CN114975199A - Semiconductor processing equipment, wafer conveying device conveying method and control device - Google Patents

Semiconductor processing equipment, wafer conveying device conveying method and control device Download PDF

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Publication number
CN114975199A
CN114975199A CN202110214841.2A CN202110214841A CN114975199A CN 114975199 A CN114975199 A CN 114975199A CN 202110214841 A CN202110214841 A CN 202110214841A CN 114975199 A CN114975199 A CN 114975199A
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CN
China
Prior art keywords
wafer
lifting
telescopic
driving motor
lifting mechanism
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CN202110214841.2A
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Chinese (zh)
Inventor
慎吉晟
胡艳鹏
李琳
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Institute of Microelectronics of CAS
Zhenxin Beijing Semiconductor Co Ltd
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Institute of Microelectronics of CAS
Zhenxin Beijing Semiconductor Co Ltd
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Application filed by Institute of Microelectronics of CAS, Zhenxin Beijing Semiconductor Co Ltd filed Critical Institute of Microelectronics of CAS
Priority to CN202110214841.2A priority Critical patent/CN114975199A/en
Publication of CN114975199A publication Critical patent/CN114975199A/en
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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
    • H01L21/67739—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 into and out of processing chamber
    • H01L21/67742—Mechanical parts of transfer devices
    • 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
    • H01L21/67739—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 into and out of processing chamber
    • H01L21/67757—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 into and out of processing chamber vertical transfer of a batch of workpieces
    • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
    • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
    • Y02P—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES IN THE PRODUCTION OR PROCESSING OF GOODS
    • Y02P90/00—Enabling technologies with a potential contribution to greenhouse gas [GHG] emissions mitigation
    • Y02P90/02—Total factory control, e.g. smart factories, flexible manufacturing systems [FMS] or integrated manufacturing systems [IMS]

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Condensed Matter Physics & Semiconductors (AREA)
  • General Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Manufacturing & Machinery (AREA)
  • Computer Hardware Design (AREA)
  • Microelectronics & Electronic Packaging (AREA)
  • Power Engineering (AREA)
  • Robotics (AREA)
  • Container, Conveyance, Adherence, Positioning, Of Wafer (AREA)

Abstract

The invention discloses semiconductor process equipment, a conveying device, a conveying method and a control device, which are applied to the field of semiconductor manufacturing, wherein the wafer conveying device comprises: a base; the lifting mechanism is fixed on the base; the wafer delivery units are respectively connected to the lifting mechanism, the lifting mechanism is used for driving each wafer delivery unit to perform lifting motion relative to the base, and each wafer delivery unit is rotatably connected to the lifting mechanism relative to the lifting mechanism; each wafer delivery unit comprises a telescopic mechanism and a clamping mechanism, wherein the telescopic mechanism is arranged on the lifting mechanism and used for driving the corresponding connected clamping mechanism to enter and exit the station. The invention improves the efficiency of processing wafers in batches.

Description

Semiconductor processing equipment, wafer conveying device conveying method and control device
Technical Field
The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor manufacturing, and in particular, to a semiconductor processing apparatus, a conveying device, a conveying method, and a control device.
Background
During semiconductor manufacturing, it is often necessary to transport wafers from a stocker to a buffer, from the buffer to a process chamber, and between different process chambers. The robot, as a key automation device responsible for transferring wafers between different stations, affects wafer processing efficiency.
In the related art, the manipulator can only transmit one wafer at the same time, and the waiting time of the wafer after the processing in a certain process chamber is finished is long, so that the efficiency of batch wafer processing is limited, and further, when the wafers are processed in batches, the total time for processing a batch of wafers is long.
Disclosure of Invention
In view of the above problems, the present invention provides a semiconductor processing apparatus, a conveying device, a conveying method, and a control device, which improve throughput and efficiency of batch processing of wafers.
