CN219811474U - Wafer transfer device - Google Patents

Abstract

The utility model relates to the field of semiconductor processing, and particularly discloses a wafer transfer device, which comprises a transfer platform; a support arm fixedly connected with the transfer platform; a plurality of support lifting mechanisms arranged on the support arms for supporting the transferred wafers; the supporting lifting mechanisms can be lifted and adjusted on the supporting arms independently, so that when the supporting lifting mechanisms lift the transferred wafer, the supporting peaks of the supporting lifting mechanisms are synchronous to be contacted with corresponding different supporting position points on the transferred wafer. According to the wafer transfer device, each supporting lifting mechanism can be lifted and adjusted on the supporting arm independently, so that each supporting lifting mechanism can be adjusted to the supporting position point that the supporting top points synchronously contact with the wafer, collision between the wafer and the supporting lifting mechanisms is avoided, the uniformity of acting force applied by each supporting lifting mechanism to the wafer is ensured, and the problem that the wafer is damaged due to uneven stress is avoided.

Description

Wafer transfer device

Technical Field

The utility model relates to the technical field of semiconductor processing, in particular to a wafer transfer device.

Background

In the technical field of semiconductor equipment, the transfer of a single wafer between a plurality of different processing stations is a common operation; the wafer transfer mechanism is thus also a very widely used semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. In the single wafer processing equipment, the wafer transfer mechanism is one of the busiest movement mechanisms, and single wafers need to be transferred between different stations smoothly, so that the wafer processing process can be operated completely.

The wafer transfer mechanism is a relatively fragile component with higher precision, which is necessarily in direct contact with a single wafer during the phase transfer process of the single wafer, so that the wafer transfer mechanism has relatively high difficulty in avoiding the collision and damage of the wafer when acquiring the wafer from a processing station and transferring the wafer.

Disclosure of Invention

The utility model aims to provide a wafer transfer device which can reduce the possibility of wafer transfer damage to a certain extent and improve the stability of wafer transfer.

In order to solve the technical problems, the utility model provides a wafer transfer device, which comprises a transfer platform; a support arm fixedly connected with the transfer platform; a plurality of support lifting mechanisms arranged on the support arms and used for supporting the transferred wafers;

and the supporting lifting mechanisms can be lifted and regulated on the supporting arms independently, so that when each supporting lifting mechanism supports the transferred wafer, the supporting top points of the supporting lifting mechanisms are synchronously contacted with corresponding different supporting position points on the transferred wafer.

In an alternative embodiment of the present utility model, each of the support lifting mechanisms is fixedly connected with a distance measuring sensor, which is respectively used for measuring distance data between the corresponding support lifting mechanism and the corresponding support position point on the transferred wafer.

In an alternative embodiment of the utility model, the distance measuring sensor is a laser distance measuring sensor.

In an alternative embodiment of the utility model, a data storage device is also included in connection with each of the support lift mechanisms for storing lift height data for each of the support lift mechanisms as each of the processing stations lifts the transferred wafer.

In an optional embodiment of the present utility model, the apparatus further includes an alarm connected to the data storage device, and configured to send an alarm when a difference between the elevation height data corresponding to two adjacent times of lifting the transferred wafer at the same processing station is greater than a set difference.

In an alternative embodiment of the present utility model, a rubber cushion is disposed on a supporting apex of each of the supporting elevating mechanisms supporting the transferred wafer.

In an alternative embodiment of the present utility model, a rubber suction cup is disposed on a supporting vertex of each supporting lifting mechanism supporting the transferred wafer;

the center of the rubber sucker is provided with a vent hole communicated with the air exhaust component through an air vent pipeline.

In an alternative embodiment of the utility model, the relative position between each of the support lift mechanisms on the support arms is adjustable in the horizontal direction.

In an alternative embodiment of the utility model, the number of the supporting arms is at least two, and the relative position between the supporting arms in the horizontal direction is adjustable.

In an alternative embodiment of the utility model, the length of the support arm is telescopically adjustable.

The utility model provides a wafer transfer device, which comprises a transfer platform; a support arm fixedly connected with the transfer platform; a plurality of support lifting mechanisms arranged on the support arms for supporting the transferred wafers; the supporting lifting mechanisms can be lifted and adjusted on the supporting arms independently, so that when the supporting lifting mechanisms lift the transferred wafer, the supporting peaks of the supporting lifting mechanisms are synchronous to be contacted with corresponding different supporting position points on the transferred wafer.

