CN115692258A - Semiconductor processing equipment and wafer transmission platform - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses a semiconductor processing device and a wafer transmission platform thereof, wherein the wafer transmission platform comprises: the wafer grabbing device comprises a platform body, wherein a manipulator for grabbing a wafer is arranged on the platform body; the expansion cavity is located beside the platform body and detachably mounted on the platform body through a connecting piece, and the expansion cavity and the platform body form a platform area; the reaction cavity group comprises a plurality of groups, and each reaction cavity component is arranged on the periphery of the platform area. When a certain or some reaction chambers have faults, other reaction chambers parallel to the certain or some reaction chambers can be selected to complete the work without stopping the machine, so that the wafer processing efficiency is improved, and the equipment maintenance cost is reduced.

Description

Semiconductor processing equipment and wafer transmission platform

Technical Field

The invention relates to the technical field of semiconductor processing, in particular to semiconductor processing equipment and a wafer transmission platform.

Background

In the existing wafer transmission platform, each platform can only be matched with reaction cavities with single specification and fixed quantity. During semiconductor processing, the sizes of the required reaction chambers are different according to the types of products, and the single reaction chamber cannot meet the requirement of universality. Moreover, when a certain reaction chamber breaks down, the whole platform needs to be stopped for maintenance or replaced, so that the wafer processing efficiency is influenced, and the equipment maintenance cost is increased.

Disclosure of Invention

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a semiconductor processing apparatus and a wafer transfer platform that at least partially solve the problems of the prior art.

In order to achieve the purpose, the invention provides the following technical scheme:

a wafer transfer platform, comprising:

a platform body;

the expansion cavity is located beside the platform body and detachably mounted on the platform body through a connecting piece, and the expansion cavity and the platform body form a platform area;

the reaction cavity group comprises a plurality of groups, and each reaction cavity component is arranged on the periphery of the platform area.

Further, the wafer transmission platform further comprises a manipulator, and the manipulator is arranged in the platform body or the expansion cavity and is arranged in the cavity at a position far away from the center. In particular, in the present application, the robot may be disposed at one side of a combined cavity formed by the platform body and the expansion cavity, for example, at the left side, the right side, the upper side or the lower side of the cavity, or at a corner of the cavity. Through the position that so sets up the manipulator, can avoid the manipulator to the interference that the gas flows better, and then make the evacuation and the exhaust of cavity and sweep (wash) in-process, it is more smooth and easy to admit air and give vent to anger the passageway to flow field control with the cavity is better, makes the granule still less, and the cavity is cleaner.

Further, the reaction cavity group comprises at least two reaction cavities which are mutually independent and are distributed adjacently.

When the two reaction chambers are independent from each other, only one of the reaction chambers can be operated, and the two reaction chambers can be simultaneously operated in the same or different ways, so that the flexibility of treatment is improved.

Further, the reaction chamber comprises at least two chambers independent of each other.

Further, the wafer transmission platform also comprises a loading cavity.

Further, the loading cavity is connected with the platform body or the expansion cavity, the loading cavity is arranged on two sides or the periphery of the platform body, and/or the loading cavity is arranged on two sides or the periphery of the expansion cavity.

Furthermore, the number of the expansion cavities is one, the expansion cavities are arranged on one side of the platform body, and specifically, the expansion cavities can be arranged at one end, far away from the loading cavity, of the platform body.

Furthermore, the reaction cavity groups are four groups, wherein two groups of the reaction cavity groups are arranged on two sides of the expansion cavity, and the other two groups of the reaction cavities are arranged on two sides of the platform body.

Further, the expansion cavities are two or more.

Furthermore, the reaction chamber group is five groups, wherein two groups of the five groups of the reaction chamber group are arranged on one side of the platform area, the other two groups of the five groups of the reaction chamber group are arranged on the other side of the platform area, and the last group of the platform area in the five groups of the reaction chamber group is far away from one end of the loading chamber.

Furthermore, the reaction cavity group is five groups, wherein two groups of the five groups of reaction cavity groups are respectively arranged on two sides of the first expanding cavity, the other two groups of the five groups of reaction cavity groups are respectively arranged on two sides of the second expanding cavity, and the last group of the five groups of reaction cavity groups is arranged on any side of the platform body.

