CN211529927U - Silicon chip transporting device - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model discloses a silicon chip conveyor, including two evacuation devices and vacuum conveyor in advance, vacuum conveyor is used for transmitting the silicon chip under vacuum state between evacuation device and technology processing apparatus in advance, and vacuum conveyor includes: the vacuum conveying device comprises a vacuum conveying chamber, two carrying robots and a transfer platform. Two manipulators which can independently act are arranged in the two carrying robots, and through the orderly matching of the two manipulators, the silicon wafer exchange can be executed on the same station by using one robot. While one transfer robot transfers the silicon wafer between the pre-vacuum apparatus and the transition relay station, the other transfer robot transfers the silicon wafer between the relay station and the process treatment apparatus. The silicon wafer exchange technology is carried out on the same station by using the robot with two manipulators capable of independently acting, and the two manipulators with multiple degrees of freedom are combined, so that the silicon wafer transmission can be carried out at high speed, and the integral capacity is improved.

Description

Silicon chip transporting device

Technical Field

The utility model relates to a conveyor, in particular to a silicon chip conveyor that is used for needing to carry out the vacuum apparatus that transports to the silicon chip between atmosphere side and vacuum side.

Background

In the semiconductor industry, various types of process equipment are used, and almost all process equipment needs to be provided with a silicon wafer transfer device. With the development of the semiconductor industry and the continuous enlargement of the scale thereof, the requirement on the capacity of process equipment is continuously improved. In view of the progress of the technology of the process equipment, the process processing capacity is greatly improved, so that the silicon wafer transportation process is gradually the bottleneck of improving the productivity. In order to meet the demand of semiconductor equipment for increasing the productivity, the development of a high-efficiency silicon wafer transfer system is urgent. In many semiconductor processing apparatuses, a processed silicon wafer is in a vacuum state during a processing process (e.g., ion implantation), and is in an atmospheric state during some other processes (e.g., a transfer process between different processing apparatuses), so that the vacuum-pumping and breaking process has a certain influence on the processing efficiency of the whole process.

In the traditional silicon wafer transmission system, the silicon wafer transportation cycle time is long, and the equipment capacity is limited by the silicon wafer transportation efficiency. Several high speed moving modes of the workpiece in vacuum processing are disclosed in US5486080 (see fig. 2 and 3 thereof), one mode being: a silicon wafer conveying device is adopted and mainly comprises two pre-vacuumizing devices (loadlocks) and two manipulators. Two pre-vacuumizing devices of the device work simultaneously: after the two pre-vacuumizing devices are inflated to the atmospheric pressure, the silicon wafer to be processed is placed in the pre-vacuumizing devices, then the two pre-vacuumizing devices are vacuumized simultaneously, after the set vacuum degree is reached, the two mechanical hands take the silicon wafers in the two pre-vacuumizing devices one by one in turn and convey the silicon wafers to a process platform for process treatment, and the silicon wafers after the process treatment are conveyed back to the pre-vacuumizing devices. The two manipulators correspond to the two pre-vacuumizing devices respectively. In the period of carrying out process treatment on the silicon wafer, returning the silicon wafer which is treated last time to the corresponding pre-vacuumizing device by a manipulator, and taking out the next silicon wafer from the pre-vacuumizing device to move to the process device; at the same time, the other robot waits near the processing tool, ready to accept the silicon wafer currently undergoing processing. And the two manipulators alternately operate according to the operation time sequence until all the silicon wafers in the two pre-vacuumizing devices are completely processed. When the two pre-vacuumizing devices are used for inflating (breaking vacuum) and vacuumizing, the process treatment device is completely in a waiting state, and precious process treatment time is wasted. The silicon wafer conveying device has low production capacity because the process of inflating/vacuumizing by the pre-vacuumizing device needs a long time, so that the conveying efficiency of the silicon wafer cannot be improved.