In a first aspect, the present invention provides a wafer conveying apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, including:
a base;
the lifting mechanism is fixed on the base;
the wafer delivery units are respectively connected to the lifting mechanism, the lifting mechanism is used for driving each wafer delivery unit to perform lifting motion relative to the base, and each wafer delivery unit is rotatably connected to the lifting mechanism relative to the lifting mechanism;
each wafer delivery unit comprises a telescopic mechanism and a clamping mechanism, wherein the telescopic mechanism is arranged on the lifting mechanism and used for driving the clamping mechanism correspondingly connected to enter and exit the station.
Optionally, the plurality of wafer delivery units comprises: the wafer handling device comprises a first wafer handling unit and a second wafer handling unit arranged opposite to the first wafer handling unit.
Optionally, the lifting mechanism comprises:
the lifting driving motor is arranged on the base;
and the lifting driving motor is used for driving the lifting movement part to execute lifting movement relative to the base.
Optionally, each wafer carrying unit further comprises a first rotation driving motor for driving the wafer carrying unit to perform rotation relative to the lifting mechanism; wherein, telescopic machanism includes:
the telescopic driving motor is arranged on the lifting motion part of the lifting mechanism;
and the telescopic driving motor is used for driving the telescopic moving part to execute movement in a direction different from the movement direction of the lifting moving part.
Optionally, the clamping mechanism comprises:
the second rotation driving motor is fixedly arranged on the telescopic moving part of the telescopic mechanism;
and the rotating chuck is connected to an output shaft of the second rotating driving motor, and the second rotating driving motor is used for driving the rotating chuck to rotate in two directions.
In a second aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a semiconductor processing system, including:
the wafer handling device of any of the first aspect;
at least two process chambers for semiconductor processing, which are arranged around the peripheral area of the wafer conveying device;
the wafer buffer area is arranged in the peripheral area of the wafer conveying device;
a wafer loading area remote from a peripheral area of the wafer transport apparatus relative to the wafer buffer area, the wafer transport apparatus being configured to transfer wafers between a plurality of different stations, the plurality of different stations including the wafer buffer area and stations in the at least two process chambers;
and the conveyer is arranged between the wafer cache area and the wafer loading area and is used for conveying the wafers from the wafer loading area to the wafer cache area.
In a third aspect, an embodiment of the present invention provides a wafer conveying method, including:
controlling the lifting mechanism of the wafer conveying device to perform lifting motion relative to the base so as to drive each wafer delivery unit to perform lifting motion relative to the base, and
and controlling each wafer delivery unit in the plurality of wafer delivery units of the wafer conveying device to perform telescopic movement and rotation relative to the lifting mechanism so as to enable each wafer delivery unit to respectively convey a corresponding wafer to a working position in a process chamber corresponding to the next process step.
Optionally, the controlling each of the plurality of wafer delivery units of the wafer transport device to perform telescopic movement and rotation relative to the lifting mechanism includes:
controlling the first wafer delivery unit to perform telescopic motion and rotation relative to the lifting mechanism so as to convey the first wafer from the current station where the first wafer is located to the station in the process cavity corresponding to the first process step; and
and controlling the second wafer delivery unit to stretch and rotate relative to the lifting mechanism so as to convey a second wafer from the current station of the second wafer to the station in the process cavity corresponding to the second process step, wherein the first process step is the next process step for the first wafer, and the second process step is the next process step for the second wafer.
Optionally, the method further comprises:
and identifying the pulse data fed back by the wafer conveying device, and judging the action state of the wafer conveying device according to the identification result.
Optionally, each wafer conveying unit includes a telescopic mechanism and a clamping mechanism, and the identifying the pulse data fed back by the wafer conveying device and determining the action state of the wafer conveying device according to the identification result includes:
identifying first pulse data fed back by a lifting driving motor of the lifting mechanism, and judging the action state of a lifting motion part of the lifting mechanism according to the first pulse data;
identifying second pulse data fed back by a telescopic driving motor of the telescopic mechanism, and judging the action state of a telescopic motion part of the telescopic mechanism according to the second pulse data;
identifying third pulse data fed back by a second rotary driving motor of the clamping mechanism, and judging the action state of a rotary chuck of the clamping mechanism according to the third pulse data;
and identifying four pulse data fed back by a first rotating drive motor of the wafer conveying device, and judging the rotating state of the corresponding wafer conveying unit according to the fourth pulse data.
