CN113745139A

CN113745139A - Wafer transfer system and method

Info

Publication number: CN113745139A
Application number: CN202111090673.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 吴功; 倪萌; 郑英杰; 国建花; 李国勇
Original assignee: Shanghai Fortrend Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Fortrend Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2021-05-07
Filing date: 2021-09-17
Publication date: 2021-12-03
Also published as: CN216120257U; CN216120258U; CN216288355U; CN114023675A; CN113725145A; CN113745141A; CN216120244U; CN216288367U; CN113745140A; CN113745142A; CN216288353U; CN113707587A; CN216288368U; CN216288354U

Abstract

The invention discloses a wafer transfer system, comprising: the wafer box taking and placing unit comprises a first loading table, and the first loading table is used for receiving and bearing a wafer box; the box opening unit comprises a wafer box switch and a clamping mechanism, wherein the wafer box switch is used for bearing and opening and closing a wafer box, and the clamping mechanism is used for clamping and lifting the wafer box on the wafer box switch; and the wafer box transferring manipulator is used for transferring the wafer box between the wafer box taking and placing unit and the box opening unit. According to the invention, through the matching of the wafer box taking and placing unit, the box opening unit and the wafer box transferring manipulator, the wafer box is quickly opened and closed, the efficient operation of the wafer box transferring manipulator is ensured, and meanwhile, a plurality of wafer box buffering temporary storage stations are provided, so that the wafer box loading or unloading blockage is avoided, and the system operation efficiency is improved.

Description

Wafer transfer system and method

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of semiconductors, in particular to a wafer transfer system and a wafer transfer method.

Background

In the semiconductor manufacturing industry, wafers (wafers) are generally transferred among different processes by being stored in a wafer pod (FOUP/cassette), and before the processes and processing equipment, the wafers need to be taken out of the FOUP and enter a processing area.

For example, in US20050063799a1, an apparatus is disclosed in which the width extending in the X-axis direction, the height extending in the z-axis direction and the length extending in the y-axis direction are integrated, the apparatus includes a buffer zone, a wafer transfer system and a processing zone, the buffer zone is only a cassette in which a cassette transfer robot 200 is disposed to transfer a front end load port and a load port of the wafer transfer system, i.e., the load port is not fully utilized, and at the same time, wafers cannot be temporarily stored, and the improvement of wafer transfer efficiency is limited. In CN111783172A, a structural schematic diagram of a cleaning machine device is disclosed, which comprises: the wafer transfer device comprises a second loading platform (loadPort), a storage box butt joint assembly (PDO), a storage box manipulator (FOUP Robot), a buffer area (Stocker), a wafer manipulator (WTS), a Process manipulator (Process Robot), a Process Tank (Tank) and a Process manipulator cleaning Tank, wherein the same wafer manipulator is adopted to pick and place wafers in the wafer transfer Process, so that wafer cross contamination before and after Process treatment is caused, and meanwhile, the position state of the wafers cannot be changed in batches, and the butt joint of the wafers and equipment in a subsequent treatment Process area is influenced.

Therefore, in view of the above problems, it is necessary to propose a further solution to solve at least one of the problems.

Disclosure of Invention

The present invention is directed to a wafer transfer system that overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art.

In order to solve the technical problems, the technical scheme of the invention is as follows:

a wafer transfer system comprising:

the wafer box taking and placing unit comprises a first loading table, and the first loading table is used for receiving and bearing a wafer box;

the box opening unit comprises a wafer box switch and a clamping mechanism, wherein the wafer box switch is used for bearing and opening and closing the wafer box, and the clamping mechanism is used for clamping and lifting the wafer box on the wafer box switch;

the wafer box transferring mechanical arm is used for transferring the wafer box between the wafer box taking and placing unit and the box opening unit;

wherein, fixture includes:

a clamping mounting seat;

the top claw is arranged on the clamping mounting seat;

the lower claws are arranged along the circumferential direction of the top claw, each lower claw comprises an inclined abutting surface which is used for abutting against the bottom surface of the wafer box connector and gradually decreases towards the direction close to the center of the top claw, and the minimum distance between the abutting surface and the plane where the top claw is located is matched with the thickness of the connector; and the number of the first and second groups,

and the second driving part is used for driving at least two opposite arranged lower claws to move towards the center direction of the top claw so as to clamp the connector at the top end of the wafer box between the lower claws and the top claw.

The other technical scheme is as follows:

a wafer transfer method adopts the wafer transfer system and comprises the following steps:

s100, when the wafer box transfer manipulator does not have a wafer box on the wafer box switch, placing the wafer box to be operated on the wafer box switch;

s200, the clamping mechanism clamps and lifts the wafer box which is operated and completed on the wafer box switch away from the wafer box switch;

and S300, the wafer box transferring mechanical arm transfers the wafer box positioned on the clamping mechanism to other positions during the operation of the wafer box switching device and the operation of the wafer transferring mechanical arm.

Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:

according to the invention, through the matching of the wafer box taking and placing unit, the box opening unit and the wafer box transferring manipulator, the wafer box is quickly opened and closed, the efficient operation of the wafer box transferring manipulator is ensured, and meanwhile, a plurality of wafer box buffering temporary storage stations are provided, so that the wafer box loading or unloading blockage is avoided, and the system operation efficiency is improved; further, the wafer transfer unit is matched with the wafer overturning unit, so that the wafer is taken out of the wafer box, the wafer in the horizontal state is overturned to be in the vertical state, batch wafer operation can be realized, and a foundation is provided for realizing efficient operation of wafer process treatment.

Drawings

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the drawings used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described below, it is obvious that the drawings in the following description are only some embodiments described in the present invention, and for those skilled in the art, other drawings can be obtained according to the drawings without creative efforts.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a front opening unified pod of the prior art;

FIG. 2 is another perspective view of a front opening unified pod of the prior art;

FIG. 3 is a schematic top view of a front opening unified pod of the prior art;

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the wafer transfer system of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a schematic view of a wafer transfer system of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a perspective view of a portion of a first loading bay of the present invention;

fig. 7 is a partial perspective view of the pod transfer robot 200 of the present invention;

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the case opening unit of the present invention in use;

FIG. 9 is another perspective view of the case opening unit of the present invention in use;

FIG. 10 is a perspective view of a second loading platform and a box opening mechanism in the present invention;

FIG. 11 is a schematic top view of a portion of FIG. 10;

FIG. 12 is a perspective view of a clamping mechanism of the present invention;

FIG. 13 is a schematic partial front view of FIG. 12;

FIG. 14 is a partial bottom schematic view of FIG. 12;

FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the driving member of the present invention;

FIG. 16 is a perspective view of the lower jaw of the present invention;

FIG. 17 is a perspective view of the top jaw of the present invention;

FIG. 18 is a schematic view of the clamping mechanism of the present invention in use;

FIG. 19 is a schematic top view of a storage plate of the present invention;

figure 20 is a perspective view of the wafer transfer robot of the present invention.

FIG. 21 is a perspective view of a wafer chuck according to the present invention;

FIG. 22 is a top view of the wafer chuck of the present invention;

FIG. 23 is an enlarged perspective view of the pawl plate of the present invention;

FIG. 24 is a schematic view of the construction of the pallet block of the present invention;

FIG. 25 is a schematic view of a wafer level support apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 26 is a schematic view of another embodiment of the invention showing the structure of the pallet block;

FIG. 27 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a wafer transfer robot in use;

FIG. 28 is a partial schematic view of FIG. 23 with the top plate and top wafer removed;

FIG. 29 is an exploded view of FIG. 27;

FIG. 30 is a schematic view of the pallet module of FIG. 27;

FIG. 31 is a partial schematic view of the pallet module of FIG. 27 with the pallet module removed;

FIG. 32 is a perspective view of another embodiment of a wafer transfer robot in use;

FIG. 33 is a partial schematic view of FIG. 32 with the top plate and top wafer removed;

FIG. 34 is a schematic view of a single pallet pan and a partial pallet set drive mechanism of FIG. 32;

FIG. 35 is a side view of FIG. 34;

FIG. 36 is a schematic view of a portion of the structure of FIG. 34;

FIG. 37 is a perspective view of a wafer flipping apparatus according to the present invention;

FIG. 38 is a perspective view of the wafer flipping apparatus of the present invention with a portion of the housing removed;

FIG. 39 is a partial top schematic view of FIG. 38;

FIGS. 40(a) - (b) are schematic structural views of supporting comb pillars in different embodiments of the wafer flipping apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 41 is a perspective view of a supporting comb of an embodiment of the wafer flipping apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 42 is a schematic view of a supporting comb of another embodiment of the wafer turnover device of the present invention;

FIG. 43 is a schematic front view of FIG. 42;

FIG. 44 is a perspective view of a clamping comb of the wafer flipping device of the present invention;

FIG. 45 is a top schematic view of FIG. 44;

FIG. 46 is a partial side view of FIG. 44;

FIG. 47 is a partial perspective view of the wafer flipping apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 48 is a perspective view of the wafer carrier device of the present invention in use;

FIG. 49 is a partial perspective view of the wafer carrier of the present invention;

FIG. 50 is a schematic front view of FIG. 49;

fig. 51 is a partial schematic view of the wafer carrier device of the present invention in an operating state.

FIGS. 52(a) - (b) are schematic diagrams of two wafer structures in the prior art;

FIG. 53 is a perspective view of the wafer edge finder of the present invention;

FIG. 54 is a perspective view of a portion of the wafer edge finder apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 55 is a schematic top view of the wafer edge finder apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 56 is a partial perspective view of the wafer edge finder apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 57 is a partial perspective view of the wafer edge finder apparatus of the present invention;

FIGS. 58(a) - (g) are schematic partial front views of a wafer edge finder apparatus according to various embodiments of the present invention;

FIG. 59 is a perspective view of a spacing wafer comb of the edge finder device of the present invention;

FIG. 60 is a perspective view of a first spacing wafer comb of the wafer edge finder apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 61 is a perspective view of a second spacing wafer comb of the edge finder device of the present invention;

FIG. 62 is a perspective view of a second spacing wafer comb of the wafer edge finder apparatus of the present invention;

FIG. 63 is a schematic structural diagram of a shutter driving mechanism of the wafer edge finder according to the present invention.

Specifically, 1, a wafer; 11. a groove; 12. flattening the groove; 2. a master control console; 3. a wafer cassette; 31. a box cover; 32. a lock hole; 33. a raised edge; 34. a connector; 35. a recess;

100. a first loading platform; 110. a first bearing plate; 111. avoiding the first groove; 120. a cover plate; 130. a first abutting piece; 131. a housing; 132. an unlock button;

200. a wafer cassette transfer robot;

300. a loading platform II; 310. a second bearing plate; 311. avoiding the second groove; 312. positioning pins; 320. mounting a back plate; 330. opening the box plate; 331. an unlocking assembly; 332. an adsorption component; 340. a second abutting piece;

400. a storage plate; 410. avoiding the groove III;

500. a wafer transfer robot arm; 510. a mechanical arm body; 511. a first mounting table; 512. a second mounting table; 513. a third mounting table; 514. a driving mechanism IV; 520. a wafer clamp; 521. a pallet module; 5211. a claw supporting plate; 52111. a first avoidance hole; 52112. a second avoidance hole; 52113. a connecting portion; 52114. a bearing part; 52115. a third avoidance hole; 5212. a connecting seat; 52121. lapping lugs; 52122. n layers of supporting blocks; 52123. pressing a plate; 522. a pawl block; 5221. a limiting surface; 5222. a bearing surface; 523. a supporting claw group driving mechanism; 5231. a first driving part; 5232. a transmission assembly; 5233. a joining member; 5234. a mounting member; 524. a push rod; 5241. a push rod drive mechanism; 525. a sensor; 526. a claw supporting plate mounting seat; 5261. a support ear plate; 530. a wafer horizontal supporting device;

600. a wafer turning device; 610. supporting the comb posts; 611. a rotating shaft; 612. a connecting member; 613. a support plate; 614. a drive motor; 615. a belt pulley; 616. a belt; 620. clamping the comb columns; 621. a clamping plate; 6211. a V-shaped groove; 6212. a gap; 622. a connecting rod; 6221. a kidney-shaped hole; 623. a transmission member; 624. a limiting block; 630. a housing; 640. a supporting seat; 650. a fixed seat; 651. an elastic member; 652. a contact block;

700. a wafer carrying device; 710. a bearing mounting seat; 720. a first driving mechanism; 730. a bearing table; 731. carrying a wafer comb; 740. a second driving mechanism;

800. a wafer edge-searching device; 810. a housing; 811. an entrance and an exit; 820. a shielding plate; 821. a shutter cylinder; 822. a second guide rail; 823. a connecting plate; 830. a transfer mechanism; 831. transferring the wafer comb; 840. a second limiting mechanism; 841. a second limiting wafer comb; 8411. a second limiting clamping groove; 850. a rotation driving mechanism; 851. a drive roll; 852. a driven roller; 853. a drive roll belt; 854. a motor; 855. a tension wheel; 860. a first limiting mechanism; 861. a first limiting wafer comb; 8611. a cavity; 8612. a first limiting clamping groove; 862. a blocking lever; 8621. a contact surface; 870. a reinforcing block;

900. a temporary storage device; 910. a clamping mechanism; 911. a clamping mounting seat; 912. a top claw; 913. a lower jaw; 9131. an abutting surface; 914. a driving part II; 9141. a slider; 915. a touch-press type sensor; 9151. mounting grooves; 920. a lifting mechanism; 921. and a first guide rail.

Detailed Description

The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention, and it is obvious that the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, and not all of the embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be derived by a person skilled in the art from the embodiments given herein without making any creative effort, shall fall within the protection scope of the present invention.

In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "up", "down", "front", "back", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", etc. indicate orientations or positional relationships based on those shown in the drawings, and are used merely for convenience in describing the present invention and for simplicity in description, and do not indicate or imply that the device or element being referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and therefore, should not be taken as limiting the scope of the present invention. Furthermore, the terms "first," "second," and the like are used for descriptive purposes only and are not to be construed as indicating or implying relative importance or implicitly indicating the number of technical features indicated. Thus, a feature defined as "first," "second," etc. may explicitly or implicitly include one or more of that feature. In the description of the invention, the meaning of "a plurality" is two or more unless otherwise specified.

In the description of the present invention, it should be noted that, unless otherwise explicitly specified or limited, the terms "mounted," "connected," and "connected" are to be construed broadly, e.g., as meaning either a fixed connection, a removable connection, or an integral connection; can be mechanically or electrically connected; they may be connected directly or indirectly through intervening media, or they may be interconnected between two elements. The specific meaning of the above terms in the present invention can be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art through specific situations.

As shown in fig. 1 to 3, a currently used wafer Pod 3, i.e., a Front Opening Unified Pod (FOUP), is provided. The top of the wafer box 3 is provided with a connector 34, the box cover 31 is provided with two lock holes 32, and the opening edge and the bottom edge are provided with convex edges 33.

As shown in fig. 4 and 5, the wafer transfer system includes a pod pick and place unit, a pod transfer robot 200, a box opening unit, a wafer transfer unit, a wafer turning unit, a wafer edge finding unit, and a control unit, which are sequentially arranged, and is preferably connected to an FFU system to provide a clean environment for the wafer 1.

