CN218490929U - Manipulator and stacker - Google Patents

Abstract

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of carrying equipment and discloses a manipulator and a stacking machine. The manipulator comprises a mounting seat, a support, a driving assembly, a bearing table and a pressing piece. The bracket is connected with the mounting seat in a sliding way; the driving assembly is connected with the bracket and the mounting seat so as to drive the bracket to move along a first direction relative to the mounting seat; the bearing table is connected with the bracket and can rotate around a second direction vertical to the first direction, and the bearing table is used for bearing the wafer box; the pressing part is movably arranged on the bearing table along the second direction so as to be pressed on the wafer box. The manipulator and the wafer box provided by the embodiment of the application can enable the carrying device of the stacker to adapt to carrying of wafer boxes with different sizes.

Description

Manipulator and stacker

Technical Field

The embodiment of the application relates to the technical field of carrying equipment, in particular to a manipulator and a stacking machine.

Background

The wafer cassette plays a role in storing and protecting wafers in semiconductor manufacturing. The wafer cassettes are stored in an automated stereoscopic warehouse and transferred to other areas by a stacker when needed. For wafers having different sizes, different sized cassettes are provided. As in a Front Opening Unified Pod (FOUP), different heights and widths are designed for wafers having different sizes. In some cases, the stacker does not design a handling device with different sizes for wafer cassettes with different sizes, which may cause the risk of dropping the wafer cassettes during handling of the wafer cassettes.

Therefore, how to adapt the handling device of the stacker to the handling of wafer cassettes of different sizes is an important problem.

SUMMERY OF THE UTILITY MODEL

An object of the embodiments of the present application is to provide a robot and a stacker, which can adapt a handling device of the stacker to handling wafer cassettes of different sizes.

In order to solve the technical problem, an embodiment of the present application provides a manipulator, which includes a mounting seat, a bracket, a driving assembly, a bearing table, and a pressing member. The bracket is connected with the mounting seat in a sliding way; the driving assembly is connected with the bracket and the mounting seat so as to drive the bracket to move along a first direction relative to the mounting seat; the bearing table is connected with the support and can rotate around a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and the bearing table is used for bearing the wafer box; the pressing part is movably arranged on the bearing table along the second direction so as to be pressed on the wafer box.

The embodiment of the application also provides a stacker, which comprises the manipulator.

The manipulator and the stacker that this application embodiment provided, support and mount pad sliding connection can carry out the translation relative to the mount pad under drive assembly's effect to make the plummer as bearing part can carry out the translation relative to the mount pad, in order to realize bearing part's flexible. Meanwhile, the bearing table can rotate relative to the support to adapt to taking and placing of the wafer boxes in different directions. And the pressing piece can restrain the wafer boxes in the process that the bearing table bears the wafer boxes, so that the bearing table can bear the wafer boxes with different sizes more stably, and the carrying of the wafer boxes with different sizes is adapted.

In some embodiments, the robot further includes a DD motor, and the carrier table is connected to the support via the DD motor and is rotated around the second direction by the DD motor. Therefore, by adopting the DD motor, the structure of the bearing part of the manipulator is more compact, and larger space cannot be occupied.

In some embodiments, the driving assembly includes a linear module and a driving source, the linear module includes a lead screw disposed on the mounting base, and a slider disposed on the bracket, the slider is in threaded engagement with the lead screw, and the driving source is disposed on the mounting base and drives the lead screw to rotate. Thus, the structure of the transmission part can be compact by adopting the linear module, and the moving precision of the transmission part can be ensured.

In some embodiments, an electric translation stage is disposed on the bearing stage, and the pressing member is connected to the bearing stage via the electric translation stage and is driven by the electric translation stage to move along the second direction. Therefore, the structure of the driving part can be compact and large space can not be occupied by adopting the modularized electric translation table.

In some embodiments, a protective cover and a cover plate are arranged on the bearing table, the protective cover and the cover plate enclose the electric translation table, and the cover plate is provided with a yielding groove extending along the second direction. Like this, can close the board through safety cover and lid and enclose including electronic translation platform, play the guard action to electronic translation platform.