Through improvement, US5486080 provides a silicon wafer conveying device with a transition wafer bearing mechanism, which mainly comprises two pre-vacuumizing devices, two carrying robots and a transfer table. The device is different from the device in that: the two pre-vacuumizing devices do not work simultaneously but work in turn, and during the process treatment of the silicon wafer in one of the pre-vacuumizing devices, the other pre-vacuumizing device carries out the operations of gas filling, silicon wafer unloading, reloading and vacuumizing. Therefore, the operation time of inflating, unloading and reloading the silicon wafer and vacuumizing the pre-vacuumizing device is overlapped with the process treatment time, and the silicon wafer transmission efficiency is improved to a great extent. On the vacuum side, two transfer robots work in combination to perform the removal of the wafer from the pre-evacuator-the transfer stage for alignment-the transfer to a stage in a process chamber-the retrieval of the wafer into the pre-evacuator after the process is complete. In the system, each transfer robot is provided with one end effector, each operation can only complete one film taking or film placing function, and each film taking or film placing process needs to execute a series of steps of extending, lifting or lowering, retracting, rotating and the like of the end effector to the next target position. The end effector is generally not provided with a mechanical buckle or an electrostatic chuck to fix the silicon wafer, and only depends on the friction force to keep the silicon wafer. In order to prevent the silicon wafer from slipping, the motion acceleration of the mechanical arm cannot be too large, and a long time is required for each wafer taking or placing process. Therefore, the throughput of such a transport mechanism is also limited to a certain extent.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

The to-be-solved technical problem of the utility model is to provide a silicon chip conveyor that silicon chip transmission efficiency is higher for overcome the silicon chip transport process among the prior art because the transport robot carries out the time overlength of getting the piece or putting the piece, make the productivity be difficult to the defect that improves.

The utility model discloses a solve above-mentioned technical problem through following technical scheme:

a silicon chip conveying device is characterized by comprising two pre-vacuumizing devices and a vacuum conveying device, wherein,

each pre-vacuumizing device is used for switching between an atmospheric state and a vacuum state, and each pre-vacuumizing device is used for bearing at least one silicon wafer;

the vacuum conveying device is used for conveying the silicon wafer between each pre-vacuumizing device and the process processing device for processing the silicon wafer in a vacuum state, and comprises: the silicon wafer carrying device comprises a vacuum conveying chamber, two carrying robots located in the vacuum conveying chamber and a transfer table used for bearing a silicon wafer. In the two transfer robots, each transfer robot is provided with two manipulators which can independently act, and through the ordered matching of the two manipulators in one transfer robot, the silicon wafer exchange operation can be executed on the same station by using one transfer robot. Wherein one of the two transfer robots is used to transfer the silicon wafer between each pre-vacuum apparatus and the relay station, and the other of the two transfer robots is used to transfer the silicon wafer between the relay station and the process treatment apparatus.

Preferably, each transfer robot includes two robot arms for holding the silicon wafer, the two robot arms being spaced apart in a direction perpendicular to the silicon wafer transfer plane, each robot arm being rotatable in the silicon wafer transfer plane. Two manipulators of the same transfer robot can rotate simultaneously or at different moments.

Preferably, each robot is liftable in a direction perpendicular to the silicon wafer transfer plane. Two manipulators of the same transfer robot can be lifted simultaneously or respectively at different moments.

Preferably, each robot is linearly retractable in the silicon wafer transport plane. The two manipulators of the same transfer robot may be extended/retracted simultaneously, or one of them may be extended while the other is retracted.

Moreover, two manipulators of the same transfer robot can hold silicon wafers at the same time, or do not hold the silicon wafers, or one of the two manipulators holds the silicon wafers and the other does not hold the silicon wafers.

That is, two manipulators are provided in each robot, the two manipulators being arranged one above the other. The carrying robot is provided with 4 motion shafts, wherein a first shaft and a second shaft are respectively used for stretching and retracting the two mechanical arms, a third shaft is used for driving the two mechanical arms to move up and down, and a fourth shaft is used for driving the two mechanical arms to move rotationally. The two manipulators can be operated independently. The two manipulators may be extended simultaneously, or retracted simultaneously, or one extended and the other retracted. The two robots each can carry a silicon wafer. When both manipulators are retracted, the fourth axis of the robot can perform a rotational movement. And the two mechanical hands of the same transfer robot can perform silicon wafer exchange operation on one station.

