CN114496867A - Wafer transmission system and semiconductor equipment - Google Patents
Wafer transmission system and semiconductor equipment Download PDFInfo
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- CN114496867A CN114496867A CN202011153884.6A CN202011153884A CN114496867A CN 114496867 A CN114496867 A CN 114496867A CN 202011153884 A CN202011153884 A CN 202011153884A CN 114496867 A CN114496867 A CN 114496867A
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
- H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
- H01L21/6773—Conveying cassettes, containers or carriers
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- H—ELECTRICITY
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- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/67005—Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/67011—Apparatus for manufacture or treatment
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/67005—Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/67242—Apparatus for monitoring, sorting or marking
- H01L21/67259—Position monitoring, e.g. misposition detection or presence detection
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/67005—Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/67242—Apparatus for monitoring, sorting or marking
- H01L21/67288—Monitoring of warpage, curvature, damage, defects or the like
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
- H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
- H01L21/67712—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations the substrate being handled substantially vertically
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- H—ELECTRICITY
- H01—ELECTRIC ELEMENTS
- H01L—SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES NOT COVERED BY CLASS H10
- H01L21/00—Processes or apparatus adapted for the manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or solid state devices or of parts thereof
- H01L21/67—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere
- H01L21/677—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations
- H01L21/67703—Apparatus specially adapted for handling semiconductor or electric solid state devices during manufacture or treatment thereof; Apparatus specially adapted for handling wafers during manufacture or treatment of semiconductor or electric solid state devices or components ; Apparatus not specifically provided for elsewhere for conveying, e.g. between different workstations between different workstations
- H01L21/67736—Loading to or unloading from a conveyor
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Abstract
The invention provides a wafer transmission system and semiconductor equipment, wherein the wafer transmission system comprises a cache table, a plurality of pressure detection units, photoelectric detection units and a pickup unit, wherein the pressure detection units, the photoelectric detection units and the pickup unit are arranged above the cache table and are used for detecting the weight of a wafer; the picking unit comprises two parallel rotary type grabbing plates, at least one side edge of the rotary type grabbing plate in the extending direction forms a fixed forked tooth part bearing the edge of the wafer and provided with a first notch, the rotary type grabbing plate is connected with two connecting arms at the end part of the rotary type grabbing plate, and the picking unit is used for determining the axial rotation angle of the rotary type grabbing plate according to detection signals sent by the photoelectric detection unit and the pressure detection unit. The wafer transmission system avoids the adverse phenomena of chip falling or fragments and the like which may occur in the process of grabbing and transmitting the wafer by the wafer transmission system, realizes the clamping operation of wafers with different thicknesses, and improves the reliability of the clamping operation of the wafers.
Description
Technical Field
The invention relates to the technical field of semiconductor equipment, in particular to a wafer transmission system and semiconductor equipment.
Background
Wafer Transfer System (WTS) is mainly applied to bulk Transfer of wafers on Diffusion process equipment (Diffusion Furnace) and trench cleaning equipment (Bench Wet Clean), and a WTS System can generally pick and place 25 wafers at a time. During a part of the semiconductor manufacturing process, the back side of the wafer needs to be ground, and after the back side grinding process is completed, the wafer is generally required to be transferred to a wafer cleaning device by a WTS system for a cleaning process.
The WTS system includes a wafer Buffer (Buffer Station) and a robot. The wafer temporary storage area is mainly used as a transfer station or a temporary storage station of wafers, and is mainly used for carrying out anti-pollution isolation treatment on wafers before and after processing or used as a convergence and integration device for transmitting more than 25 wafers. The wafer temporary storage area (Buffer Station) is generally placed vertically and horizontally, the maximum number of slots can be any number and is at least more than or equal to 1 slot, and the number is determined according to the equipment size or the process production requirement. A vertical placement is typically used in the fabrication of wafers of eight inches and below.
In the prior art, the structure of an arm tail end picking and placing device of a manipulator of a WTS system is fixed and does not have the function of adjusting the size, the thicknesses of wafers converged in the same wafer temporary storage area in the WTS system are different after different processes, and meanwhile, the weights of the wafers are also different. Particularly, the weight of the wafer after grinding or etching thinning is obviously different from that of the wafer not thinned, and when the difference exceeds the maximum servo capacity of the fixed tail end picking and placing device of the mechanical arm for picking and placing the wafer, the risk of chip dropping or breaking exists in the process of picking and transferring the wafer by the mechanical arm of the WTS system.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved wafer transfer system in the prior art to solve the above problems.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to disclose a wafer transmission system and semiconductor equipment based on the wafer transmission system, which are used for solving the problem that the traditional wafer transmission system is likely to have the bad phenomena of chip falling or fragmentation and the like in the process of grabbing and transmitting wafers, realizing the clamping operation of wafers with different thicknesses and improving the reliability of the wafer transmission system in the clamping operation of the wafers.