According to the utility model, the supporting arms for supporting the wafer are provided with the plurality of supporting lifting mechanisms for directly contacting the wafer, and each supporting lifting mechanism can carry out independent lifting adjustment on the supporting arm, so that before the supporting arm actually supports the wafer placed on the processing station, the supporting lifting mechanisms can be respectively subjected to height lifting adjustment, and therefore, when the supporting lifting mechanisms move upwards along with the supporting arms, the supporting peaks of the supporting lifting mechanisms synchronously contact the transferred wafer, the problem of side turning of the transferred wafer due to different supporting sequences of different positions in the process of being supported is avoided, the stability of the supporting acting force of the supporting peaks of the supporting lifting mechanisms on the transferred wafer support is ensured, and the uniformity of the supporting acting force of the supporting peaks of the supporting lifting mechanisms on the transferred wafer support is also ensured.

Therefore, the wafer transfer device can ensure the stability and the stress uniformity of the transferred wafer in the transfer process, avoid collision between the wafer and the supporting lifting mechanism, and effectively reduce the possibility of wafer damage.

Drawings

For a clearer description of embodiments of the utility model or of the prior art, the drawings that are used in the description of the embodiments or of the prior art will be briefly described, it being apparent that the drawings in the description below are only some embodiments of the utility model, and that other drawings can be obtained from them without inventive effort for a person skilled in the art.

Fig. 1 is a schematic top view of a wafer transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present utility model;

fig. 2 is a schematic side view of a wafer transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present utility model.

Detailed Description

When the wafer transfer mechanism transfers the wafer, the wafer can be acquired from the current processing station, transferred to the target processing station and placed on the wafer placement plane of the target processing station by adopting various modes such as clamping, adsorption, supporting and the like.

For each processing station, along with the lapse of service time, material replacement and machine maintenance, the corresponding wafer placing plane is always gradually changed so as not to meet the requirement of levelness; the levelness of the wafer placing plane is inconvenient to adjust, personnel are required to debug each time, and the debugging result is influenced by personnel quality. This also results in the wafer not necessarily remaining absolutely horizontal at the processing station. Therefore, even if the wafer transfer mechanism directly determines that each supporting point of the wafer can be kept in the same plane with high precision, when the wafer transfer mechanism acquires the wafer from the processing station, the supporting points and the surface of the wafer cannot be synchronously contacted, and the time sequence is always existed; and because of various processing on the wafer surface, the wafer surface is further caused to present a non-flat surface, which further causes the contact between each supporting point of the wafer transfer mechanism and the supporting position point of the wafer surface to be in time sequence when the wafer is supported.

Because each supporting point of the wafer transfer mechanism is not synchronous and contacts with supporting position points of different positions on the surface of the wafer, the magnitude of acting force applied by the wafer transfer mechanism to the different supporting position points on the surface of the wafer is different, and the problem that the wafer is stressed unevenly and damaged is easily caused.

Therefore, the wafer transfer device provided by the utility model can ensure the uniformity of stress of each supporting position point on the wafer and avoid collision and damage when the wafer is transferred.

In order to better understand the aspects of the present utility model, the present utility model will be described in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings and detailed description. It will be apparent that the described embodiments are only some, but not all, embodiments of the utility model. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the utility model without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the utility model.

As shown in fig. 1 and fig. 2, fig. 1 is a schematic top view of a wafer transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present utility model; fig. 2 is a schematic side view of a wafer transfer apparatus according to an embodiment of the present utility model. In one embodiment of the present utility model, the wafer transfer apparatus may include:

a transfer platform 1; a support arm 2 fixedly connected with the transfer platform 1; a plurality of support elevating mechanisms 3 provided on the support arm 2 for supporting the transferred wafer 100; wherein, each supporting elevating mechanism 3 can be lifted and regulated on the supporting arm 2 independently, so that when each supporting elevating mechanism 3 supports the transferred wafer 100, the supporting peak points of each supporting elevating mechanism 3 are synchronous to contact with different supporting position points on the transferred wafer 100.

It will be appreciated that when the next processing step is required after the transferred wafer 100 is processed at the current station, the transferred wafer 100 needs to be obtained from the current station and transferred to the target station by the wafer transfer device.

The wafer transferring apparatus in this embodiment mainly includes two parts, namely a transferring platform 1 and a supporting arm 2, and the manner of obtaining the transferred wafer 100 on the current station mainly includes that the transferred wafer 100 is lifted from the current station.