In some embodiments, the bearing platform includes a mounting plate and a bearing plate connected to each other, the mounting plate is rotatably connected to the bracket, and the projections of the bearing plate and the bracket in the second direction do not overlap with each other. Therefore, the bearing part can be more compact in structure through the bearing platform in the form of a flat plate, and the limit accessibility of the bearing part for lifting on the stacker is improved.

In some embodiments, the carrier plate is provided with a plurality of positioning pins for positioning the wafer cassette. Therefore, the position of the wafer box on the bearing table can be limited through the positioning pin, and the wafer box is positioned.

In some embodiments, a detection sensor is disposed on the carrier plate for detecting whether a wafer cassette is present on the carrier plate. Therefore, the wafer box can be detected through the detection sensor, and the wafer box is ensured to be positioned on the bearing table in the carrying process of the manipulator.

In some embodiments, an RFID reader is disposed on the bonding member, and the RFID reader is used for identifying the tag information on the wafer cassette. Therefore, the tag information of the wafer box can be identified through the RFID reader-writer, and the circulation efficiency of the wafer box is improved.

Drawings

One or more embodiments are illustrated by way of example in the accompanying drawings, which correspond to the figures in which like reference numerals refer to similar elements and which are not to scale unless otherwise specified.

Fig. 1 is a schematic perspective view of a robot provided in some embodiments of the present application;

fig. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a wafer cassette according to some embodiments of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic perspective view of a robot carrying a wafer cassette according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of an explosive structure at a compact in a robot provided by some embodiments of the present application;

fig. 5 is a schematic perspective view of a robot provided in some embodiments of the present application from another perspective.

Detailed Description

In order to make the objects, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the following describes each embodiment of the present application in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, it will be appreciated by those of ordinary skill in the art that numerous technical details are set forth in various embodiments of the present application in order to provide a better understanding of the present application. However, the technical solution claimed in the present application can be implemented without these technical details and various changes and modifications based on the following embodiments. The following embodiments are divided for convenience of description, and should not constitute any limitation to the specific implementation manner of the present application, and the embodiments may be mutually incorporated and referred to without contradiction.

For wafer cassettes stored in an automated stereoscopic warehouse, automatic handling of the wafer cassettes is generally achieved by a stacker because manual handling efficiency is low and cleanliness in a handling process cannot be ensured. However, in some cases, the self-retracting forks used in stackers, and the clasping forks formed therefrom, are typically of fixed size. Like this, get at the wafer box and put and the handling in-process, can lead to wafer box poor stability because of size adaptation problem for the wafer box can appear falling the phenomenon because of lacking the restraint easily in the transfer process. Meanwhile, the automatic telescopic fork realizes telescopic translation of the bearing part through a multi-stage guide structure along the same direction, so that the whole occupied space is large, and the automatic telescopic fork cannot adapt to the carrying process of the wafer box in a small space.

And some embodiments of the application provide the manipulator, support and mount pad sliding connection to carry out the translation relative to the mount pad under drive assembly's effect, thereby drive and bear the weight of the part and realize concertina movement. Meanwhile, the bearing platform as the bearing part can rotate relative to the bracket, so that the degree of freedom of the bearing part is increased, and the taking and placing of the wafer boxes in different directions are adapted. And compare in the multistage guide structure that automatic flexible fork adopted, the manipulator that this application some embodiments provided adopts one-level translation structure, and support and bearing part can install in the side of mount pad, have reduced the ascending space in translation direction and have taken up. The pressing piece can be pressed on the wafer box in the transfer process of the wafer box, and the stability of the wafer box is improved by applying constraint on the wafer box, so that the carrying process of the wafer boxes with different sizes is adapted.

The structure of the robot provided by some embodiments of the present application is described below with reference to fig. 1 to 5.

As shown in fig. 1 to 5, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a robot including a mounting base 110, a support 120, a driving assembly 130, a carrier 140, and a pressing member 150. The bracket 120 is connected with the mounting seat 110 in a sliding way; the driving assembly 130 connects the bracket 120 and the mounting base 110 to drive the bracket 120 to move along a first direction relative to the mounting base 110; the carrying platform 140 is connected with the support 120 and can rotate around a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and the carrying platform 140 is used for carrying the wafer box 180; the pressing member 150 is movably disposed on the susceptor 140 along the second direction to press on the wafer cassette 180.