To achieve the first object, the present invention provides a wafer transfer system, comprising:
the buffer table is arranged above the buffer table and comprises a plurality of pressure detection units, photoelectric detection units and pickup units, wherein the pressure detection units, the photoelectric detection units and the pickup units are used for detecting the weight of the wafer;
pick up the unit and include two parallel arrangement's rotary type and grab the board, the rotary type is grabbed at least one side formation bearing wafer edge of board along its extending direction and is possessed the fixed tine portion of first breach, pick up the detection signal that the unit sent according to photoelectric detection unit and pressure detecting element to confirm the rotary type and grab the axial turned angle who gets the board.
As a further improvement of the present invention, the pressure detecting unit includes:
the wafer edge pressure detection device comprises a body, supporting seats, a pressure sensor and a pressure detection unit, wherein the supporting seats are arranged at two ends of the body and internally provided with the pressure sensor, a notch part for accommodating the edge of a wafer is arranged at the top of each supporting seat, and the pressure detection units are laminated in a sheet shape and are arranged in parallel; the pressure sensor independently collects weight data of each wafer placed on the pressure sensor and sends the weight data to the picking unit.
As a further improvement of the present invention, the photodetecting unit includes: the detection plate is provided with a plurality of photoelectric sensors which are linearly arranged at intervals along one extending side of the detection plate.
As a further improvement of the invention, the method also comprises the following steps:
an optical detection unit;
the optical detection unit comprises a first servo system and an imaging unit, wherein the first servo system moves along the thickness direction of the wafer, and the imaging unit is controlled by the first servo system and executes longitudinal movement so as to sequentially acquire thickness data of each wafer and send the thickness data to the pickup unit.
As a further improvement of the present invention, the two parallel sides of the rotary gripping plate form fixed tine parts, respectively, and the openings of the fixed tine parts on the two sides are the same or different in size.
As a further improvement of the present invention, the pickup unit further includes:
two parallel arrangement's linking arm, two pivots and mount pad, two linking arms pass through two pivots link to each other, every all dispose in the pivot the mount pad, the board is grabbed to the rotary type with mount pad fixed connection to and
at least two second servo mechanisms arranged at the free end of the connecting arm and used for driving the rotating shaft;
the second servo mechanism drives the rotating shaft to rotate, and the rotary driving grabbing plate synchronously turns in opposite directions to support the bottom edge of the wafer through the fixed forked tooth part with the first notch.
As a further improvement of the present invention, the pickup unit further comprises: at least one row of movable fork teeth and a driving mechanism for driving the movable fork teeth to do telescopic motion;
the movable fork tooth is provided with a second notch with the size different from that of the opening of the first notch, and the opening direction of the second notch and the opening direction of the first notch are arranged in the same direction; the second servo mechanism drives the rotating shaft to rotate, drives the rotary type grabbing plate to synchronously overturn in opposite directions, and the bottom edge of the wafer is supported through the first notch of the fixed fork tooth part or the second notch of the movable fork tooth part.
As a further improvement of the present invention, the pickup unit includes two rows of movable tines arranged at fixed tine portions, the two rows of movable tines being arranged at the same side or opposite two different sides of the rotary gripping plate based on the same inventive concept, and the present application also discloses a semiconductor apparatus including:
a semiconductor device front end module; and
the wafer transmission system provided by any one of the inventions is arranged in the front-end module of the semiconductor equipment;
the semiconductor device is at least a semiconductor device for performing a diffusion process, a semiconductor device for performing a chemical mechanical polishing process, a trench cleaning process, or a wet etching process.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the beneficial effects that:
in this application, at least through pressure detecting element and photoelectric detection unit, realized the real-time and high-efficient detection to the wafer after the attenuate, and with the detection data transmission of different thickness or weight to the unit of picking up of utensil rotary type grabbing board, grab the fixed prong portion that the board set up or the activity prong bearing wafer edge through the rotary type, thereby avoided wafer transmission system effectively and snatched and transmitted wafer in-process bad phenomena such as piece or piece that probably takes place, realized carrying out the centre gripping operation to the wafer of different thickness, thereby the reliability of wafer transmission system to the wafer centre gripping has been improved.