In the actual transferring process of the transferred wafer, the transfer platform 1 drives the support arm 2 to move to the position right below the transferred wafer 100 on the current station, then the transfer platform 1 drives the support arm 2 to move upwards so as to support and acquire the transferred wafer 100, and then the supported transferred wafer 100 and the support arm 2 are jointly moved to the position right above the target station, and the support arm 2 is gradually moved downwards until the transferred wafer 100 is placed on the wafer placing plane on the target station, so that the transferring process of the transferred wafer can be completed.

On the basis of this, the support arm 2 in the present embodiment is provided with a support elevating mechanism 3. The supporting elevating mechanism 3 is a structural member directly contacting the surface of the transferred wafer 100. Referring to fig. 2, the supporting elevating mechanism 3 in the present utility model may be a mechanism protruding from the upper surface of the supporting arm 2 and having a generally columnar structure.

When the transfer platform 1 drives the support arm 2 to move to the position right below the transferred wafer 100, it is obvious that along with the upward movement of the support arm 2, the top points of the support lifting mechanisms 3 can be respectively contacted with the different positions on the transferred wafer 100, and the transferred wafer 100 is supported. When the support elevating mechanisms 3 move upward to hold the transferred wafer 100, the position point in contact with the transferred wafer 100 is used as the support position point corresponding to each support elevating mechanism 3.

It will be appreciated that if the wafer placement plane at the current station where the transferred wafer 100 is located can maintain good levelness, each support lift mechanism 3 has good levelness at the support position point on the transferred wafer 100, so long as the support vertices of each support lift mechanism 3 are maintained horizontally. However, it is obvious that in practical applications, the wafer placement plane at the current station cannot necessarily be kept horizontal, and even because of the processing structure on the surface of the transferred wafer 100, the supporting points of the transferred wafer 100 may not be located in the same plane. Therefore, if the support peaks of the support lifting mechanisms 3 are kept horizontal, in the process that the transferred wafer 100 is supported and lifted by the support lifting mechanisms 3, one or more support lifting mechanisms 3 may contact the transferred wafer 100 first, so that the transferred wafer 100 rotates or even turns on one side, or different support positions on the surface of the transferred wafer 100 are stressed unevenly because of different contact sequences with the corresponding support lifting mechanisms 3, so that the transferred wafer 100 is damaged.

For this reason, in order to avoid the above-described problem in the present embodiment, each support elevating mechanism 3 on the support arm 2 is provided in a structure that can be adjusted in elevation. When each supporting elevating mechanism 3 on the supporting arm 2 is located right under the transferred wafer 100, the elevating adjustment of each supporting elevating mechanism 3 can be performed so that the distance between the supporting peak of each supporting elevating mechanism 3 and the corresponding supporting position point on the transferred wafer 100 is the same. Therefore, when the support arm 2 is driven to move upwards through the transfer platform 1, the support lifting mechanisms 3 move upwards synchronously with the support lifting mechanisms and have the same moving distance, so that the support top points of the support lifting mechanisms 3 can synchronously contact the corresponding support position points on the transferred wafer 100, rollover of the transferred wafer 100 when the transferred wafer 100 is supported and lifted is avoided, the support acting forces applied by the support lifting mechanisms 3 to different support position points on the transferred wafer 100 are basically the same, and the stability of the supported and lifted transferred wafer 100 and the uniformity of the supported acting forces are ensured.

As described above, to ensure that the support vertexes of the respective support elevating mechanisms 3 are in contact with the corresponding support position points on the transferred wafer 100, it is necessary that the respective support elevating mechanisms 3 are adjusted to be the same distance between the corresponding support vertexes and the corresponding support position points on the transferred wafer 100. In order to implement more accurate lifting adjustment of each support lift mechanism 3, a relative distance between a support apex on each support lift mechanism 3 and a corresponding support position point on the transferred wafer 100 may be determined first, and then each support lift mechanism 3 may be adjusted up and down according to the relative distance.

To this end, in another alternative embodiment of the present utility model, it may further include:

each support lifting mechanism 3 is fixedly connected with a distance measuring sensor 4 for measuring distance data between the corresponding support lifting mechanism 3 and a corresponding support position point on the transferred wafer 100.