Furthermore, the reaction cavity groups are six groups, wherein two of the six reaction cavity groups are respectively arranged on two sides of the first expanding cavity, the other two of the six reaction cavity groups are respectively arranged on two sides of the second expanding cavity, and the last two of the six reaction cavity groups are respectively arranged on two sides of the platform body.

Further, the expansion cavity is polygonal, and each side of the expansion cavity is selectively provided with the reaction cavity.

Furthermore, the expansion cavity is quadrilateral, pentagonal, hexagonal or L-shaped. When the expansion cavities are quadrilateral or hexagonal, the area of the field can be better utilized, and the number of reaction cavities arranged in unit field area is increased.

Further, a loading cavity of the wafer transmission platform is of a modular structure, and the loading cavity can be selectively installed at a preset position of the platform body.

Further, the robot grips wafers from a single side transfer or grips chips from a double side transfer.

In this context, "the robot grips a wafer transferred from one side or a wafer transferred from both sides" means: according to the requirement of the wafer transfer logic, the manipulator can grab one wafer and transmit the wafer to the corresponding reaction cavity, and can grab two wafers and transmit the wafers to the corresponding reaction cavity, so that various possible transmission modes and corresponding modes for processing the wafers are provided for operation, and the flexibility of operation is provided.

The invention also provides semiconductor processing equipment comprising the wafer transmission platform.

The invention also provides a wafer transmission method, which adopts the wafer transmission platform.

The wafer transmission method comprises the following steps:

transferring two wafers to one of the loadlocks using an atmospheric robot (EFEM robot), and subsequently transferring another two wafers to the other loadlock;

the loading cavity is pumped to a vacuum state, a left side arm and a right side arm of a manipulator (a vacuum manipulator) in the wafer transmission platform are respectively used for grabbing two wafers in the loading cavity, the left side arm of the manipulator is used for transmitting the wafers to a first group of reaction cavities in the reaction cavity group, the first group of reaction cavities start a process, the right side arm of the manipulator transmits the wafers to a second group of reaction cavities in the reaction cavity group, and the second group of reaction cavities start a process;

the EFEM manipulator continues to convey the wafer to the loading cavity, and the left arm and the right arm of the manipulator in the wafer conveying platform repeat the steps to convey the wafer to other groups of reaction cavities (such as a third group of reaction cavities and a fourth group of reaction cavities);

after the steps are completed, the left arm of the manipulator continues to the loading cavity to grab the wafers, after the first group of reaction cavities complete the process, the right arm of the manipulator takes out the wafers in the first group of reaction cavities, then the left arm of the manipulator conveys the next batch of wafers into the first group of reaction cavities to start the process, and the right arm of the manipulator conveys the first batch of wafers which complete the process to the loading cavity and then is conveyed out by the EFEM manipulator;

and repeating the steps to finish the picking and placing of the wafers in the second group of reaction cavities and other groups of reaction cavities (such as the third group of reaction cavities and the fourth group of reaction cavities).

In one or more specific embodiments, the invention has the following technical effects:

in the wafer transmission platform, the expansion cavity and the platform body form a platform area by arranging the at least one expansion cavity beside the platform body of the wafer transmission platform, so that the area of the platform area is increased, and the installation number of the reaction cavities is increased. When a certain or some reaction chambers have faults, other reaction chambers parallel to the certain or some reaction chambers can be selected to complete the work without stopping the machine, so that the wafer processing efficiency is improved, and the equipment maintenance cost is reduced. In addition, in the wafer transmission platform, various combinations of the cavities can be realized, including but not limited to the relative positions of the platform body and the expansion cavity, the number and the arrangement positions of the reaction cavity groups, the arrangement position of the loading cavity and the like, which can be adjusted, so that the wafer transmission platform disclosed by the invention has more various combinations and more flexible operation, and can better meet different requirements in the technical field of semiconductor processing. Furthermore, in the invention, by combining the arrangement of the expansion cavity, the wafer transmission scheme of the EFEM manipulator (atmospheric manipulator) and the vacuum manipulator (manipulator of the wafer transmission platform) can be adjusted, so that the wafer transmission platform can carry out different process procedures in different reaction cavities, the processing capacity can be improved, various process reactions can be more efficiently integrated, and different process reaction steps become continuous.

