CN112975910A

CN112975910A - Wafer conveying arm for photoresist removing machine

Info

Publication number: CN112975910A
Application number: CN202110237305.4A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 廖海涛
Original assignee: Advanced Materials Technology and Engineering Inc
Current assignee: Advanced Materials Technology and Engineering Inc
Priority date: 2021-03-03
Filing date: 2021-03-03
Publication date: 2021-06-18

Abstract

The invention relates to a wafer conveying arm for a photoresist stripper, which is provided with an arm and a finger unit; an auxiliary linkage device capable of performing telescopic linkage along with the arm is arranged below the arm; the arms comprise a first arm and a second arm; the first arm is connected with a driving device of the wafer conveying arm through an F joint; a supporting platform is arranged below the first arm connected with the wafer conveying arm driving device; the first arm and the second arm are connected through an S joint, and an S platform is arranged below the S joint; a third arm is arranged at the front end of the second arm, and the finger units are arranged at two ends of the third arm; the middle section of the third arm extends outwards to form a platform; the arms, the auxiliary linkage device, the S platform and the platform form a double-quadrilateral telescopic structure. The invention aims to overcome the defects in the prior art and provide the multi-degree-of-freedom manipulator with high positioning accuracy and high speed.

Description

Wafer conveying arm for photoresist removing machine

Technical Field

The invention relates to a wafer conveying device, in particular to a wafer conveying arm for a photoresist stripper.

Background

In semiconductor processing equipment, wafers are often required to be transferred among stations, and in the process of transferring, the higher the transferring precision, the better the process consistency of the equipment, and the higher the speed, the larger the capacity of a single equipment. With the development of semiconductor technology, the equipment processing technology is more and more complex, the requirements on the automation degree and the flexibility degree of the equipment are higher and higher, and a wafer conveying arm for a multi-degree-of-freedom photoresist stripper with high positioning accuracy and high efficiency is needed.

Disclosure of Invention

The invention aims to overcome the defects in the prior art and provide the wafer conveying arm for the photoresist stripper, which has high positioning precision, high efficiency and multiple degrees of freedom.

The technical scheme for realizing the purpose of the invention is as follows: a wafer transfer arm for a stripper comprises an arm and a finger unit; an auxiliary linkage device capable of performing telescopic linkage along with the arm is arranged below the arm; the arms comprise a first arm and a second arm; the first arm is connected with a driving device of the wafer conveying arm through an F joint; a supporting platform is arranged below the first arm connected with the wafer conveying arm driving device; the first arm and the second arm are connected through an S joint, and an S platform is arranged below the S joint; a third arm is arranged at the front end of the second arm, and the finger units are arranged at two ends of the third arm; the middle section of the third arm extends outwards to form a platform; the arms, the auxiliary linkage device, the S platform and the platform form a double-quadrilateral telescopic structure.

Preferably, two meshed gears are arranged in the S platform, and the ratio of the gears is 1: 1.

More preferably, the auxiliary linkage comprises a first auxiliary arm and a second auxiliary arm; the supporting platform, the first auxiliary arm and the second auxiliary arm are of a connecting rod structure; the tail end of the second auxiliary arm is movably connected with the platform through a fixed rod.

Preferably, the first auxiliary arm and the second auxiliary arm are overlapped to form a rotary joint, and the second auxiliary arm at the rotary joint passes through the first auxiliary arm to be connected with a gear in the S platform.

Preferably, the finger units are mounted at both ends of the third arm by detachable assemblies.

More preferably, the detachable assembly comprises a fixed plate and a clamping block; the clamping blocks are installed on the fixing plate through bolts, and the fixing plate is installed at two ends of the third arm through bolts in a locking mode.

Preferably, the finger unit is mounted on the clamping block through bolt locking, and the horizontal distance between the clamping block and the clamping block is the same as the width of the arm at the tail end of the third arm.

After the technical scheme is adopted, the invention has the following positive effects: the auxiliary linkage device is in telescopic linkage with the wafer conveying arm in the horizontal direction, and is stable in operation and high in positioning accuracy in the process of taking and conveying wafers. In addition, a plurality of finger units can be installed on a third arm arranged at the front end of the wafer conveying device, a plurality of wafers are placed on two sides of each arm, conveying efficiency is improved in the process of conveying the wafers, and the finger units are detachably installed, so that later-stage maintenance, maintenance and replacement are facilitated. In addition, the wafer conveying arm is simple in structure, low in cost and high in practicability.

Drawings

In order that the present disclosure may be more readily and clearly understood, reference is now made to the following detailed description of the present disclosure taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a partial schematic structural view of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of a finger unit according to the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the driving device of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an overall top view of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a depiction of a double quad in accordance with the present invention;

FIG. 7 is a diagram of a quadrilateral state of a wafer transfer arm at a zero point according to the present invention

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram illustrating forward and reverse movement of a wafer transfer arm according to the present invention;

fig. 9 is a diagram illustrating the internal structure of the S-platform 22 according to the present invention.