One or more technical solutions provided by the embodiments of the present invention at least achieve the following technical effects or advantages:
the wafer conveying device provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises a lifting mechanism, a lifting mechanism and a conveying mechanism, wherein a base is fixed on the base; the wafer delivery units are respectively connected to the lifting mechanisms, the lifting mechanisms are used for driving each wafer delivery unit to perform lifting motion relative to the base, each wafer delivery unit is rotatably connected to the lifting mechanisms relative to the lifting mechanisms, each wafer delivery unit comprises a telescopic mechanism and a clamping mechanism, the telescopic mechanism is arranged on the lifting mechanisms, and the telescopic mechanism is used for driving the clamping mechanisms which are correspondingly connected to enter and exit the station. Therefore, the wafer conveying device can transfer a plurality of wafers at the same time, the waiting time of the wafers is prolonged, and the efficiency of processing the wafers in batches is improved.
Drawings
Various other advantages and benefits will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art upon reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments. The drawings are only for purposes of illustrating the preferred embodiments and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. Also, like reference numerals are used to refer to like parts throughout the drawings. In the drawings:
FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a wafer transportation device according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the lifting mechanism of the wafer transport apparatus of FIG. 1 being raised;
FIG. 3 is a schematic view of the lowering mechanism of the wafer handling device of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view of the extending operation of the telescopic mechanism of the wafer carrying device in FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a side view of a clamping mechanism of the wafer handling device of FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is a plan view of a clamping mechanism of the wafer transport apparatus of FIG. 1;
FIG. 7 is a schematic view of the rotation of one of the wafer handling units of FIG. 6;
FIG. 8 is a schematic view of another wafer transfer unit of FIG. 6;
FIG. 9 is a schematic layout diagram of a semiconductor processing system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 10 is a schematic view of the wafer handler of FIG. 1 connected to a main controller;
fig. 11 to 12 are schematic views illustrating a process of transferring a wafer by the wafer transferring apparatus of fig. 1.
Detailed Description
Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described in more detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings. While exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in the drawings, it should be understood that the present disclosure may be embodied in various forms and should not be limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the disclosure to those skilled in the art.
In a first aspect, referring to fig. 1, a wafer conveying apparatus 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a susceptor 110, a lift mechanism 130, and a plurality of wafer delivery units 120, the lift mechanism 130 being fixed to the susceptor 110; the plurality of wafer delivery units 120 are respectively connected to the lifting mechanism 130, the lifting mechanism 130 is configured to drive each wafer delivery unit 120 to perform a lifting motion relative to the base 110, and each wafer delivery unit 120 is rotatably connected to the lifting mechanism 130 relative to the lifting mechanism 130.
Specifically, the elevating mechanism 130 includes an elevating driving motor 131 and an elevating moving part 132: the lifting driving motor 131 is fixed on the base 110; the elevation movement part 132 is connected to an output shaft of an elevation driving motor 131, and the elevation driving motor 131 is used to drive the elevation movement part 132 to move relative to the base 110.
The elevation driving motor 131 is controlled by the main controller 60 to control the elevation movement portion 132 to perform an elevation movement relative to the base 110, so that the wafer delivery unit 120 can approach a corresponding station as required by the elevation movement.
Specifically, referring to fig. 10, the driver of the elevation driving motor 131 feeds back the first pulse data to the main controller 60, and the main controller 60 recognizes the first pulse data fed back by the elevation driving motor 131 of the elevation mechanism 130 and determines the operation state of the elevation moving part 132 of the elevation mechanism 130 based on the first pulse data, thereby monitoring whether the elevation moving part 132 is elevated in place. Referring to fig. 2 to 3, the operation of the elevation driving motor 131 is controlled according to the monitoring result to drive the elevation moving part 132 to perform an elevation movement so as to be able to be elevated in place to be close to the corresponding station.