Because each supporting lifting mechanism 3 and the corresponding distance measuring sensor 4 are fixedly connected, each distance measuring sensor 4 can be adjusted to be lifted and lowered synchronously with the corresponding supporting lifting mechanism 3, and the height difference between the supporting vertexes of the distance measuring sensor 4 and the corresponding supporting lifting mechanism 3 in the vertical direction is the fixed height difference, so that the distance data of the relative distance between the supporting vertexes of the corresponding supporting lifting mechanism 3 and the supporting position points on the transferred wafer 100 is determined according to the distance data between the transferred wafer 100 and the supporting vertexes measured by the distance measuring sensor 4; accordingly, the lifting adjustment of each support lifting mechanism 3 can be performed according to the distance data measured by each distance measuring sensor 4.

As shown in fig. 2, taking the example in which the first support elevating mechanism 31, the second support elevating mechanism 32, the third support elevating mechanism 33, and the fourth support elevating mechanism 34 are provided on the support arm 2, four distance measuring sensors 4 such as a first distance measuring sensor 41, a second distance measuring sensor 42, a third distance measuring sensor 43, and a fourth distance measuring sensor 44 are fixedly connected to each other, and distance data measured by the first distance measuring sensor 41, the second distance measuring sensor 42, the third distance measuring sensor 43, and the fourth distance measuring sensor 44 are L1, L2, L3, and L4, respectively.

Averaging the four distance data to obtain an average value L0, and respectively carrying out difference value operation on L1, L2, L3 and L4 and L0; in the distance data L1, if the result of the difference operation with L0 is negative, the first supporting and elevating mechanism 31 is adjusted downward according to the difference value, and if the result is positive, the first supporting and elevating mechanism 31 is adjusted upward according to the difference value. Similarly, each of the other support elevating mechanisms 3 may be adjusted in a similar manner as described above, and eventually the distance between the support apex of each support elevating mechanism 3 and the corresponding support position point on the transferred wafer 100 may be equal to L0.

Of course, it is also possible to take certain distance data of L1, L2, L3, and L4 as reference distance data, and adjust the distances between the support top point and the corresponding support position point on the transferred wafer 100 by using the other three support lifting mechanisms 100 to be equal to the reference distance data, which is not particularly limited in the present utility model, and the present utility model only needs to ensure that each support lifting mechanism 3 is adjustable in lifting and lowering, and the distance data can be measured by the corresponding distance measuring sensor 4.

Furthermore, the distance measuring sensor 4 does not necessarily need to be lifted synchronously with the corresponding supporting lifter 3, and in another alternative embodiment of the present utility model, a distance may be fixedly set on the supporting arm 2 at positions respectively adjacent to the corresponding supporting lifter 3, but does not move up and down with the supporting lifter 3. On the basis, each supporting lifting mechanism 3 can be directly and uniformly lowered to the lowest height or a certain set standard height, and the heights of the supporting lifters 3 on the supporting arms 2 can be considered to be the same; and each distance measuring sensor 4 is in a unified plane on the supporting arm 2 and is parallel to the plane of the supporting vertex of each supporting lifting mechanism 3. The distance data thus measured by the respective distance measuring sensors 4 can also be converted into distance data of the relative distances between the support vertices of the respective support lifter 3 and the corresponding support position points on the transferred wafer 100. Accordingly, when each supporting and lifting mechanism 3 is adjusted according to each distance data, for example, when each supporting and lifting mechanism 3 is at the lowest height currently, the smallest distance data in each distance data can be used as a reference, and the corresponding supporting and lifting mechanism 3 can be adjusted upwards according to the difference value of other distance data, so that the same relative distance between the supporting top point of each supporting and lifting mechanism 3 and the corresponding supporting position point on the transferred wafer 100 can be realized.

For the ranging sensor 4 in the above embodiment, only a laser ranging sensor for measuring a straight line distance may be used, and accurate distance data may be measured.

Based on the above discussion, the distance measuring sensor 4 in the present utility model mainly serves to measure the relative distance between the support peak of each support lifter 3 and the corresponding support position point on the transferred wafer 100. It is obvious that this distance data is to be measured not only by a sensor for measuring a straight distance like a laser ranging sensor or the like. For example, a binocular camera may be fixedly disposed on the transfer platform 1 or other devices, so as to collect the spatial distance between the supporting vertex of each supporting lifting mechanism 3 and the corresponding supporting position point on the transferred wafer 100, and also determine the direction and distance of each supporting lifting mechanism 3 that needs to be lifted and adjusted, which will not be described in detail.