Drawings
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wafer transfer system including a photo detection unit and a pressure detection unit according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an optical detection unit included in a wafer transmission system according to the present invention detecting a plurality of vertically arranged wafers to obtain thickness data of each wafer;
fig. 3 is a perspective view of a single pressure detecting unit shown in fig. 2;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a pick-up unit in a wafer transfer system according to the present invention;
fig. 5 is a front view of a rotatable gripping plate included in the pickup unit;
FIG. 6 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the area indicated by arrow M in FIG. 5;
FIG. 7 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the area indicated by arrow N in FIG. 5;
FIG. 8 is a perspective view of the rotary capture plate of FIG. 5;
FIG. 9 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the area indicated by arrow C in FIG. 8;
FIG. 10 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the area indicated by arrow D in FIG. 8;
fig. 11 is a schematic diagram illustrating an operation process of transferring a lifted wafer during rotation of two symmetrically arranged rotary grabbing plates included in a picking unit, wherein a dotted circle represents an unelevated wafer, and a solid circle represents a wafer lifted by the two rotary grabbing plates;
FIG. 12 is a side view of a rotary capture plate in a variation;
fig. 13 is a side view of a rotary capture plate in another variation.
Detailed Description
The present invention is described in detail with reference to the embodiments shown in the drawings, but it should be understood that these embodiments are not intended to limit the present invention, and those skilled in the art should understand that functional, methodological, or structural equivalents or substitutions made by these embodiments are within the scope of the present invention.
In the description of the present invention, it is to be understood that the terms "center", "longitudinal", "lateral", "length", "width", "thickness", "upper", "lower", "front", "rear", "left", "right", "vertical", "horizontal", "top", "bottom", "inner", "outer", "clockwise", "counterclockwise", "axial", "radial", "circumferential", "positive", "negative", and the like, indicate orientations and positional relationships based on the orientations and positional relationships shown in the drawings, and are used only for convenience of description and simplification of description, but do not indicate or imply that the device or element referred to must have a particular orientation, be constructed and operated in a particular orientation, and thus, should not be construed as limiting the present invention.
The first embodiment is as follows:
referring to fig. 1 to 11, a first embodiment of a wafer transfer system according to the present invention is disclosed.
In this embodiment, a wafer transfer system includes: the wafer loading device comprises a buffer table 34, a plurality of pressure detection units 35, photoelectric detection units and pickup units, wherein the pressure detection units 35, the photoelectric detection units and the pickup units are arranged above the buffer table 34 and used for detecting the weight of the wafer. The pickup unit includes two rotary gripping plates 40 arranged in parallel, the rotary gripping plates 40 form a fixed tine portion 42 supporting the edge of the wafer and having a first notch 420 along at least one side edge of the extending direction thereof, and the pickup unit determines the axial rotation angle of the rotary gripping plates 40 as a rotation angle formed along the rotation direction indicated by the arrow B along the axis a in fig. 4 according to detection signals detected and transmitted by the photoelectric detection unit and the pressure detection unit. Preferably, the pickup unit further includes: at least one row of movable fork teeth and a driving mechanism for driving the movable fork teeth to do telescopic motion.
Specifically, the rotating direction of the rotating type grabbing plate 40 can be clockwise or counterclockwise, but the two rotating type grabbing plates 40 must ensure synchronous opposite rotation, and the horizontal straight line distance formed between the two rotating type grabbing plates 40 when the two rotating type grabbing plates 40 are in a vertical state must be greater than the diameter of the wafer 50.
Referring to fig. 1, the photodetecting unit includes: at least one detecting plate 49, and a plurality of photoelectric sensors 491 arranged at linear intervals are provided along one side of the detecting plate 49 extending therefrom. The sensing plate 49 is movable up and down under the control of an external servo (not shown). When a local portion of the wafer 50 (usually, a horizontal edge of the vertically arranged wafer 50) blocks light (e.g., infrared rays) emitted between the plurality of photoelectric sensors 491 linearly spaced, the photoelectric sensors 491 send an enable signal or a high-level signal to an upper computer (e.g., a PLC controller or an industrial personal computer or a device having an independent logic operation unit), so as to determine whether the wafer 50 placed on the pressure detection unit 35 has a missing or a detection signal whose position deviates from a normal preset position.
In practical use, the photodetecting unit may be composed of two parallel detecting plates 49, in which case the photosensors 491 are disposed at linear intervals on the opposite inner sides of the two detecting plates 49, and the pitch of the detecting plates 49 is larger than the diameter of the wafer 50 to be detected, and it is necessary to ensure that when the photodetecting unit moves vertically up and down, a part of the edge of the wafer 50 can pass over the photosensors 491 so that the wafer 50 can be detected by the photosensors 491. It should be noted that, in the present embodiment, the photodetecting unit may also be composed of only one detecting plate 49.