Drawings

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

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of a wafer transfer platform including an expansion chamber according to the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a wafer transfer platform including two quadrilateral expansion chambers according to the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a second schematic structural diagram of a wafer transfer platform of the present invention including two quadrilateral expansion chambers;

FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a wafer transfer platform including a hexagonal expansion cavity according to the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a second schematic structural view of a wafer transfer platform according to the present invention including two hexagonal expanding cavities;

fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram illustrating a wafer transfer platform according to the present invention, wherein each of the reaction chambers includes four reaction chambers.

Description of reference numerals:

1-a platform body, 2-an expansion cavity, 3-a loading cavity, 4-a reaction cavity group and 41-a reaction cavity; 5-mechanical arm

Detailed Description

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

It should be noted that, in the case of no conflict, the features in the following embodiments and examples may be combined with each other; moreover, based on the embodiments in the present disclosure, all other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without making creative efforts shall fall within the protection scope of the present disclosure.

It is also noted that the following description relates to various aspects of the embodiments within the scope of the appended claims. It is noted that the aspects described herein may be embodied in a wide variety of forms and that any specific structure and/or function described herein is merely illustrative. Based on the disclosure, one skilled in the art should appreciate that one aspect described herein may be implemented independently of any other aspects and that two or more of these aspects may be combined in various ways. For example, an apparatus may be implemented and/or a method practiced using any number of the aspects set forth herein. In addition, such an apparatus may be implemented and/or such a method may be practiced using other structure and/or functionality in addition to or other than one or more of the aspects set forth herein.

Aiming at the problems that the combination of reaction cavities in a wafer transmission platform is single, and the maintenance of the reaction cavities influences the realization of the whole machine process, the invention provides the wafer transmission platform capable of realizing the combination of multiple reaction cavities in quantity and positions so as to realize the combination diversification of the reaction cavities and the non-stop maintenance of the reaction cavities.

In a specific embodiment, the wafer transfer platform provided by the invention is used for semiconductor processing equipment, and the wafer transfer platform comprises a platform body 1, an expansion cavity 2 connected with the platform body 1, and reaction cavity groups 4 installed on the periphery of the expansion cavity 2 and/or the platform body 1, wherein each reaction cavity group 4 comprises at least two reaction cavities 41, the two reaction cavities 41 are independent from each other and are distributed adjacently, that is, a module formed by each reaction cavity group 4 has two independent reaction cavities 41, each reaction cavity 41 comprises at least two independent cavities, and the two cavities can be arranged adjacently. A mechanical arm 5 for grabbing the wafer is arranged on the platform body 1, and the mechanical arm 5 is used for grabbing the wafer in the loading cavity 3 and delivering the wafer into the corresponding reaction cavity 41, or refilling the processed wafer in the reaction cavity 41 into the loading cavity 3. The robot 5 may be disposed at the center of the platform body 1 or may be disposed at one side of the platform according to process requirements. The manipulator 5 grabs wafers transmitted from a single side or wafers transmitted from two sides, the manipulator 5 can simultaneously transmit 2 wafers or independently transmit a single-side wafer, and the purpose is that when a problem occurs in one reaction chamber 41 in the reaction chamber group 4, the operation of the other reaction chamber 41 is not affected. That is, the robot 5 is preferably a dual independent robot 5, so as to be able to transfer two wafers into two adjacent reaction chambers 41 in the same reaction chamber group 4 at the same time, and also to transfer a single wafer into another reaction chamber 41 in the same group when one of the reaction chambers 41 is maintained. Meanwhile, since the combined chamber after combination is large in volume, the robot 5 may be preferably disposed at a position far from the center in the chamber, and in this application, "the position far from the center in the chamber" includes disposing the robot 5 at one side of the chamber, "disposing at one side of the chamber" includes disposing the robot 5 at, for example, the left side, the right side, the upper side, or the lower side of the chamber, and also includes disposing the robot 5 at a corner of the chamber. Under the condition, when the cavity is vacuumized or emptied, the flow field in the cavity cannot be disturbed due to the arrangement of the manipulator, so that the flow field in the cavity can be more stable, and the vacuum degree and the cleanness of the cavity can be better maintained.