Specifically, the wafer box taking and placing unit, the box opening unit, the wafer transferring unit, the wafer overturning unit, the wafer edge searching unit and the control unit are positioned in the main shell, and the main shell is internally divided into a plurality of areas through the partition boards so as to respectively place the units.

The control unit is used for controlling the operations of the wafer box taking and placing unit, the box opening unit, the wafer transferring unit, the wafer overturning unit, the wafer bearing unit and the wafer edge searching unit and controlling the wafer transferring process. The control unit includes a general control console 2 disposed outside the main housing for convenient operation.

As shown in fig. 4, the pod pick-and-place unit includes a first loading platform 100(LoadPort 1) for providing a loading and unloading position for a pod 3, the first loading platform 100 may be docked with a full-automatic overhead rail transport system (OHT), an Automatic Guided Vehicle (AGV), a Personal Guided Vehicle (PGV) or any other suitable transportation device to achieve automatic loading and unloading, and meanwhile, manual loading and unloading may also be employed, in order to prevent accidental collisions, the pod pick-and-place unit includes a grating or other warning device, and further, the first loading platform 100 includes a locking mechanism for locking the pod 3 placed thereon. The first loading platform 100 can be provided with a plurality of loading platforms to improve the loading and unloading speed and avoid traffic jam caused by transfer of the wafer box 3.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 6, a loading plate 110 and a loading plate driving mechanism are disposed on the loading platform 100. The first carrier plate 110 is used for placing the wafer cassette 3. The bottom of the wafer box 3 is provided with a positioning hole or a positioning block, the first bearing plate 110 is provided with a positioning pin 312 matched with the positioning hole or the positioning block of the base of the wafer box 3, and the positioning hole or the positioning block is matched with the positioning pin 312 to limit the horizontal movement of the wafer box 3. Typically, the pod 3 on the first carrier 110 is transferred to the second carrier 310 by the pod transfer robot 200. Preferably, the first bearing plate 110 is provided with a first avoiding groove 111 towards the box opening unit, the first avoiding groove 111 is provided with an opening towards the box opening unit, and the first avoiding groove 111 is used for providing an operation space for the wafer box transferring manipulator 200, specifically for allowing the wafer box transferring manipulator 200 to enter and supporting and transferring the wafer box 3 from the lower part of the wafer box 3.

A cover plate mechanism is arranged on one side of the first bearing plate 110 facing the box opening unit to separate the wafer box taking and placing unit from the box opening unit. The plate covering mechanism includes a movable cover plate 120, and the cover plate 120 moves to make the pod transfer robot 200 smoothly perform operations to pick and place the pod 3 on the first loading station 100.

The first bearing plate 110 is further connected with a first bearing plate driving mechanism, the first bearing plate driving mechanism is configured to drive the first bearing plate 110 to move along at least one direction, preferably, the first bearing plate driving mechanism is matched with the full-automatic overhead track transmission system, and the first bearing plate 110 is driven to move along a direction perpendicular to the moving direction of the overhead transport vehicle through the first bearing plate driving mechanism so as to be accurately matched with the full-automatic overhead track transmission system to butt joint and bear the wafer box 3.

The first loading platform 100 may further include a locking mechanism disposed on both sides of the first loading plate 110 to lock the pod 3 on the first loading plate 110. Specifically, the locking mechanism may include at least one rotatable first abutment 130, which is rotated above the edge of the base of the pod 3 by the first abutment 130, thereby limiting the vertical movement of the pod 3. The first abutting member 130 is preferably disposed in the semi-closed housing 131 to prevent accidental collision, and the housing 131 is opened toward the first bearing plate 110 to avoid operation of the first abutting member 130. When the wafer cassette 3 is placed on the first carrier plate 110, the locking mechanism operates immediately to perform a locking operation, and when an unlocking command is received, the locking mechanism performs an unlocking operation, the unlocking command is generally from an automation control terminal, but of course, the locking mechanism may further include an unlocking button 132 to manually control the first abutting member 130 to rotate away from the wafer cassette 3 for unlocking. An unlock button 132 may be provided on the loading station one 100.

The wafer box 3 is provided with an identification mark, and the loading platform 100 can also be provided with a scanner for identifying information of the wafer box 3, and specifically can adopt a radio frequency identification technology or a code scanning identification technology.

As shown in fig. 7, the wafer cassette transfer robot 200 is preferably a 3-axis robot or a 4-axis robot, and has a hand portion shaped to fit the bottom of the wafer cassette 3 and a positioning pin 312 provided on the hand portion to fit the bottom of the wafer cassette 3. In this embodiment, the hand is triangular, and the top corners of the hand are respectively provided with a positioning pin 312. The pod 3 is lifted from the first load station 100 by the pod transfer robot 200 and transferred to the second load station 300 or other location.

As shown in fig. 8 and 9, the box opening unit includes a wafer box switch and a temporary storage device 900, and the temporary storage device 900 is used to lift an empty box or a full box on the wafer box switch, so as to shorten the idle time of the wafer box switch, thereby accelerating the conversion process of the wafer box 3.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 10 and 11, the pod Opener includes a second loading platform 300(LoadPort 2) and a pod opening mechanism (PDO), wherein the second loading platform 300 is used for loading the pod 3, and the pod opening mechanism is disposed at a side of the second loading platform 300 and is used for opening and closing the pod 3.

The second loading platform 300 is provided with a second loading plate 310 and a second loading plate driving mechanism. The second carrier plate 310 is used for carrying the wafer cassette 3, and the wafer cassette 3 is transferred to the second carrier plate 310 by the wafer cassette transfer robot 200. Preferably, the second carrying board 310 is provided with a second avoiding groove 311. The second avoiding groove 311 extends inwards from the side, deviating from the box opening mechanism, of the second bearing plate 310, and the second avoiding groove 311 penetrates through the thickness direction of the second bearing plate 310, namely, the opening of the second avoiding groove 311 deviates from the box opening mechanism, and faces the wafer box transferring manipulator 200, so that the wafer box transferring manipulator 200 can lift the wafer box 3 and place the wafer box 3 on the second bearing plate 310. In this embodiment, the second bearing plate 310 is a U-shaped plate, and the second avoiding groove 311 is formed inside the two arms of the U-shaped plate, which can also be made of other shaped plates to meet the above requirements. The second carrier plate 310 is provided with a positioning pin 312 adapted to the positioning groove at the bottom of the wafer cassette 3 to prevent the wafer cassette 3 thereon from moving horizontally. The second carrier plate 310 may further be provided with a sensor to detect the position or state of the second carrier plate 310 or the pod 3, such as whether the pod 3 is placed, whether the second carrier plate 310 moves to a specific position, and the like.

The second driving mechanism of the carrier plate is used for driving the second carrier plate 310 to be located at the box opening position so as to be close to the box opening mechanism, or to be located at the avoiding position so as to be away from the box opening mechanism, that is, the second driving mechanism of the carrier plate is configured to drive the second carrier plate 310 to be close to or away from the box opening mechanism, so that the wafer box 3 is butted with the box opening mechanism in the set state to realize the door opening and closing operation. In this embodiment, the second driving mechanism is disposed in a housing below the second carrier plate 310, and the housing has a shape similar to the second carrier plate 310 to avoid the pod transfer robot 200.

In this embodiment, an installation back plate 320 is disposed between the second loading platform 300 and the box opening mechanism, an opening is formed on the installation back plate 320, so that the wafer transfer robot 500 can extend into the wafer box 3 to pick and place the wafer, the box opening mechanism is disposed on the installation back plate 320, and the box cover 31 of the wafer box 3 on the second loading plate 310 is opened by the box opening mechanism. The box opening mechanism can further comprise a mapping sensor and a mapping driving assembly, and the mapping driving assembly drives the mapping sensor to enter the wafer box 3 and scan the wafer inside the box along the vertical direction after the box is opened so as to detect the condition of the wafer inside the box.

The cassette opening mechanism is selected according to the type of the wafer cassette 3 so as to smoothly open the wafer cassette 3 and expose the wafer therein. Generally, the box opening mechanism specifically includes a box opening plate 330, an unlocking component 331, a suction component 332, and a driving component. The box opening plate 330 is matched with the opening of the mounting back plate 320 to cover the opening, the unlocking component 331 and the adsorption component 332 are arranged on the box opening plate 330 to realize the door opening operation of the wafer box 3 towards one side surface of the opening, the adsorption component 332 adsorbs the box cover 31 of the wafer box 3, the unlocking component 331 is matched with the lock hole 32 on the box cover 31 of the wafer box 3 to unlock, and after the unlocking is completed, the box opening plate 330 drives the box cover 31 of the wafer box 3 to move a distance back to the direction away from the wafer box 3 and then move downwards. It is understood that the box closing procedure may be operated in reverse of the box opening procedure.

The box opening mechanism is preferably provided with a locking assembly towards one side of the second loading platform 300, the locking assembly and the second bearing plate 310 are arranged oppositely, so that the wafer box 3 is limited to move in the vertical direction through the cooperation of the locking assembly and the second bearing plate 310, and meanwhile, the phenomenon that the wafer box 3 is far away from the box opening mechanism due to the fact that the second bearing plate 310 moves backwards by mistake when the box opening mechanism works is avoided. Specifically, as shown in fig. 10, the locking assembly includes at least one second rotatable abutting member 340, and the second abutting member 340 is adapted to the wafer box 3 so as to be rotatably abutted against the protruding edge 33 on the opening side of the wafer box 3 when the wafer box 3 is located at the box opening position.

As shown in fig. 8 and 9, the buffer device 900 in the present system is disposed near the second loading platform 300 and is used to lift the wafer cassette 3 on the second loading platform 300 to the buffer position. The temporary storage device 900 includes a clamping mechanism 910 for clamping the connecting head 34 at the top end of the wafer cassette 3 and a lifting mechanism 920 for driving the clamping mechanism 910 to lift, and the lifting mechanism 920 is used for driving the clamping mechanism 910 to move between the second loading platform 300 and the temporary storage position. Preferably, the clamping mechanism 910 is located directly above the evacuation position, thereby facilitating rapid lifting of the wafer cassette 3.

The system may further include a plurality of storage plates 400 and a pod transfer robot 200 as shown in fig. 19. The wafer cassette transfer robot 200 is used to transfer the wafer cassette placed on the buffer device 900 to the storage plate 400.

As shown in fig. 19, it is preferable that the storage plate 400 is provided with a third avoiding groove 410, the third avoiding groove 410 extends inward from the free side of the storage plate 400, and the third avoiding groove 410 penetrates through the thickness direction of the storage plate 400, so that the wafer cassette transfer robot 200 can lift the wafer cassette 3 from below to perform the transfer operation. Similarly, the storage plate 400 is provided with positioning pins 312 that fit into the positioning grooves at the bottom of the wafer cassette 3 to prevent the wafer cassette 3 from moving horizontally.

The clamping mechanism 910 used in the present system is shown in fig. 12 to 18, and is used to clamp the connecting head 34 at the top end of the wafer cassette 3.

As shown in fig. 12, the clamping mechanism 910 includes a clamping seat 911, a top claw 912 and a lower claw 913, so that the top claw 912 and the lower claw 913 cooperate to realize stable clamping of the connecting head 34, and thus clamp the wafer cassette 3. Specifically, the top claw 912 is disposed on the clamping installation seat 911 and faces downward to abut against the top surface of the connecting head 34. The lower claws 913 are circumferentially arranged along the top claw 912, and at least two lower claws 913 are oppositely arranged to stably clamp opposite sides of the coupling head 34. The second driving member 914 is further disposed on the clamping mounting seat 911, and the second driving member 914 is used for driving at least two lower claws 913 disposed opposite to each other to move toward the center direction of the top claw 912, so as to clamp the connecting head 34 between the lower claws 913 and the top claw 912.

As shown in fig. 13 and 16, the lower claw 913 includes an abutting surface 9131 for abutting against the bottom surface of the connecting head 34. Lean on face 9131 to be the inclined plane, and it reduces gradually to the direction that is close to top claw 912 center, lean on one side that face 9131 is close to top claw 912 to be less than its one side of keeping away from top claw 912 promptly, through this setting, make down claw 913 at the in-process that removes to top claw 912, connector 34 is supported and is leaned on face 9131 and rise gradually until leaning on top claw 912, realize the progressive clamp of connector 34, avoid directly going into connector 34 bottom, cause the damage of connector 34, also ensure simultaneously that connector 34 is closely held between top claw 912 and lower claw 913 by the centre gripping, it is gapped between connector 34 and the top claw 912 to avoid. Preferably, the minimum distance between the abutting surface 9131 and the plane of the top claw 912 is matched with the thickness of the connecting head 34, so that the connecting head 34 contacts the side wall of the lower claw 913, thereby limiting the connecting head 34 between the top claw 912 and the lower claw 913, and limiting the connecting head 34 between the side walls of two opposite lower claws 913, and avoiding serious abrasion of the abutting surface 9131 caused by limiting the connecting head 34 only by the abutting surface 9131 and the top claw 912.

As shown in fig. 15, preferably, the second driving member 914 is a sliding rail type parallel mechanical claw, and the two sliding blocks 9141 of the second driving member 914 are respectively connected to the two oppositely disposed lower claws 913. The sliding rail type parallel mechanical claw is small in size, linear guide is carried out, the moving direction is accurate, meanwhile, pistons on two sides of the sliding rail type parallel mechanical claw act synchronously, and the clamping force is larger than that of other mechanical clamps with the same cylinder diameter. The slide rail type parallel mechanical claw also comprises an induction magnet, so that an inductor can be conveniently arranged for accurate control.

As shown in fig. 13 and 14, the lower claw 913 and/or the top claw 912 are preferably provided with a touch sensor 915 which is adapted to the notch 35 of the connector 34 to determine whether to clamp the connector 34. In this embodiment, the clamping mechanism is provided with two lower claws 913 disposed opposite to each other, and four touch sensors 915 in total are provided so as to correspond one-to-one to the four recesses 35 of the connecting head 34. Two of the four touch sensors 915 are respectively disposed on the two lower claws 913, and the other two touch sensors are respectively disposed at two ends of the top claw 912.

The touch sensor 915 on the top claw 912 is arranged at one end of the top claw 912 facing the connector 34, and the touch sensor 915 protrudes from the surface of the top claw 912 by a distance a so as to be embedded into the notch 35 and contact with the inner wall of the notch. Further, the height of the abutting surface 9131 is b, and a ═ b, so that the contact pressure sensor 915 is embedded in the notch 35 and triggered while the connecting head 34 contacts the surface of the top claw 912.

As shown in fig. 16, the touch sensor 915 on the lower claw 913 is disposed inside the lower claw 913 and above the abutting surface 9131 so as to face the notch 35 of the connecting head 34. Meanwhile, the triggering ends of the touch sensors 915 are located at the same level as the high side of the abutting surface 9131, so that the four touch sensors 915 are triggered simultaneously when the connecting head 34 is tightly clamped between the top claw 912 and the lower claw 913.

Preferably, the lower claw 913 and/or the top claw 912 are provided with a mounting groove 9151 for accommodating the touch sensor 915, so that the surface of the lower claw 913 and the surface of the top claw 912 are in contact with the surface of the connector 34, the connector 34 is tightly clamped by the lower claw 913 and the top claw 912, and the touch sensor 915 is prevented from being excessively extruded and damaged. Further, the size of the mounting groove 9151 is larger than that of the touch sensor 915, so that the touch sensor 915 can adjust the orientation in the mounting groove 9151, and therefore the touch sensor can adapt to connectors 34 with different sizes.