The mounting base 110 is a base for mounting the robot to the stacker and also a base for mounting other components in the robot. The mounting base 110 can connect the manipulator with a moving part on the stacker so as to carry and transfer the wafer cassette 180 by the stacker. In practical cases, the mounting base 110 may take the form of a flat plate in order to facilitate mounting of the robot. Thus, other parts of the robot may be mounted on one side of the mounting base 110 in the thickness direction, and the robot may be surface-mounted to the stacker through the other side of the mounting base 110 in the thickness direction. Thereby the whole structure of the manipulator is simple and compact. As shown in fig. 1 and 2, the side-hung mounting of the robot arm may be achieved by a mounting seat 110 in the form of a flat plate.

The carriage 120 is a part of the robot that can translate relative to the mount 110 in a first direction (including the forward direction indicated by the arrow X in fig. 1 and the reverse direction thereof). After the support 120 is connected to the carrying portion of the robot, the carrying portion can be driven by the driving assembly 130 to translate relative to the mounting base 110, so as to achieve the picking and placing of the wafer box 180. The bracket 120 and the mounting base 110 may adopt a sliding connection form, and after the sliding portion 121 of the bracket 120 is matched with the rail portion 111 on the mounting base 110, the sliding portion can translate relative to the mounting base 110 under the action of the driving assembly 130, so as to achieve the extension and retraction of the bearing component.

The susceptor 140 is a part of the robot for supporting the wafer cassette 180. The carrier 140 is coupled to the support 120 and can translate with the support 120 relative to the mount 110. Meanwhile, the susceptor 140 is rotatably connected to the support 120, and the susceptor 140 can rotate around a second direction (including a forward direction indicated by an arrow Y and a reverse direction thereof in fig. 1) relative to the support 120, so as to accommodate taking and placing of the wafer cassettes 180 in different directions.

The press 150 is a part of the robot arm for restraining the wafer cassette 180. The pressing member 150 may move on the susceptor 140 in the second direction to press the wafer cassette 180 placed on the susceptor 140. The wafer cassette 180 can be stabilized on the susceptor 140 by the pressing action of the pressing member 150.

In the robot provided by some embodiments of the present application, the support 120 is slidably connected to the mounting base 110, and can translate relative to the mounting base 110 under the action of the driving assembly 130, so that the bearing platform 140 serving as a bearing portion can translate relative to the mounting base 110, so as to achieve the extension and retraction of the bearing portion. Meanwhile, the susceptor 140 may rotate relative to the support 120 to accommodate the taking and placing of the wafer cassettes 180 in different directions. In addition, the pressing member 150 can constrain the wafer cassette 180 during the process of loading the wafer cassette 180 by the loading platform 140, so that the loading platform 140 can stably load the wafer cassettes 180 with different sizes, and the wafer cassettes 180 with different sizes can be transported.

Compared with an automatic telescopic fork, the manipulator provided by some embodiments of the present application adapts to taking and placing of the wafer boxes 180 in different directions through rotation of the bearing part while realizing telescopic translation of the bearing part, and the bearing part can be installed on the side of the mounting seat 110. The whole structure of the manipulator is simple and compact, and the space occupation in the translation direction is reduced.

In addition, in order to make the entire structure of the manipulator simple and compact, the entire bracket 120 may be made of different flat plate structures. The bracket 120 includes a bottom plate, a vertical plate, and a reinforcing plate connecting the bottom plate and the vertical plate, and the vertical plate may be connected with the slider of the linear module 131, thereby achieving the sliding connection of the bracket 120 and the mounting base 110. And a base plate may be used to mount DD motor 160 as well as carrier table 130. The reinforcing plate can reinforce the strength of the whole structure of the bracket 120 and improve the stress of the bracket 120.

In some embodiments of the present application, the robot further includes a DD (direct drive) motor, and the carrier 140 is connected to the support 120 via the DD motor 160 and is driven by the DD motor 160 to rotate around the second direction.