The inventors found through studies that certain particles may adhere to the surface of the wafer itself during the conventional processing of the wafer, and also that certain particles are inevitably adhered during storage, transportation and use, and that even if the wafer is cleaned (cleaned) before being processed, there is a possibility that the conventional cleaning (cleaning) process is performed in the atmosphere or even if it is performed in a controlled atmosphere, particles are generated. In this case, particularly in the present invention, due to the introduction of the expanded cavity, the volume of the resulting combined cavity is larger, and the maintenance of the cleanness of the cavity is particularly important, and in the case of disposing the robot at a position far from the center in the cavity (including disposing the robot at one side of the cavity, such as at the left, right, upper or lower side of the cavity, or at the corner of the cavity), then during the evacuation and exhaust and purging (cleaning) of the cavity, the robot does not interfere with the flow of the gas, so that the gas inlet and outlet channels can be smoother, the flow field of the cavity can be better controlled, the particles are fewer, and the cavity is cleaner.

The platform body 1 may be a quadrilateral structure, or may also be a polygonal structure, such as a pentagonal or hexagonal structure, and preferably adopts a hexagonal structure from the perspective of a smaller floor area of the unit reaction chamber. In this way, more cavities can be arranged in the same floor space, thereby enabling higher capacity per floor space.

The expansion cavity 2 can be at least one, the expansion cavity 2 can be located on the side of the platform body 1, the outer wall of the expansion cavity 2 is detachably mounted on the platform body 1 through a connecting piece, and the expansion cavity 2 and the platform body 1 form a platform area. It is understood that the platform region is a region formed by the expansion chamber 2 and the platform body 1, and the region is used for connecting the reaction chamber group 4. Specifically, the connecting piece may be a bolt or a caliper, as long as the detachable connection between the platform body 1 and the expansion cavity 2 can be achieved. And a sealing ring is arranged at the connecting position of the outer wall of the expansion cavity 2 and the body so as to realize the sealing of the splicing part.

In some embodiments, the expansion chamber 2 is quadrangular or hexagonal, and each side of the expansion chamber 2 is optionally provided with the reaction chamber 41. That is to say, the expansion cavity 2 may be a quadrangle or a hexagon, and is more selectable. The expansion cavity 2 with a hexagonal structure is preferably selected because the hexagonal floor space is smaller and more reaction cavities 41 can be connected.

The reaction chamber group 4 is a plurality of groups, and each reaction chamber group 4 is arranged on the periphery of the platform area, it should be understood that the reaction chamber group 4 should have a shell, the reaction chamber 41 is arranged in the shell, and the reaction chamber group 4 is detachably connected with the outer wall of the platform body 1 or the expansion chamber 2 through the shell. In order to realize that the reaction chamber group 4 can be expanded in any form and quantity and facilitate replacement and combined adjustment of the reaction chambers 41, the reaction chambers 41 are detachably mounted on the periphery of the platform area, that is, the reaction chambers 41 are detachably connected with the expansion chamber 2 and the platform body 1. The detachable connection can be realized by bolts or calipers and the like. And sealing rings are arranged at the connecting positions between the shells of the reaction cavity 41 of the main body and between the shell of the reaction cavity 41 and the outer wall of the expansion cavity 2, so that the splicing part is sealed.

Theoretically, the platform body 1 can be a quadrilateral structure, such as a rectangle or a square, the platform body 1 can also be a pentagon or a hexagon, when the expansion cavities 2 are installed, the expansion cavities 2 can be arranged on each edge of the platform body 1, and the expansion cavities 2 can also be arranged on one or some edges of the platform body 1 according to requirements. Meanwhile, the expansion cavity 2 can be of a quadrilateral structure, a pentagon structure, a hexagon structure or other structural forms, and can be selected according to requirements, and the installation positions and the installation number of the reaction cavity groups 4 on the expansion cavity 2 and the platform body 1 can also be selected according to requirements, which are not limited in the invention.