Preferably, the clamping mechanism 910 further includes an outer cover plate disposed outside the clamping seat 911, so as to cover all the internal components and prevent the particles generated by the second driving member 914 moving back and forth from contaminating and leaking.

The lifting mechanism 920 comprises a first guide rail 921 which is vertically arranged, and the clamping mechanism 910 lifts along the first guide rail 921, so that the clamping mechanism 910 can be arranged right above the second loading platform 300, and the space utilization rate is improved. One side of the lifting mechanism 920 may also be provided with a counterweight to realize stable lifting of the wafer cassette 3. Further, the positioning accuracy of the lifting mechanism 920 is not less than 0.01 mm.

When the system is adopted to transfer the wafer, the following steps can be adopted:

s100, when no wafer box exists on the wafer box switch, the wafer box transfer manipulator 200 places the wafer box to be operated on the wafer box switch;

s200, clamping and lifting the wafer box which is operated on the wafer box switch by the clamping mechanism to be away from the wafer box switch, namely to be lifted to a temporary storage position;

s300, when the wafer cassette switcher operates and the wafer transfer robot 500 operates, the wafer cassette transfer robot 200 transfers the wafer cassette located at the temporary storage position to another position, that is, takes away the wafer cassette 3 on the clamping mechanism.

For example, when the system is loading, when the wafer transfer robot of the process equipment moves the wafer out of the pod 3 and continues to move the wafer into the process equipment, the second carrier plate 310 moves back from the open position to the avoiding position, the temporary storage device 900 vertically lifts the empty pod (i.e. the pod 3 that has completed the operation on the pod opener) through the connector 34 above the wafer pod 3, and lets the second carrier plate 310 out, and allows the pod transfer robot 200 with the full pod to immediately place the full pod (i.e. the wafer 3 to be loaded) on the second carrier plate 310, the second carrier plate 310 moves to the open position, and the wafer transfer robot 200 can transfer the empty pod above the second carrier plate 300 from the temporary storage device 900 to another position, and the other position can be the storage plate 400, other wafer cassette storage locations are also possible. That is, the system allows the wafer to be transferred by the process equipment, and the wafer box transfer manipulator 200 synchronously moves the full box from the storage position to the second bearing plate 310 to wait, and the full box is firstly placed and then the empty box is taken, so that the loading and unloading time of the wafer box 3 is effectively shortened. It is understood that the buffer device 900 is used to temporarily store a full box during blanking.

The wafer transfer system also comprises a wafer transfer unit for transferring the wafer in the horizontal state between the box opening unit and the wafer overturning unit.

In this embodiment, the wafer transfer unit includes a wafer transfer robot 500, and the wafer transfer robot 500 extends into the wafer box 3 opened by the box opening mechanism, and takes out the wafer 1 in the wafer box 3 or puts the wafer 1 in the wafer box 3.

More specifically, in one embodiment, as shown in fig. 20, the wafer transfer robot 500 includes a wafer chuck 520 and a robot body 510, the wafer chuck 520 is disposed on the robot body 510, and the robot body 510 is configured to drive the wafer chuck 520 to translate and/or rotate. More specifically, in the present embodiment, the wafer transferring robot 500 preferably includes two wafer clamps 520, and the two wafer clamps 520 are disposed on the robot body 510 to respectively support the wafers 1 in different states, so as to prevent the wafers 1 in different states from cross contamination. Further, the two wafer clamps 520 are symmetrically disposed on the robot body 510, so that the wafer 1 in different states can be controlled and supported by rotating 180 degrees, which is convenient for operation.

Specifically, the robot arm body 510 includes a first mounting station 511, a second mounting station 512, and a third mounting station 513. The first mounting table 511 is provided with a first driving mechanism, which is connected with the wafer clamp 520 to drive the wafer clamp to rotate horizontally to face different stations or align different wafer clamps 520 thereon with wafers 1 to be accommodated. The second mounting table 512 is provided therein with a second driving mechanism, which is connected to the first mounting table 511 to drive the second mounting table to move horizontally so as to approach or separate from the original carrier of the wafer 1. A third driving mechanism is arranged in the third mounting table 513, and the third driving mechanism is connected with the second mounting table 512 to drive the third mounting table to move up and down, so that the wafer clamp 520 lifts the wafer 1 upwards to separate the wafer from the original carrier. Further, the robot arm body 510 further includes a fourth driving mechanism 514, and the fourth driving mechanism 514 is connected to the third mounting table 513 to drive the horizontal movement thereof. Preferably, the moving path of the robot arm body 510 driven by the driving mechanism four 514 is perpendicular to the moving path thereof driven by the driving mechanism two, thereby saving horizontal space.

The method for transferring the wafer 1 by adopting the wafer transfer mechanical arm 500 comprises the following steps:

s100, when a state wafer 1 is transferred, controlling a wafer clamp 520 to face the wafer 1 to be transferred;

s101, controlling the push rod 524 to be far away from the accommodating space;

s102 controlling the claw disc 5211 to move to the lower side of the corresponding wafer 1;

s103 controlling the claw disc 5211 to move upward and lift the wafer 1;

s104, the push rod 524 is controlled to move towards the accommodating space so as to push the wafer 1 positioned in the accommodating space to move towards one side, and the edge of the wafer 1 is clamped between the push rod 524 and the claw supporting block;

when the wafer 1 in another state is transferred in step S200, another wafer clamp 520 is controlled to face the wafer 1 to be transferred, and steps S101-S104 are repeated.

As shown in fig. 21 and 22, the wafer clamp 520 in this embodiment includes a limiting device and at least one pawl tray 5211, and the wafer 1 located in the accommodating space is further clamped and limited between the push rod 524 and the pawl tray 522 by the limiting device, so that the wafer 1 is prevented from shaking in the accommodating space due to inertia and even separating from the accommodating space when the wafer clamp 520 drives the wafer 1 to move, thereby improving the safety of transferring the wafer 1, and being beneficial to improving the transferring speed of the wafer 1, and further improving the processing efficiency of the whole wafer 1.

Specifically, the tray 5211 is provided with at least two tray blocks 522 to form a receiving space for receiving and supporting the wafer 1, i.e., a range surrounded by a dotted circle in fig. 22.

As shown in fig. 21, the position limiting device includes a push rod 524 and a push rod driving mechanism 5241, and the push rod driving mechanism 5241 is configured to drive the push rod 524 to move toward the accommodating space, so that the edge of the wafer 1 located in the accommodating space is clamped between the push rod 524 and the pawl block 522. Preferably, the pushrod 524 moves horizontally toward the receiving space. Further, the straight line of the moving path of the pushing rod 524 coincides with any diameter of the accommodating space, so that the stability of the movement of the wafer 1 in the pushing process is improved. The pushrod driving mechanism 5241 is preferably a cylinder, and the advance or retreat of the pushrod 524 is controlled by the cylinder. Further, both ends of the push rod 524 are provided with a cylinder to improve the stability of the movement of the push rod 524.

Of course, the clamp may further include a pallet mounting seat 526, and the limiting device is disposed in the pallet mounting seat 526. As shown in fig. 23, the pawl tray 5211 includes a supporting portion 52114 and a connecting portion 52113, the connecting portion 52113 is connected to the pawl tray mounting seat 526, the supporting portion 52114 is located outside the pawl tray mounting seat 526, and the pawl block 522 is disposed on the supporting portion 52114.

In this embodiment, the pawl tray 5211 is provided with a third avoiding hole 52115 for accommodating the push rod 524, the push rod 524 is inserted into the third avoiding hole 52115, and the third avoiding hole 52115 is driven by the push rod driving mechanism 5241 to pass through the accommodating space along the length direction of the third avoiding hole 52115, so as to save space and facilitate the supporting operation of the pawl tray 5211.

As shown in fig. 23, four claw blocks 522 are disposed on the claw tray 5211, and two claw blocks 522 are disposed at two ends of the claw tray 5211 in parallel to stably support the wafer 1. However, the holding claw plate 5211 may be provided with only two holding claw blocks 522, and in this case, the straight line where the two holding claw blocks 522 are located may be a diameter to form an accommodation space, so as to stably support the wafer 1. The retainer plate 5211 may also be provided with three or five or more retainer blocks 522, so long as the center of gravity of the wafer 1 is ensured to fall within the closed pattern formed by the retainer blocks, thereby ensuring stable support of the wafer 1.

As shown in fig. 24, the claw block 522 is stepped and includes at least one set of a supporting surface 5222 and a limiting surface 5221 connected to each other to form at least one receiving space, the supporting surface 5222 is used for supporting the wafer 1, and the limiting surface 5221 is used for limiting the horizontal movement of the wafer 1.

It is understood that, in this case, the receiving space is formed in a groove shape by the corresponding holding surfaces 5222 and the stopper surfaces 5221 of the plurality of pawl blocks 522. As shown in fig. 24(a) and 24(b), the pawl block 522 includes a set of support surfaces 5222 and a set of limiting surfaces 5221 connected to each other to form a receiving space. As shown in fig. 24(c) and 24(d), the pawl block 522 includes two sets of holding surfaces 5222 and limiting surfaces 5221 connected to each other, forming two receiving spaces with different diameters. Of course, the holding claw block 522 may be provided with more sets of the holding surfaces 5222 and the limiting surfaces 5221 connected to each other, so as to form accommodating spaces with different diameters, so as to accommodate wafers 1 with two sizes.

The minimum distance between two adjacent limiting surfaces 5221 in the same accommodating space is smaller than the diameter of the wafer 1, so that the arrangement position of the push rod 524 is more flexible, and the wafer 1 is prevented from being completely pushed away from the accommodating space by the push rod 524.

The support surface 5222 may be horizontally disposed to support the wafer 1 stably. Alternatively, as shown in fig. 24, the support surface 5222 is inclined with respect to the horizontal plane in a direction toward the center of the pawl plate 5211 and the housing space, that is, the support surface 5222 is preferably an inclined surface, and the high side thereof intersects with the stopper surface 5221 and the low side thereof faces the center of the circle. The supporting surface 5222 is inclined from the limiting surface 5221 to the surface of the claw disk 5211, and is relatively horizontally arranged, so that the inclined supporting surface 5222 makes the bottom surface of the wafer 1 and the supporting surface 5222 be in point contact or line contact, and the contact surface is reduced to prevent the surface of the wafer 1 from being damaged. Preferably, the bottom surface of the wafer 1 is in line contact with the support surface 5222 to ensure the stability of the wafer 1, and the support surface 5222 is a curved surface adapted to the circumference of the wafer 1.

As shown in fig. 24(a), the limiting surface 5221 may extend in the height direction of the claw block 522, i.e., perpendicular to the horizontal plane, so as to limit the wafer 1 from being deviated.

Of course, as shown in fig. 24(b), the limiting surface 5221 may also extend along the height direction of the claw block 522 and toward the outside of the receiving space, so as to form a shape similar to a horn, such that the limiting surface 5221 can simultaneously guide the wafer 1 to slide toward the supporting surface 5222, such that when the wafer 1 deviates from the center of the receiving space, the wafer 1 can still be lifted upwards by the apparatus and fall into the receiving space. At this time, an interference surface is preferably connected between the supporting surface 5222 and the limiting surface 5221, and the interference surface extends along the height direction of the pawl block 522, i.e. the interference surface is perpendicular to the horizontal plane, so that the pushing rod 524 pushes the wafer 1 to contact with the interference surface in the subsequent step, thereby preventing the wafer 1 from contacting the inclined limiting surface 5221 and pushing the wafer 1 to move upward.

Preferably, the limiting surface 5221 is an arc-shaped surface matched with the circumference of the wafer 1, so as to stably clamp the wafer 1 between the pushing rod 524 and the limiting surface 5221.

The material of the pawl block 522 is generally selected according to the process requirements, and commonly used materials include PEEK, PFA, teflon, etc., but not limited to the above.

Generally, the wafer chuck 520 has 25 holding claw plates 5211 for accommodating 25 wafers 1 in the wafer 1 cassette and taking out the wafers at one time. Of course, without limitation, the device may include only 1 detent disc 5211, or more or less than 25 detent discs 5211.

It is understood that, for batch taking out the wafers 1 at a time, taking the wafer 1 in the wafer 1 cassette as an example, the pitch of the plurality of claw plates 5211 matches the pitch of the plurality of wafers 1 in the wafer 1 cassette, so that the claw plates 5211 extend into between the adjacent wafers 1 and lift the wafers 1 to take out. More specifically, the sum of the thickness of the pawl plate 5211 and the height of the pawl block 522 is adapted to the pitch of the adjacent wafers 1.

When wafers 1 are loaded in a batch, the wafers 1 may not be regularly arranged in the original carrier, and the axes thereof are deviated in the horizontal direction, so that the diameter of the bottom surface of the accommodating space of the wafer chuck 520 is larger than that of the wafers 1, thereby ensuring that the wafers 1 can be taken out, and particularly, when a batch of wafers 1 is taken out, all the wafers 1 in the original carrier can be taken out at one time. The diameter of the bottom surface of the housing space is a circumferential diameter formed at the junction of the plurality of seating surfaces 5222 and the stopper surface 5221.

Particularly, when supporting a batch of wafers 1, the wafers 1 deviated in the horizontal direction may be further aligned by the subsequent pushing rod 524 to be located on the same axis, thereby facilitating the subsequent process.

As shown in fig. 22, the wafer chuck 520 further includes a sensor 525 for detecting the presence or absence of the wafer 1 on the chuck 5211. Specifically, the transmitting end and the receiving end of the sensor 525 are respectively disposed on two opposite sides of the claw supporting disc 5211 in the thickness direction, and a first avoiding hole 52111 is disposed on the claw supporting disc 5211 corresponding to the detection station of the sensor 525. The first avoidance hole 52111 may be disposed to coincide with the third avoidance hole 52115. Further, the sensor 525 can slide relative to the accommodating space, so that the orthographic projection of the sensor on the horizontal plane is positioned in or out of the accommodating space, and the operation of taking and placing the wafer 1 by the clamp is avoided.

In this embodiment, the four claw supporting blocks 522 arranged in a rectangular shape are arranged on the claw supporting disc 5211, and the four claw supporting blocks 522 are located on the same plane and have the same radian, and satisfy:

wherein D is the diameter of the accommodating space, D is the diameter of the wafer 1 to be accommodated, and x₁For tolerance of the diameter of the accommodation space, x₂Is the horizontal offset distance, w, of the wafer 1 in the original carrier₁Is the width, w, of the orthographic projection of the bearing surface 5222 on the horizontal plane₂The width of the orthographic projection of the limiting surface 5221 on the horizontal plane. By limiting the size of the claw block 522 and the receiving space formed by the claw block, the wafer 1 can be surely received in the receiving space and is not received by the receiving space.

Further, x₂≤x₁≤1.5x₂Therefore, the size of the accommodating space is suitable, which prevents the wafer chuck 520 from being too large in size, and prevents the wafer 1 from being damaged due to excessive friction on the supporting surface 5222 caused by the wafer 1 being pushed by the subsequent pushing rod 524 for a too long moving distance.

The wafer chuck 520 preferably includes a plurality of sequentially spaced-apart chuck fingers 5211, which may be stacked in a conventional layer-by-layer manner. More preferably, a plurality of pallet modules 521 (described below) are stacked in series at intervals to facilitate disassembly and adjustment.

