CN116313991A

CN116313991A - Wafer overturning device

Info

Publication number: CN116313991A
Application number: CN202310173828.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 张美美; 刘效岩; 徐俊成
Original assignee: Beijing Haike Technology Co ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Haike Technology Co ltd
Priority date: 2023-02-28
Filing date: 2023-02-28
Publication date: 2023-06-23

Abstract

The invention discloses a wafer overturning device, which comprises: a support assembly to support a wafer to be flipped; the clamping assembly is arranged above the supporting assembly to laterally clamp the wafer to be turned over; the overturning driving assembly is connected with the clamping assembly to drive the clamping assembly and the wafer on the clamping assembly to overturn; the support assembly includes a plurality of supports to handle a plurality of wafers to be flipped.

Description

Wafer overturning device

Technical Field

The invention belongs to the technical field of wafer post-treatment, and particularly relates to a wafer overturning device.

Background

The integrated circuit industry is the core of the information technology industry and plays a key role in the process of converting and upgrading the boosting manufacturing industry into digital and intelligent conversion. The chip is a carrier of an integrated circuit, and the chip manufacturing involves the process flows of integrated circuit design, wafer manufacturing, wafer processing, electrical measurement, dicing packaging, testing, and the like. Among them, chemical mechanical polishing (Chemical Mechanical Planarization, CMP) belongs to a wafer manufacturing process, which is an ultra-precise surface processing technique for global planarization.

The wafer subjected to chemical mechanical polishing needs to be subjected to post-treatment such as cleaning, drying and the like so as to avoid pollution of trace ions and metal particles to the semiconductor device and ensure the performance and qualification rate of the semiconductor device. In the wafer post-processing process, the cleanliness of the back surface of the wafer affects the overall pollution condition of the wafer to a great extent, so that the attention to cleaning the front surface and the back surface of the wafer is continuously increased.

If the front and back surfaces of the wafer are required to be cleaned, the whole wafer is required to be turned over before each cleaning procedure, so that the turnover of the wafer is realized. In the wafer overturning process, the placement and positioning accuracy of the wafer are guaranteed, the protection of the wafer is also good, and the wafer is prevented from being broken.

In the prior art, a wafer overturning device generally adopts a negative pressure adsorption mode to realize overturning of a single wafer; because the negative pressure adsorption device has a complex structure, a negative pressure pipeline is difficult to manage and maintain, and the single-chip overturning efficiency is low, the post-processing productivity of the wafer is affected.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the invention provides a wafer overturning device, which aims at solving at least one of the technical problems existing in the prior art.

An embodiment of the present invention provides a wafer flipping apparatus, including:

a support assembly to support a wafer to be flipped;

the clamping assembly is arranged above the supporting assembly to laterally clamp the wafer to be turned over;

the overturning driving assembly is connected with the clamping assembly to drive the clamping assembly and the wafer on the clamping assembly to overturn;

the support assembly includes a plurality of supports to handle a plurality of wafers to be flipped.

In some embodiments, the number of support assemblies is a pair, comprising a support frame and a connection plate, the connection plate being disposed obliquely below the support frame.

In some embodiments, the support frame is a U-shaped structure, the top surface of the support frame is configured with a vertical frame, the vertical frame is perpendicular to the top surface of the support frame, and the support pieces are arranged at the side parts of the vertical frame at intervals.

In some embodiments, the included angle between the connection plate and the horizontal plane is 30-60 °, so that the support assembly can support a plurality of wafers arranged vertically and at intervals.

In some embodiments, the clamping assemblies are a pair, and each clamping assembly comprises a clamping piece, wherein the end part of the clamping piece is connected with a moving piece so as to drive the clamping piece to move along the horizontal direction; the overturning driving assembly is connected to the outer peripheral side of the moving piece so as to drive the clamping assembly and the wafer on the clamping assembly to rotate around the axis.

In some embodiments, the clamping member comprises a clamping main body, wherein the clamping main body is provided with a vertical rod, and the periphery side of the vertical rod is sleeved with a clamping wheel.

In some embodiments, the pinch wheels are made of a polyetheretherketone material, the number of which matches the number of the supports.

In some embodiments, the clamping member further comprises a sleeve, the sleeve is covered on the outer peripheral side of the vertical rod, a limiting rod is arranged on the side portion of the sleeve, and the spring abuts against the limiting rod to push the vertical rod to move adaptively.

In some embodiments, the clamping body is configured with a mounting hole through which the upright is disposed; the mounting hole is a kidney-shaped hole, so that the upright can move in the mounting hole.