Taking the platform body 1 as a quadrilateral structure as an example, the expansion cavity 2 can be provided with one, two or more than two according to the use requirement. It should be understood that when the platform body 1 is a polygonal structure, the expansion cavities 2 may be provided in a number equal to or less than the number of sides of the platform body 1. For example, when the platform body 1 is a pentagon, except for one side for arranging the loading cavity, all or part of the other sides may be provided with the expansion cavities, in this case, four expansion cavities 2 may be arranged, and each expansion cavity 2 is connected with the side of the platform body 1 respectively so as to be outwardly expanded relative to the platform body 1.

Further, the loading chamber of the wafer transfer platform is of a modular structure, and the loading chamber can be selectively installed at a preset position of the platform body 1. The preset position comprises the upper part of the platform body 1, the left side of the platform body 1, the right side of the platform body 1 or the lower part of the platform body 1.

In one use scenario, modular load chambers are used, and the position of the load chambers is changed according to the use requirement, so that more reaction chambers 41 can be connected with a smaller floor space. The loading cavity is arranged on the lower part, the left side, the right side and the upper side, the arrangement position is more flexible, and the occupied area is more flexible. The device can also be connected with cavities (including a reaction cavity and a loading cavity) in different shapes, and is modularized and flexibly arranged, so that the device can be suitable for various machine types, can also be suitable for the transformation of the existing platform, and has a wider application range.

In some embodiments, as shown in fig. 1, the platform body 1 and the expansion cavities 2 are both of a quadrilateral structure, the expansion cavity 2 is one, the expansion cavity 2 is disposed at one end of the platform body 1 away from the loading cavity 3, the reaction cavity groups 4 are four groups, two groups of the reaction cavity groups 4 are disposed on two sides of the expansion cavity 2, and the other two groups of the reaction cavities 41 are disposed on two sides of the platform body 1. Through expansion, the number of the reaction chambers 41 can be expanded to 8 from the existing 4, and the number of the reaction chambers 41 is increased.

In order to further improve the carrying capacity of the reaction chamber group 4, the number of the expansion chambers 2 can also be two, that is, the expansion chambers 2 include a first expansion chamber and a second expansion chamber, the first expansion chamber is arranged at one end of the platform body 1 far away from the loading chamber 3, and the second expansion chamber is arranged at one end of the platform body 1 near the loading chamber 3.

When there are two expansion chambers 2, as shown in fig. 2, the reaction chamber groups 4 may be provided with five groups, wherein two groups of the five reaction chamber groups 4 are disposed on one side of the platform region, and the other three groups of the five reaction chamber groups 4 are disposed on the other side of the platform region. Through expansion, the number of the reaction chambers 41 can be expanded to 10 from 4 in the conventional arrangement, and the number of the reaction chambers 41 is increased.

When the number of the expansion cavities 2 is two, as shown in fig. 3, the reaction cavity group 4 may be six groups, two groups of the six reaction cavity groups 4 are respectively disposed on two sides of the first expansion cavity 2, the other two groups of the six reaction cavity groups 4 are respectively disposed on two sides of the second expansion cavity 2, and the other two groups of the six reaction cavity groups 4 are disposed on two sides of the platform body 1. Through expansion, the number of the reaction chambers 41 can be expanded to 12 from 4 in the conventional arrangement, and the number of the reaction chambers 41 is increased.

It should be understood that the reaction chamber groups can also be 7 groups, 8 groups or more, and only need to be specifically arranged according to the use requirement, and are not exhaustive.

In each of the above embodiments, the expansion cavity 2 is of a quadrilateral structure, the expansion cavity 2 can also be of a hexagonal structure, and each edge of the hexagonal structure can be provided with the reaction cavity group 4, so that the carrying quantity of the reaction cavity group 4 is further increased, and the space utilization rate is increased.