In an alternative embodiment, the plurality of wafer delivery units 120 includes: a first wafer delivery unit 120 and a second wafer delivery unit 120, wherein the second wafer delivery unit 120 is disposed opposite to the first wafer delivery unit 120. In practice, more wafer delivery units 120 may be connected to the lift mechanism 130 according to actual requirements, so as to further improve the capability of transporting wafers during batch processing.
In the embodiment of the present invention, each wafer carrying unit 120 further includes a first rotation driving motor for driving the corresponding wafer carrying unit 120 to perform a rotation relative to the lifting mechanism 130 so as to rotate to the direction of the corresponding station.
Each wafer delivery unit 120 may perform a telescoping motion and a rotational motion relative to the lift mechanism 130.
Specifically, each wafer delivery unit 120 includes a telescopic mechanism 121 that performs telescopic movement with respect to the lift mechanism 130, and a chucking mechanism 122 that performs rotational movement with respect to the telescopic mechanism 121. The retractable mechanism 121 is disposed on the lifting mechanism 130, and the holding mechanism 122 is rotatably connected to the retractable mechanism 121 relative to the retractable mechanism 121. Therefore, the telescopic mechanism 121 performs telescopic movement relative to the lifting mechanism 130 to drive the clamping mechanism 122 to enter and exit the station, and the clamping mechanism 122 performs rotation relative to the telescopic mechanism 121 to change the direction of the clamping mechanism 122, so that the wafer can be accurately picked up and put down at the corresponding station.
The extension and contraction mechanism 121 includes an extension and contraction driving motor 1211 and an extension and contraction movement unit 1212, and the extension and contraction driving motor 1211 is provided in the elevation mechanism 130. In an implementation, the telescopic driving motor 1211 may be connected to the first rotary driving motors through a fixed connection portion, so that the entire wafer conveying unit 120 can rotate relative to the lifting mechanism 13 through the first rotary driving motors, and each first rotary driving motor is fixedly disposed at the telescopic moving portion 1212 of the lifting mechanism 130. The telescopic moving portion 1212 is connected to an output shaft of a telescopic driving motor 1211, and the telescopic driving motor 1211 is configured to drive the telescopic moving portion 1212 to perform a movement in another direction different from the movement direction of the elevation moving portion 132, specifically, a movement of moving away from and moving closer to the elevation moving portion 1212.
The telescopic driving motor 1211 is controlled by the main controller 60 to control the telescopic movement of the telescopic moving portion 1212 with respect to the elevating mechanism 130.
Specifically, the driver of the telescopic driving motor 1211 feeds back the second pulse data to the main controller 60, and the main controller 60 recognizes the second pulse data fed back from the telescopic driving motor 1211 of the telescopic mechanism 121, and determines the operation state of the elevating movement part 132 of the elevating mechanism 130 based on the second pulse data, thereby monitoring whether the telescopic movement part 1212 is extended or retracted in place. Referring to fig. 4, the operation of the telescopic driving motor 1211 is controlled according to the monitoring result to drive the telescopic moving portion 1212 to accurately perform the telescopic movement.
In an alternative embodiment, the telescopic mechanism 121 may further include a telescopic support portion 1213 connected to the telescopic moving portion 1212, and the telescopic moving portion 1212 performs a telescopic movement along the telescopic support portion 1213, thereby maintaining the stability of the telescopic movement.