In some embodiments, the support assembly is movable in an oblique direction, and the clamping assembly is disposed outside a movement track range of the support assembly.

The beneficial effects of the invention include:

a. the support component moves obliquely, so that the contact instantaneity of the support component and the wafer is ensured, the short-time contact and separation of the wafer are realized, the structure is simple, each movement mechanism is independently controlled, and the running stability and safety of the wafer turnover device are effectively ensured;

b. the supporting component adopts a multi-layer arrangement, so that the simultaneous clamping and overturning of multi-layer wafers are realized, and the overturning efficiency of the wafers is improved;

c. the clamping piece of the clamping assembly is provided with an elastic structure such as a spring, so that the problem of unreliable clamping caused by wafer size tolerance is reduced or avoided, and meanwhile, the problems of shaking or friction and the like of a wafer in the overturning process are avoided, so that the running reliability of the wafer overturning action is ensured.

Drawings

The advantages of the present invention will become more apparent and more readily appreciated from the detailed description given in conjunction with the following drawings, which are meant to be illustrative only and not limiting of the scope of the invention, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wafer flipping apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of A-A of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a top view of a wafer flipping device according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is a schematic view of a support assembly according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is a longitudinal cross-sectional view of a clip member according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 6 is a partial enlarged view at B in FIG. 5;

fig. 7 is a transverse cross-sectional view of a clip provided in an embodiment of the present invention.

Detailed Description

The following describes the technical scheme of the present invention in detail with reference to specific embodiments and drawings thereof. The examples described herein are specific embodiments of the present invention for illustrating the concept of the present invention; the description is intended to be illustrative and exemplary in nature and should not be construed as limiting the scope of the invention in its aspects. In addition to the embodiments described herein, those skilled in the art can adopt other obvious solutions based on the disclosure of the claims of the present application and the specification thereof, including those adopting any obvious substitutions and modifications to the embodiments described herein.

The drawings in the present specification are schematic views, which assist in explaining the concept of the present invention, and schematically show the shapes of the respective parts and their interrelationships. It should be understood that for the purpose of clearly showing the structure of various parts of embodiments of the present invention, the drawings are not drawn to the same scale and like reference numerals are used to designate like parts in the drawings.

In the present invention, the Wafer (W) is also called a Substrate (Substrate), and the meaning and actual function are equivalent.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wafer flipping device according to an embodiment of the invention, where the wafer flipping device includes:

a support assembly 10 to support a wafer W to be flipped;

a clamping assembly 20 disposed above the support assembly 10 to laterally clamp the wafer W to be flipped;

and a flip driving assembly 30 connected to the clamping assembly 20 to flip the clamping assembly 20 and the wafer W thereon.

Further, the support assembly 10 includes a plurality of support members 13 for simultaneously processing a plurality of wafers W to be flipped, thereby improving wafer flipping efficiency and ensuring wafer post-processing throughput.

Fig. 2 is a cross-sectional view of A-A of fig. 1, and fig. 3 is a top view of the wafer flipping device of fig. 1. It should be noted that the wafer flipping device further includes a housing (not shown), in which the wafer to be flipped is placed by a robot, the support assembly 10 and the clamping assembly 20 are disposed inside the housing and located at two sides of the housing, and the flipping driving assembly 30 is connected to an inner sidewall or an outer sidewall of the housing.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the number of support assemblies 10 is a pair, which move from bottom to top to hold up the wafer to be flipped.

Further, the support assembly 10 includes a support frame 11 and a connection plate 12, as shown in fig. 4, the connection plate 12 is obliquely disposed under the support frame 11. In some embodiments, the connection plate 12 is fixed with a driving member such as an air cylinder, so as to drive the support frame 11 to move obliquely along the plane of the connection plate 12, so as to realize the lifting action of the wafer to be turned.

In the process of supporting the wafer, the supporting component 10 can meet the requirement of instant contact, and friction between the wafer and the front end of the supporting piece 13 is avoided, so that scratch and pollution on the surface of the wafer are avoided to the greatest extent.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 4, the supporting frame 11 has a U-shaped structure, and the top surface thereof is provided with a vertical frame 14, and the vertical frame 14 is disposed perpendicular to the top surface of the supporting frame 11.

Further, the side portions of the vertical frames 14 are provided with the supporting pieces 13, and the number of the supporting pieces 13 is plural and arranged at intervals. Specifically, the support 13 is disposed toward the wafer W to be flipped so as to hold the wafer up from bottom to top. In some embodiments, the top surface of the support 13 is configured with a limit slot that extends downwardly from the top surface of the support 13. Specifically, the area of the limiting groove is a part of the top area of the supporting member 13, so as to control the contact area between the supporting member 13 and the wafer, and reduce the probability of pollution of the wafer in the overturning process.