When the expansion cavity 2 has a hexagonal structure, as shown in fig. 4, the reaction cavity groups 4 may be provided with seven groups, wherein one group of the seven groups of reaction cavity groups 4 is disposed on one side of the platform body, the other group of the seven groups of reaction cavity groups 4 is disposed on the other side of the platform body, and the remaining five groups of the seven groups of reaction cavity groups 4 are respectively disposed on five sides of the expansion cavity 2. Through expansion, the number of the reaction chambers 41 can be expanded to 14 from 4 in the conventional arrangement, and the number of the reaction chambers 41 is obviously increased.

When the number of the expansion cavities 2 is two, that is, the expansion cavities 2 include a first expansion cavity 2 and a second expansion cavity 2, and the two expansion cavities 2 are both of a hexagonal structure, as shown in fig. 5, the reaction cavity groups 4 may also be 11 groups, wherein five groups of the 11 reaction cavity groups 4 are respectively disposed on five sides of the first expansion cavity 2, the other two groups of the 11 reaction cavity groups 4 are respectively disposed on two sides of the platform body 1, and the last four groups of the 11 reaction cavity groups 4 are respectively disposed on four sides of the second expansion cavity 2. Through expansion, the number of the reaction chambers 41 can be expanded to 22 from 4 in the conventional arrangement, and the number of the reaction chambers 41 is obviously increased.

In the above embodiments, each reaction chamber group 4 includes 2 reaction chambers 41, however, in the present invention, each reaction chamber group 4 is not limited to have only 2 reaction chambers 41, and as shown in fig. 6, 4 reaction chambers 41 may be mounted in each reaction chamber group, or more reaction chambers 41 may be mounted, and in this case, the width of the reaction chamber group needs to be expanded. In the case of 4 reaction chambers 41 or even more reaction chambers per reaction chamber group, more chambers can be arranged with the same floor space, resulting in a higher capacity per floor space.

The wafer transmission platform is provided with 2 independent loading cavities 3, and the functions of vacuumizing and backfilling can be rapidly performed. Meanwhile, according to different process requirements, one loading cavity 3 can be singly vacuumized/backfilled or vacuumized/backfilled in combination. In each loading chamber 3, 2 wafers can be stored. In the working process, wafers are taken out of a wafer box on an EFEM (electronic component Front End Module) by an atmospheric manipulator and are placed into a loading cavity, the loading cavity is vacuumized, after the action is completed, the vacuum manipulator takes out the wafers in the loading cavity, and then the wafers are transferred into a process cavity for process experiment according to the condition of the process cavity. After the process is finished, the vacuum manipulator takes the wafer out of the process chamber and puts the unprocessed wafer into the process chamber for continuing the process experiment; and transferring the processed wafer back to the loading cavity, refilling the loading cavity to an atmospheric state, and taking out the wafer by the atmospheric mechanical arm and transferring the wafer back to the wafer box on the EFEM.

Regarding the process of transferring the wafer by the robot, the wafer transferring platform shown in fig. 1 is taken as an example, and is further described as follows.

The EFEM robot simultaneously takes 2 wafers to one of the load chambers 3, and again takes 2 wafers to the other of the load chambers 3. Here, as mentioned before, 2 wafers can be placed one above the other in the load chamber.

The load chamber begins to pump down to vacuum. The left side arm and the right side arm of the manipulator 5 can rotate relatively, the left side arm of the manipulator takes 1 wafer from the left side to the right side of the loading cavity, the left side arm of the manipulator rotates for an angle, the right side arm of the manipulator takes 1 wafer from the left side to the right side of the loading cavity, the left side arm of the manipulator transmits the wafer to a first group of reaction cavities in the reaction cavity group, the first group of reaction cavities start a process, the right side arm of the manipulator transmits the wafer to a second group of reaction cavities in the reaction cavity group, and the second group of reaction cavities start the process. The EFEM robot then continues to transfer the wafer to the load lock, and the left and right arms of the robot 5 repeat the above steps to transfer the wafer to the third and fourth sets of reaction chambers.