In fig. 1 and 3, the pressure detecting unit 35 includes: the body 351 is provided with a support base 352 which is arranged at two ends of the body 351 and is internally provided with a pressure sensor, a notch 3521 for accommodating the edge of the wafer is arranged at the top of the support base 352, and the pressure detection unit 35 is laminated in a sheet shape and in parallel. The pressure sensors independently collect weight data for each wafer 50 resting on the support 352 and send the weight data to the pick-up unit (see fig. 4). A gap 354 is formed between two adjacent pressure detecting cells 35. The number of the vertically arranged pressure detection units 35 configured as to the body 351 may be determined according to an actual use scene, and is preferably twenty-five or fifty.
In the present embodiment, the body 351 is disposed inside the semiconductor device. The width (lateral direction) of the notch 3521 in the direction of the axis a in fig. 4 is at least larger than the thickness of the wafer 50, so as to reliably receive the edge of the wafer 50. The plurality of pressure detection units 35 are arranged on the buffer table 34 in a parallel and dense mode, each pressure detection unit 35 is connected to an upper computer through an independent lead 353, and the upper computer determines the thickness of the wafer 50 with a certain specific size according to detection signals containing weight data of the wafer 50 and sent by all the pressure detection units 35 independently. Since the thickness and the weight of the six inch or eight inch and above wafers 50 with the same specification size have a relatively fixed relationship, the thickness data corresponding to each wafer 50 can be converted according to the weight data of each wafer 50 vertically placed on the plurality of pressure detecting units 35 and sent to the picking unit shown in fig. 4.
Referring to fig. 2, in this embodiment, the wafer transfer system further includes: an optical detection unit 30. The optical inspection unit 30 includes a first servo system moving in the wafer thickness direction and an imaging unit 33, and the imaging unit 33 is controlled by the first servo system and performs a longitudinal movement to sequentially acquire thickness data of each wafer 50 and transmit the thickness data to the pickup unit. The longitudinal movement direction performed by the imaging unit 33 is the direction of the axis a shown in fig. 4. The first servo system is composed of a frame 30, a guide rod 31 transversely arranged on the frame 30, and a sliding seat 32 which reciprocates on the guide rod 31 and is internally provided with a power mechanism. The power mechanism can be a miniature servo motor or a miniature stepping motor. The power mechanism can integrally drive the sliding seat 32 to do longitudinal linear motion on the guide rod 31 through a belt transmission or a gear mechanism.
Meanwhile, each wafer 50 is photographed one by the imaging unit 33 to obtain thickness data of each wafer 50, and the thickness data is transmitted to an upper computer. Since the thickness of the wafer 50 after thinning and the thickness of the normal wafer (0.725mm) are significantly reduced, the thickness data of each wafer 50 is detected online in real time, so as to provide accurate detection results (i.e. thickness data and weight data of each wafer) for the two rotary type grabbing plates 40 of the picking unit to select the appropriate fixed tine part or movable tine on the side to support the edge of the wafer 50. The imaging unit 33 may be composed of a high-precision image sensor, such as a CMOS or CCD chip, and an optical lens.
In particular, the wafer transfer system shown in the present embodiment may omit the optical detection unit.
Meanwhile, in various semiconductor processes performed on the Wafer 50, the thickness of the Wafer 50 may also vary due to the thin film deposition process, the epitaxial layer process, the Wafer Bonding process (Wafer Bonding), and the like, and even the thickness of the Wafer 50 in the same Lot may vary. Therefore, the wafer transferring system disclosed in the present embodiment, especially the picking unit included in the wafer transferring system, is intended to reliably pick the wafers 50 with different thicknesses, so as to prevent the risk of the wafers 50 from being broken or chipped during the process of being picked by the picking unit and being transferred to the wafer temporary storage area (Buffer Station).
Referring to fig. 4 and 5, the two parallel sides of the rotary gripping plate 40 in the pickup unit respectively form fixed tine portions 42, and the opening sizes of the fixed tine portions 42 on the two sides may be the same or different. Wherein the opening is sized to the opening width and/or opening radial depth of the first notch 420 of the fixed tine section 42 and the second notch 433,453 of the movable tine. After the upper computer receives the weight data of each wafer 50 and the detection signals such as whether the wafer 50 is missing or not, the detection signals are sent to the upper computer, the upper computer converts the detection results of the number and the thickness of the wafers 50, and the pickup unit drives the rotating shaft 22 to synchronously rotate the two rotary type grabbing plates 40 in opposite directions by the second servo mechanism 24 according to the detection results so as to determine which side edge of the rotary type grabbing plate 40 forms the fixed forked tooth part 42 for supporting the bottom edge of the wafer 50. In the process of processing wafers 50 with different thicknesses (or weights), the fixed tine parts 42 with different opening sizes are arranged on two side edges so as to effectively grab and convey the wafers 50 with different thicknesses (or weights).