In some embodiments, the angle between the connection plate 12 and the horizontal is 30-60 ° so that the support assembly 10 can support a plurality of vertically spaced wafers. That is, the wafer to be flipped is separated from the jaws of the robot, the robot is removed from the housing as described above, and the clamping assembly 20 clamps the wafer from the side in preparation for further flipping. In some embodiments, the angle between the connection plate 12 and the horizontal plane is 40-50 ° to avoid interference between the support assembly 10 moving obliquely and the gripper of the robot and the wafer held by the gripper.

In addition, in order to realize the action of supporting the wafer by the support assembly 10, the invention abandons the combined scheme of the transverse action and the vertical action, adopts the scheme of oblique movement, and the support assembly 10 can move along the oblique direction, thereby effectively simplifying the structure and improving the running stability of the wafer turnover device.

In fig. 3, the clamping assembly 20 includes a clamping member 21, and a moving member 22 is connected to an end of the clamping member to drive the clamping member 21 to move in a horizontal direction. The turnover driving assembly 30 is connected to the outer peripheral side of the moving member 22, so as to drive the clamping assembly 20 and the wafer thereon to rotate around the axis, thereby realizing the overall turnover of the clamped wafer.

In some embodiments, the flip drive assembly 30 includes a belt, pulley, and drive motor thereof to drive the clamping assembly 20 and the clamped wafer thereon in an overall flip. It will be appreciated that other driving methods of the flip drive assembly 30, such as chain drive, direct motor drive, etc., may be used. It can be appreciated that if a chain drive driving mode is adopted, a chain drive structure needs to be arranged outside the housing and sealed, so as to avoid the pollution of the drive structure to the wafer to be turned.

In the present invention, the number of clamping assemblies 20 is a pair, and the clamping members 21 thereon can clamp the wafer from the side of the wafer.

Further, the holder 21 includes a holder body 21a, as shown in fig. 5, a pole 21b is disposed on the holder body 21a, and a grip wheel 21c is fitted around the outer periphery of the pole 21 b.

In fig. 5, the number of the pinch rollers 21c is four, and they are disposed at intervals. Specifically, the vertical distance between the adjacent clamping wheels 21c is matched with the distance between the adjacent wafers clamped by the manipulator, so that the clamping wheels 21c are abutted against the edge positions of the wafers, and the wafers to be turned are clamped.

Further, the clamping wheels 21c are made of Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) material, the number of clamping wheels 21c is matched to the number of supports 13, and the number of supports 13 is matched to the number of wafers being handled by the robot at the same time. The polyether-ether-ketone has good wear resistance and processability, and the clamping wheel 21c made of the polyether-ether-ketone can effectively reduce the abrasion of the wafer and ensure the stability of the processing and manufacturing of the wafer.

Fig. 6 is a partial enlarged view of the position B in fig. 5, the clamping member 21 further includes a sleeve 21d, the sleeve 21d is covered on the outer peripheral side of the upright 21B, a limit rod is disposed on the side of the sleeve 21d, and a spring 21e abuts against the limit rod to push the upright 21B to move adaptively, so as to clamp wafers with different tolerance sizes, and improve the adaptability of the wafer overturning device.

Further, the clamp body 21a is provided with a mounting hole 21a-1, and as shown in fig. 7, the upright rod 21b is provided to penetrate through the mounting hole 21a-1; further, the mounting hole 21a-1 is a kidney-shaped hole so that the upright 21b can move in the mounting hole 21 a-1.

Specifically, the clamp body 21a is provided with a fixing hole for placing the spring 21e, which is provided perpendicularly to the mounting hole 21 a-1. The sleeve 21d is sleeved on the upright rod 21b and arranged along the fixing hole, and the spring 21e is arranged in the fixing hole. The spring 21e is in a compressed state so that the spring 21e can adjust the position of the upright 21b through the sleeve 21d with the limit rod so as to adjust the position of the clamping wheel 21c, thereby realizing reliable clamping of the wafer.

In some embodiments, the spacing between the inner side walls of the mounting holes 21a-1 and the outer side walls of the uprights 21b is 0.5-2mm to meet the clamping of wafers of different tolerance sizes.

In the present invention, the clamping assembly 20 is disposed outside the moving track range of the supporting assembly 10, so as to avoid interference between the supporting assembly 10 and the clamping assembly 20, which affects normal execution of the wafer overturning action.