As described above, in the present utility model, the support lifter 3 is adjusted to be lifted before each support lifter 3 supports the transferred wafer 100, and a great part of factors are that the levelness of the wafer placement plane of the processing station where the transferred wafer 100 is currently located cannot be ensured. When the transferred wafer 100 is transferred to the target station, the levelness of the wafer placement plane at the target station is also not guaranteed. Therefore, if the plane of the transferred wafer 100 on the supporting lifting mechanism 3 is not parallel to the wafer placing plane on the target station, when the transferred wafer 100 is placed on the target station, the wafer placing planes of the target station are in sequence when the different positions of the transferred wafer 100 are landed on the wafer placing planes of the target station, and the risk of collision or even damage to the transferred wafer 100 is caused.

To this end, in another alternative embodiment of the present utility model, it may further include:

and a data storage connected to each support elevating mechanism 3 for storing elevation data of each support elevating mechanism 3 when the transferred wafer 100 is lifted at each processing station.

It will be appreciated that in this embodiment, the lifting adjustment of each supporting and lifting mechanism 3 is implemented by using a micro-driving motor, and the connection between the data memory and each supporting and lifting mechanism 3 in this embodiment is connected to the driving motor of each supporting and lifting mechanism 3, so as to obtain and store the corresponding lifting height data of each supporting and lifting mechanism 3 when lifting the transferred wafer 100 at each processing station.

In this embodiment, when each support lift mechanism 3 is lifted from the processing station to acquire the transferred wafer 100, the height data of each support lift mechanism 3 is stored and recorded, and the height data characterizes the non-horizontal state of the wafer placement plane of the processing station to a certain extent. Therefore, when the support arm 3 drives the transferred wafer 100 to be transferred to a certain target station for placement, the lifting adjustment can be performed on each support lifting mechanism 3 on the current support arm 2 according to the lifting height data corresponding to the process that the transferred wafer 100 is taken away from the target station at the last time, so that the lifting heights of each support lifting mechanism 3 and the lifting height data recorded by the data storage are consistent, that is, the lifting heights corresponding to each support lifting mechanism 3 enable the plane where the transferred wafer 100 supported by the support lifting mechanism is located and the wafer placement plane on the target station to be basically parallel to each other, and therefore, when the transferred wafer 100 is placed on the target station, the transferred wafer 100 can be landed on the wafer placement plane of the target station as stably as possible, and the problem that the transferred wafer 100 is bumped or even damaged is avoided to the greatest extent.

In addition, it can be understood that, in general, the wafer placement plane of each processing station does not change excessively in a short time, so that in practical application, a set of lifting height data corresponding to each processing station can be stored in advance, when the transferred wafer 100 on a certain processing station is acquired, the relative distance between each supporting peak on each supporting lifting mechanism 3 and the supporting position point on the transferred wafer 100 is not required to be detected, and only the lifting adjustment is required to be performed on each supporting lifting mechanism 3 directly according to the pre-stored lifting height data, so that the relative distance between the supporting peak of each supporting lifting mechanism 3 and the corresponding supporting position point on the transferred wafer 100 is also enabled to be the same; that is, in the present utility model, it is not necessarily necessary to provide the distance measuring sensor 4 when the lifting adjustment of each support lifting mechanism 3 is performed.

In practical application, along with the extension of working time, the wafer placement plane of each processing station may gradually change, so that the wafer placement plane of each processing station may be measured regularly, and the lifting height data in the data memory is updated, so as to ensure the accuracy of lifting adjustment of each supporting lifting mechanism 3.

Of course, for the supporting elevating mechanism 3 provided with the ranging sensor 4, after each supporting elevating mechanism 3 is adjusted according to the pre-stored elevating height data, each ranging sensor 4 may be used to collect the distance data corresponding to each supporting elevating mechanism 3, and if the distance data are substantially the same, the pre-stored elevating height data may be relatively accurate; if a certain deviation exists among the distance data, the wafer placing plane of the current station is indicated to change, the pre-stored lifting height data are inaccurate, at the moment, the lifting adjustment of each supporting lifting mechanism 3 can be carried out again according to the measured distance data, and the lifting height data corresponding to the lifting adjustment are updated to the lifting height data stored in the data storage.

