles.The design of handle 50 also makes handle to be gripped by robot transport equipment effectively.

More particularly, each handle comprises a support column 51, and it links together handle 50 and housing 10, also comprises a gripping member 52 to broad in addition.The profile of gripping member 52 can be caught it comfily by staff.End at gripping member 52 has a recessed groove.Groove 53 is generally straight, and comprises a breach 54.It is can be engaged with for the gripping member that makes robot arm that groove 53 and breach 54 are set.Like this, Vessel Design makes it can be easy, effectively with safely by people or robot transport.

Fig. 3, some inner structures of invisible housing 10 in 4 and 6 presentation graphs 1.For example, Fig. 3 and 4 expression wafer supportings 60 and 62, they are worked in coordination can the wafer 80 of clamping below 13.Generally, 12 wafers 80 are the finished product wafer, and a wafer is a test wafer.Wafer supporting 60 and 62 is all made with resistant to elevated temperatures conductive material.As shown in the figure, each wafer supporting 60 and 62 all has 14 wafer separator 65.Between each is to dividing plate 65, make a Waffer edge mounting groove 66.Groove on the wafer supporting 60 cooperates with groove on the wafer supporting 62, can be by parallel to each other, and mode holding chip 80 spaced from each other is shown in Fig. 3 and 4.The people that technical experience is abundant know, wafer supporting 60 and 62 can be transformed, and with clamping more (for example 25) wafer, or wafer (for example 7) still less, and can not depart from the present invention.Equally, wafer supporting 60 and 62 size can support the thing that is not wafer, or the supporting wafers having different sizes.

In graphic most preferred embodiment, each groove 66 makes specially and can support 300 millimeters wafer.The base side of each groove all makes curvilinear figure at circumferencial direction (for example, the circumferencial direction of wafer 80) and the horizontal direction thickness direction of wafer 80 (for example, across).The base side of each groove 66 is in the curvature of circumferencial direction and horizontal direction, and is roughly the same with the radius of curvature of the outer ledge of 300 millimeters wafer 80.Along identical can the contact along circular arc of radius of curvature of circumferencial direction by the edge of the base side of groove with wafer 80, and not just a some contact.

Wafer separator 65 is made definite shape (as shown in figure 17) many tangible advantages are arranged.Wafer separator has the continually varying slope, and gravity helps to make wafer 80 in the centering of the middle part of its carrier like this.When using the wafer separator 65 of this pattern, wafer always is placed on the wafer separator part with definite slope, therefore can guarantee edge contact.In addition, if owing to every kind of reason, in the time of from dead centre, taking out wafer, rise more faster on the edge of wafer than the decline at another edge.Like this, be the carrier that level is transported for wafer, gravity can be used to help wafer and supporting centering.In case reserve after the center, the upright position of wafer is just accurate have been determined.Because carrier moves to the next position from a position, small vibration has and helps the centering of wafer in carrier, therefore, can improve the level attitude precision and the upright position precision of wafer.

The subsidiary benefit of wafer supporting design-calculated shown in Figure 17 is for given bearing strength, can obtain minimum big cross-sectional plane.When wafer inserted carrier and takes out from carrier, dividing plate 65 was obstruction zones of wafer 80 motions.Thin dividing plate is better, because the chance of wafer 80 collision dividing plates and generation particle is less.On the other hand, for supporting wafer 80 with avoid at the container life period by chip deflector, dividing plate 65 must have enough thickness.In view of the requirement of these contradictions, baffle design becomes to have the continually varying angle, as shown in figure 17.

In most preferred embodiment, be provided with two screws 64.One of them screw 64 is used for forming conductive path between the motion of wafer supporting 60 and conduction connects dull and stereotyped 40.Another screw 64 is used for forming conductive path between wafer supporting 62 and motion connection dull and stereotyped 40.The advantage of this structure is, wafer supporting 60 can be connected dull and stereotyped 40 ground connection with motion by screw 64 with 62, therefore, and wafer supporting 60 and 62 neutrals.The wall of housing 10 does not have ground connection, and has a spot of negative charge, and this can make the particle migration in the container, and attached on the container wall, these particles can not damage wafer.Because screw 64 does not make shell 10 ground connection, wish that therefore lining is with one deck insulating material in the hole of the housing 10 that screw 64 passes through.

In order to close the discrepancy opening 8 of housing 10, be provided with door 90.The shape and size of door 90 make and can be contained in the doorframe 6.When being in place, door engages with doorframe 6, makes seal of vessel.Equally, the external margin of doorframe 6 also can be used to form around the sealing of the opening 8 of coming in and going out between the mouth of the instrument of doorframe 6 and process semiconductor wafers 80.If before door 90 is opened, form a kind of like this sealing, then can reduce the danger of pollution.When forming this sealing, can open door 90 safely, like this, wafer 80 can be taken out from housing 10 and wafer is put in eight handling implements by this mouth, and do not have too big contamination hazard.Generally, for this door is maintained in its closed position, be provided with many lock bolt (not shown)s.In addition, seal fully, between door 90 and doorframe 6, be placed with flexible packing seal or seal ring in order to guarantee door 90 and doorframe 6.