The DD motor 160 is a driving motor with a compact structure, and the DD motor 160 is used to drive the carrier platform 140, so as to reduce the overall height of the carrier part of the manipulator and reduce the occupied space of the manipulator. Therefore, the structure of the manipulator is more compact, the stress of the bearing part is more reasonable, the wafer box 180 can be better borne, the adaptability is stronger, and the safety is higher.

In some embodiments of the present application, the driving assembly 130 includes a linear module 131 and a driving source 132, the linear module 131 includes a lead screw disposed on the mounting base 110, and a slider disposed on the bracket 120, the slider is in threaded engagement with the lead screw, and the driving source 132 is disposed on the mounting base 110 and drives the lead screw to rotate.

The driving source 132 may be a common motor or a servo motor, and when the driving source 132 drives the lead screw to rotate, the slider disposed on the bracket 120 translates relative to the mounting base 110, so as to achieve the extension and retraction of the bearing portion. Through adopting linear module 131 to carry out the transmission, can be so that transmission compact structure, simultaneously, control accuracy is higher, can control the bearing part and accurately move to preset position.

In addition, the linear module 131 adopting the screw slider structure can be matched with the guide rail slider structures of the connecting bracket 120 and the mounting base 110 to share the load of the bearing part, so that the stress distribution of the manipulator is relatively uniform.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the carrier stage 140 is provided with a motorized translation stage 170, and the pressing member 150 is connected to the carrier stage 140 through the motorized translation stage 170 and moves along the second direction under the driving of the motorized translation stage 170.

The electric translation stage 170 is a modular structure integrating a driving portion and a transmission portion, and the pressing member 150 can be moved in the second direction by the electric translation stage 170. By adopting the integrated electric translation table 170, the driving structure in the manipulator is more compact, and the manipulator does not occupy larger space.

In some embodiments of the present application, a protective cover 171 and a cover plate 172 are disposed on the bearing platform 140, the protective cover 171 and the cover plate 172 enclose the electric translation stage 170, and the cover plate 172 is disposed with an avoiding groove 1721 extending along the second direction.

By providing the protective cover 171 and the cover plate 172 on the bearing table 140, the electric translation table 170 can be isolated from the external environment, thereby protecting the electric translation table 170. Meanwhile, the receding groove 1721 formed in the cover plate 172 enables the connecting rod 152 of the pressing member 150 to move smoothly, so as to avoid affecting the normal movement of the pressing member 150.

In some embodiments of the present application, the carrier platform 140 includes a mounting plate 141 and a carrier plate 142 connected to each other, the mounting plate 141 is rotatably connected to the bracket 120, and the projection of the carrier plate 142 and the projection of the bracket 120 in the second direction do not overlap each other.

Mounting plate 141 is the portion of carrier platform 140 that is coupled to frame 120, and mounting plate 141 is mounted to the output of DD motor 160 to provide a rotatable connection to frame 120. The carrier 142 is a portion of the carrier 140 for carrying the wafer box 180, the carrier 142 is fixed to the mounting plate 141, and projections of the carrier 142 and the bracket 120 in the second direction do not overlap with each other.

By adopting the bearing table 140 in the form of a flat plate, the structure of the bearing part can be simple and compact, and the reduction of occupied space is facilitated. In conjunction with the DD motor 160, the robot can be lifted up and down to its full reach on the stacker. Meanwhile, the projections of the carrier plate 142 and the bracket 120 in the second direction are not overlapped with each other, so that the possibility of interference between the carrier part and other parts in the height direction can be reduced, and the wafer box 180 can be conveniently taken and placed.

In some embodiments of the present invention, a plurality of positioning pins 1421 are disposed on the carrier plate 142, and the plurality of positioning pins 1421 are used for positioning the wafer cassette 180.

The positioning pin 1421 may be engaged with a groove formed at the bottom of the wafer box 180, thereby positioning the wafer box 180 and preventing the wafer box 180 from moving on the carrier plate 142. As shown in fig. 1, the positioning pin 1421 is a protrusion structure disposed on the supporting plate 142, and has a height difference with the supporting surface of the supporting plate 142. After the positioning pins 1421 are engaged with the wafer box 180, the position of the wafer box 180 on the plate of the susceptor 140 may be limited, so as to ensure that the wafer box 180 does not have a risk of falling during the processes of taking, placing and transporting.