Specifically, referring to fig. 5 to 6, the clamping mechanism 122 includes a second rotation driving motor 1221 and a rotation chuck 1222, and the second rotation driving motor 1221 is fixedly disposed on the telescopic mechanism 121; the rotary chuck 1222 is connected to an output shaft of the second rotary driving motor 1221, and the second rotary driving motor 1221 is used for driving the rotary chuck 1222 to rotate bidirectionally, so that the transmission speed can be increased. The second rotating driving motor 1221 is connected to the telescoping portion 1212 of the telescoping mechanism 121, and the second rotating driving motor 1221 drives the rotating chuck 1222 to rotate bidirectionally, so as to rotate in place quickly.
The second rotary driving motor 1221 is controlled by the main controller 60 to control the rotation of the rotary chuck 1222. Specifically, the driver of the second rotary driving motor 1221 feeds back the third pulse data to the main controller 60, and the main controller 60 recognizes the third pulse data fed back by the second rotary driving motor 1221 and determines the operation state of the rotary chuck 1222 of the clamping mechanism 122 based on the third pulse data, thereby monitoring whether the rotary chuck 1222 is rotated in place. The operation of the second rotary driving motor 1221 in the corresponding wafer transfer unit is controlled according to the monitoring result to rotate the corresponding driving rotary chuck 1222 bidirectionally.
For each wafer carrying unit 120, the driver of the first rotation driving motor 1221 of each wafer carrying unit 120 feeds back fourth pulse data to the main controller 60, and the main controller 60 recognizes the fourth pulse data fed back by the first rotation driving motor and determines the rotation state of the corresponding wafer carrying unit 120 according to the fourth pulse data, thereby monitoring whether the corresponding wafer carrying unit 120 rotates in place. Referring to fig. 7 to 8, the operation of the first rotation driving motor in the corresponding wafer carrying unit 120 is controlled according to the monitoring result, so that the corresponding wafer carrying unit 120 performs bidirectional rotation.
In a second aspect, based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present invention further provides a semiconductor processing system, as shown in fig. 9, the semiconductor processing system including: a wafer transfer device 10, at least two process chambers 20, a wafer buffer area 30, a wafer loading area 40, and a conveyor 50.
The number of the process chambers 20 is set according to actual requirements, and is not limited herein. The structure of the wafer conveying device 10 is described with reference to the first aspect, and is not described herein for brevity of the description.
Each process chamber 20 is arranged around the peripheral area of the wafer conveying device 10 and is used for carrying out different processing on the semiconductor; for example, the process chamber 20 may include various processes such as an etching process, a cleaning process, a deposition process, etc. for the wafer. The wafer conveying device 10 is used for transferring wafers among a plurality of different stations, wherein the plurality of different stations include a station of the wafer buffer area 30 and stations in each process chamber, so that in implementation, the wafer transferring specifically comprises: the wafers to be processed are picked up from the wafer buffer and transported to stations in the process chamber 20, and the wafers are transferred between stations in different process chambers 20.
The wafer buffer 30 is disposed in a peripheral area of the wafer transportation device 10, so that the wafer transportation device 10 can pick up a wafer to be processed from a station in the wafer buffer 30 and transfer the wafer to a station in the process chamber 20 corresponding to the first process step.
The wafer loading area 40 is located at a peripheral area of the wafer handler 10 away from the wafer buffer area 30, and the wafer loading area 40 includes a plurality of wafer loading areas 40, each of which carries a magazine for storing wafers. Each magazine may hold a batch of wafers, for example, 25 wafers, and may hold 25 wafers in the magazine.
A conveyor 50 is disposed in the region between the wafer buffer area 30 and the wafer loading area 40, and the conveyor 50 is used for conveying the wafers to be processed from the wafer loading area 40 to the stations of the wafer buffer area 30.
In a third aspect, based on the same inventive concept, the embodiment of the invention provides a wafer transportation method, which can be applied to the main controller 60 shown in fig. 10, the main controller 60 is built in the wafer transportation apparatus 10, or a communication connection is established with the wafer transportation apparatus 10, for example, the main controller 60 can be an industrial computer.