Normally, after the support lifting mechanism 3 is lifted and adjusted according to the lifting height data stored in the data memory, even if the distance data acquired by each ranging sensor 4 have deviation, the deviation is relatively small, and if a large deviation occurs between each distance data, it is obvious that a large change occurs in the wafer placement plane of the processing station, which is unreasonable. To this end, in another alternative embodiment of the present utility model, it may further include:

and the alarm is connected with the data storage and is used for sending an alarm when the difference value between the corresponding lifting height data when the transferred wafer 100 is lifted up twice on the same processing station is larger than the set difference value.

It can be understood that, in practical application, after the support arm 2 is moved to the position right below the transferred wafer 100, after each ranging sensor 4 is used to respectively adjust the lifting of each support lifting mechanism 3, the lifting height data corresponding to each support lifting mechanism 3 is compared with the lifting height data corresponding to the same target station stored in the data storage, if the deviation between the two is too large, an alarm can be sent out through the alarm to prompt the staff to pay attention to and check; if there is only a slight difference between the two sets of elevation data, the elevation data stored in the data memory may be updated according to the current elevation data of each support elevating mechanism 3.

In addition, when the supporting elevating mechanism 3 places the transferred wafer 100 onto the target station, it is not necessarily required to store supporting elevating data by using a data memory, and a ranging sensor may be provided on the processing station, so that distances between different position points on the transferred wafer 100 located directly above the target station and a wafer placing plane on the target station may be measured by using the ranging sensor on the target station, and thus, the elevating height of each supporting elevating mechanism 3 may be adjusted, thereby also ensuring stable placement of the transferred wafer 100 on the target station.

Based on the above discussion, in order to further avoid collision between the support vertex and the transferred wafer 100 in the process that the transferred wafer 100 is supported and lifted by the support vertex of each support lifting mechanism 3, a rubber cushion may be disposed on the support vertex of each support lifting mechanism 3 for supporting the transferred wafer 100; thereby acting to some extent to buffer the supporting pressure of the respective supporting vertices against the transferred wafer 100.

Furthermore, in another alternative embodiment of the present utility model, it may further include:

each supporting lifting mechanism 3 is provided with a rubber suction cup on the supporting vertex for supporting the transferred wafer 100;

the center of the rubber sucker is provided with a vent hole communicated with the air exhaust component through an air vent pipeline.

When the supporting vertexes of the supporting lifting mechanisms synchronously attach and support the transferred wafer, the rubber suction cups on the supporting vertexes can attach to the surface of the transferred wafer 100, and then air in the central area of the rubber suction cup is pumped through the air pumping assembly, so that the rubber suction cup can generate a certain adsorption force on the transferred wafer 100; obviously, compared with the mode that each supporting and lifting mechanism 3 only lifts the transferred wafer 100, a certain adsorption force is generated on the transferred wafer 100 through the rubber suction disc, so that the connection between the transferred wafer 100 and each supporting and lifting mechanism 3 is tighter in the process of transferring the transferred wafer 100 from the current station to the target station, the problem that the transferred wafer 100 slides off from each supporting and lifting mechanism 3 can be avoided to a certain extent, and the transfer stability and safety of the transferred wafer 100 are further ensured.

In practical applications, the size and shape of the wafers 100 to be transferred are various, and the size of the space into which the processing station can accommodate the support arm 2 is different, so that the support lifting mechanism 3 on the support arm 2 can be widely applied to various different transferred wafers 100 and processing stations, and in another continuous embodiment of the present utility model, the method may further include:

the relative position between the supporting elevating mechanisms 3 on the supporting arm 2 in the horizontal direction is adjustable.

It is obvious that, for the transferred wafers 100 of different shapes and sizes, the transferred wafers 100 are stably supported and lifted, and the relative position layout between the corresponding support lifting mechanisms 3 may be different.

For this reason, each support lift mechanism 3 in the present embodiment is provided so as to be adjustable in relative position in the horizontal direction, thereby enabling each support lift mechanism 3 to be adjusted to a reasonable layout position according to the type of the wafer 100 to be transferred.

However, there may be various implementations to make the relative position of each support lifting mechanism 3 adjustable in the horizontal direction, for example, a sliding rail corresponding to each support lifting mechanism 3 may be provided on the support arm 2, and the relative position between each support lifting mechanism 3 may be adjusted by controlling each support lifting mechanism 3 to slide on the sliding rail.

Furthermore, in another alternative embodiment of the present utility model, it may further include:

the number of the supporting arms 2 is at least two, and the relative positions of the supporting arms 2 in the horizontal direction are adjustable.

In addition, the length of the supporting arm 2 can be also provided to be adjustable in a telescopic way.