After the steps are completed, the left arm of the mechanical arm continues to the loading cavity to grab the wafers, after the first group of reaction cavities complete the process, the right arm of the mechanical arm takes out the wafers in the first group of reaction cavities, then the left arm of the mechanical arm conveys the next batch of wafers into the first group of reaction cavities to start the process, and the right arm of the mechanical arm conveys the first batch of wafers which complete the process to the loading cavity and then the EFEM mechanical arm conveys the wafers out. And repeating the steps to finish the picking and placing of the wafers in the second group of reaction cavities, the third group of reaction cavities and the fourth group of reaction cavities.

When the EFEM manipulator takes out the wafer, the loading cavity is in a state of backfilling to the atmosphere, and the EFEM manipulator can take one wafer or 2 wafers at the same time according to actual conditions and transfer the wafers back into the wafer box to complete the whole process experiment.

Different from the traditional wafer transferring (wafer transferring) mode, the manipulator needs to return to the original point for transferring, the wafer can be taken out from the loading cavity and directly rotated to the reaction cavity for transferring the wafer, the transferring time can be reduced, the left side arm and the right side arm of the manipulator can rotate relatively, after the reaction cavity process is completed, one arm (the left side arm or the right side arm) of the manipulator can take out the wafer in the reaction cavity, and then the other arm can transfer the wafer to be reacted to the reaction cavity for reaction, so that the wafer transferring rhythm is more compact and efficient.

Or the first group of reaction chambers, the second group of reaction chambers, the third group of reaction chambers and the fourth group of reaction chambers can be reaction chambers of different processes, after the first group of reaction chambers finish a process, the reaction chambers can be transmitted to other reaction chambers to continue another process, and the arrangement of the multiple chambers can more efficiently integrate various process reactions by combining with different wafer transmission schemes, so that different process reaction steps become continuous.

The above description has been described with reference to the wafer transfer platform shown in fig. 1, and based on an understanding of the present invention, the wafer transfer (wafer transfer) scheme may be adaptively adjusted for the wafer transfer platform disclosed in other embodiments of the present invention. The above description of the wafer transfer (wafer transport) scheme is illustrative and not limiting.

In the above embodiment, the wafer transport platform provided by the present invention has at least one expansion cavity disposed beside the platform body, so that the expansion cavity and the platform body form a platform region, thereby increasing the area of the platform region and increasing the number of reaction cavities. In addition, different expansion cavities are arranged, and meanwhile, the adaptability adjustment of the wafer transmission scheme of the EFEM manipulator (atmospheric manipulator) and the vacuum manipulator (manipulator 5) is combined, the wafer transmission platform can carry out different process procedures in different reaction cavities, the processing capacity can be improved, various process reactions can be integrated more efficiently, and different process reaction steps become continuous. Furthermore, when a certain reaction chamber or some reaction chambers have faults, other reaction chambers parallel to the certain reaction chamber can be selected to complete work without stopping the machine, so that the wafer processing efficiency is improved, and the equipment maintenance cost is reduced.

In addition to the wafer transfer platform, the present invention also provides a semiconductor processing apparatus including the wafer transfer platform, and other structures of the semiconductor processing apparatus are referred to the prior art and are not described herein again.

It is to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular example embodiments only, and is not intended to be limiting. As used herein, the singular forms "a", "an" and "the" may be intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The terms "comprises," "comprising," "includes," "including," and "having" are inclusive and therefore specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. The method steps, processes, and operations described herein are not to be construed as necessarily requiring their performance in the particular order described or illustrated, unless specifically identified as an order of performance. It should also be understood that additional or alternative steps may be used.

Although the terms first, second, third, etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections, these elements, components, regions, layers and/or sections should not be limited by these terms. These terms may be only used to distinguish one element, component, region, layer or section from another region, layer or section. Terms such as "first," "second," and other numerical terms when used herein do not imply a sequence or order unless clearly indicated by the context. Thus, a first element, component, region, layer or section discussed below could be termed a second element, component, region, layer or section without departing from the teachings of the example embodiments.