Specifically, the wafer transportation method provided by the embodiment of the invention comprises the following steps: the lifting mechanism 130 of the wafer transportation apparatus 10 is controlled to perform a lifting motion relative to the base 110, and each wafer delivery unit 120 of the plurality of wafer delivery units 120 is controlled to perform a telescopic motion and a rotation relative to the lifting mechanism 130, so that each wafer delivery unit 120 transports a corresponding wafer to a station in the process chamber 20 corresponding to the next process step.
Specifically, the lifting mechanism 130 of the wafer conveying apparatus 10 is controlled to perform a lifting motion, specifically, the driver of the lifting driving motor 131 is controlled to drive the lifting driving motor 131 to operate.
In an alternative embodiment, the plurality of wafer delivery units 120 includes: a first wafer delivery unit 120 and a second wafer delivery unit 120. On this basis, each wafer delivery unit 120 of the plurality of wafer delivery units 120 is controlled to perform the telescopic movement and the rotation relative to the lifting mechanism 130, which specifically includes: the first wafer delivery unit 120 is controlled to perform telescopic movement and rotation relative to the lifting mechanism 130 so as to convey the first wafer from the current station of the first wafer to the station in the process chamber 20 corresponding to the first process step, and the second wafer delivery unit 120 is controlled to perform telescopic movement and rotation relative to the lifting mechanism 130 so as to convey the second wafer from the current station of the second wafer to the station in the process chamber 20 corresponding to the second process step, wherein the first process step is the next process step for the first wafer, and the second process step is the next process step for the second wafer.
It should be noted that the current station of the first wafer may be the wafer buffer 30 or the process chamber 20 corresponding to a certain process step. The current position of the second wafer may be the wafer buffer area 30, or may be the process chamber 20 corresponding to a certain process step, where the current station of the first wafer is different from that of the second wafer, and the station of the next process step is also different.
Therefore, the wafer conveying device 10 in the embodiment of the present invention can simultaneously convey a plurality of wafers, and when the wafers are continuously loaded, the standby time in the process chamber 20 after completing one process step of the wafers can be shortened or even eliminated, thereby improving the semiconductor conveying efficiency.
It is understood that, in order to accurately control the operation of the wafer conveyance device 10, the pulse data fed back from the wafer conveyance device 10 is recognized, and the operation state of the wafer conveyance device 10 is determined based on the recognition result of the pulse data. Specifically, the automatic adjustment method of the rotation angle of each of the driving motors (the elevation driving motor 131, the extension driving motor 1211, and the second rotation driving motor 1221) in the wafer transfer device 10 depends on the pulse data fed back from the driver.
In the operation control of the elevating mechanism 130, first pulse data fed back by the elevating drive motor 131 of the elevating mechanism 130 is recognized, and the operation state of the elevating movement part 132 of the elevating mechanism 130 is determined according to the first pulse data; the rotation angle of the elevation driving motor 131 is automatically adjusted according to the operation state of the elevation moving part 132 until the elevation moving part 132 is elevated in place.
For the operation control of the telescopic mechanism 121, the second pulse data fed back from the telescopic drive motor 1211 of the telescopic mechanism 121 is recognized, and the operation state of the telescopic moving portion 1212 of the telescopic mechanism 121 is determined based on the second pulse data; the rotation angle of the telescopic driving motor 1211 is automatically adjusted according to the operation state of the telescopic moving portion 1212 until the telescopic moving portion 1212 is retracted to a proper position.
For the operation control of the clamping mechanism 122, the third pulse data fed back by the second rotary driving motor 1221 of the clamping mechanism 122 is recognized, and the operation state of the rotary chuck 1222 of the clamping mechanism 122 is determined according to the third pulse data; and automatically adjusts the rotation angle of the second rotary drive motor 1221 according to the action state of the rotary chuck 1222 until the rotary chuck 1222 is rotated in place.