In the embodiment shown in fig. 1, the wafer overturning device further includes a fixing rod 40, where the fixing rod 40 is disposed between the clamping assemblies 20, and the overturning driving assemblies 30 on two sides are connected with the ends of the fixing rod 40, so as to ensure the synchronism of overturning actions on two sides, and avoid stress concentration and even breakage caused by overturning and twisting two sides of an overturning wafer. It should be noted that the clamping member 21 of the clamping assembly 20 is slidably connected to the fixing rod 40, so as to avoid interference between the clamping member 21 of the clamping assembly 20 and the fixing rod 40.

In the support assembly 10 shown in fig. 4, no other components are disposed between the adjacent vertical frames 14, so as to avoid interference between the support assembly 10 and the fixing rod 40, ensure independence of the support assembly 10 in carrying out wafer lifting actions, facilitate reasonable arrangement of wafer overturning actions, and improve working efficiency of wafer overturning.

The following briefly describes the specific operation of wafer flipping with reference to fig. 1:

first, the robot places a plurality of vertically spaced wafers in a housing (not shown) of the wafer flipping device;

then, the support assembly 10 is moved obliquely toward the upper side so that the support 13 abuts against the bottom surface of the wafer to simultaneously hold up the wafer to be flipped;

then, the robot moves to the outside of the housing, and the clamping assembly 20 moves toward the wafer to clamp the edge of the wafer;

then, the support assembly 10 is moved obliquely toward the lower side so that the support 13 is separated from the bottom surface of the wafer;

then, the overturning driving assembly 30 drives the clamping assembly 20 and the wafer clamped by the clamping assembly to rotate around the axis so as to realize overturning of a plurality of wafers;

then, the supporting component 10 moves obliquely towards the upper side and is abutted against the bottom surface of the wafer, and the moving piece 22 of the clamping component 20 drives the clamping piece 21 to be far away from the wafer, so that the wafer is placed on the supporting piece 13 of the supporting component 10;

finally, the robot grips the flipped wafer from the support assembly 10 and moves to the next process.

In the description of the present specification, reference to the terms "one embodiment," "some embodiments," "illustrative embodiments," "examples," "specific examples," or "some examples," etc., means that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment or example is included in at least one embodiment or example of the invention. In this specification, schematic representations of the above terms do not necessarily refer to the same embodiments or examples. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics described may be combined in any suitable manner in any one or more embodiments or examples.

While embodiments of the present invention have been shown and described, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that: many changes, modifications, substitutions and variations may be made to the embodiments without departing from the spirit and principles of the invention, the scope of which is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

Claims

1. A wafer flipping device, comprising:

a support assembly to support a wafer to be flipped;

2. The wafer flipping apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of support assemblies is a pair comprising a support frame and a connection plate, the connection plate being disposed obliquely below the support frame.

3. The wafer flipping mechanism of claim 2, wherein the support frame has a U-shaped configuration with a top surface configured with a vertical frame disposed perpendicular to the top surface of the support frame, and the support members are disposed at intervals on the sides of the vertical frame.

4. The wafer flipping apparatus of claim 2, wherein the angle between the connection plate and the horizontal plane is between 30 ° and 60 °, such that the support assembly is capable of supporting a plurality of vertically spaced apart wafers.

5. The wafer flipping apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of clamping assemblies is a pair, comprising clamping members, wherein the clamping members are connected to a moving member at their ends to move the clamping members in a horizontal direction; the overturning driving assembly is connected to the outer peripheral side of the moving piece so as to drive the clamping assembly and the wafer on the clamping assembly to rotate around the axis.

6. The wafer flipping device of claim 5, wherein the clamping member comprises a clamping body, wherein the clamping body is provided with a vertical rod, and a clamping wheel is sleeved on the outer periphery of the vertical rod.

7. The wafer flipping apparatus of claim 6, wherein the clamping wheel is made of a polyetheretherketone material in a number matching the number of supports.

8. The wafer turning device of claim 6, wherein the clamping member further comprises a sleeve, the sleeve is covered on the outer peripheral side of the upright, a limit rod is arranged on the side of the sleeve, and a spring abuts against the limit rod to push the upright to move adaptively.

9. The wafer flipping apparatus of claim 8, wherein the clamping body is configured with a mounting hole, the upright being disposed through the mounting hole; the mounting hole is a kidney-shaped hole, so that the upright can move in the mounting hole.

10. The wafer flipping apparatus of claim 1, wherein the support assembly is movable in an oblique direction, and the clamping assembly is disposed outside a range of movement trajectories of the support assembly.