Door 90 can be provided with wafer cushions 92.As shown in figure 16, cushion rubber 92 has the track 93 and 94 and a plurality of deformable lateral member 95 of two rigidity.13 deformable lateral member 95 have been represented among Figure 16.Each lateral member has two dividing plates 96.Each dividing plate 96 with the dividing plate on the rigid track 93 97 and with dividing plate 98 on rigid track 94 in a straight line.Like this, when door 90 was closed, wafer 80 formed catching groove with dividing plate 96,97 and 98 and engages.Lateral member 95 will produce distortion, until the edge of wafer 80 also with till rigid track 93 and 94 engages.Even in transportation, wafer 80 is subjected to unexpected vibration, because deformable lateral member 95 is arranged, cushion rubber 92 does not contact and can lose with supporting.

Comprise on the door 90 that such wafer cushions 92 forms three support regions of wafer 80, therefore can reduce the motion and the vibration of wafer 80 in the transportation.Can reduce because the wafer damage that scraping, friction or the impact on internal tank surface caused also can limit by this scraping friction or impact the particle that causes and produce at three area supporting wafers 80.At last, door 90 and another apparent motion bonded assembly device can also be set in this outside.The motion that this can be with lip-deep outshot matches is connected the sort of a series of three the groove (not shown)s shown in dull and stereotyped 40, or three outshots on the door 90 that matches with lip-deep groove.

Though, The present invention be directed to the best and select embodiment to describe and represent that the present invention also can be used for the transportation and the storage of Liquid Crystal Display (LCD), flat-panel monitor, photomask, memory, hard disk, substrate etc.In addition, it is can take off with removable that various parts of the present invention can make, to prolong the service life of container.This for wafer supporting 60 and 62 and wafer cushions 92 also be correct, these supportings and cushion rubber can take off, and with supporting that is more suitable for being contained in other article in the container or cushion rubber replacement.Therefore, the explanation and the illustration that should be appreciated that here to be done are not restrictive.

Claims (13)

1. one kind is used for protecting the container that is stored in the microenvironment that article wherein are not damaged, and described container comprises:

(a) housing has opening on the housing, be used for article being inserted and taking out from described housing, and described housing is made by the material that has a small amount of negative charge originally;

(b) two supportings, they are worked in coordination, be parallel to each other and position spaced from each other supporting a plurality of article that are stored in the container;

(c) door is used to seal the described opening of described housing, prevents that the article that are stored in the described housing from being polluted; With

(d) therefore device that is used to form electric path, above-mentioned supporting, can siphon away the particle of enclosure interior by this device ground connection from described article and supporting, inhale the housing to described container.

2. container as claimed in claim 1 is characterized by, and the described article that are stored in the container are semiconductor wafer.

3. container as claimed in claim 1, it also comprises two handles, they are positioned at the relative both sides of container center of gravity.

4. container as claimed in claim 3 is characterized by, and each described handle has a groove, and groove comprises an alignment notch again, so handle can easily be gripped by robot securely.

5. container as claimed in claim 1, it is dull and stereotyped that it comprises that also a motion connects, and it is fixed on the outside of described housing with many pillars, and described motion connection flat board has three alignment slots, and the cross-sectional plane of each described alignment slot is generally gamma-form.

6. container as claimed in claim 5, it is characterized by, described motion connects door that dull and stereotyped described alignment slot is used to make container and is used for the mouth of instrument of process semiconductor wafers and aims at, make and opening container door, wafer is taken out by this mouthful and before the insertion instrument handles from housing, around the interruption-forming sealing of the opening and the instrument of this housing.

7. container as claimed in claim 1, it is dull and stereotyped that it comprises that also a motion connects, and it is fixed on the outside of housing, and described motion connects flat board and is made by conductive material.

8. container as claimed in claim 7 is characterized by, and described formation electric path makes the device of supporting by this path ground be included in each described supporting and described motion and connects conductive connection between the flat board.

9. container as claimed in claim 1 is characterized by, and described door comprises one on its outer surface, with described door and another surperficial bonded assembly device.

10. container as claimed in claim 1 is characterized by, and each described supporting releasably is fixed on the housing, and therefore this supporting can be taken off and be cleaned or change.

11. container as claimed in claim 2 is characterized by, and describedly is supported with many grooves, the base side of each described groove is curvilinear figure in a circumferential direction.

12. container as claimed in claim 11 is characterized by, the base side of described groove is general identical at the radius of curvature of circumferencial direction with described wafer at the radius of curvature of circumferencial direction.

13. container as claimed in claim 2 is characterized by, each supporting in described two supportings comprises many wafer separator, and each described wafer separator has the continually varying slope, to assist a wafer in the described semiconductor wafer of supporting.

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