The reference numbers in the drawings are as follows: the detachable arm comprises a first arm 1, an F joint 11, a supporting platform 12, a second arm 2, an S joint 21, an S platform 22, a third arm 3, a platform 31, a T joint 32, a finger unit 4, an auxiliary linkage 6, a first auxiliary arm 61, a second auxiliary arm 62, a detachable component 7, a fixing plate 71 and a clamping block 72.

Detailed Description

Referring to fig. 1 to 4, the present invention includes an arm and finger unit 4; the arm comprises a first arm 1 and a second arm 2, one end of the first arm 1 is connected with a driving device of the wafer conveying arm through an F joint 11 in a locking mode through a bolt, a supporting platform 12 is arranged below the F joint 11, the supporting platform 12 is also connected with the driving device of the wafer conveying arm, more specifically, a driving rod of the driving device of the wafer conveying arm is connected with the F joint 11, and the driving rod can drive the first arm 1 to rotate; the supporting platform 12 is also connected with a driving device of the wafer transfer arm, more specifically, the supporting platform 12 is connected with a sleeve of the driving device of the wafer transfer arm, during the process of stretching and retracting the wafer transfer arm, the supporting platform 12 does not rotate, it only rotates along with the whole driving device during the process of the whole rotation of the wafer transfer arm, the whole driving device rotates to drive the wafer transfer arm to rotate, so as to realize multi-freedom rotation, the prior art can be referred to how the driving device drives the wafer transfer arm to rotate in multiple freedom, and not repeated here, the other end of the first arm 1 is connected with the second arm 2 through an S joint 21, an S platform 22 is arranged below the S joint 21, a third arm 3 is arranged at the front end of the second arm 2, finger units 4 are arranged at the two ends of the third arm 3, the middle section of the third arm 3 extends forward to form a platform 31, the third arm 3 is connected with the second arm 2 through a T joint 32, the first arm 1 and the second arm 2 are of a connecting rod structure, an auxiliary linkage device 6 is further arranged below the first arm 1, the second arm 2 and the third arm 3, the auxiliary linkage device 6 is of a connecting rod structure and can stretch and link along with the wafer conveying arm, the front end of the auxiliary linkage device 6 is connected with the third arm 3, the rear end of the auxiliary linkage device 6 is connected with the supporting platform 12, and in the stretching process of the wafer conveying arm, the arms, the auxiliary linkage device 6, the S platform 22 and the platform 31 form a double-quadrilateral stretching structure.

Referring to fig. 9, in the embodiment, more specifically, there are two gears engaged in the S platform 22, where the two gears are 1:1, one gear shaft penetrates through the first arm 1 and is connected to the second arm 2, and the other gear is connected to the intermediate link node of the auxiliary linkage 6; in the process of stretching the wafer conveying arm, the supporting platform 12 is not moved, the driving device of the wafer conveying arm drives the first arm 1 to rotate, and the rotation of the first arm 1 drives the S platform 22, the auxiliary linkage device 6, the second arm 2 to be linked and the platform 31 to be linked, namely, the parallelogram effect.

More specifically, in the present embodiment, the auxiliary linkage 6 includes a first auxiliary arm 61 and a second auxiliary arm 62, one end of the first auxiliary arm 61 is movably connected to the support platform 12, the movable connection is a shaft connection, that is, the support platform 12, the first auxiliary arm 61 and the second auxiliary arm 62 are in a link structure, the overlapping portion of the other end of the first auxiliary arm 61 and the second auxiliary arm 62 forms a rotary joint, at the rotary joint, the second auxiliary arm 62 passes through the first auxiliary arm and is connected to the gear in the S platform 22, the first auxiliary arm 61 is sleeved on the periphery of the rotary joint, which is rotatable relative to the rotary joint, so that the second auxiliary arm 62 is driven by the gear in the S platform 22, and the end of the second auxiliary arm 62 is movably connected to the platform 31.

More specifically, in this embodiment, the finger units 4 are mounted on two ends of the third arm 3 through the detachable assemblies 7, and one finger unit 4 may be fixed on each of the two ends of the

third arm

3, or 2 finger units 4 may be fixed on each of the two ends of the third arm 3. The detachable assembly 7 comprises a fixing plate 71 and a clamping block 72, the finger unit 4 is mounted on the clamping block 72 through bolts in a locking mode, the clamping block 72 is mounted on the fixing plate 71 through bolts, the fixing plate 71 is mounted at two ends of the third arm 3 through bolts in a locking mode, and the horizontal distance between the clamping block 72 and the clamping block 72 is the same as the width of the arm at the tail end of the third arm 3.