It will be appreciated that if the relative position between the individual support arms 2 is adjustable, the size of the common horizontal plane occupied by the individual support arms 2 can be varied to some extent so as to be movable into a space which accommodates the underside of different processing stations. And because each supporting lifting mechanism 3 is located on each supporting arm 2, in practical application, the adjustment of the relative position between each supporting arm 2 can also be utilized to drive the adjustment of the relative position between the supporting lifting structures 3 located on each supporting arm 2, so that the device is suitable for supporting different types of transferred wafers 100.

Similarly, for the telescopic support arm 2, the telescopic adjustment can be made based on the dimensions of the space under the different processing stations as well, so that the support arm 2 can be extended into the space under each of the different processing stations. And for the support lifting mechanisms 3 positioned on different sections of the support arm 2, the relative position of the support lifting mechanisms 3 can be adjusted by telescopic adjustment between different sections of the support arm 2.

It will be appreciated that in practice other adjustment of the support arm 2 and support lift mechanism 3 may be provided to accommodate a variety of different types of processing stations and transferred wafers 100, and that the present utility model is not illustrated.

In summary, the support arm for supporting the transferred wafer is provided with the plurality of support lifting mechanisms capable of being lifted independently, so that the support arm can respectively lift and adjust the height of each support lifting mechanism before actually supporting the wafer placed on the processing station, and further, when the transfer platform drives each support lifting mechanism to move upwards and support the transferred wafer through the support arm, each support lifting mechanism can synchronously contact each support position point on the transferred wafer, collision or rollover between the transferred wafer and the support lifting mechanism is avoided, good balance of each support lifting mechanism on the transferred wafer and uniformity of acting force are ensured, and the possibility of damage to the transferred wafer is effectively reduced.

It is noted that relational terms such as first and second, and the like are used solely to distinguish one entity or action from another entity or action without necessarily requiring or implying any actual such relationship or order between such entities or actions. Moreover, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements is inherent to. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one … …" does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element. In addition, the parts of the above technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present utility model, which are consistent with the implementation principles of the corresponding technical solutions in the prior art, are not described in detail, so that redundant descriptions are avoided.

The principles and embodiments of the present utility model have been described herein with reference to specific examples, the description of which is intended only to facilitate an understanding of the method of the present utility model and its core ideas. It should be noted that it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and adaptations of the utility model can be made without departing from the principles of the utility model and these modifications and adaptations are intended to be within the scope of the utility model as defined in the following claims.

Claims (10)

1. The wafer transfer device is characterized by comprising a transfer platform; a support arm fixedly connected with the transfer platform; a plurality of support lifting mechanisms arranged on the support arms and used for supporting the transferred wafers;

and the supporting lifting mechanisms can be lifted and regulated on the supporting arms independently, so that when each supporting lifting mechanism supports the transferred wafer, the supporting top points of the supporting lifting mechanisms are synchronously contacted with corresponding different supporting position points on the transferred wafer.

2. The wafer transfer apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the support lift mechanisms is fixedly coupled with a ranging sensor for measuring distance data between the corresponding support lift mechanism and a corresponding support location on the transferred wafer, respectively.

3. The wafer transfer device of claim 2, wherein the ranging sensor is a laser ranging sensor.

4. The wafer transfer apparatus of claim 2, further comprising a data storage device coupled to each of said support lift mechanisms for storing lift height data for each of said support lift mechanisms as each processing station lifts said transferred wafer.

5. The wafer transfer apparatus of claim 4, further comprising an alarm coupled to the data storage device for sending an alarm when a difference between the elevation height data corresponding to two adjacent wafers being transferred at the same processing station is greater than a set difference.

6. The wafer transfer apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the support lift mechanisms is provided with a rubber cushion on a support apex supporting the transferred wafer.

7. The wafer transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein each of the support elevating mechanisms is provided with a rubber suction cup on a support apex for supporting the transferred wafer;

the center of the rubber sucker is provided with a vent hole communicated with the air exhaust component through an air vent pipeline.

8. The wafer transfer apparatus of claim 1, wherein a relative position between each of the support lift mechanisms on the support arm is adjustable in a horizontal direction.

9. The wafer transfer apparatus of claim 1, wherein the number of support arms is at least two, and the relative position between each of the support arms in the horizontal direction is adjustable.

10. The wafer transfer apparatus of claim 1, wherein the length of the support arm is telescopically adjustable.