JP2000124289A - Hand of thin substrate transfer robot - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce an installation space, to decrease the number of sensors, and to shorten the line process unit time, etc., by providing a tip end part of a thin substrate transfer robot hand with an optical mapping/seating confirmation shared sensor, which acts both as an optical mapping sensor and as optical seating confirmation sensor. SOLUTION: Related to a hand 1, a tip end part of an expansion arm is connected to a base part 2, and a pair of, left and right, holding plates 4A and 4B of drop-in-type which hold a discoidal substrate 3 are held at the base part 2. A pair of, left and right, sensor holding parts 9A and 9B are provided at the tip end part of each of holding plate parts 4A and 4B, and the sensor holding parts 9A and 9B hold an optical mapping/seating confirmation shared sensor 10 which acts both as an optical mapping sensor for detecting the presence of the discoidal thin substrate 3 and as an optical seating confirmation sensor for confirming that the discoidal thin substrate 3 is placed on the hand 1.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hand of a thin substrate transfer robot, and more particularly, to a thin substrate transfer operation for taking out a disk-shaped thin substrate such as a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate from a substrate storage cassette. Robot hand.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, a thin substrate transfer robot takes out a disk-shaped thin substrate such as a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate from a substrate storage cassette, and uses an orientation flat aligner,
Performs work such as setting on a notch aligning machine and a processing stage such as sputtering and photoresist.

In order to remove the thin substrate from the cassette, a mapping device dedicated to mapping is provided near the left and right sides of the cassette. First, the mapping device confirms the presence or absence of the thin substrate in the cassette. When it is confirmed that there is, the robot hand enters the cassette and the thin substrate is vacuum-adsorbed to the hand, or the thin substrate is placed on the hand,
Alternatively, there is known a method in which a thin substrate is gripped by a hand, and then the thin substrate is removed from the cassette by retracting the hand.

As another method, an optical reflection-type mapping sensor is provided back to back with a robot hand,
First, with the optical reflection type mapping sensor facing the cassette, the optical reflection type mapping sensor checks the presence or absence of a thin substrate in the cassette, and confirms that there is a thin substrate in the cassette. Retreat and rotate the hand 180 ° horizontally to make the hand face the cassette, then move the hand into the cassette and vacuum-adsorb the thin substrate on the hand, or place the thin substrate on the hand. There is known a method of placing a thin substrate on a hand or gripping the thin substrate with a hand, and then retreating the hand to remove the thin substrate from the cassette.

[0005] In order to ensure that the thin substrate is transported without falling off the hand during the transportation,
An optical seating confirmation sensor is provided on the hand, and the optical seating confirmation sensor detects whether the thin substrate is securely seated on the hand.

[0006]

Conventionally, the above-mentioned optical mapping sensor and the above-mentioned optical seating confirmation sensor are separate from each other. If it is desired that the hand itself has both functions of mapping and seating confirmation, the hand is provided with an optical type seating confirmation sensor. It was necessary to separately provide two sensors, a mapping sensor and an optical seating confirmation sensor. In such a hand to which these two functions are added, in addition to problems such as a large installation space, a large number of sensor parts, and a large number of sensor mounting work steps, a hand is required for mapping and taking out a thin substrate.
There is a problem that the tact time is long because the operation of rotating by 0 ° has to be performed.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above-mentioned problems of the prior art, the present invention provides a thin substrate capable of reducing installation space, reducing the number of sensor parts, reducing the number of sensor mounting steps, and reducing the tact time. The purpose is to provide a hand of a transfer robot.

[0008]

A hand of a thin substrate transfer robot according to the present invention is a hand of a thin substrate transfer robot, and an optical head for detecting the presence or absence of a disk-shaped thin substrate in a cassette at a tip end thereof. It is characterized by comprising an optical mapping / seating confirmation sensor that also serves as an optical mapping sensor and an optical seating confirmation sensor for confirming that the disc-shaped thin substrate is placed on the hand. According to the present invention, since both mapping and seating confirmation functions can be exhibited by one sensor, the installation space can be reduced, the number of sensor parts can be reduced, the number of sensor mounting work steps can be reduced, and the like. Since the sensor is provided at the tip of the hand, the operation of rotating the hand by 180 ° for mapping and taking out the thin substrate as in the related art does not have to be performed, so that the tact time can be reduced.