In some embodiments of the present application, a detection sensor 1422 is further disposed on the carrier plate 142, and the detection sensor 1422 is used to detect whether the wafer cassette 180 is present on the carrier plate 142.

The detection sensor 1422 may be a diffuse reflection sensor, and may detect whether the wafer cassette 180 is present on the carrier plate 142.

In addition, there may be a plurality of detection sensors 1422, and the plurality of detection sensors 1422 may detect different positions of the wafer cassette 180, thereby ensuring that the position of the wafer cassette 180 on the susceptor 140 is maintained in a predetermined state. Thus, when only a part of the detection sensors 1422 detects the wafer cassette 180, it is determined that the wafer cassette 180 is deviated from a previously assumed position, so that adjustment can be performed in time.

The pressing member 150 is provided with a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) reader/writer, and the RFID reader/writer 151 is used for identifying tag information on the wafer cassette 180.

The tag information of the wafer cassette 180 can be identified in the carrying process by the RFID reader/writer 151, so that an additional beat is not occupied, and the circulation efficiency of the wafer cassette 180 can be improved.

Some embodiments of the present application further provide a stacker, including a manipulator, where the manipulator is the manipulator in the above embodiments.

Carry out the transport of wafer box through the manipulator that adopts above-mentioned embodiment, can avoid occupying the problem of big and wafer box existence falling the risk because of adopting the space that automatic flexible fork leads to. Through the removal of pressing fitting in the second direction, can compatible not unidimensional wafer box, adapt to the handling of the wafer box of unidimensional not for do not have the wafer box shake landing problem in acceleration and deceleration process. In addition, the situation that only wafer boxes with one size can be stored in one three-dimensional warehouse can be broken.

It will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the foregoing embodiments are specific examples for carrying out the present application, and that various changes in form and details may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present application in practice.

Claims (10)

1. A robot hand for transferring a wafer cassette, comprising:

a mounting seat;

the bracket is connected with the mounting seat in a sliding manner;

the driving assembly is connected with the bracket and the mounting seat so as to drive the bracket to move along a first direction relative to the mounting seat;

the bearing table is connected with the support and can rotate around a second direction perpendicular to the first direction, and the bearing table is used for bearing the wafer box;

and the pressing part is movably arranged on the bearing table along the second direction so as to be pressed on the wafer box.

2. The robot hand according to claim 1, wherein:

the bearing table is connected with the support through the DD motor and driven by the DD motor to rotate around the second direction.

3. The robot hand according to claim 1, wherein:

the drive assembly comprises a linear module and a drive source, the linear module comprises a lead screw arranged on the mounting seat and a sliding block arranged on the support, the sliding block is in threaded fit with the lead screw, the drive source is arranged on the mounting seat and drives the lead screw to rotate.

4. The robot hand according to claim 1, wherein:

the bearing table is provided with an electric translation table, and the pressing piece is connected with the bearing table and driven by the electric translation table to move along the second direction.

5. The robot hand according to claim 4, wherein:

be provided with the safety cover on the plummer and cover the board that closes, the safety cover with it will to cover the board including electronic translation platform surrounds, it follows to cover to be provided with on the board the groove of stepping down that the second direction extends.

6. The robot hand according to claim 1, wherein:

the plummer is including the mounting panel and the loading board that link to each other, the mounting panel with the support rotates to be connected, the loading board with the support is in the projection in the second direction does not overlap each other.

7. The robot hand of claim 6, wherein:

the loading plate is provided with a plurality of positioning pins, and the positioning pins are used for positioning the wafer box.

8. The robot hand of claim 6, wherein:

the loading plate is provided with a detection sensor, and the detection sensor is used for detecting whether the wafer box is stored on the loading plate.

9. The robot hand according to claim 1, wherein:

and an RFID reader-writer is arranged on the pressing piece and used for identifying the label information on the wafer box.

10. A stacker, comprising:

the robot hand of any one of claims 1 to 9.

Images