For each wafer carrying unit 120, the driver of the first rotation driving motor 1221 of each wafer carrying unit 120 feeds back fourth pulse data to the main controller 60, and the main controller 60 recognizes the fourth pulse data fed back by the first rotation driving motor and determines the rotation state of the corresponding wafer carrying unit 120 according to the fourth pulse data, thereby monitoring whether the corresponding wafer carrying unit 120 rotates in place. Referring to fig. 7 to 8, the operation of the first rotation driving motor in the corresponding wafer carrying unit 120 is controlled according to the monitoring result, so that the corresponding wafer carrying unit 120 performs bidirectional rotation.
Next, an exemplary description of how the wafer carrying device carries the wafer in the embodiment of the present invention is performed with reference to fig. 11 to 12: for example, the wafer conveying device 10 includes a first process chamber, a second process chamber, a third process chamber, and a fourth process chamber, and includes a first wafer conveying unit 120 and a second wafer conveying unit 120:
as shown in fig. 11, the first wafer transfer unit 120 transfers the first wafer 70, which has completed the processing in the first process chamber, from the first process chamber 20 to the station of the second process chamber 20. In this process, if the second wafer 80 is completely processed in the third process chamber 20, the second wafer conveying unit 120 may convey the second wafer 80, which has been completely processed in the third process chamber 20, from the third process chamber 20 to a station of the fourth process chamber 20. The results after shipping are shown with reference to fig. 12.
In a fourth aspect, based on the same inventive concept, an embodiment of the present invention provides a semiconductor process control apparatus, including a processor and a memory, the memory being coupled to the processor and storing instructions, wherein the instructions, when executed by the processor, implement the steps of the wafer transportation method embodiment, and specific implementation details refer to the foregoing, and are not repeated herein for brevity of the description.
In one or more embodiments provided by the embodiments of the present invention, the lifting mechanism is fixed on the base through the base; the wafer delivery units are respectively connected with the lifting mechanism, and the lifting mechanism is used for driving each wafer delivery unit to perform lifting motion relative to the base; each wafer delivery unit comprises a telescopic mechanism and a clamping mechanism, the telescopic mechanism is fixedly arranged on the lifting mechanism, the clamping mechanism is rotatably connected to the telescopic mechanism relative to the lifting mechanism, and the telescopic mechanism is used for driving the correspondingly connected clamping mechanism to enter and exit the station. Therefore, a plurality of wafers can be transferred at the same time, the waiting time of the wafers is prolonged, and the efficiency of processing the wafers in batches is improved.
While preferred embodiments of the present invention have been described, additional variations and modifications in those embodiments may occur to those skilled in the art once they learn of the basic inventive concepts. Therefore, it is intended that the appended claims be interpreted as including preferred embodiments and all such alterations and modifications as fall within the scope of the invention.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present invention fall within the scope of the claims of the present invention and their equivalents, the present invention is also intended to include such modifications and variations.

Claims (10)

1. A wafer conveyance apparatus, comprising:
a base;
the lifting mechanism is fixed on the base;
the wafer delivery units are respectively connected to the lifting mechanism, the lifting mechanism is used for driving each wafer delivery unit to perform lifting motion relative to the base, and each wafer delivery unit is rotatably connected to the lifting mechanism relative to the lifting mechanism;
each wafer delivery unit comprises a telescopic mechanism and a clamping mechanism, wherein the telescopic mechanism is arranged on the lifting mechanism and used for driving the clamping mechanism correspondingly connected to enter and exit the station.
2. The wafer shipper of claim 1, wherein the plurality of wafer delivery units comprise: the wafer handling device comprises a first wafer handling unit and a second wafer handling unit arranged opposite to the first wafer handling unit.
3. The wafer conveyance device according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the lift mechanism comprises:
the lifting driving motor is arranged on the base;
and the lifting driving motor is used for driving the lifting movement part to execute lifting movement relative to the base.
4. The wafer conveyance device according to claim 3, wherein each of the wafer conveyance units further comprises a first rotation driving motor for driving the wafer conveyance unit to perform rotation relative to the elevating mechanism;
wherein, telescopic machanism includes:
the telescopic driving motor is arranged on the lifting motion part of the lifting mechanism;
and the telescopic driving motor is used for driving the telescopic moving part to execute movement in a direction different from the movement direction of the lifting moving part.