Here, the hand has a pair of left and right holding plate portions, and the optical mapping / seating confirmation / combination sensor is provided at the tip of the pair of left and right holding plate portions. Are configured to be located in corresponding gaps formed by the left and right side surfaces of the cassette and the end surfaces of the disc-shaped thin substrates in the cassette, respectively. With such a configuration, the optical mapping / seating confirmation / combination sensor can be brought closer to the end surface of the disc-shaped thin substrate in the cassette by injecting the tip portions of the pair of left and right holding plate portions into the gap. The optical mapping / seating confirmation sensor can perform highly accurate mapping.

The optical mapping / seating confirmation sensor is a transmissive sensor, and the light projecting portion is embedded in the tip of one of the left and right holding plate portions, and the light receiving portion is the other. The optical axis of light buried at the tip of the holding plate portion and emitted from the light projecting portion toward the light receiving portion is set so as to cross the thin disk-shaped substrate seated on the pair of left and right holding plate portions. . With this configuration, the optical mapping / seating confirmation sensor can also effectively exhibit the sitting confirmation function.

Each of the pair of left and right holding plate portions has a concave portion. The concave portion has a seating surface on which an outer peripheral edge of the disk-shaped thin substrate is seated, and an inclined surface for guiding the disk-shaped thin substrate to the seating surface. And With this configuration, when the thin disk-shaped substrate is taken out of the cassette, even if the thin disk-shaped substrate is slightly displaced from the regular position on the hand, the outer peripheral edge of the thin disk-shaped substrate is After sitting on the seating surface via the inclined surface, optical mapping
The seating confirmation / combination sensor can perform seating confirmation in a state where the thin disk-shaped substrate is seated at a regular position on the hand.

The pair of left and right holding plates are held by a base, and an optical seating confirmation sensor is provided on the base. The optical seating confirmation sensor has a disc-shaped thin substrate mounted on the seating surface. Make sure that With this configuration, the seating state can be determined based on the two detection results, that is, the detection result by the optical seating confirmation sensor and the detection result by the optical mapping / seating confirmation sensor. This makes it possible to accurately determine whether the board is seated at a proper position on the hand.

[0013]

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

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a hand of a thin substrate transfer robot according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is an enlarged plan view of a main part of the hand, and FIG. FIG.

1 to 3, a hand 1 includes a base 2 connected to a distal end of a bendable arm (not shown);
A pair of left and right holding plate portions 4A, which are held by the base portion 2 and hold a disk-shaped thin substrate 3 (hereinafter, referred to as a substrate) such as a disk-shaped semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate,
4B.

Each of the holding plate portions 4A and 4B has a concave portion 5. Each recess 5 is formed in two steps in the vertical direction, and the upper step surface 6 constitutes a seating surface that supports the outer peripheral edge 3 a of the substrate 3.
The lower surface 7 is placed in a non-contact state with the lower surface 3 b of the substrate 3.
The outer peripheral radius of the upper step surface 6 is set substantially equal to the radius of the substrate 3. The inclined surface 8 is formed between the upper surface 4a of the holding plate portions 4A and 4B and the upper step surface 6. The inclined surface 8 serves as a guide surface for guiding the outer peripheral edge 3a of the substrate 3 to the seating surface 6 when the substrate 3 is placed on the pair of holding plate portions 4A, 4B.

A pair of left and right sensor holding parts 9A and 9B are provided at the tip of each holding plate part 4A and 4B, respectively. The sensor holding units 9A and 9B hold an optical mapping / seating confirmation combined use sensor 10 (hereinafter, also referred to as a combined use sensor). The dual-purpose sensor 10 is a transmission sensor in the case of the present embodiment. One sensor holding portion 9A (a sensor holding portion located on the right side in FIG. 1; hereinafter, referred to as a light emitting portion holding portion) holds the light emitting portion 10A of the transmission sensor 10, and the other sensor holding portion 9B (A sensor holding unit located on the left side in FIG. 1, hereinafter, referred to as a light receiving unit holding unit) holds the light receiving unit 10 </ b> B of the transmission sensor 10.

As shown in FIG. 2, the light projecting section 10A includes a known fiber sensor 11A and a fiber sensor 11A.
An optical fiber 12A extending from A is fixed to the light projecting portion holding portion 9A by being buried in a groove formed in the light projecting portion holding portion 9A. Here, the fiber sensor 11A is positioned so as to emit light toward the fiber sensor 11B of the light receiving unit 10B held by the light receiving unit holding unit 9B.