Referring to fig. 4, in the present embodiment, the pickup unit further includes: two parallel arrangement's linking arm 10, two pivot 22 and mount pad 21, two linking arms link to each other through two pivot 22, all dispose mount pad 21 on every pivot 22, board 40 and mount pad 21 fixed connection are grabbed to the rotary type to and set up in at least two second servomechanism 24 that are used for driving pivot 22 of the free end of linking arm 10. The second servo mechanism 24 drives the spindle 22 to rotate, and drives the rotary gripper plate 40 to synchronously flip in opposite directions to hold the bottom edge of the wafer 50 through the fixed tine portion. The second servo mechanism 24 drives the rotary shaft 22 to integrally drive the mount 21 and the rotary grab plate 40 to pivot in the axial direction indicated by the axis a in the rotational direction indicated by the arrow B within a set rotational angle range.
Further preferably, in the present embodiment, the mounting seat 21 is detachably assembled with the rotatable grabbing plate 40, so as to facilitate the replacement of the rotatable grabbing plate 40 with different opening sizes of the fixed serrated portion 42, thereby better adapting to the grabbing operation of wafers 50 with different sizes. The connecting arms 10 are located at the lateral ends of two parallel arranged rotating shafts 22, respectively.
As shown in fig. 5 to 11, in the present embodiment, the pickup unit further includes: at least one row of movable fork teeth and a driving mechanism for driving the movable fork teeth to do telescopic motion, the movable fork teeth are provided with second gaps 433 and 453 which are different from the opening size of the first gap 420, and the opening direction of the second gap 433,453 is arranged in the same direction as the opening direction of the first gap 420. In particular, the drive mechanism may be a pneumatic cylinder. The second servo mechanism 24 drives the shaft to rotate, and drives the rotary type grabbing plate 40 to synchronously turn over in opposite directions so as to support the bottom edge of the wafer 50 through the fixed fork tooth part 42 or the movable fork tooth.
Optionally, the pick-up unit comprises two rows of movable tines arranged in fixed tine parts 42, the two rows of movable tines being arranged on the same side of the rotatable gripping plate 40.
More specifically, as shown in fig. 5, 9 and 10, each of the rotary gripping plates 40 includes a base plate 41 having a rectangular plane shape, and two side edges of the base plate 41 respectively form a fixed tine portion 42. The connection member 421 and the connection member 411 are provided on one side surface of the substrate 41. A row of air cylinders 45 is fixedly arranged on the connecting member 421, each air cylinder 45 is connected with a movable fork tooth 452 having a second gap 453 through an expansion link 451, and the end of the movable fork tooth 452 forms the second gap 453 for supporting the edge of the wafer 50. Meanwhile, another exhaust cylinder 43 is fixedly arranged on the connecting member 411, each cylinder 43 is connected with a movable fork 432 having a second notch 433 through an expansion link 431, and the end of the movable fork 432 forms the second notch 433 for supporting the edge of the wafer 50. The edges of the plurality of parallel wafers 50 are inserted and clamped by the side region 200 of the substrate 41 and the second gap 433 (or the second gap 453) formed by the fixed tine 42 or the movable tine 432 (or the movable tine 452) in the region 300. Each cylinder 45 or each cylinder 43 in the rotatable gripping plate 40 can independently perform a telescopic movement.
Referring to fig. 5, 9 and 10, in the present embodiment, the air cylinder 45 independently drives the movable tine 452 to extend to the state where the movable tine 452a shown in fig. 9 is located, the air cylinder 43 independently drives the movable tine 432 to extend to the state where the movable tine 432a shown in fig. 10 is located, and the edge of the wafer 50 is clamped by the one or more movable tines 452a and the one or more movable tines 432a, or the edge of the wafer 50 is clamped by the one or more movable tines 452a and the fixed tine portion 42 of the other side, or the edge of the wafer 50 is clamped by only the fixed tines 42 of both sides without extending the air cylinder.
As a reasonable variation of this embodiment, a fixed tine 42 that supports the wafer edge may also be formed on only one side of the rotating gripper plate 40. The second servo mechanism 24 drives the spindle 22 to rotate the rotatable grasping plate 40, and supports the edge of the wafer 50 using the fixed tine portions 42 provided in the two rotatable grasping plates 40.