Preferably, one of the two robots of the same transfer robot holds silicon wafers and the other of the two robots of the same transfer robot does not hold silicon wafers during one operation cycle of removal and/or insertion from the transfer table and/or the process treatment apparatus. Furthermore, two manipulators in the same transfer robot finish the exchange of the silicon wafers for the target wafer bearing device (which can be a transfer table in a vacuum conveying chamber or a wafer bearing table in a process treatment device) in the shortest time. The silicon chip exchange process is carried out according to the following steps. Prior to the exchange, one of the robots carries the wafer and the other robot does not. The mechanical arm not carrying the silicon wafer firstly extends to pick up the silicon wafer on the wafer bearing device and then retracts, and the mechanical arm carrying the silicon wafer extends to place the silicon wafer carried by the mechanical arm on the wafer bearing device while the mechanical arm retracts. And after the silicon wafer exchange is finished for one wafer bearing device, the manipulator rotates to the next target wafer bearing device to execute the same silicon wafer exchange task.

Specifically, in a silicon wafer exchange operation, before the silicon wafer exchange, a first manipulator does not carry a silicon wafer, and a second manipulator carries a silicon wafer, the silicon wafer exchange operation is performed according to the following steps: the first mechanical arm extends out, then the third shaft rises to enable the silicon wafer on the station to be transferred to the first mechanical arm, then the first mechanical arm carries the silicon wafer to retract, meanwhile, the second mechanical arm extends out, then the third shaft descends to enable the silicon wafer on the second mechanical arm to be transferred to the station, then the second mechanical arm does not carry the silicon wafer to retract, and finally, after the exchange operation is completed, the first mechanical arm carries the silicon wafer and the second mechanical arm does not carry the silicon wafer. And then, after the two mechanical arms are retracted, the fourth shaft rotates and/or the third shaft is lifted, so that the robot points to another target station to exchange silicon wafers.

Preferably, when the silicon wafers in one of the two pre-vacuums are transferred one by one to the process treatment device for treatment, the other of the two pre-vacuums is in vacuum-pumping or vacuum-breaking state or is in atmospheric environment for removing or loading the silicon wafers.

Preferably, the transfer table is used for positioning the center of the silicon wafer and/or aligning the direction of the silicon wafer or other auxiliary operations besides storing the silicon wafer in the middle of the silicon wafer conveying path.

Preferably, each pre-vacuum device is provided with a wafer box for bearing at least one silicon wafer.

On the basis of the common knowledge in the field, the above preferred conditions can be combined at will to obtain the preferred embodiments of the present invention.

The utility model discloses an actively advance the effect and lie in: the functions of the two carrying robots are divided, and the two manipulators with multiple degrees of freedom are combined, so that the transmission of the silicon wafers between the pre-vacuumizing device and the transfer table and between the transfer table and the process treatment device can be orderly and alternately carried out, the invalid waiting time is reduced, and the integral productivity is improved.

Drawings

Fig. 1 is a top view of a silicon wafer transportation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a silicon wafer transportation device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 3 is a schematic view of a transfer robot not holding a silicon wafer according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 4 is a schematic view illustrating a silicon wafer exchanger performed by a transfer robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Fig. 5 is a schematic view of the transfer robot according to an embodiment of the present invention after completing the silicon wafer exchange.

Detailed Description

The present invention is further illustrated by way of the following examples, which are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.

The technical solution of the present invention is further illustrated in an embodiment with reference to fig. 1 to 5. The silicon wafer conveying device comprises two pre-vacuumizing devices 11 and 12 and a vacuum conveying device, wherein,

each pre-vacuumizing device 11, 12 is used for switching between an atmospheric state and a vacuum state, and each pre-vacuumizing device is used for bearing at least one silicon wafer 100;

the vacuum transfer apparatus for transferring the silicon wafer 100 in a vacuum state between each pre-vacuuming apparatus and a process treatment apparatus (not shown) for treating the silicon wafer, the vacuum transfer apparatus comprising: a vacuum transportation chamber 2, two transfer robots (respectively marked with 3 and 4) located in the vacuum transportation chamber 2, and a transfer table 5 for carrying silicon wafers, wherein one transfer robot 3 of the two transfer robots is used for transferring silicon wafers between each pre-vacuuming device and the transfer table 5, and the other transfer robot 4 of the two transfer robots is used for transferring silicon wafers between the transfer table 5 and the process treatment device. In the two transfer robots, each transfer robot is provided with two manipulators which can independently act, and through the ordered matching of the two manipulators in one transfer robot, the silicon wafer exchange operation can be executed on the same station by using one transfer robot.