As shown in FIG. 2, the light receiving section 10B includes a known fiber sensor 11B and this fiber sensor 11B.
And an optical fiber 12B extending from B,
It is fixed to the light receiving portion holding portion 9B by being buried in a groove formed in the light receiving portion holding portion 9B or the like. Here, the fiber sensor 11B is positioned so as to be able to receive light from the fiber sensor 11A of the light projecting unit 10A held by the light projecting unit holding unit 9A.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the optical axis L1 of light emitted from the fiber sensor 11A of the light projecting section 10A toward the fiber sensor 11B of the light receiving section 10B has a pair of left and right holding plate sections 4A, 4B seating surfaces 6, 6,
It is set so as to cross the substrate 3 seated on 6,6.

It is preferable that the light receiving section 10B includes a hollow cylindrical body 13 in front of the fiber sensor 11B as shown in FIGS. The reason is shown in FIG.
As shown in FIG. 7, in addition to the substrate 3A (tentatively referred to as a target substrate) to be detected in the cassette 14 (FIG. 1), other substrates 3B and 3C (tentatively referred to as adjacent substrates) sandwiching the target substrate 3A. Is present, the light emitting unit 1
0A is reflected between the lower surface of the adjacent substrate 3B or the upper surface of the adjacent substrate 3C and the upper surface or the lower surface of the target substrate 3A, and the reflected light is reflected by the fiber sensor 1 of the light receiving unit 10B.
1B, there is a possibility that an erroneous determination that the target substrate 3A does not exist may be made. Therefore, the provision of the hollow cylindrical body 13 blocks the reflected light and prevents the erroneous detection as described above. Is to do.

Light emitting unit holding unit 9A and light receiving unit holding unit 9B
As shown in FIG. 1, right and left side surfaces 14a and 14b of the cassette 14 and the end surfaces 3 of the substrate 3 in the cassette 14, respectively.
c and the corresponding gaps 15A, 15B formed by c.

The base 2 of the hand 1 has a guide 16. The guide portion 16 is provided to protrude forward of the base 2. The guide portion 16 has an arc-shaped front end surface 16a. The front end face 16a is provided with a pair of left and right holding plate portions 4A and 4B for taking out the substrate 3 from the cassette 14 and entering the lower side of the substrate 3 to be taken out.
When the end face 3c of the substrate 3 abuts on the front end face 16a, it plays a role of guiding the substrate 3 to the recess 5 of the pair of left and right holding plate parts 4A, 4B.

The right end 16b and the left end 1 of the guide portion 16
6c holds an optical seating confirmation sensor 17 (hereinafter referred to as a dedicated sensor). The dedicated sensor 17 is a transmissive sensor in the case of the present embodiment, and the right end 16
The light projecting unit 17A is held at one of the b or the left end 16c, and the light receiving unit 17B is held at the other.

As shown in FIG. 6, the light projecting section 17A and the light receiving section 17B are made of known fiber sensors 18A and 18B and optical fibers 19 extending from the fiber sensors 18A and 18B, as shown in FIG.
A and 19B, which are fixed to the guide portion 16 by being embedded in grooves formed in the guide portion 16, for example. For example, as shown in FIG.
B is inserted into an installation hole 16 d formed in the guide portion 16 and fixed with screws 20. The fiber sensor 18A of the light emitting unit 17B is
The fiber sensor 18B of the light receiving unit 17B is positioned so as to receive light from the fiber sensor 18B of the light projecting unit 17A. The guide section 16 has light passing holes 16e and 16f so as not to block light emitted from the fiber sensor 18A of the light projecting section 17A toward the fiber sensor 18B of the light receiving section 17B. The optical axis L2 of the light emitted from the fiber sensor 18A of the light projecting unit 17A toward the fiber sensor 18B of the light receiving unit 17B is, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 8, a pair of left and right holding plate units 4A, 4B.
Are set so as to cross the substrate 3 seated on the seating surfaces 6, 6, 6, 6.

Next, an operation example of the hand 1 configured as described above will be described.

When the presence or absence of the substrate 3 in the cassette 14 is recognized, a pair of left and right holding plate portions 4A of the hand 1
4B is advanced toward the cassette 14, and the light emitting section holding section 9
A and the light receiving unit holding unit 9B are the left and right side surfaces 1 of the cassette 14.
When the hand 1 is located in the corresponding gap 15A, 15B formed between the end faces 3c of the substrate 3 in the cassette 14, the advance of the hand 1 is stopped.