Referring to fig. 6, in the present embodiment, the second gap 453 formed at the end of the movable tine 452 is open in the same direction as the first gap 420 formed in the fixed tine portion 42. The opening angle of the included angle α of the first notch 420 is greater than the opening angle of the included angle β of the second notch 453, so that the second notch 453 formed by the two movable tines 452 can grip the edge of the thinned wafer 50. Each cylinder 45 can be independently pushed or extended to independently actuate the extension or retraction of one or more movable tines 452 to properly select the first gap 420 or the second gap 453 to grip the edge of the wafer 50. In this embodiment, a gap 455 is formed between two adjacent movable tines 452 at a longitudinal distance (in the direction of axis a in fig. 4) d 2.
Referring to fig. 7, in the present embodiment, the second gap 433 formed at the end of the movable tine 432 and the first gap 420 formed at the other side of the fixed tine part 42 have the same opening direction. The opening angle of the included angle α of the first notch 420 is greater than the opening angle of the included angle β of the second notch 433, so that the edge of the thinned wafer 50 can be clamped by the second notch 433 formed by the two movable fork teeth 452. Each cylinder 45 can be independently pushed or extended to independently actuate one or more movable tines 452 to extend or retract to properly select the first gap 420 or the second gap 433 to grip the edge of the wafer 50. In the present embodiment, the fixed tine part 42 formed on the other side edge forms the gap 435 with the distance d1, and the number of the movable tines 432 arranged in the area 300 is half of the number of the movable tines 452 arranged in the area 200, so that the maximum number of the wafers 50 grabbed by the wafer transmission system can be fifty and twenty-five respectively, which is convenient for practical requirements of different semiconductor process. In particular, it should be noted that the opening size of the first notch 420 may be set smaller than the opening size of the second notch 433 (or the second notch 453), so that the wafer 50 with the increased thickness is held by the rotating gripping plate 40.
Based on the detection result obtained by the above method, which includes the weight data and the thickness data, the upper computer selects a suitable tine from the fixed tine 42 or the movable tine with different opening sizes provided on the rotary grasping plate 40, and the second servo mechanism 24 synchronously drives the two rotating shafts 22 to rotate, so that the two rotary grasping plates 40 are synchronously driven to perform the pivoting motion along the axis a and the direction indicated by the arrow B, and the suitable tine supports the lower side edge of the wafer 50. Then, the selected fixed tine portion 42 most suitable for the thickness of the current wafer 50 holds the lower side edge of the wafer 50 and lifts the plurality of wafers 50 as a whole. Specifically, the buffer stage 34 is controlled to move upward to drive the wafer 50 placed on the pressure detecting unit 35 in the vertical posture to move upward from the position 50a to the predetermined transit position 50 b. At this time, the two rotary gripper plates 40 are in the position 40a shown by the dashed lines. Then, the two rotary grabbing plates 40 are rotated synchronously in opposite directions (see the direction indicated by the arrow B in fig. 11), so that the openings of the selected proper fork teeth on the two rotary grabbing plates 40 are opposite, and then the buffer table 34 is controlled to move downwards to drive the wafer 50 placed on the pressure detecting unit 35 in the vertical posture to move downwards to the proper fork teeth to clamp the wafer 50, so that the wafer 50 already placed on the pressure detecting unit 35 in the vertical posture is grabbed by the picking unit and is transferred into a cleaning tank (not shown) of the semiconductor device to perform a semiconductor process of wet etching or acid cleaning. Preferably, the two rotating gripping plates 40 are spaced apart from each other by a distance greater than the diameter of the wafer when the two rotating gripping plates 40 are held in a vertical state, and the two rotating gripping plates 40 are held in a vertical or substantially vertical state during the upward movement of the wafer 50 to avoid touching and damaging the wafer 50. The rotary shaft 22 is driven by the second servo mechanism 24 to rotate the rotary-type grasping plates 40, and the two rotary-type grasping plates 40 are caused to rotate in the reverse direction indicated by the arrow B for pivotal movement to the vertical posture, and then the pickup unit is lifted as a whole to release the wafer 50. In the present embodiment, the buffer stage 34 can perform the translational movement, the ascending movement and the descending movement by a guide rail, a cylinder and a servo mechanism in the prior art.
Finally, in the present embodiment, the two sides of the rotary grabbing plate along the extending direction form the fixed forking tooth parts that support the edge of the wafer and have the same opening size, that is, the openings of the first notches 420 of the fixed forking tooth parts on the two sides have the same size. Of course, the two sides of the rotary grabbing plate along the extending direction can also form fixed forked teeth parts which support the edge of the wafer and have different opening sizes.