5. The wafer shipper of claim 4, wherein the clamping mechanism comprises:
the second rotation driving motor is fixedly arranged on the telescopic moving part of the telescopic mechanism;
and the rotating chuck is connected to an output shaft of the second rotating driving motor, and the second rotating driving motor is used for driving the rotating chuck to rotate in two directions.
6. A semiconductor processing system, comprising:
the wafer conveyance device as recited in any one of claims 1 to 5;
at least two process chambers for semiconductor processing, which are arranged around the peripheral area of the wafer conveying device;
the wafer buffer area is arranged in the peripheral area of the wafer conveying device;
a wafer loading area remote from a peripheral area of the wafer transport apparatus relative to the wafer buffer area, the wafer transport apparatus being configured to transfer wafers between a plurality of different stations, the plurality of different stations including the wafer buffer area and stations in the at least two process chambers;
and the conveyer is arranged between the wafer cache area and the wafer loading area and is used for conveying the wafers from the wafer loading area to the wafer cache area.
7. A wafer transfer method, comprising:
controlling the lifting mechanism of the wafer conveying device to perform lifting movement relative to the base so as to drive each wafer delivery unit to perform lifting movement relative to the base, and
and controlling each wafer delivery unit in the plurality of wafer delivery units of the wafer conveying device to perform telescopic movement and rotation relative to the lifting mechanism so as to enable each wafer delivery unit to respectively convey a corresponding wafer to a working position in a process chamber corresponding to the next process step.
8. The method of claim 7, wherein the plurality of wafer delivery units includes a first wafer delivery unit and a second wafer delivery unit, and wherein controlling each of the plurality of wafer delivery units of the wafer transport device to perform telescopic movement and rotation relative to the lift mechanism comprises:
the first wafer delivery unit is controlled to perform telescopic movement and rotation relative to the lifting mechanism so as to convey the first wafer from the current station where the first wafer is located to the station in the process cavity corresponding to the first process step; and
and controlling the second wafer delivery unit to stretch and rotate relative to the lifting mechanism so as to convey a second wafer from the current station of the second wafer to the station in the process cavity corresponding to the second process step, wherein the first process step is the next process step for the first wafer, and the second process step is the next process step for the second wafer.
9. The method of claim 7, further comprising:
and identifying the pulse data fed back by the wafer conveying device, and judging the action state of the wafer conveying device according to the identification result.
10. The method of claim 9, wherein each wafer carrying unit comprises a telescoping mechanism and a clamping mechanism, and the identifying the pulse data fed back by the wafer carrying device and determining the action state of the wafer carrying device according to the identification result comprises:
identifying first pulse data fed back by a lifting driving motor of the lifting mechanism, and judging the action state of a lifting motion part of the lifting mechanism according to the first pulse data;
identifying second pulse data fed back by a telescopic driving motor of the telescopic mechanism, and judging the action state of a telescopic motion part of the telescopic mechanism according to the second pulse data;
identifying third pulse data fed back by a second rotary driving motor of the clamping mechanism, and judging the action state of a rotary chuck of the clamping mechanism according to the third pulse data;
and identifying four pulse data fed back by a first rotating drive motor of the wafer conveying device, and judging the rotating state of the corresponding wafer conveying unit according to the fourth pulse data.
CN202110214841.2A 2021-02-25 2021-02-25 Semiconductor processing equipment, wafer conveying device conveying method and control device Pending CN114975199A (en)

Priority Applications (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202110214841.2A CN114975199A (en) 2021-02-25 2021-02-25 Semiconductor processing equipment, wafer conveying device conveying method and control device

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
CN202110214841.2A CN114975199A (en) 2021-02-25 2021-02-25 Semiconductor processing equipment, wafer conveying device conveying method and control device

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CN114975199A true CN114975199A (en) 2022-08-30

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