In another embodiment, the wafer transfer robot 500 includes a wafer level support device 530 and a robot body 510, the wafer level support device 530 is also disposed on the robot body 510 as the wafer chuck 520 in the previous embodiment, and the robot body 510 is used to drive the wafer level support device 530 to translate and/or rotate, so as to transfer the wafer 1 between different carriers and stations.

The wafer level support apparatus 530 differs from the wafer chuck 520 in that: the claw block 522 of the wafer horizontal supporting device 530 can form at least two accommodating spaces for separately accommodating the wafers 1 in different states, so that the wafer transferring robot 500 only needs to be provided with one wafer horizontal supporting device 530, and in the previous embodiment, the wafer transferring robot 500 needs to be provided with two wafer clamps 520, so that the wafer transferring robot 500 in this embodiment occupies less space.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 25, the wafer horizontal holding device 530 includes a gripper group driving mechanism 523 and at least one gripper plate 5211. The two sets of the holding claws are arranged on the holding claw tray 5211, and each set of the holding claws includes at least one holding claw block 522 to form a receiving space for receiving and holding the wafer 1. The supporting claw group driving mechanism 523 is connected with at least one supporting claw group and used for driving one supporting claw group to move so as to adjust the accommodating space to be matched with the wafer to be accommodated, and the diameter of the accommodating space can be changed by driving the supporting claw group driving mechanism 523, so that various accommodating spaces can be realized, and the wafer accommodating mechanism is suitable for wafers 1 in different states or sizes.

As shown in fig. 26, the claw block 522 is stepped and includes at least two supporting surfaces 5222 along the height direction thereof, so as to form at least two receiving spaces for separately carrying the wafers 1 in different states. Specifically, the corresponding support surfaces 5222 in the two sets of claws have the same height relative to the claw disc 5211 for supporting the wafer 1. Preferably, a side of the support surface 5222 facing away from the claw disk is provided with a limiting surface 5221, and the limiting surface 5221 faces the center of the accommodating space to limit the deviation of the wafer 1 on the corresponding support surface 5222. That is, the limiting surface 5221 intersects with the supporting surface 5222, the supporting surface 5222 is used for supporting the wafer 1, and the limiting surface 5221 is used for limiting the circumferential direction of the wafer 1 to prevent excessive horizontal movement. The specific structures of the supporting surface 5222 and the limiting surface 5221 in this embodiment can be the same as those of the supporting surface 5222 and the limiting surface 5221 in the wafer chuck 520 in the previous embodiment.

In this embodiment, the holding claw block 522 has a two-layer stepped structure, and includes an upper layer group and a lower layer group, that is, two accommodating spaces are formed, and the wafer 1 in the wafer cassette is taken out by butting the corresponding inner support surface 5222 of the upper layer group or the lower layer group with the wafer cassette. Specifically, one set of the claw blocks 522 can be moved along the disk surface (i.e., in the horizontal direction) of the claw tray 5211 by the driving of the claw group driving mechanism 523 so that the upper layer set or the lower layer set forms an appropriate housing space to accommodate the wafer 1. The upper layer group and the lower layer group can form accommodating spaces with the same diameter so as to accommodate wafers 1 with the same size, and the wafers 1 before and after the treatment process are respectively borne by the upper layer group and the lower layer group. Of course, the upper layer group and the lower layer group can also form accommodating spaces with different diameters to accommodate wafers 1 with different sizes.

In this embodiment, as shown in fig. 27 to 31, the wafer horizontal supporting device 530 includes a plurality of holding claw trays 5211, and the holding claw trays 5211 are sequentially stacked at intervals, so that the wafer 1 can be loaded in batch at one time. Generally, the apparatus is provided with 25 chuck plates 5211 to correspond to 25 wafers 1 in the cassette, and the wafers are taken out at one time. Of course, without limitation, the device may include only 1 detent disc 5211, or more or less than 25 detent discs 5211.

Generally, the holding claw group driving mechanism 523 is used for driving one holding claw group to translate or rotate relative to the other holding claw group along the surface of the holding claw tray 5211 to form a receiving space. More specifically, the two supporting claw groups are a fixed supporting claw group and a movable supporting claw group which are concentrically arranged, and the arc length formed by the movable supporting claw group is larger than that formed by the fixed supporting claw group, so that when the wafer 1 is pushed subsequently, the stress of the wafer 1 is dispersed, and the wafer 1 moves more stably. The fixed holding claw group is fixedly arranged on the holding claw disk 5211, and the movable holding claw group is connected with the holding claw group driving mechanism 523 and is driven by the holding claw group driving mechanism to translate towards the fixed holding claw group so as to form an accommodating space.

In this embodiment, the two sets of the wafer horizontal supporting apparatus 530 each include two supporting claw blocks 522, and the two supporting claw sets are disposed in parallel. But not limited thereto, the two claw sets may each include a claw block 522, and the two claw blocks 522 are arranged along a straight line where the diameter of the wafer 1 is located; or both sets of jaws may include at least three jaw blocks 522. The gravity center of the wafer 1 can be ensured to fall into the closed graph formed by the two groups of supporting claws, so that the stable supporting of the wafer 1 is ensured.

As shown in fig. 29, in the present embodiment, the plurality of gripper trays 5211 of the wafer horizontal supporting apparatus 530 are assembled by a module, specifically, the module is composed of a plurality of gripper tray modules 521 stacked at intervals in sequence. As shown in fig. 30, the claw plate module 521 includes a coupling seat 5212 and a plurality of claw plates 5211 coupled to the coupling seat 5212, and the plurality of claw plates 5211 are stacked in order along the height direction of the coupling seat 5212. Specifically, in the present embodiment, 5 pallet modules 521 are provided, and each pallet module 521 includes 5 pallet discs 5211. The plurality of claw supporting discs 5211 are arranged in a modularized mode, so that the claw supporting discs 5211 can be assembled and disassembled and adjusted more conveniently, when one claw supporting disc 5211 is replaced, only the claw supporting disc module 521 needs to be disassembled, the claw supporting disc 5211 in the claw supporting disc module 521 corresponds to the claw supporting disc 5211, and the disassembling times are reduced. It is understood that the wafer chuck 520 may employ the same structure of the pallet module 521.

Preferably, the relative heights of the plurality of gripper tray modules 521 are adjustable, and/or the relative heights of the plurality of gripper trays 5211 in the same gripper tray module 521 are adjustable, so as to achieve uniformity, and facilitate batch loading and picking and placing of the wafers 1 at one time.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 31, a plurality of supporting ear plates 5261 are disposed inside the wafer horizontal supporting device 530, that is, inside the tray mount 526 along the height direction, to mount corresponding modules, and the distance between the supporting ear plates 5261 is adjusted according to the height of each group of modules, so that after each group of modules is mounted, a small amount of adjusting space is provided for adjusting the levelness of the whole group. Each layer of the support lug plate 5261 is provided with a screw hole for fixing and a steel sheet for jackscrew, which are respectively used for fixing and adjusting each group of modules. Every module is independently installed, can independently carry out the adjustment in aspects such as height and levelness simultaneously. If one of the supporting claw discs 5211 needs to be replaced, only the module comprising the supporting claw disc 5211 needs to be replaced, so that the problem that the traditional supporting claw disc 5211 needs to be disassembled and assembled layer by layer when replaced is solved. When the module is specifically installed, as shown in fig. 30, each group of modules consists of n supporting claw discs 5211, a first layer of supporting blocks, a second layer of supporting blocks, a third layer of supporting blocks, … …, n layers of supporting blocks 52122 and a pressing plate 52123. The claw supporting disc 5211 is mounted on the first layer of supporting block, the second layer of supporting block is mounted, and the height and the levelness of the claw supporting disc 5211 are adjusted and then locked. The second claw supporting disk 5211 is mounted on the second layer of supporting blocks, the third layer of supporting blocks are mounted, and the height and the levelness of the layer of claw supporting disk 5211 are adjusted and then locked. And the rest of the claw supporting disc 5211 and the rest of the supporting blocks are arranged by analogy. After the n-layer claw supporting discs 5211 are installed, a pressing plate 52123 is installed above the n-layer claw supporting discs 5211 and used for fastening the last layer claw supporting disc 5211. Such a set of detent wells 5211 is assembled, wherein the relative height and levelness of the detent wells 5211 within the set are consistent. The remaining sets of pawl trays 5211 are assembled in the same manner. A group of claw supporting discs 5211 are mounted on the vertical plate, and the corresponding lapping lugs 52121 arranged on the supporting block on the uppermost layer or other layers are lapped with the supporting lug plates 5261, so that the mounting holes are aligned. The heights of the different positions of the group of claw supporting discs 5211 are measured, and the jackscrews on the supporting blocks on the uppermost layer are adjusted according to the height difference until the heights of all points are consistent and the screws are locked after the heights meet the requirements. At this point, it is necessary to continue to monitor the height of the set of pawl trays 5211 at various positions. If the height difference exceeds the required range, the screw is loosened, and the jackscrew at the corresponding position is continuously adjusted until the height difference of each point of the locking rear supporting claw disk 5211 is within the required range. Thus, a set of pawl trays 5211 is installed. The above steps are repeated and the remaining sets of the pallet 5211 are installed. When replacement is necessary, the corresponding set of claw trays 5211 is simply removed and replaced. The height of the group needs to be detected and adjusted again after replacement, and the levelness of the group is ensured to be qualified.

As shown in fig. 29, the pawl group driving mechanism 523 includes a driving member 5231, a transmission assembly 5232 connected to the driving member 5231, an engaging member 5233 connected to the transmission assembly 5232, and a mounting member 5234 connected to the engaging member 5233 and used for mounting any one of the pawl groups.

In this embodiment, the holding claw group driving mechanism 523 may include a mounting member 5234, and a plurality of holding claw discs 5211 are connected to the mounting member 5234. Specifically, as shown in fig. 31, the mounting part 5234 is similar to a rectangular frame structure, and the sets of holding claws are mounted on the side edges of the mounting part 5234.

Preferably, the transmission assembly 5232 is a lead screw transmission assembly 5232 with a small lead, thereby improving the stability and accuracy of the drive. Further, the first driving member 5231 is a motor with an absolute value encoder, so that the driving accuracy is further improved, and the moving distance of the supporting jaw set is more tiny and accurate.

As shown in fig. 33 to 35, the holding claw group driving mechanism 523 includes a plurality of mounting pieces 5234, and the corresponding holding claw groups of the plurality of holding claw plates 5211 are connected to the corresponding mounting pieces 5234, that is, an alternate stacking mounting manner of the mounting pieces 5234 of one holding claw plate 5211 and one holding claw plate 5234 is adopted in mounting. As shown in fig. 34 and 35, in order to save space, the tail of the mounting member 5234 passes through the pawl tray 5211 to be connected to the mounting member 5234 below, and a second avoiding hole 52112 is formed at a position of the pawl tray 5211, through which the mounting member 5234 passes, and moves in the second avoiding hole 52112 to drive the pawl set to move.

Preferably, as shown in fig. 36, taking the bottommost supporting surface 5222 as an example for supporting the wafer 1, in order to ensure that the wafer 1 is taken out, the diameter of the bottom surface of the accommodating space, i.e., the diameter of the maximum circumference a formed by the edge of the bottommost supporting surface 5222, is preferably larger than the diameter of the wafer 1. The claw group driving mechanism 523 drives to make the diameter of a hollow circle formed by the corresponding support surfaces 5222 in the two claw groups, that is, the diameter of the smallest circumference b formed by the edge of the lowermost support surface 5222, smaller than the diameter of the wafer 1. By matching the two sizes, the device can take the wafer 1 even if the wafer 1 is horizontally offset in the original carrier, and the wafer 1 can not fall off.

In this embodiment, the four claw supporting blocks 522 arranged in an isosceles trapezoid shape are disposed on the claw supporting disc 5211, the four claw supporting blocks 522 are located on the same plane and have the same radian, and the size of the accommodating space is the same as that of the wafer clamp 520:

wherein D is the diameter of the accommodating space, D is the diameter of the wafer 1 to be accommodated, and x₁For tolerance of the diameter of the accommodation space, x₂Is the horizontal offset distance, w, of the wafer 1 in the original carrier₁Is the width, w, of the orthographic projection of the support surface 5222 on the horizontal plane₂The width of the limit surface 5221 in the orthographic projection on the horizontal plane. By limiting the size of the claw block 522 and the receiving space formed by the claw block, the wafer 1 can be surely received in the receiving space and is not received by the receiving space.

Further, x₂≤x₁≤1.5x₂Therefore, the size of the accommodating space is suitable, the wafer horizontal supporting device 520 is prevented from being too large in size, and the wafer 1 is prevented from being damaged due to excessive friction on the supporting surface 5222 caused by the fact that the subsequent supporting claw group pushes the wafer 1 to move for too long distance.

The wafer horizontal support apparatus 530 may further include a leveling rod and a leveling drive mechanism. The regulating rod is arranged on one side of the holding jaw disc 5211, and the regulating driving mechanism is used for driving the regulating rod to push the wafer 1 on the holding jaw disc 5211 to move towards one side and abut against the wafer 1, so that the plurality of wafers 1 supported by the device are coaxial and orderly, and the subsequent process operation efficiency is improved; and the wafer 1 is prevented from being thrown out in the moving process of the device to cause damage by abutting against the wafer 1 to improve the limitation, and the moving speed of the device is improved correspondingly, so that the transfer rate of the wafer 1 is improved. Of course, in this embodiment, the purpose of regulating and limiting the wafer 1 is achieved by additionally providing the regulating rod and the regulating driving mechanism, but since the supporting claw group of the device can move, the supporting claw group can be driven by the supporting claw group driving mechanism 523 again to further move towards the center of the circle after the supporting claw group supports the wafer 1, so as to collide with the wafer 1, achieve the purpose of regulating and limiting, and simplify the structure. Meanwhile, in order to ensure that the wafer 1 does not deviate from the accommodating space, the minimum distance between the adjacent two limiting surfaces 5221 in the same accommodating space is preferably smaller than the diameter of the wafer 1.

The wafer 1 is supported by the wafer horizontal supporting device 530 by the following steps:

s101, when a state wafer 1 is loaded, controlling the driving mechanism 523 to drive a group of holding claws to move, so as to adjust a supporting surface 5222 to match with the state wafer 1, that is, a first accommodating space for accommodating and supporting the wafer 1 is formed by corresponding to the supporting surface 5222;

s102, when the wafer 1 in another state is loaded, controlling the driving mechanism 523 to drive one of the supporting claw sets to move so as to adjust the other supporting surface 5222 to be matched with the wafer 1 in the state, i.e., forming a second accommodating space for accommodating and supporting the wafer 1 through the other corresponding supporting surface 5222;

s200 controls the wafer horizontal supporting device 530 to extend into the wafer cassette and move upward, so that the corresponding wafer 1 falls into the corresponding accommodating space and is supported by the corresponding supporting surface 5222.

S300 controls the supporting-claw-group driving mechanism 523 to drive a supporting claw group to move, so as to push the wafer 1 located in the accommodating space to move towards one side, and to be clamped between the two supporting claw groups.

The wafer transfer system further includes a wafer flipping unit to switch the wafer 1 between a horizontal state and a vertical state, thereby facilitating subsequent operations.

More specifically, as shown in fig. 37 to 39, the wafer flipping unit includes a wafer flipping device 600 for flipping the wafer 1 arbitrarily between 0 ° and 360 °, and the wafer flipping device 600 includes a wafer holding mechanism.