Based on the wafer transmission system disclosed in this embodiment, the problem that the clamping requirements of wafers with different thicknesses cannot be effectively met due to the fact that the sizes of the openings of the fixed forked portions for clamping the edges of the wafers are single on the two side edges of the plate-shaped rotary type grabbing plate 40 is solved, the clamping requirements can be met by the clamping system, the clamping system can be suitable for the wafers 50 to be grabbed and transferred in the use scene that the thicknesses of the wafers 50 are increased or reduced or different wafers 50 in the same Lot form different thicknesses, the reliability of clamping the wafers 50 by the wafer transmission system disclosed in this embodiment is effectively improved, and the wafer 50 is prevented from being possibly broken in the clamping process due to the thickness change.
Example two:
referring to fig. 12, another embodiment of a wafer transfer system is disclosed. The main difference between the wafer transfer system of the present embodiment and the wafer transfer system of the first embodiment is that, in the present embodiment, the pick-up unit includes two rows of movable tines arranged in fixed tine parts, and the two rows of movable tines are arranged on two opposite different sides of the rotary gripper plate 40.
Specifically, in the present embodiment, the movable tine 45a and the movable tine 43a are respectively located on two opposite sides of the substrate 41a, and the movable tine 45a and the movable tine 43a are driven to extend or retract along the directions indicated by the arrows D and D' according to the actual thickness data of the wafer 50, so as to select the first gap 420 or the second gap 433 (or the second gap 453) with the opening size that best matches the thickness of the wafer 50.
In practical use, the rotating shaft 22 is driven to rotate by the second servo mechanism 24, and the rotating type grabbing plate 40 is driven to synchronously turn over in opposite directions, so that the bottom edge of the wafer 50 is commonly supported by any one of the lateral fixed tine parts or the movable tine parts which is most suitable for the thickness of the wafer 50, and the wafer 50 is commonly clamped and grabbed.
The wafer transfer system shown in this embodiment has the same technical solutions as the wafer transfer system shown in the first embodiment, and please refer to the first embodiment, which will not be described herein again.
Example three:
referring to fig. 13, another embodiment of a wafer transfer system is disclosed. The main difference between the wafer transfer system disclosed in this embodiment and the wafer transfer system disclosed in the second embodiment is that, in this embodiment, the pick-up unit includes a row of movable tines arranged in a fixed tine part.
Specifically, in the present embodiment, the movable tine 45a is respectively located at any side of the base plate 41b, and the movable tine 45a is driven to respectively extend or retract along the direction indicated by the arrow D according to the actual thickness data of the wafer 50, so as to select the first notch 420 or the second notch 433 having the opening size that most matches the thickness of the wafer 50 to jointly support the bottom edge of the wafer 50, so as to jointly clamp and grasp the wafer 50.
The wafer transfer system shown in this embodiment and the wafer transfer system shown in the first and/or second embodiments have the same technical solutions, please refer to the first and/or second embodiments, and the description thereof is omitted.
Example four:
based on the technical solutions included in the wafer transfer system disclosed in the first to third embodiments, the present embodiment further discloses a semiconductor apparatus, including:
a semiconductor device front end module; and a wafer transfer system as disclosed in one embodiment disposed in the front end module of the semiconductor device. The wafer transfer system may be configured in a semiconductor Front End Module (EFEM) or in a scenario where wafers are transferred.
The semiconductor device shown in this embodiment is at least a semiconductor device that performs a diffusion process, a semiconductor device that performs a chemical mechanical polishing process, a trench cleaning process, or a wet etching process. Based on the diffusion process, the chemical mechanical polishing process, the trench cleaning process or the wet etching process, the thickness and weight of the wafer can be greatly changed, so that the wafer transmission system combined with any one or more of the first embodiment to the third embodiment can remarkably improve the reliability in the process of transferring and clamping the wafer, and prevent the wafer from being broken and broken.
The semiconductor device shown in this embodiment has the same technical solutions as those in the first to third embodiments, please refer to the first to third embodiments, and detailed description thereof is omitted here.
The above-listed detailed description is merely a detailed description of possible embodiments of the present invention, and it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention, and equivalent embodiments or modifications made without departing from the technical spirit of the present invention are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.
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.
Furthermore, it should be understood that although the present description refers to embodiments, not every embodiment may contain only a single embodiment, and such description is for clarity only, and those skilled in the art should integrate the description, and the embodiments may be combined as appropriate to form other embodiments understood by those skilled in the art.