For convenience in description, the relationship of one element or feature to another element or feature as illustrated in the figures may be described herein using spatially relative terms, such as "inner", "outer", "lower", "below", "upper", "over", and the like. This spatially relative term is intended to encompass different orientations of the device in use or operation in addition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if the device in the figures is turned over, elements described as "below" or "beneath" other elements or features would then be oriented "above" or "over" the other elements or features. Thus, the example term "at 8230; \8230; below" may include both upper and lower orientations. The device may be otherwise oriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatially relative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly.

The above description is only for the specific embodiments of the present invention, but the scope of the present invention is not limited thereto, and any changes or substitutions that can be easily conceived by those skilled in the art within the technical scope of the present invention are also within the scope of the present invention. Therefore, the protection scope of the present invention shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims (15)

1. A wafer transport platform, comprising:

a platform body (1);

the expansion cavity (2) is at least one, the expansion cavity (2) is located beside the platform body (1) and detachably mounted on the platform body (1) through a connecting piece, and the expansion cavity (2) and the platform body (1) form a platform area;

the reaction cavity group (4), the reaction cavity group (4) is the multiunit, and each reaction cavity group (4) branch is located the periphery in platform area.

2. The wafer transport platform of claim 1, further comprising a robot (5), wherein the robot (5) is disposed in the platform body or the expansion chamber and is disposed at a location far from the center in a combined chamber body composed of the platform body and the expansion chamber.

3. The wafer transfer platform of claim 1, wherein the reaction chamber group (4) comprises at least two reaction chambers (41), and the reaction chambers (41) are adjacently distributed.

4. The wafer transmission platform according to any one of claims 1 to 3, further comprising a loading cavity (3), wherein the loading cavity (3) is connected to the platform body (1) or the expansion cavity (2), the loading cavity (3) is disposed on two sides or around the platform body (1), and/or the loading cavity (3) is disposed on two sides or around the expansion cavity (2).

5. The wafer transfer platform of claim 1, wherein the reaction chamber groups (4) are at least three groups, wherein the reaction chamber groups (4) are disposed on two sides of the platform body (1) or around the extension chamber (2).

6. The wafer transfer platform according to any of claims 1-3, wherein the expansion chamber (2) is two or more.

7. The wafer transfer platform of claim 6,

the reaction cavity group (4) is five groups, wherein two groups of the reaction cavity group (4) are arranged on one side of the platform area, the other two groups of the reaction cavity group (4) are arranged on the other side of the platform area, and the last group of the reaction cavity group (4) is arranged on one end, far away from the loading cavity (3), of the platform area.

8. The wafer transfer platform of claim 6,

the reaction cavity group (4) is five groups, wherein two groups of the reaction cavity group (4) are respectively arranged on two sides of the first expansion cavity, the other two groups of the reaction cavity group (4) are respectively arranged on two sides of the second expansion cavity, and the last group of the reaction cavity group (4) is arranged on any side of the platform body (1).

9. The wafer transfer platform of claim 6,

the reaction cavity group (4) is six groups, wherein two groups of the six groups of the reaction cavity group (4) are respectively arranged on two sides of the first expansion cavity, the other two groups of the six groups of the reaction cavity group (4) are respectively arranged on two sides of the second expansion cavity, and the last two groups of the six groups of the reaction cavity group are respectively arranged on two sides of the platform body (1).

10. The wafer transfer platform of claim 1, wherein the extended cavity (2) is polygonal, and each side of the extended cavity (2) is selectively provided with the reaction cavity (41).

11. The wafer transfer platform of claim 10, wherein the polygon is a triangle, a quadrilateral, a pentagon, a hexagon, or an L-shape.

12. The wafer transfer platform of claim 1, further comprising a loading chamber, wherein the loading chamber is of modular construction and is selectively mountable at a predetermined position of the platform body (1).

13. The wafer transfer platform of claim 2, wherein the robot (5) grabs wafers from a single side transfer or wafers from a double side transfer.

14. A semiconductor processing apparatus comprising a wafer transport platform as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 13.

15. A wafer transfer method, characterized in that the wafer transfer platform according to any one of claims 1-13 is used for transferring wafers.

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