The wafer fixing mechanism comprises a horizontal supporting mechanism and a circumferential clamping mechanism. The horizontal supporting mechanism includes two supporting comb pillars 610 disposed oppositely to support the wafer in a horizontal state, and a channel for the wafer to enter and exit is formed between the two supporting comb pillars 610. The circumferential clamping mechanism comprises at least two clamping comb columns which are respectively arranged at two ends of the channel, and the at least two clamping comb columns are matched with the supporting comb columns to clamp the wafer positioned on the supporting comb columns.

The wafer flipping apparatus 600 may further include a housing 630 for accommodating the above mechanisms and a rotation mechanism for rotating the housing 630. Of course, a detection mechanism may be included to detect the state of the wafer and the states of the various mechanisms within the apparatus to ensure that the operating position is accurate.

The wafer fixing mechanism is disposed in the housing 630, and two ends of the housing 630 corresponding to the channel are provided with openings for the wafer to enter and exit.

As shown in fig. 39, the wafer 1 enters and exits the wafer flipping apparatus 600 in the direction of the arrow, it being understood that the wafer 1 may be moved in from one side and out from the other side, or from the same side.

A horizontal support mechanism and a circumferential chucking mechanism are provided in the housing 630 to hold the wafer 1. The rotation mechanism drives the wafer 1 in the housing 630 to turn over at any angle between 0-360 °, and particularly, the rotation mechanism drives the wafer 1 in a horizontal state to rotate clockwise 90 ° to a vertical state, or rotate counterclockwise 90 ° to a vertical state.

Specifically, the housing 630 has a rectangular frame structure, and includes an upper fixing plate and a lower fixing plate which are oppositely disposed to mount the horizontal supporting mechanism and the circumferential clamping mechanism, and two rotating fixing plates which are oppositely disposed to be connected with the rotating mechanism to realize integral turnover.

The rotating mechanism comprises two opposite supporting seats 640 and a driving mechanism arranged in any supporting seat 640, and the driving mechanism is preferably a hollow rotating motor so as to realize accurate automatic adjustment of a rotating angle. The housing 630 is disposed between the two supporting bases 640 and is rotated by a rotating motor with a brake and an encoder, so as to realize any turning between 0 ° and 360 °, i.e. to rotate around an axis parallel to the horizontal plane and perpendicular to the channel, so as to make the channel parallel or perpendicular to the horizontal plane.

Preferably, the supporting seat 640 is connected to the external supporting structure through a bottom plate, and a waist-shaped hole is formed in the bottom plate to realize left and right position adjustment, and a jack screw may be further provided to realize up and down position adjustment.

As shown in fig. 38 and 39, the horizontal supporting mechanism includes two supporting combs 610 disposed opposite to each other and a first driving assembly for driving the two supporting combs 610 to rotate.

The two supporting combs 610 are oppositely disposed. The supporting comb 610 includes a rotating shaft 611, a connecting member 612 extending along an axial direction of the rotating shaft 611, and a plurality of supporting plates 613 disposed along a height direction of the connecting member 612, wherein the connecting member 612 and the plurality of supporting plates 613 thereon form a comb-shaped structure. The axial direction of the rotating shaft 611 is perpendicular to the in-out direction of the wafer 1, so that a plurality of wafers 1 can be correspondingly placed on the plurality of support plates 613. The support plate 613 is used for carrying the wafer 1, and preferably, the support plate 613 is a slope structure, and the support surface is inclined towards the bottom surface of the channel to reduce the contact area with the wafer 1, that is, when the wafer enters the channel, the channel is in a state of being parallel to the horizontal plane, and the support surface is inclined towards the bottom surface of the channel, so that the support surface is in line contact or point contact with the wafer. Generally, the connecting member 612 is provided with a number of support plates 613 equal to the number of wafers 1 stored in the wafer cassette 3 to completely receive a cassette of wafers 1, and specifically, 25 support plates 613 are provided to respectively support 25 wafers 1, although not limited thereto, the number of support plates 613 may be less than 25, or more than 25.

When the wafer 1 needs to be loaded, the two comb support columns 610 rotate to the supporting position for the wafer 1 to be inserted into and the edge of the comb support column is seated on the support plate 613, i.e. the rotating shaft 611 rotates an angle to drive the support plate 613 to rotate to the supporting position to load the wafer 1; when it is not necessary to carry the wafer 1 or avoid the wafer 1 from moving, the two comb support posts 610 rotate to the avoiding position to avoid the wafer 1, i.e. the rotating shaft 611 rotates an angle to drive the support plate 613 to rotate to the avoiding position and further away from the wafer 1.

In order to separately or alternatively load the wafers 1 before and after the processing process, the supporting comb 610 can be preferably rotated to the first supporting position and the second supporting position to respectively load the wafers 1 in different states or alternatively load the wafers 1.

The support plates 613 may be disposed in at least two rows along the circumferential direction of the rotating shaft 611, and any one of the two rows of support plates 613 supports the wafer. Referring to fig. 40(a) and 41, in one embodiment, two rows of support plates 613 are respectively disposed on two opposite sides of the support comb 610 in the height direction. Of course, the two rows of supporting plates 613 may not be disposed oppositely, but only need to form an included angle therebetween, so that when the wafer contacts one of the two rows of supporting plates, the wafer does not contact the other supporting plate. In this embodiment, the 180 ° arrangement is favorable for controlling the conversion between the support position and the avoidance position.

The two rows of support plates 613 respectively support wafers 1 in different states, and the distance D between the two rows of support plates 613, the length L of the support plates 613 and the position of the rotating shaft 611 are matched to enable the comb support 610 to rotate 90 ° and then to be separated from contact with the wafer 1. Specifically, when the two supporting combs 610 are both in the initial state, the row of supporting plates 613 of the two supporting combs 610 is in the opposite state to contact with the wafer 1 and carry the wafer 1, that is, the supporting combs 610 are in the first supporting position; both the two supporting combs 610 rotate 90 ° around the axis in the initial state, the supporting plates 613 of the two supporting combs 610 are disengaged from the wafer 1, that is, the supporting combs 610 are in the avoiding position; the two comb support posts 610 continue to rotate about the axis in the same direction by 90 °, and the other row of support plates 613 of the two comb support posts 610 are opposite to each other to contact with the wafer 1 and carry the wafer 1, i.e. the comb support posts 610 are at the second support position. Of course, when the two rows of support plates 613 are not symmetrically disposed, the corresponding angle is rotated according to the position thereof to switch different stations.

The plurality of support plates 613 may be arranged in a row along the circumferential direction of the rotating shaft 611, and any one end of the support plates 613 supports the wafer. Referring to fig. 40(b), in another embodiment, only one side of the supporting comb 610 is provided with 25 supporting plates 613 along the height direction thereof, two ends of the supporting plates 613 respectively support wafers 1 in different states, and the length L, the width W and the position of the rotating shaft 611 of the supporting plates 613 are matched to make the supporting comb 610 rotate a certain angle and then be out of contact with the wafer 1. Specifically, when the two supporting combs 610 are both in the initial state, one end of the supporting plate 613 of the two supporting combs 610 is in an opposite state to contact with the wafer 1 and carry the wafer 1, that is, the supporting combs 610 are in the first supporting position; the two supporting combs 610 rotate around the axis by a certain angle in the initial state, the supporting plates 613 of the two supporting combs 610 are separated from the contact with the wafer 1, that is, the supporting combs 610 are in the avoiding position at this time; the two comb support columns 610 continue to rotate around the axis in the same direction by a certain angle, and the other ends of the support plates 613 of the two comb support columns 610 are opposite to each other to contact with the wafer 1 and carry the wafer 1, i.e. the comb support columns 610 are at the second support position.

Referring to fig. 42 and 43, in order to reduce the size of the support plate 613 and facilitate the support plate 613 to be separated from the wafer 1, the support combs 610 in the above two embodiments may be provided with an escape space. Specifically, the support plate 613 is connected to the rotating shaft 611 through a connecting member 612, and an avoiding space is provided between the connecting member 612 and any end of the support plate 613, and the avoiding space is used for avoiding the wafer when the support plate 613 is separated from the wafer. The connecting member 612 is spaced from the end of the support plate 613, i.e., the connecting member 612 is connected to a portion of the support plate 613. In one embodiment, as shown in the solid line portion of fig. 42, the connecting member 612 is shorter than the supporting plate 613, so as to increase the space between the connecting member 612 and the supporting plate 613, when the supporting comb 610 rotates the supporting plate 613, the wafer 1 gradually approaches the end of the connecting member 612 and is then separated from the supporting comb 610. In another embodiment, as shown in the dotted line in fig. 42, the thickness of the connecting member 612 is gradually decreased along the direction a toward the direction b, and the space between the connecting member 612 and the supporting plate 613 is increased, so that when the supporting comb 610 drives the supporting plate 613 to rotate, the wafer 1 gradually approaches the end of the connecting member 612 and further comes out of contact with the supporting comb 610.

Further, the end of the connecting member 612 is tapered from the side thereof away from the supporting plate 613 to the side thereof close to the supporting plate 613, so that the end of the supporting plate 613 is not connected to the connecting member 612, and the contact area between the connecting member 612 and the supporting plate 613 is as large as possible, thereby improving the strength of the joint between the two and further improving the stability of the carrier wafer 1.

As shown in fig. 47, the first driving assembly includes a driving motor 614, a pulley 615, and a belt 616. Specifically, the same ends of the two comb support columns 610 are respectively provided with a belt pulley 615, and are connected with each other through a belt 616 to achieve synchronous rotation, and the belt pulley 615 on any one comb support column 610 is connected with a driving motor 614 through the belt 616 so as to drive the two comb support columns 610 to rotate synchronously. The drive motor 614 may be a servo motor or a stepper motor. In order to ensure the rotation balance of the two supporting combs 610, a cylinder lock pin is respectively arranged near the two supporting combs 610 to control the rotation, the lock pin rises to allow the rotation, and the lock pin is locked after the reset.

As shown in fig. 38 and 39, the circumferential clamping mechanism includes four clamping combs 620 and a second driving assembly for driving the four clamping combs 620 to rotate. In this embodiment, two driving components two are used to drive two corresponding clamping comb posts 620 respectively. The center of the circle circumscribing the closed figure formed by the four clamping comb columns 620 coincides with the center of the two supporting comb columns 610.

Of course, the circumferential clamping mechanism may also include two clamping combs 620 separately disposed at two ends of the channel, and the center positions of the two clamping combs 620 are matched with the center positions of the two supporting combs 610, so as to clamp and fix the wafer on the supporting combs 610.

Or, the circumferential clamping mechanism includes at least three clamping comb pillars 620 respectively disposed at two ends of the channel, and a center position of an outer circle of a closed figure formed by the at least three clamping comb pillars 620 is matched with center positions of the two supporting comb pillars 610, so as to clamp and fix a wafer positioned on the supporting comb pillars 610.

The clamping cylinder 620 can rotate to drive the clamping plate 621 to move away from and avoid the wafer passing through the channel, or move close to and cooperate with each other to clamp the wafer on the supporting cylinder 610. In this embodiment, the four clamping comb pillars 620 are respectively disposed on two sides of the two supporting comb pillars 610 to clamp the plurality of wafers 1 on the two supporting comb pillars 610 after rotation. Meanwhile, the clamping comb column 620 is rotatably arranged, so that the wafer 1 can be conveniently rotated to avoid the wafer 1 when entering the channel, and the wafer 1 can be smoothly placed on the horizontal supporting mechanism.

As shown in fig. 44 to 46, the clamping comb 620 is provided with a plurality of clamping plates 621 along the height direction thereof to clamp a plurality of wafers 1 respectively, and generally, 25 clamping plates 621 are provided to clamp 25 wafers 1 respectively, but not limited thereto. The number of clamping plates 621 is generally the same as the number of single-side support plates 613, so as to clamp all the wafers 1 on the support plates 613.

One side of the clamping plate 621 facing the wafer 1 is formed with a V-shaped groove 6211 to cooperate with the edge of the wafer 1, generally speaking, the maximum width of the V-shaped groove 6211 is slightly larger than the thickness of the wafer to clamp the wafer. The arrangement of the V-shaped groove 6211 makes the clamping plate 621 in point contact with the wafer 1, and the contact area is very small, thereby preventing the wafer 1 from polluting the clamping plate 621, and enabling the wafer 1 before and after the processing process to be clamped and moved by using the same clamping plate 621.

A gap 6212 is formed between adjacent clamping plates 621, and the gap 6212 is matched with the wafer for the wafer to pass through, so as to match with the subsequent device to take away the wafer 1 turned to be vertical.

As shown in FIG. 47, the second driving assembly comprises a driving member, a connecting rod 622 connected to the driving member, and a transmission member 623 connected to the rotating shaft of the holding comb 620.

Waist-shaped holes 6221 are opened at both ends of the connecting rod 622, one end of the transmission member 623 is connected with the rotating shaft of the clamping comb column 620, and the other end is slidably arranged in the waist-shaped hole 6221. The driving member drives the connecting rod 622 to move in the wafer 1 in-out direction, which causes the driving member 623 to slide in the waist-shaped hole 6221, and further drives the clamping comb 620 to rotate around its rotation axis to clamp or separate the wafer 1 on the supporting comb 610. Two clamping combs 620 located at the same end of the wafer 1 in-out direction are controlled by a driving assembly two. More specifically, the two links 622 move away from each other so that the four clamping combs 620 clamp the wafer 1, and the two links 622 move relative to each other so that the four clamping combs 620 are out of contact with the wafer 1. The drive member is preferably a cylinder.

The two ends of the moving direction of the connecting rod 622 are preferably provided with stoppers 624 to limit the moving distance of the connecting rod 622.

The circumferential clamping mechanism further comprises a buffer component disposed on the moving path of the connecting rod 622 for limiting the separation of the clamping comb 620 from the wafer. Specifically, a side of the connecting rod 622 close to the outside of the channel is provided with a buffer mechanism, the buffer mechanism includes a fixed seat 650 fixed with the housing 630, the fixed seat 650 is provided with an elastic member 651 facing the connecting rod 622, and preferably, a front end of the elastic member 651 is provided with a contact block 652. When the clamping comb 620 is in the clamping state, the side of the connecting rod 622 abuts against the abutting block 652, so that when the wafer 1 in the clamped state is subjected to a radial acting force, the wafer 1 can be buffered by the buffering mechanism, and the wafer 1 is prevented from being damaged. Preferably, the maximum compression amount of the elastic member 651 is matched to the wafer 1 lift-up distance. Further, the conflict block 652 is a shaft sleeve, a guide shaft is arranged on the connecting rod 622, and the guide shaft is slidably connected with the shaft sleeve, so that the moving stability of the connecting rod 622 is further improved. The elastic member 651 is preferably a compression spring.

Of course, the buffer assembly may also be disposed on the rotation track of the clamping comb 620 away from the wafer for limiting the separation of the clamping comb 620 from the wafer.

When the horizontal supporting mechanism and the circumferential clamping mechanism are installed, the supporting height alignment of the supporting comb columns 610 at two sides and the arc center and height alignment of the four clamping comb columns 620 can be realized by means of a wafer positioning tool corresponding to the size and the shape of the wafer 1, so that the wafer 1 in the whole mechanism is centrally aligned with the supporting comb columns 610 and the clamping comb columns 620 and is consistent in height after being clamped.