Claims (9)
1. A wafer transfer system, comprising:
the buffer table is arranged above the buffer table and comprises a plurality of pressure detection units, photoelectric detection units and pickup units, wherein the pressure detection units, the photoelectric detection units and the pickup units are used for detecting the weight of the wafer;
pick up the unit and include two parallel arrangement's rotary type and grab the board, the rotary type is grabbed at least one side formation bearing wafer edge of board along its extending direction and is possessed the fixed tine portion of first breach, pick up the detection signal that the unit sent according to photoelectric detection unit and pressure detecting element to confirm the rotary type and grab the axial turned angle who gets the board.
2. The wafer transfer system of claim 1, wherein the pressure detection unit comprises:
the wafer edge pressure detection device comprises a body, supporting seats, a pressure sensor and a pressure detection unit, wherein the supporting seats are arranged at two ends of the body and internally provided with the pressure sensor, a notch part for accommodating the edge of a wafer is arranged at the top of each supporting seat, and the pressure detection units are laminated in a sheet shape and are arranged in parallel; the pressure sensor independently collects weight data of each wafer placed on the pressure sensor and sends the weight data to the picking unit.
3. The wafer transport system of claim 1, wherein the photo detection unit comprises: the detection plate is provided with a plurality of photoelectric sensors which are linearly arranged at intervals along one extending side of the detection plate.
4. The wafer transfer system of claim 1, further comprising:
an optical detection unit;
the optical detection unit comprises a first servo system and an imaging unit, wherein the first servo system moves along the thickness direction of the wafer, and the imaging unit is controlled by the first servo system and executes longitudinal movement so as to sequentially acquire thickness data of each wafer and send the thickness data to the pickup unit.
5. The wafer transfer system of claim 1, wherein the two parallel sides of the rotating gripper plate each form a fixed tine, and the openings of the fixed tines on the two sides are the same or different in size.
6. The wafer transfer system of any of claims 1 to 5, wherein the pick unit further comprises:
two parallel arrangement's linking arm, two pivots and mount pad, two linking arms pass through two pivots link to each other, every all dispose in the pivot the mount pad, the board is grabbed to the rotary type with mount pad fixed connection to and
at least two second servo mechanisms arranged at the free end of the connecting arm and used for driving the rotating shaft;
the second servo mechanism drives the rotating shaft to rotate, and the rotary driving grabbing plate synchronously turns in opposite directions to support the bottom edge of the wafer through the fixed forked tooth part with the first notch.
7. The wafer transfer system of claim 6, wherein the pick-up unit further comprises: at least one row of movable fork teeth and a driving mechanism for driving the movable fork teeth to do telescopic motion;
the movable fork tooth is provided with a second notch with the size different from that of the opening of the first notch, and the opening direction of the second notch and the opening direction of the first notch are arranged in the same direction; the second servo mechanism drives the rotating shaft to rotate, drives the rotary type grabbing plate to synchronously overturn in opposite directions, and the bottom edge of the wafer is supported through the first notch of the fixed fork tooth part or the second notch of the movable fork tooth part.
8. The wafer transfer system of claim 7, wherein the pick unit comprises two rows of movable tines arranged in fixed tine sections, the two rows of movable tines arranged on the same side or on two different opposite sides of the rotatable gripper plate.
9. A semiconductor device, comprising:
a semiconductor device front end module; and
the wafer transfer system of any one of claims 1 to 8 disposed in the semiconductor equipment front end module;
the semiconductor device is at least a semiconductor device for performing a diffusion process, a semiconductor device for performing a chemical mechanical polishing process, a trench cleaning process, or a wet etching process.
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| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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| CN202011153884.6A CN114496867A (en) | 2020-10-26 | 2020-10-26 | Wafer transmission system and semiconductor equipment |
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| Application Number | Priority Date | Filing Date | Title |
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| CN202011153884.6A CN114496867A (en) | 2020-10-26 | 2020-10-26 | Wafer transmission system and semiconductor equipment |
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Cited By (1)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN115424976A (en) * | 2022-11-07 | 2022-12-02 | 浙江果纳半导体技术有限公司 | Wafer clamping mechanism and wafer transmission equipment |
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Cited By (2)
| Publication number | Priority date | Publication date | Assignee | Title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CN115424976A (en) * | 2022-11-07 | 2022-12-02 | 浙江果纳半导体技术有限公司 | Wafer clamping mechanism and wafer transmission equipment |
| CN115424976B (en) * | 2022-11-07 | 2023-02-17 | 浙江果纳半导体技术有限公司 | Wafer clamping mechanism and wafer transmission equipment |
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