Referring to fig. 3 to 5, each of the transfer robots 3 and 4 includes two robot arms (denoted by 31, 32 and 41, 42, respectively) for holding the silicon wafer, the two robot arms being arranged at intervals in a direction perpendicular to a silicon wafer transfer plane (the silicon wafer transfer plane is the paper surface of fig. 1), each of the robot arms being rotatable in the silicon wafer transfer plane. Two manipulators of the same transfer robot can rotate simultaneously or at different moments.

Wherein each manipulator can lift in the direction vertical to the silicon wafer transmission plane. Two manipulators of the same transfer robot can be lifted simultaneously or respectively at different moments. Moreover, each robot is linearly scalable in the silicon wafer transport plane. The two manipulators of the same transfer robot may be extended/retracted simultaneously, or one of them may be extended while the other is retracted.

Further, the two hands of the same transfer robot may hold silicon wafers at the same time, may not hold silicon wafers at the same time (as shown in fig. 3), or may hold silicon wafers one by one without (as shown in fig. 4 and 5).

Besides, the transfer table 5 is used for storing the silicon wafer in the middle of the silicon wafer conveying path, and is also used for positioning the center of the silicon wafer and/or aligning the silicon wafer direction.

In this embodiment, each pre-vacuum extractor is provided with a wafer cassette (cassette) for carrying at least one wafer, and the wafer cassette can be lifted and lowered in a direction perpendicular to the wafer transport plane, so as to take out the wafer to be processed and put in the processed wafer. And a transfer valve is arranged between each pre-vacuumizing device and the vacuum conveying device, and the silicon wafers can be transferred through the transfer valve. Furthermore, each pre-evacuation device is also equipped with an evacuation device and a breaking vacuum device, so that each pre-evacuation device can be switched between vacuum and atmosphere.

The vacuum conveying chamber is also provided with a connecting part connected with the process treatment device, so that the silicon wafer is conveyed to complete the process operation (such as ion implantation, deposition and the like) in the process treatment device.

In particular, one of the two robots of the same transfer robot holds silicon wafers and the other of the two robots of the same transfer robot does not hold silicon wafers during an operating cycle of removal and/or insertion from the transfer table and/or the process treatment device. Furthermore, two manipulators in the same transfer robot finish the exchange of the silicon wafers for the target wafer bearing device (which can be a transfer table in a vacuum conveying chamber or a wafer bearing table in a process treatment device) in the shortest time. The silicon chip exchange process is carried out according to the following steps. Specifically, and as illustrated in figures 4 and 5, one of the robots 41 carries unprocessed silicon wafers (indicated at 100 a) and the other robot 42 does not carry silicon wafers prior to swapping. The wafer-not-carrying robot first extends to pick up a processed wafer (indicated at 100 b) placed, for example, on the transfer table and then retracts, while the wafer-carrying robot 41 extends to place the wafer 100a carried thereby on the transfer table. After the silicon wafer exchange is completed for one wafer bearing device (which can be a transfer table 5 or a wafer bearing table in a process processing device), the manipulator rotates to the next target wafer bearing device to execute the same silicon wafer exchange task, and the steps are repeated until all the silicon wafers are processed and sent to the corresponding pre-vacuumizing device. In the above-described one take/put operation cycle, the two manipulators can operate in parallel, eliminating the waiting process between the movements of the respective subsections, thereby shortening the time of the whole operation cycle and consequently achieving the purpose of high productivity.

The technical scheme of the utility model in, the silicon chip in one of two vacuum pumping devices in advance is transmitted one by one to when handling in the technology processing apparatus, another vacuum pumping device in two vacuum pumping devices in advance is in evacuation or broken vacuum. Namely, the two pre-vacuumizing devices work in turn, and when the silicon wafers of one pre-vacuumizing device are subjected to the process treatment of the silicon wafers one by one, the other pre-vacuumizing device performs the operations of inflating, unloading the silicon wafers, loading new silicon wafers and vacuumizing.