The detecting mechanism includes a wafer presence sensor, a comb position sensor, a driving member position sensor, and the like, for detecting the state of the wafer 1, the state of the comb, and the state of the driving member.

More specifically, the upper fixing plate and the lower fixing plate are respectively provided with a wafer presence sensor and a wafer absence sensor, wherein the front pair and the rear pair are used for detecting the positions of the wafers to judge whether the wafers are in a centering state, and the middle pair is used for detecting the presence of the wafers to judge for the next operation. The comb position sensor is disposed on a pulley 615 of the driving assembly to determine the rotation angle of the supporting comb 610.

The wafer flipping unit may further include a wafer carrying device 700, and the wafer carrying device 700 is used for carrying the wafer flipped to the vertical state by the wafer flipping device 600.

As shown in fig. 49, the wafer carrier 700 includes at least two sets of carrier wafer comb sets nested together, and at least one set of carrier wafer comb set can be lifted relative to the other carrier wafer comb sets. Specifically, the wafer-supporting comb set includes two wafer-supporting combs 731 disposed oppositely to clamp two opposite side edges of the wafer in a vertical state, respectively, and cooperate with the wafer.

The wafer carrier 700 may further include a carrier 730 and at least one driving mechanism three 760 disposed in the carrier 730, wherein the driving mechanism three 760 is connected to any one of the carrier wafer comb sets to drive the carrier wafer comb set to move up and down relative to other carrier wafer comb sets.

In one embodiment, the wafer carrier 700 includes a carrier mount 710, a first driving mechanism 720 for driving the carrier mount 710 to move, a second driving mechanism 740 disposed on the carrier mount 710 for driving the carrier 730 to move, and a third driving mechanism.

The carrier mount 710 can move horizontally under the driving of the first driving mechanism 720, that is, the carrier mount 710 can translate between the initial position and the wafer 1 taking and placing position under the driving of the first driving mechanism 720. The first driving mechanism 720 may be a linear module for driving the carriage 710 to move back and forth along a straight line.

The susceptor 730 is disposed on the top of the susceptor 710 to support the wafer 1. The second driving mechanism 740 is disposed in the carrier mounting seat 710, and is configured to lift and rotate the carrier 730 so that the carrier 730 further moves to a corresponding position for taking and placing the wafer 1, and is configured to lift the carrier 730 to a corresponding height to cooperate with the wafer scanning device 750 for scanning the wafer 1. The second driving mechanism 740 may include a vertically disposed linear module for lifting and a cylinder connected to the linear module for rotation.

As shown in fig. 49 and 50, the susceptor 730 includes at least two wafer-supporting comb sets nested to support wafers 1 in different states. The wafer comb set includes two wafer combs 731 disposed opposite to each other, so that the wafer 1 is vertically clamped between the wafer combs 731.

Taking two wafer-bearing comb sets as an example, the two wafer-bearing comb sets include an inner wafer-bearing comb set and an outer wafer-bearing comb set, the two wafer-bearing combs 731 of the outer wafer-bearing comb set are respectively located outside the two wafer-bearing combs 731 of the inner wafer-bearing comb set, and the inner wafer-bearing comb set and the outer wafer-bearing comb set are connected to a third driving mechanism to change the working state of the inner wafer and the outer wafer, as shown in fig. 51. The third driving mechanism can be a cylinder, and the inner layer and the outer layer are driven by the cylinder to lift so as to replace different groups of bearing wafer combs to bear the wafer 1. Specifically, inboard bearing wafer comb 731 is connected with the cylinder keysets through inboard wafer comb mounting panel, and the cylinder keysets passes through the cylinder upper plate and realizes being connected with the cylinder. The box structure, namely the bearing table 730, which is composed of a box cover plate, box side plates and a box bottom plate is arranged below the wafer comb mounting plate. When the outer wafer-bearing comb 731 is used, the cylinder is at an initial position, i.e., the inner wafer-bearing comb 731 is at a position lower than the outer wafer-bearing comb 731 by a certain distance. The cylinder adapter plate and part of the inner side wafer comb mounting plate are positioned at the lower part in the box body structure and are also positioned at a certain distance from the box body bottom plate. When the inner side bearing wafer comb 731 is used, the cylinder jacks up, the bearing wafer comb 731 is driven by the cylinder adapter plate to rise together, and the height of the bearing wafer comb is higher than that of the outer side bearing wafer comb 731 by a certain distance. From pleasing to the eye and installation space aspect consideration, pass through cylinder support diaphragm, the left and right riser of cylinder and cylinder fixed plate installation with the cylinder and fix to the box bottom plate on, be located the drum that goes up and down along with the straight line module that goes up and down together. On the cylinder, aiming at the cylinder speed regulating valve and the sensor, the side edge of the cylinder is provided with an opening and a cylinder cover plate. When in use, the cover plate is only required to be taken down.

The wafer-supporting comb 731 is provided with a plurality of slots along the length direction thereof so that the edge of the wafer 1 is embedded in the slots to fix the position. Specifically, the wafer carrying comb 731 is provided with 50 slots to carry two sets of 25 wafers 1, so as to achieve the processing throughput of 50 wafers 1 at a time. Preferably, the loading is performed by loading a group of 25 wafers 1 back and forth, and the two groups are alternately arranged, that is, the group of 25 wafers 1 is loaded first and arranged on 50 slots at intervals, and the next group of 25 wafers 1 is inserted between the two adjacent wafers 1 in the previous group, that is, the two groups of wafers 1 are alternately arranged.

As shown in fig. 44, the wafer carrier 700 may further be connected to a wafer scanning device 750, so as to scan the state of the wafer 1 on the wafer carrier 700. Specifically, a wafer scanning device 750 is disposed near the initial position of the wafer carrier 700, and the wafer scanning device 750 includes a scanning sensor, and the scanning sensor can move along the length direction of the wafer carrier comb set to comprehensively scan the wafer 1 clamped by the scanning sensor, so as to quickly detect the information of the wafer 1 and the position state of the wafer 1.

In the system, the wafer carrying device 700 is used for docking with the wafer flipping device 600 and transferring the wafer 1 in a vertical state therebetween, taking the wafer 1 as an example, the operation flow is as follows:

the wafer turnover device 600 turns over 25 wafers 1 from a horizontal state to a vertical state, the supporting comb columns 610 rotate to an avoidance position, namely, the wafers 1 are separated from contact, and the wafers 1 are clamped and fixed by the four clamping comb columns 620, so that the wafers 1 are prevented from being damaged by friction between the surfaces of the wafers 1 and the supporting surfaces of the supporting comb columns 610 in the subsequent wafer taking process;

the first driving mechanism 720 drives the carrier mounting base 710 to move to the lower part of the wafer turnover device 600, and the third driving mechanism drives the comb group corresponding to the required carrier wafer to ascend to prepare for carrying the wafer 1;

the second driving mechanism 740 drives the susceptor 730 to rotate to a corresponding angle, generally 0 ° or 180 °, so that the two sets of wafers 1 can reach different opposite surfaces, for example, a front surface to face facing each other, a back surface to back facing each other, a front surface to back facing each other, and the like between the two sets of wafers 1;

the second driving mechanism 740 drives the loading platform 730 to ascend, the wafer loading comb 731 contacts the wafer 1 clamped in the wafer overturning device 600 and further lifts the wafer 1 slightly, and the wafer 1 is not damaged due to the action of the buffer mechanism on the wafer overturning device 600;

the clamping comb column 620 close to the bearing platform 730 rotates to separate from the wafer 1, so that the wafer 1 is located on the bearing wafer comb group on the bearing platform 730, and the clamping comb group far from the bearing platform 730 rotates to separate from the wafer 1, so that the wafer 1 is completely located on the bearing wafer comb group;

the second driving mechanism 740 drives the bearing table 730 to descend to finish the taking of the film;

when the second group of wafers 1 is taken, the first driving mechanism 720 drives the bearing mounting seat 710 to move for a distance, so that the vacant positions on the bearing wafer combs 731 are aligned with the wafer turning device 600, and the moving distance is matched with the distance between the adjacent clamping plates 621 of the wafer turning device 600, so as to avoid the collision between the first group of wafers 1 and the clamping comb columns 620;

the first driving mechanism 720 drives the carrier mounting base 710 to return to the initial position, and the wafer scanning device 750 is activated to scan the wafer 1.

In the above method, the wafer carrier 700 is rotated 180 degrees horizontally to face the wafer, but the wafer turnover device 600 may alternatively rotate clockwise/counterclockwise to face the wafer.

The wafer transfer system may further include a wafer edge finder 800. As shown in fig. 52, in order to position the wafer 1, the wafer 1 is generally provided with a notch 11(notch) or a flat 12(flat) at the edge, and the notch 11 is shown as an arc shape, but the invention is not limited thereto, and may be V-shaped or other shapes. Before the processing technology, an edge searching device is needed to perform edge searching and regulating on a plurality of wafers 1, so that the grooves 11 or the flat grooves 12 are in the same orientation, thereby facilitating the subsequent technology.

In this embodiment, the wafer edge finder 800 includes:

the rotation driving mechanism comprises a driving roller and a driven roller, the driving roller and the driven roller are arranged in parallel and at intervals so as to bear the wafer in a vertical state, and the wafer can rotate around the axis of the wafer under the driving of the driving roller;

the barrier rod is arranged between the driving roller and the driven roller in parallel and can lift up and down so as to lift the wafer on the driving roller and the driven roller and enable the wafer to be deviated to the driving roller or the driven roller; and the number of the first and second groups,

the first limiting mechanism comprises a first limiting wafer comb, and the first limiting wafer comb is arranged between the driving roller and the driven roller in parallel to clamp the edge of the wafer;

when the wafer is lifted by the blocking rod, the orthographic projection of the blocking rod on the plane where the circumferential cross section of the driving roller is located in the orthographic projection of the first limiting wafer comb on the plane.

Specifically, as shown in fig. 53 to fig. 55, the wafer edge finder 800 includes a housing 810 to protect the internal mechanism, and the wafer 1 completes the edge finding operation inside the housing 810 to avoid the external equipment or personnel from being touched by mistake. Preferably, the top of the housing 810 is provided with an inlet 811 for the wafer 1 to enter and exit, the wafer 1 enters in a vertical state, and a shielding plate 820 is disposed above the inlet 811 to open and close the inlet 811. As shown in fig. 63, the shutter 820 can be driven by a shutter cylinder 821 to move along the plane of the gateway 811 so as to open and close the gateway 811. The shielding plate 820 can also be connected with the second guide rail 822 in a sliding way through a connecting plate 823 arranged at the tail end of the shielding plate, so that the moving stability is enhanced.

As shown in fig. 56, the wafer edge finder 800 includes a rotation driving mechanism 850, a blocking rod 862 and a first limiting mechanism 860, which are disposed inside the housing 810.

The rotary driving mechanism 850 includes a driving roller 851 and a driven roller 852, the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 are disposed in parallel and spaced apart to carry the wafers 1 in a vertical state, and the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 have a certain length, so that a lot of wafers 1 can be carried. In this embodiment, the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 are also located on the same horizontal plane, so as to more stably support the wafer 1, and facilitate the subsequent control of the blocking rod 862 to lift and deflect the wafer 1. When the wafer 1 is placed on the rotation driving mechanism 850, the edge of the wafer 1 is simultaneously in contact with the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852 so that the wafer 1 is seated on the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852 in a vertical state without being radially offset, i.e., the wafer 1 is prevented from being offset left and right as shown in fig. 58. Meanwhile, the first limiting mechanism 860 is matched to clamp the wafer 1 to avoid excessive axial deviation, so that the wafer 1 is kept in a basically vertical state.

The wafer 1 can rotate around the axis thereof under the driving of the driving roller 851, and in the present embodiment, the driven roller 852 is rotatably connected to the housing 810, so that the wafer 1 drives the driven roller 852 to rotate during the rotation, so as to reduce the friction between the wafer 1 and the driven roller 852. As shown in fig. 57, the driving roller 851 may be driven by a motor 854 cooperating with a driving roller belt 853, the motor 854 driving the driving roller belt 853 to rotate when working, the driving roller belt 853 driving the driving roller 851 to rotate, and a tension wheel 855 disposed near the driving roller belt 853 for adjusting the tightness of the driving roller belt 853. Of course, the driving manner of the drive roller 851 is not limited thereto.

The blocking rod 862 is disposed in parallel between the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852, and the blocking rod 862 can be lifted to lift the wafer 1 on the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 and make it biased toward the driving roller 851 or the driven roller 852 for edge searching.

The first limit mechanism 860 comprises a first limit wafer comb 861, and the first limit wafer comb 861 is arranged between the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 in parallel, namely is positioned at the bottom of the wafer 1 to clamp the bottom edge of the wafer 1, so that the axial inclination angle of the whole wafer 1 is better limited. Specifically, the first limit wafer comb 861 is provided with a plurality of first limit slots 8612 along the length direction, and the edge of the wafer 1 is inserted into the first limit slots 8612. It is understood that in the art, since it is necessary to minimize the contact with the surface of the wafer 1, the clamping is not limited to tight fit, and a v-shaped groove is generally used for inserting the edge of the wafer 1 to limit the axial tilt angle of the wafer 1, and the clamping in this application refers to limiting the edge of the wafer 1 to limit the axial tilt angle if no specific description is made.

In order to further limit the axial inclination of the wafer 1, the apparatus preferably further comprises a second limiting mechanism 840, the second limiting mechanism 840 comprises two second limiting wafer combs 841, and the two second limiting wafer combs 841 are respectively arranged on the outer sides of the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 in parallel, i.e. the length directions of the two limiting wafer combs are consistent, so that the stability of the wafer 1 in a vertical state can be further improved, and the wafer 1 in a substantially vertical state can be maintained. As shown in fig. 59 and 60, the second spacing wafer comb 841 is provided with a plurality of second spacing slots 8411 along the length direction thereof, and the two corresponding second spacing slots 8411 are used for inserting the edge of the wafer 1 to limit the wafer 1 left and right, so as to prevent the wafer 1 located on the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 from inclining along the axial direction thereof, thereby ensuring that the wafer 1 does not deviate in the rotating process and further ensuring the edge finding effect. Preferably, when the wafer 1 is located on the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852, the edge of the wafer 1 is respectively clamped into the two corresponding limiting clamping grooves 8411 at the two sides, and a gap is formed between the edge of the wafer 1 and the bottoms of the two limiting clamping grooves 8411, so that the wafer 1 has a certain displacement space in the vertical direction, and the wafer 1 is ensured to be capable of being deviated when being in contact with the blocking rod 862 so as to be separated from the contact with the driving roller 851.