Next, the hand 1 is moved up and down while the light is emitted from the light projecting unit 10A. During the vertical movement of the hand 1, the presence or absence of the substrate 3 for each stage in the cassette 14 is detected by the dual-purpose sensor 10, and for the stage where the substrate 3 exists, the light from the light emitting unit 10 </ b> A is blocked by the substrate 3. It is determined that the substrate 3 is present because the light is not received by the light receiving unit 10B. On the other hand, in the step where the substrate 3 is not present, the light from the light emitting unit 10A is transmitted as it is and is received by the light receiving unit 10B. Is determined to be missing.

When such mapping is completed, next, the operation of taking out the substrate 3 from the stage where it is determined that the substrate 3 is present is performed. In this unloading operation, the position of the hand 1 in the front-rear direction is maintained at the same position as that at the time of the above-described mapping, and in this state, the position between the height position of the substrate 3 to be unloaded and the height position of the step immediately below it is appropriately The hand 1 is raised or lowered to the position, then the hand 1 is moved into the cassette 14 from below the substrate 3 to be taken out, and then the hand 1 is raised.
The target substrate 3 is placed on the pair of left and right holding plate portions 4A, 4B. Needless to say, the raising of the hand 1 is stopped at a height position at which collision with the substrate 3 in the stage immediately above the target substrate 3 can be avoided.

In such a substrate taking out operation, the substrate 3
Is checked, for example, near the time when the hand 1 stops rising. In confirming the seating, light is emitted from the light projecting unit 10A of the dual-purpose sensor 10, and when the light is blocked by the substrate 3 and not received by the light receiving unit 10B, it is determined that the user is seated. 10A
If the light emitted from is transmitted and received by the light receiving unit 10B, it is determined that the user is not seated.

The seating is also confirmed by the dedicated sensor 17. That is, the light emitting unit 1 of the dedicated sensor 17
When light is emitted from the light-receiving unit 17A, the light emitted from the light-emitting unit 17A is determined to be seated when the light is blocked by the substrate 3 and not received by the light-receiving unit 17B. If light is received, it is determined that the user is not seated.

Here, when the detection result by the dual-purpose sensor 10 and the detection result by the dedicated sensor 17 match,
It is possible to reliably determine whether the substrate 3 is correctly seated on the seating surfaces 6, 6, 6, 6. On the other hand, when the detection results of both sensors 10 and 17 do not match,
It can be determined that at least the substrate 3 is not seated in a correct state.

As described above, according to the present embodiment, one function of the dual-purpose sensor 10 can perform both the mapping and the seating confirmation, so that the installation space can be reduced, the number of sensor parts can be reduced, and the sensor can be mounted. The number of work steps can be reduced, and the dual-purpose sensor 10 is provided at the distal end portions 9A and 9B of the hand 1, so that the hand 1 is rotated by 180 ° for mapping and substrate removal as in the conventional case. You don't have to do anything
Therefore, the tact time can be reduced.

A pair of left and right holding plate portions 4A, 4A
B is inserted into the gaps 15A, 15B between the cassette 14 and the substrate 3 so that the cassette 14
Since the dual-purpose sensor 10 can be brought close to the end face 3c of the substrate 3 inside, highly accurate mapping can be performed.

Further, the optical axis L1 of the light emitted from the light projecting portion 10A of the dual-purpose sensor 10 toward the light receiving portion 10B is set so as to cross the substrate 3 seated on the pair of left and right holding plate portions 4A, 4B. The dual-purpose sensor 10 can also effectively exhibit a seating confirmation function.

A pair of left and right holding plate portions 4A, 4A
In the concave portion 5 of B, seating surfaces 6, 6, 6, 6 on which the outer peripheral edge portion 3a of the substrate 3 is seated, and inclined surfaces 8 for guiding the substrate 3 to the seating surfaces 6, 6, 6, 6 are provided. Accordingly, when the substrate 3 is taken out from the cassette 14, even if the substrate 3 is slightly displaced from the regular position on the hand 1, the outer peripheral edge 3a of the disc-shaped thin substrate 3 is seated via the inclined surface 8. Faces 6, 6,
6 and 6, and the dual-purpose sensor 10 can perform seating confirmation in a state where the board 3 is seated at a proper position on the hand 1.