The working principle of the invention is as follows: during operation, the first arm 1 rotates under the driving of the driving shaft of the wafer transfer arm driving device, and the rotation of the first arm 1 drives the S platform 22, the second arm 2 and the auxiliary linkage device 6 to perform linkage, so as to complete the expansion and contraction of the wafer transfer arm in a vacuum state.

Referring to fig. 5 and 6, the double quadrangles are two parallelograms formed by a, b, c, d, e and F in the drawing, where a is the center of circle of the T joint 32, b is the center of circle of the node at the movable connection between the second auxiliary arm 62 and the platform 31, c is the center of circle of the driving rod (i.e., the F joint 11) of the driving device, d is the center of circle of the node at the movable connection between the first auxiliary arm 61 and the supporting platform 12, e is the center of circle of the node at the movable connection between the first arm 1 and the second arm 2, and F is the center of circle of the node at the movable connection between the first auxiliary arm 61 and the second auxiliary arm 62; in the process of expansion and contraction of the double quadrangles, four points a, b, c and d are always on the same straight line due to the fact that the gear ratio is 1: 1.

Referring to fig. 7, before the wafer transfer arm performs the rotation operation and during the rotation process, the double-quadrilateral structure needs to return to the zero state, that is, two quadrilaterals are overlapped to form a rectangle, so that the radial space requirement of the wafer transfer arm is reduced during the rotation process of the wafer transfer arm with the driving rod as the center of circle, thereby avoiding the wafer transfer arm from touching the cavity wall during the rotation process in the cavity.

Referring to fig. 8, in the process of stretching and retracting the wafer, the wafer transfer arm can realize forward and reverse, that is, bidirectional wafer fetching; the specific operation is as follows: in the zero state, the two quadrangles are superposed to form a rectangle; extending forwards to obtain a wafer, and then contracting to return to a zero state; extending the acquired wafer backwards (i.e., in the opposite direction from just forward) and then contracting back to a zero state; the forward and reverse wafer taking process achieved by stretching of the single wafer conveying arm is low in cost, simple in structure and capable of achieving high-stability and high-efficiency wafer conveying.

The above-mentioned embodiments are intended to illustrate the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the present invention in further detail, and it should be understood that the above-mentioned embodiments are only exemplary embodiments of the present invention, and are not intended to limit the present invention, and any modifications, equivalents, improvements and the like made within the spirit and principle of the present invention should be included in the protection scope of the present invention.

Claims

1. A wafer transfer arm for a stripper has an arm and a finger unit (4); the method is characterized in that: an auxiliary linkage device (6) which can be in telescopic linkage with the arm is arranged below the arm; the arms comprise a first arm (1) and a second arm (2); the first arm (1) is connected with a driving device of the wafer conveying arm through an F joint (11); a supporting platform (12) is arranged below the first arm (1) connected with the wafer conveying arm driving device; the first arm (1) is connected with the second arm (2) through an S joint (21), and an S platform (22) is arranged below the S joint (21); a third arm (3) is arranged at the front end of the second arm (2), and finger units (4) are arranged at two ends of the third arm (3); the middle section of the third arm (3) extends outwards to form a platform (31); the arm, the auxiliary linkage device (6), the S platform (22) and the platform (31) form a double-quadrilateral telescopic structure.

2. The wafer transfer arm for a stripper as defined in claim 1, wherein: two meshed gears are arranged in the S platform (22), and the ratio of the gears is 1: 1.

3. The wafer transfer arm for a stripper as defined in claim 2, wherein: the auxiliary linkage (6) comprises a first auxiliary arm (61) and a second auxiliary arm (62); the supporting platform (12), the first auxiliary arm (61) and the second auxiliary arm (62) are of a connecting rod structure; the tail end of the second auxiliary arm (62) is movably connected with the platform (31) through a fixed rod.

4. The wafer transfer arm for a stripper as defined in claim 3, wherein: the first auxiliary arm (61) and the second auxiliary arm (62) are overlapped to form a rotary joint, and the second auxiliary arm (62) at the rotary joint passes through the first auxiliary arm (61) to be connected with a gear in the S platform (22).

5. The wafer transfer arm of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein: the finger units (4) are mounted at both ends of the third arm (3) through detachable components (7).

6. The wafer transfer arm for a stripper as defined in claim 5, wherein: the detachable component (7) comprises a fixing plate (71) and a clamping block (72); the clamping blocks (72) are mounted on the fixing plate (71) through bolts, and the fixing plate (71) is mounted at two ends of the third arm (3) through bolts in a locking mode.

7. The wafer transfer arm of claim 6, wherein: the finger unit (4) is mounted on the clamping block (72) through a bolt in a locking mode, and the horizontal distance between the clamping block (72) and the clamping block (72) is the same as the width of the arm at the tail end of the third arm (3).