In this embodiment, the device is especially used to lift the crystal when the stopping rod 862 lifts the crystalIn the case of circle 1, the orthographic projection of the blocking rod 862 on the plane where the circumferential cross section of the driving roller 851 is located is in the orthographic projection of the first limit wafer comb 861 on the plane. Referring to fig. 58(a), a plane, which is a circumferential cross-section plane of the drive roller 851, is illustrated. Because the wafer 1 rotates to enable the groove 11 or the flat slot 12 to be close to the stop rod 862, and finally the stop rod 862 blocks the groove 11 or the flat slot 12 to prevent the wafer 1 from continuing to rotate, thereby completing edge searching, at this time, because the wafer 1 in the rotating state suddenly changes the motion state thereof, the wafer 1 generates axial shaking, and the axial shaking amplitude generated near the stop rod 862 is maximum, and the position where the wafer 1 is most likely to generate axial shaking inclination (namely irregular rotation) in the edge searching process is limited in a controllable range through the limit wafer comb one 861 which is arranged close to the stop rod 862, so as to avoid the wafer 1 from colliding with the adjacent wafer 1. Further, when the stopper rod 862 lifts the wafer 1, an orthogonal projection of the stopper rod 862 on a plane on which a circumferential cross section of the drive roller 851 is positioned is located on a center line of an orthogonal projection of the contact surface 8621 on the plane. Referring to FIG. 58(a), the center line is d₁And d₂The dashed line in between is the straight line. In the rotation process of the wafer 1, the blocking rod 862 is touched to generate axial shaking, and the blocking rod 862 is arranged in the middle of the first limit wafer comb 861, so that the shaking is uniformly limited and weakened by two sides of the first limit wafer comb 861 at the first time, and the rotation stability of the wafer 1 is further improved. Meanwhile, the blocking rod 862 is arranged in the middle of the first limit wafer comb 861, so that the limited shaking amplitude of the wafer 1 is minimized, and the phenomenon that the wafer 1 is separated from the blocking rod 862 to cause edge searching errors is avoided.

In this embodiment, the blocking rod 862 penetrates the first limit wafer comb 861 along the length direction of the first limit wafer comb 861, and is lifted up and down on the circumferential cross section of the first limit wafer comb 861. At this time, the blocking rod 862 penetrates through the plurality of first limit slots 8612 to contact the edge of the wafer 1. Preferably, as shown in fig. 61 and 62, a cavity 8611 for accommodating the blocking rod 862 to move up and down is formed in the first limit wafer comb 861, and the cavity 8611 is communicated with the first limit slot 8612.

The first limiting mechanism 860 can also be provided with a driving mechanism for driving the first limiting wafer comb 861 to ascend and descend, at the moment, the blocking rod 862 is fixed in the first limiting wafer comb 861, the lifting of the first limiting wafer comb 861 drives the blocking rod 862 to ascend and descend, furthermore, a reinforcing block 870 is arranged below the first limiting wafer comb 861, one end of the reinforcing block 870 abuts against the blocking rod 862, so that the strength of the blocking rod 862 is improved, the situation that the blocking rod is bent by the wafer 1 to cause that the wafer 1 in the same batch of edge searching operation is not level is avoided, and the final edge searching effect is influenced.

Distance d between blocking lever 862 and drive roller 851₁And the distance d between the blocking lever 862 and the driven roller 852₂The size of the wafer 1 is adapted to the state of the wafer 1 when the stopping rod 862 lifts up, so that the wafer 1 in the rotating state is deviated toward the direction close to the driven roller 852 after being stopped by the stopping rod 862, that is, the direction of the resistance applied to the wafer 1 in the rotating state is toward the direction close to the driven roller 852 after being stopped by the stopping rod 862.

Due to the distance d between the blocking lever 862 and the drive roller 851₁And the distance d between the blocking lever 862 and the driven roller 852₂So that when the blocking lever 862 rises to a certain height, the wafer 1 positioned on the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 is lifted by the blocking lever 862 to be offset toward the driving roller 851 or the driven roller 852, thereby being seated on the blocking lever 862 and the driving roller 851 or on the blocking lever 862 and the driven roller 852.

The wafer edge-finding device 800 can be specifically divided into two types, namely a blocking rod 862 ascends when the driving roller 851 does not rotate and a blocking rod 862 ascends when the driving roller 851 rotates, and the specific description of the ascending of the blocking rod 862 when the driving roller 851 does not rotate is as follows:

when the drive roller 851 is not rotated, and the distance d between the bar 862 and the drive roller 851 is blocked₁Greater than the distance d between the blocking lever 862 and the driven roller 852₂. The wafer 1 is initially seated on the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852, the blocking lever 862 rises a certain distance to contact the wafer 1 and further lift the wafer 1, so that the center of gravity of the wafer 1 in a stationary state is shifted toward the driving roller 851, and further the wafer 1 on the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 is shifted toward the driving roller 851 and thus seated on the blocking lever 862 and the driving roller 851. Then the driving roller 851 rotates to drive the wafer 1 to rotate,with the rotation of the wafer 1, the edge of the wafer 1 does not continuously scratch the stop lever 862, when the notch 11 of the wafer 1 rotates to the position above the stop lever 862, the notch 11 of the wafer 1 touches the stop lever 862 and the stop lever 862 is embedded into the notch 11, the stop lever 862 stops the rotation of the wafer 1, the wafer 1 deviates towards the direction close to the driven roller 852 due to the rotational inertia effect thereof, and then the wafer 1 is located on the stop lever 862 and the driven roller 852 after being separated from the contact with the driving roller 851, thereby completing the edge finding of the single wafer 1. The driving roller 851 continues to rotate until all the grooves 11 of the wafers 1 on the driving roller are contacted with the stop rod 862 and stopped by the stop rod 862, and all the wafers 1 are deviated towards the driven roller 852 due to the rotation inertia effect, so as to be separated from the contact with the driving roller 851 and be located on the stop rod 862 and the driven roller 852, thereby completing edge finding of all the wafers 1.

For example, referring to FIG. 58(a), the driving roller 851 is disposed at the right side of the wafer 1, and the distance d between the blocking bar 862 and the driving roller 851₁Distance d between stop lever 862 and follower roller 852₂. The drive roller 851 is not rotated, the stopper 862 rises and lifts the wafer 1, and the wafer 1 is seated on the stopper 862 and the drive roller 851. The driving roller 851 starts to rotate clockwise to drive the wafer 1 to rotate anticlockwise, when the groove 11 of the wafer 1 touches the blocking rod 862 and is blocked by the blocking rod 862, the wafer 1 deviates towards the driven roller 852 due to inertia, so as to be separated from the contact with the driving roller 851 and be located on the blocking rod 862 and the driven roller 852, single-wafer edge searching is completed, and the process is repeated until all wafers 1 complete edge searching.

Referring to FIG. 58(b), the driving roller 851 is disposed at the left side of the wafer 1, and the distance d between the blocking bar 862 and the driving roller 851₁Distance d between stop lever 862 and follower roller 852₂. The drive roller 851 is not rotated, the stopper 862 rises and lifts the wafer 1, and the wafer 1 is seated on the stopper 862 and the drive roller 851. The driving roller 851 starts to rotate counterclockwise to drive the wafer 1 to rotate clockwise, when the groove 11 of the wafer 1 touches the blocking rod 862 and is blocked by the blocking rod 862, the wafer 1 deviates towards the driven roller 852 due to inertia, so as to be separated from the contact with the driving roller 851 and be located on the blocking rod 862 and the driven roller 852, the single-wafer edge searching is completed, and the process is repeated until all the wafers 1 complete the edge searching.

When the blocking lever 862 ascends while the driving roller 851 rotates, the following is described in detail:

when the drive roller 851 rotates and the distance d between the blocking lever 862 and the drive roller 851 is set₁Less than the distance d between the blocking lever 862 and the driven roller 852₂. The wafer 1 is initially seated on the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852, and rotates as the drive roller 851 rotates. The stopper 862 rises a distance to contact the wafer 1 and further raises the wafer 1 so that the center of gravity of the wafer 1 in a rotating state is shifted toward the driven roller 852, and further the wafer 1 on the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 is shifted toward the driven roller 852 to be seated on the stopper 862 and the driven roller 852 to be out of contact with the driving roller 851. The inertia force when the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851 is matched with the friction force exerted after the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851, so that the wafer 1 on the blocking rod 862 and the driven roller 852 continuously rotates under the action of the rotation inertia thereof, and the wafer 1 rotates at least one circle to make the groove 11 of the wafer 1 contact with the blocking rod 862, and then the blocking rod 862 is embedded in the groove 11 to prevent the wafer 1 from rotating so as to complete edge finding of the single wafer 1. The remaining wafer 1 continues to rotate until the notch 11 of the wafer 1 touches the stop lever 862, and then the stop lever 862 is inserted into the notch 11 to stop the wafer 1 from rotating so as to complete edge searching of all wafers 1.

For example, referring to FIG. 58(c), the drive roller 851 is positioned at the right side of the wafer 1, and the distance d between the stop lever 862 and the drive roller 851₁< distance d between stop lever 862 and driven roller 852₂. The drive roller 851 rotates clockwise and at a speed such that the wafer 1 is free from contact and continues to rotate at least one revolution by inertia. The wafer 1 is seated on the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852 and rotates counterclockwise as the drive roller 851 rotates clockwise. The stopper 862 rises and lifts the wafer 1 so that the center of the wafer 1 is shifted toward the follower rollers 852, and the wafer 1 is shifted to be seated on the stopper 862 and the follower rollers 852. The inertia force when the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851 is matched with the friction force exerted after the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851, so that the wafer 1 continues to rotate anticlockwise for at least one circle by virtue of the rotation inertia of the wafer 1, and when the groove 11 of the wafer 1 touches the blocking rod 862, the blocking rod 862 is embedded into the groove 11 to prevent the wafer 1 from rotating, and edge searching of the single wafer 1 is completed. The remaining wafer 1 continues to rotateMoving until the notch 11 of the wafer 1 touches the stop lever 862, and then the stop lever 862 is embedded into the notch 11 to stop the wafer 1 from rotating so as to complete edge searching of the entire wafer 1.

Referring to FIG. 58(d), the drive roller 851 is positioned at the left side of the wafer 1, and the distance d between the stop lever 862 and the drive roller 851₁< distance d between stop lever 862 and driven roller 852₂. The drive roller 851 rotates counterclockwise at a speed such that the wafer 1 is kept in inertia rotation at least once after coming out of contact with the drive roller. The wafer 1 is seated on the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852 and rotates clockwise as the drive roller 851 rotates counterclockwise. The stopper 862 rises and lifts the wafer 1 so that the center of the wafer 1 is shifted toward the follower rollers 852, and the wafer 1 is shifted to be seated on the stopper 862 and the follower rollers 852. The inertia force when the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851 is matched with the friction force exerted after the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851, so that the wafer 1 continues to rotate clockwise for at least one circle by virtue of the rotation inertia, and when the groove 11 of the wafer 1 touches the blocking rod 862, the blocking rod 862 is embedded into the groove 11 to prevent the wafer 1 from rotating, and edge searching of the single wafer 1 is completed. The remaining wafer 1 continues to rotate until the notch 11 of the wafer 1 touches the stop lever 862, and then the stop lever 862 is inserted into the notch 11 to stop the wafer 1 from rotating so as to complete edge searching of all wafers 1.

More specifically, in fig. 58(a) to (d), the blocking rod 862 is preferably configured as a circular rod with a diameter smaller than the diameter of the notch 11 of the wafer 1, when the blocking rod 862 ascends and lifts the wafer 1, the blocking rod 862 contacts the wafer 1, the wafer 1 rotates at least one turn, the notch 11 of the wafer 1 rotates to the position of the blocking rod 862 in one turn, and since the blocking rod 862 is a rolling rod with a diameter smaller than the diameter of the notch 11 of the wafer 1, the blocking rod 862 is embedded in the notch 11 of the wafer 1 and blocks the wafer 1, so that the edge seeking of the wafer 1 is completed.

In addition, in order to find the edge of the wafer 1 in the flat slot 12, the blocking rod 862 is disposed near the driving roller 851, and a side of the blocking rod 862 facing away from the driving roller is provided with a contact surface 8621 matching with the flat slot 12 of the wafer 1, that is, the contact surface 8621 of the blocking rod 862 and the wafer 1 is inclined toward a direction near the driven roller 852. The concrete matching is as follows: the angle of inclination of the contact surface 8621 is adapted to the distance between the stopper rod 862 and the driven roller 852 so that when the flat groove 12 of the wafer 1 is fitted to the contact surface 8621, the center of gravity of the wafer 1 is located between the stopper rod 862 and the driven roller 852.

The wafer 1 is seated on the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852, and when the drive roller 851 rotates, the wafer 1 rotates as the drive roller 851 rotates. Distance d between blocking lever 862 and drive roller 851₁Less than the distance d between the blocking lever 862 and the driven roller 852₂The stopper 862 rises a distance until the contact surface 8621 contacts the wafer 1 and further lifts the wafer 1 so that the center of gravity of the wafer 1 is shifted toward the driven roller 852, and further the wafer 1 on the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852 is shifted toward the driven roller 852 to be seated on the contact surface 8621 and the driven roller 852 of the stopper 862 out of contact with the driving roller 851. The inertia force when the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851 is matched with the friction force exerted after the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851, so that the wafer 1 on the blocking rod 862 and the driven roller 852 continuously rotates under the action of the rotation inertia thereof, and at least one circle of rotation enables the flat groove 12 of the wafer 1 to touch the blocking rod 862 and further attach to the contact surface 8621, and the center of gravity of the wafer 1 is located between the blocking rod 862 and the driven roller 852 at the moment, and the wafer 1 is prevented from continuously rotating through the surface contact of the flat groove 12 and the contact surface 8621 so as to finish edge searching of the single wafer 1. In the final state, as shown in fig. 58(g), the remaining wafer 1 continues to rotate until the flat groove 12 of the wafer 1 is attached to the contact surface 8621, and further the flat groove 12 contacts the contact surface 8621 to prevent the wafer 1 from continuing to rotate so as to complete edge finding of the entire wafer 1. Further, the driving roller 851 drives the wafer 1 to rotate along the direction from the high side to the low side of the contact surface 8621, that is, the flat groove 12 of the wafer 1 can slide down along the inclined contact surface 8621 and finally collide with the inclined contact surface 8621, thereby improving the edge searching effect.

Referring to FIG. 58(e), the drive roller 851 is positioned at the right side of the wafer 1, and the distance d between the stop lever 862 and the drive roller 851₁< distance d between stop lever 862 and driven roller 852₂. The driving roll 851 rotates counterclockwise and drives the wafer 1 to rotate, and the inertia force when the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roll 851 is matched with the friction force exerted after the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roll 851, so that the wafer 1 rotates at least one circle continuously by means of the self inertia of the wafer 1 after being separated from the contact. The wafer 1 is seated on the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852 and is reversed with the drive roller 851The hour hand rotates and clockwise. The stopper 862 rises and lifts the wafer 1 so that the center of the wafer 1 is shifted toward the follower rollers 852, and the wafer 1 is shifted to be seated on the stopper 862 and the follower rollers 852. The wafer 1 continues to rotate clockwise at least one turn by virtue of the rotation inertia, when the flat slot 12 of the wafer 1 touches the blocking rod 862 to be attached to the contact surface 8621, and the center of gravity of the wafer 1 deviates to the direction of the driven roller 852 at this time, the flat slot 12 contacts the surface of the contact surface 8621 to prevent the wafer 1 from continuing to rotate so as to complete edge searching of the single wafer 1. The remaining wafer 1 continues to rotate until the flat groove 12 of the wafer 1 is attached to the contact surface 8621, and the flat groove 12 contacts the contact surface 8621 to prevent the wafer 1 from continuing to rotate, so as to complete edge finding of all the wafer 1.