Further, a pair of left and right holding plate portions 4A, 4A
A dedicated sensor 17 is provided on the base 2 of B.
7 also confirms that the substrate 3 is placed on the seating surfaces 6, 6, 6, 6.
The seating state can be determined based on the two detection results of the detection result by the sensor and the detection result by the dual-purpose sensor 10,
It is possible to accurately determine whether the board 3 is seated at a proper position on the hand 1.

In the above-described embodiment, an example in which a transmission type sensor is used as the dual-purpose sensor 10 is shown. However, as shown in FIG. 5, each of the distal end portions 9A of the pair of left and right holding plate portions 4A, 4B, 9B, a light-emitting unit 10A and a light-receiving unit 10B are provided side by side in the vertical direction, and a reflection sensor that reflects light emitted from the light-emitting unit 10A on the end surface 3c of the substrate 3 and receives the light on the light-receiving unit 10B may be used. It is possible. In this case, it is preferable that the light emitted from the light projecting unit 10A be flat light in the horizontal direction in order to increase the detection accuracy.

[0039]

As described above, the main effects of the present invention are that one sensor can perform both the mapping and the seating confirmation functions, so that the installation space can be reduced, the number of sensor parts can be reduced, and the sensor mounting work can be performed. Since the number of processes can be reduced, and the sensor is provided at the tip of the hand, it is not necessary to rotate the hand by 180 ° for mapping and taking out the thin substrate as in the past. Thus, the tact time can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a hand of a thin substrate transfer robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows an optical mapping system incorporated in the hand.
It is an enlarged plan view near a seating confirmation combined use sensor.

FIG. 3 is an inner side view of the vicinity of a light emitting unit or a light receiving unit of the dual-purpose sensor.

FIG. 4 is a side view for explaining a configuration of a light receiving section of the dual-purpose sensor.

FIG. 5 is a side view showing the configuration of another example of the dual-purpose sensor.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the vicinity of a light projecting unit or a light receiving unit of the optical seating confirmation sensor incorporated in the hand.

FIG. 7 is a side sectional view showing a mounting structure of a light emitting unit or a light receiving unit of the seating confirmation sensor.

FIG. 8 is an inner side view of the vicinity of a light emitting unit or a light receiving unit of the seating confirmation sensor.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Hand 2 Base 3 Disc-shaped thin substrate 3a Outer edge 3c End surface 4A, 4B Holding plate 5 Depression 6 Seating surface 8 Inclined surface 9A, 9B Sensor holding part (tip of holding plate part) 10 Optical mapping / seating confirmation Dual-purpose sensor 10A Light-emitting unit 10B Light-receiving unit 14 Cassette 14a Right side 14b Left side 15A, 15B Gap 17 Optical seating confirmation sensor L1 Optical axis

Claims (5)

[Claims] An optical mapping sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a disk-shaped thin substrate in a cassette, and a disk-shaped thin substrate mounted on the hand of a hand of a thin substrate transfer robot. A hand for a thin substrate transfer robot, comprising: an optical mapping / seating confirmation sensor that is also used as an optical seating confirmation sensor for confirming that the user is present. 2. The hand according to claim 1, wherein the hand has a pair of left and right holding plate portions, and the optical mapping / seating confirmation / combination sensor is provided at a distal end portion of the pair of left and right holding plate portions. Each of the leading end portions of the holding plate portion can be located in a corresponding gap formed by the left and right side surfaces of the cassette and the end surface of the disk-shaped thin substrate in the cassette, respectively. hand. 3. The optical mapping / seating confirmation sensor according to claim 2, wherein the optical mapping / seating confirmation sensor is a transmission sensor, and the light projecting portion is embedded in a tip of one of the pair of left and right holding plate portions. A light-receiving portion is embedded in a tip portion of the other holding plate portion, and an optical axis of light emitted from the light projecting portion toward the light-receiving portion is a disc-shaped thin substrate seated on the pair of left and right holding plate portions. A thin substrate transfer robot hand set to cross the substrate. 4. The disk-shaped thin substrate according to claim 3, wherein each of the pair of left and right holding plate portions has a concave portion, wherein the concave portion has a seating surface on which an outer peripheral edge of the disk-shaped thin substrate is seated, and a disk-shaped thin substrate on the seating surface. And an inclined surface for guiding the substrate. 5. The optical seating confirmation sensor according to claim 4, wherein the pair of left and right holding plate portions is held by a base, and an optical seating confirmation sensor is provided on the base.
A hand for a thin substrate transfer robot, wherein it is confirmed that a disk-shaped thin substrate is placed on the seating surface.