The utility model discloses in, two evacuating device operations in turn in advance. When the silicon wafers in one pre-vacuumizing device are conveyed to the process treatment device by the carrying robot one by one for process treatment, the other pre-vacuumizing device performs inflation to atmospheric pressure, silicon wafer unloading, new silicon wafer loading and air exhaust to set vacuum degree. Under this mechanism, the process time of the pre-vacuum apparatus overlaps with the process time, and thus is not a factor limiting the throughput. And the first robot is specially used for carrying the silicon wafers between the two pre-vacuumizing devices and the transfer table, and the second robot is specially used for carrying the silicon wafers between the transfer table and the process treatment device. Such an operation mechanism allows the two transfer robots to have almost equal operation times and thus to have no waiting time with each other, thereby allowing the two transfer robots to each exert their respective maximum working capacities.

Although particular embodiments of the present invention have been described above, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that these are examples only and that the scope of the present invention is defined by the appended claims. Various changes and modifications to these embodiments may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the spirit and the principles of the present invention, and these changes and modifications are all within the scope of the present invention.

Claims (10)

1. A silicon wafer conveying device is characterized by comprising two pre-vacuumizing devices and a vacuum conveying device, wherein,

each pre-vacuumizing device is used for switching between an atmospheric state and a vacuum state, and each pre-vacuumizing device is used for bearing at least one silicon wafer;

the vacuum conveying device is used for conveying the silicon wafer between each pre-vacuumizing device and the process processing device for processing the silicon wafer in a vacuum state, and comprises: the silicon wafer carrying system comprises a vacuum conveying chamber, two carrying robots positioned in the vacuum conveying chamber and a transfer table used for bearing a silicon wafer;

each of the two carrying robots is provided with two manipulators capable of independently acting, and each carrying robot is used for carrying out silicon wafer exchange operation on the same station;

when one of the two transfer robots is used to transfer the silicon wafer between the pre-vacuum apparatus and the relay station, the other of the two transfer robots is used to transfer the silicon wafer between the relay station and the process treatment apparatus.

2. The silicon wafer transporting apparatus as set forth in claim 1, wherein each transfer robot includes two robot arms for holding the silicon wafer, the two robot arms being spaced apart in a direction perpendicular to the silicon wafer transfer plane, each robot arm being rotatable in the silicon wafer transfer plane.

3. The silicon wafer transporting device as claimed in claim 2, wherein the two robots of each transfer robot are rotatable together in the silicon wafer transfer plane or the two robots of each transfer robot are individually rotatable in the silicon wafer transfer plane.

4. The silicon wafer transport apparatus of claim 2, wherein each robot is liftable in a direction perpendicular to the silicon wafer transport plane.

5. The silicon wafer conveying apparatus as claimed in claim 4, wherein the two robot arms of each transfer robot are liftable together in a direction perpendicular to the silicon wafer transfer plane, or the two robot arms of each transfer robot are respectively liftable in a direction perpendicular to the silicon wafer transfer plane.

6. The silicon wafer transport apparatus of claim 2, wherein each robot is linearly retractable in the silicon wafer transport plane.

7. The silicon wafer transporting apparatus as claimed in claim 6, wherein one of the two robots of the same transfer robot holds the silicon wafer and the other robot of the two robots of the same transfer robot does not hold the silicon wafer in one operation cycle of taking and/or putting from the transfer stage and/or the process handling apparatus.

8. The silicon wafer conveying device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein when the silicon wafers in one of the two pre-vacuums are transferred one by one to the process treatment device for treatment, the other of the two pre-vacuums is in a vacuum state or a vacuum breaking state or is in an atmospheric environment for removing or loading the silicon wafers.

9. The silicon wafer conveying device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein the transfer table is further used for positioning the center of the silicon wafer and/or aligning the direction of the silicon wafer.

10. The silicon wafer conveying device according to any one of claims 1 to 7, wherein each pre-vacuuming device is provided with a wafer box for carrying at least one silicon wafer.

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