Referring to FIG. 58(f), the drive roller 851 is positioned at the left side of the wafer 1, and the distance d between the stop lever 862 and the drive roller 851₁< distance d between stop lever 862 and driven roller 852₂. The driving roller 851 rotates clockwise, and the inertia force when the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851 is matched with the friction force exerted after the wafer 1 is separated from the driving roller 851, so that the wafer 1 rotates at least one circle by inertia after being separated from contact with the wafer 1. The wafer 1 is seated on the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852 and rotates counterclockwise as the drive roller 851 rotates counterclockwise. The stopper 862 rises and lifts the wafer 1 so that the center of the wafer 1 is shifted toward the follower rollers 852, and the wafer 1 is shifted to be seated on the stopper 862 and the follower rollers 852. The wafer 1 continues to rotate counterclockwise at least one turn by virtue of its rotational inertia, when the flat slot 12 of the wafer 1 touches the blocking rod 862 to be attached to the contact surface 8621, and the center of gravity of the wafer 1 is biased to the direction of the driven roller 852 at this time, the flat slot 12 contacts the contact surface 8621 to prevent the wafer 1 from continuing to rotate so as to complete edge searching of the single wafer 1. The remaining wafer 1 continues to rotate until the flat groove 12 of the wafer 1 is attached to the contact surface 8621, and the flat groove 12 contacts the contact surface 8621 to prevent the wafer 1 from continuing to rotate, so as to complete edge finding of all the wafer 1.

The wafer edge finder 800 may further include a transfer mechanism 830 for supporting the wafer 1 in and out of the inlet/outlet 811 and transferring the wafer 1 by docking with an external device, such as a wafer 1 robot.

The transfer mechanism 830 includes two symmetrically disposed transfer wafer combs 831, the transfer wafer combs 831 are provided with a plurality of slots along the length direction thereof for clamping the wafer 1, and the length direction of the two transfer wafer combs 831 is identical to the length direction of the two spacing wafer combs 841, so as to conveniently pick and place the wafer 1. The two wafer transfer combs 831 can be raised and lowered to access the ports 811 and pick and place the wafers 1 on the rotational drive mechanism 850. Preferably, a set of correlation sensors is symmetrically disposed on the two transfer wafer combs 831 to determine whether the wafer 1 is loaded or not.

The transfer mechanism 830 and the second limit mechanism 840 are nested, that is, the two transfer wafer combs 831 are both located at the inner sides of the two limit wafer 1 combs, or are respectively located at the outer sides of the two limit wafer 1 combs. In this embodiment, the transferring mechanism 830 is disposed inside the second limiting mechanism 840. Meanwhile, during the edge finding operation, the transfer wafer comb 831 preferably also clamps the wafer 1, but it should be understood that there is a gap between the edge of the wafer 1 and the second limit mechanism 840, so as to facilitate the radial offset transfer of the wafer 1 without contacting the driving roller 851 or the driven roller 852.

In this embodiment, this device has adopted first stop gear 860 simultaneously, second stop gear 840 and transfer mechanism 830, through first limit wafer comb 861 wherein, second limit wafer comb 841 and transfer wafer comb, avoid touching wafer 1 by mistake and lead to its excessive radial deviation, and improve its vertical state stability, reduce the irregular rotation of seeking the limit in-process simultaneously, rock the wafer 1 axial that leads to blocking rod 862 and restrict a less scope through wafer 1 comb that sets up step by step along wafer 1 circumference promptly, in order to avoid touching adjacent wafer 1, and break away from blocking rod 862.

The work flow of the wafer edge finding device 800 is as follows:

s1 when wafer 1 needs to be transferred by the robot of external wafer 1, the transfer mechanism 830 is lifted above the second positioning mechanism 840 and passes through the inlet 811 to receive wafer 1.

After the wafer 1 is taken out in S2, the transfer mechanism 830 descends, so that the wafer 1 is seated on the driving roller 851 and the driven roller 852, and the edge is inserted into the second limit notch 8411.

The transfer mechanism 830 continues to descend out of contact with the wafer 1 at S3, and the wafer 1 is fully seated on the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852.

S4 limiting the first wafer comb 861 to rise to a certain height to make the wafer 1 shift and sit on the stop lever 862 and the driving roller 851 or the stop lever 862 and the driven roller 852, and completing edge seeking.

S5 limits the lowering of the wafer comb one 861 so that the wafer 1 is eccentrically seated on the drive roller 851 and the driven roller 852.

S6 activates the drive rollers 851 again as necessary so that the wafer 1 is uniformly rotated to an angle.

S7 the transfer mechanism 830 ascends to take away the regular-angle wafer 1.

S4 specifically includes:

edge finding of the wafer 1 in the groove 11:

s200, if the wafer 1 is in a static state when being lifted by the blocking rod 862, executing the steps S300-S310, and if the wafer 1 is in a rotating state when being lifted by the blocking rod 862, executing the steps S400-S410;

s300, arranging the blocking rod 862 close to the driven roller 852, so that the lifted wafer 1 is loaded on the blocking rod 862 and the driving roller 851;

s310, controlling the rotation of the driving roller 851 to drive the wafer 1 to rotate, and enabling the wafer 1 to deviate towards the direction close to the driven roller 852 after the groove 11 of the wafer 1 is embedded into the blocking rod 862 to be blocked, until the wafer is borne on the blocking rod 862 and the driven roller 852, and stopping rotating;

s400, arranging the blocking rod 862 close to the driving roller 851 so that the lifted wafer 1 is loaded on the blocking rod 862 and the driven roller 852;

in step S410, after the notch 11 of the wafer 1 is inserted into the stopper 862, the wafer 1 is shifted in a direction approaching the driven roller 852 and stops rotating.

Edge finding of the wafer 1 in the flat groove 12:

s510, driving rollers 851 drive the wafer 1 to rotate;

s520, the stopper rod 862 lifts the wafer 1 in the rotational state, and the lifted wafer 1 is supported on the stopper rod 862 and the driven roller 852;

in S530, after the flat groove 12 of the wafer 1 is bonded to the contact surface 8621, the wafer 1 stops rotating.

It will be evident to those skilled in the art that the invention is not limited to the details of the foregoing illustrative embodiments, and that the present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the spirit or essential attributes thereof. The present embodiments are therefore to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, the scope of the invention being indicated by the appended claims rather than by the foregoing description, and all changes which come within the meaning and range of equivalency of the claims are therefore intended to be embraced therein. Any reference sign in a claim should not be construed as limiting the claim concerned.

Claims

1. A wafer transfer system, comprising:

wherein, fixture includes:

a clamping mounting seat;

the top claw is arranged on the clamping mounting seat;

2. The wafer transfer system according to claim 1, wherein the wafer cassette opener comprises a second loading platform for loading the wafer cassette and a cassette opening mechanism for opening and closing the wafer cassette, the second loading platform is provided with a second loading plate and a second driving mechanism for the loading plate, the second loading plate is used for loading the wafer cassette, the second loading plate is provided with a second avoiding groove, the second avoiding groove extends inwards from one side of the second loading plate departing from the cassette opening mechanism, the second avoiding groove penetrates through the thickness direction of the second loading plate, the second driving mechanism for the loading plate is used for driving the second loading plate to be located at a cassette opening position so as to be close to the cassette opening mechanism or located at a avoiding position so as to be far away from the cassette opening mechanism, and the clamping mechanism is located right above the avoiding position.

3. The wafer transfer system according to claim 1, wherein the lower jaw and the top jaw are provided with touch sensors adapted to the notches of the connectors; the touch and press type sensor is arranged on the inner side of the lower claw and is positioned above the abutting surface so as to face the notch of the connector.

4. The wafer transfer system of claim 1, wherein the second driving member is a sliding rail type parallel gripper, and two sliding blocks of the second driving member are respectively connected to the two lower jaws disposed opposite to each other.

5. The wafer transfer system according to claim 1, further comprising a plurality of storage plates, wherein the storage plates are provided with a third avoiding groove, the third avoiding groove extends inward from a free side of the storage plate, the third avoiding groove penetrates through a thickness direction of the storage plate, and the wafer cassette transfer robot is configured to transfer the wafer cassette on the clamping mechanism onto the storage plate.

6. The wafer transfer system according to claim 1, further comprising a wafer flipping unit for switching a wafer between a horizontal state and a vertical state and a wafer transfer unit for transferring the wafer in the horizontal state between the box opening unit and the wafer flipping unit; wherein, wafer upset unit includes wafer fixed establishment, wafer fixed establishment includes:

the horizontal supporting mechanism comprises two supporting comb columns which are oppositely arranged so as to support the wafer in a horizontal state in a matching manner, and a channel for the wafer to enter and exit is formed between the two supporting comb columns;

the circumferential clamping mechanism comprises at least two clamping comb columns and at least two clamping comb columns, wherein the at least two clamping comb columns are arranged at two ends of the channel respectively, and the at least two clamping comb columns are matched with the supporting comb columns to clamp the wafer on the supporting comb columns.

7. The wafer transfer system of claim 6, wherein the circumferential clamping mechanism comprises two clamping comb posts respectively disposed at two ends of the channel, and the center positions of the two clamping comb posts are matched with the center positions of the two supporting comb posts; or the like, or, alternatively,

the circumferential clamping mechanism comprises at least three clamping comb columns which are respectively arranged at two ends of the channel, and the circle center position of a circumscribed circle of a closed figure formed by the at least three clamping comb columns is matched with the center positions of the two supporting comb columns; or the like, or, alternatively,

the circumferential clamping mechanism comprises four clamping comb columns which are arranged at two ends of the channel in a pairwise manner, and the circle center positions of the circumscribed circles of the closed figures formed by the four clamping comb columns coincide with the center positions of the two supporting comb columns.

8. The wafer transfer system of claim 6, wherein the supporting comb comprises a plurality of supporting plates, the supporting plates are sequentially stacked at intervals along a direction perpendicular to a horizontal plane to horizontally support a plurality of wafers; the clamping comb column comprises a plurality of clamping plates, and the clamping plates are matched with the corresponding supporting plates so as to contact the edges of the wafers on the corresponding supporting plates.

9. The wafer transfer system of claim 8, wherein the supporting comb further comprises a rotating shaft disposed along a height direction of the channel, and the supporting plates are connected to the rotating shaft to approach and support the wafer or to be away from and avoid the wafer under rotation of the rotating shaft; the clamping comb column can rotate to drive the clamping plate to be far away from and avoid wafers entering and exiting the channel, or to be close to and mutually matched to clamp the wafers on the supporting comb column.

10. The wafer transfer system according to claim 8, wherein the end of the clamping plate is provided with a V-shaped groove matched with the thickness of the wafer; a gap is arranged between every two adjacent clamping plates and matched with the wafer to allow the wafer to pass through.

11. The wafer transfer system according to claim 9, wherein a plurality of the support plates are arranged in a row along a circumferential direction of the spindle, and either end of the support plate supports the wafer; or the like, or, alternatively,

the supporting plates are at least provided with two rows along the circumferential direction of the rotating shaft, and any one of the two rows supports the wafer.

12. The wafer transfer system of any of claims 6-11, wherein the wafer flipping unit further comprises:

the wafer fixing mechanism is arranged in the shell, and openings for the wafer to enter and exit are formed in the two ends of the shell, corresponding to the channel; and the combination of (a) and (b),

and the shell is connected with an actuating end of the driving mechanism and driven by the driving mechanism to rotate around an axis which is parallel to the horizontal plane and vertical to the channel so as to enable the channel to be parallel to or vertical to the horizontal plane.

13. The wafer transfer system of claim 12, wherein the wafer flipping unit further comprises:

the wafer bearing device is used for bearing the wafer turned to be in a vertical state by the wafer turning device, the wafer bearing device comprises at least two groups of bearing wafer comb groups which are arranged in a nested mode, and at least one group of bearing wafer comb groups can lift relative to other bearing wafer comb groups.

14. The wafer transfer system of claim 6, wherein the wafer transfer unit comprises a wafer transfer robot comprising a wafer chuck comprising:

the wafer support device comprises at least one support claw disc, wherein at least two support claw blocks are arranged on the support claw disc to form an accommodating space for accommodating and supporting a wafer;

the limiting device comprises a push rod and a push rod driving mechanism, and the push rod driving mechanism is used for driving the push rod to move towards the accommodating space, so that the edge of the wafer located in the accommodating space is clamped between the push rod and the claw block.

15. The wafer transfer system of claim 6, wherein the wafer transfer unit comprises a wafer transfer robot comprising a wafer level support apparatus comprising:

the wafer supporting device comprises at least one supporting claw disk, wherein two supporting claw groups are arranged on the supporting claw disk, each supporting claw group comprises at least one supporting claw block, and an accommodating space for accommodating and supporting a wafer is formed;

and the supporting claw group driving mechanism is connected with at least one supporting claw group and is used for driving one supporting claw group to move so as to enable the accommodating space to be matched with the wafer to be accommodated.

16. The wafer transfer system of claim 14, wherein the wafer transfer robot comprises two of the wafer clamps.

17. The wafer transfer system of claim 14, wherein the gripper block is stepped and comprises at least one set of a supporting surface and a limiting surface connected to each other to form at least one receiving space, the supporting surface is used for supporting the wafer, and the limiting surface is used for limiting the wafer to move horizontally.

18. The wafer transfer system of claim 15, wherein the gripper block is stepped and includes at least two support surfaces along its height, corresponding support surfaces in the two sets of grippers being adapted for supporting the wafer; a limiting surface is arranged on one side, away from the claw holding disc, of the bearing surface, and faces to the center of the accommodating space so as to limit the wafer on the corresponding bearing surface to deviate; the supporting claw group driving mechanism is used for driving one supporting claw group to move so as to enable the corresponding supporting surface to be matched with the wafer to be accommodated.

19. The wafer transfer system of claim 15, wherein the gripper group drive mechanism comprises a first drive member, a first transmission assembly coupled to the first drive member, a second transmission assembly coupled to the first transmission assembly, and a mounting member coupled to the second transmission assembly for mounting any of the gripper groups; the transmission component is a lead screw transmission component with a small lead; the first driving part is a motor with an absolute value encoder.

20. The wafer transfer system according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the diameter of the bottom surface of the receiving space is larger than the diameter of the wafer.

21. The wafer transfer system according to claim 14 or 15, comprising a plurality of pallet modules arranged in a stacked manner at intervals in sequence, wherein the pallet module comprises a connecting seat and a plurality of pallet plates connected with the connecting seat, and the plurality of pallet plates are arranged in a stacked manner at intervals in sequence along the height direction of the connecting seat; the relative height of a plurality of the claw-supporting disc modules can be adjusted, and/or the relative height of a plurality of claw-supporting discs in the same claw-supporting disc module can be adjusted.

22. The wafer transfer system according to claim 14 or 15, wherein the two claw blocks are arranged on the claw tray, and the accommodating space is formed by taking a straight line where the two claw blocks are located as a diameter; or the like, or, alternatively,

the claw supporting disc is provided with at least three claw supporting blocks; or the like, or, alternatively,

the four supporting claw blocks are arranged on the supporting claw disc, and every two supporting claw blocks are arranged at two ends of the supporting claw disc in parallel.

23. The wafer transfer system according to claim 17 or 18, wherein the supporting surface is arranged horizontally, or the supporting surface is arranged obliquely relative to the horizontal surface toward the direction of the center of the claw disk and the accommodating space;

the limiting surface extends along the height direction of the claw block, or the limiting surface extends along the height direction of the claw block and towards the outside of the accommodating space.

24. The wafer transfer system of claim 17 or 18, wherein the retaining surface is an arcuate surface adapted to the circumference of the wafer.

25. A wafer transfer method, characterized by using the wafer transfer system of claim 1, and comprising the steps of: