JP2000299363A - Optical data transmission system - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To reduce cost in mounting a data transmission device by transmitting optical data between manufacturing devices and a body to be transferred by the use of one optical data transmission device which is mounted on an unmanned transfer car in a transfer system, in which manufacturing devices are arranged on both sides of the travel path of an unmanned transfer car, for effective use of installation space. SOLUTION: An optical data transmission device 11A, mounted on an unmanned transfer car, has two pairs of light projector and light receiver 15, 16 opposed to the light projectors and light receivers of the optical data transmission device of a semiconductor manufacturing device which is arranged on both sides of the travel path of the unmanned transfer car and a switching circuit 17 for switching and connecting these to a common transmitting/receiving circuit 18. The two pairs of light projector and light receiver 15, 16 have two pairs of light projecting devices and light receiving devices 25, 27 and two pairs of optical fibers which are optically connected thereto and extended to the positions on both sides of the unmanned transfer car, where light is transmitted or received.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a transfer system provided with an interlock mechanism, which uses an unmanned guided vehicle and optical data transmission devices attached to both manufacturing apparatuses disposed on both sides of the traveling path to transfer the goods. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to an optical data transmission system for transmitting data required for delivery of data through two-way communication, and more particularly to a structure capable of reducing the cost of an optical data transmission device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In semiconductor device and liquid crystal display manufacturing lines, semiconductor wafers and liquid crystal display substrates are transferred to a plurality of manufacturing apparatuses arranged in a building by automatic guided vehicles according to the process. .

FIGS. 5A and 5B show an automated material handling system (AMHS) between an automatic guided vehicle 1 and a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 in a semiconductor device manufacturing line.
s) shows a state in which the carrier 4, which is a transfer object containing the semiconductor wafer 3, is delivered. FIG.
(A) shows an AGV (Au
In the case of a tomated guided vehicle, the carrier 4 is loaded and unloaded on the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 by the arm 5 and the hand 6 of the AMHS. FIG. 5B shows an automatic guided vehicle 1
Running on a guide rail 7 provided on the floor
Guided Vchicle), and the same unloading is performed by AMHS.

The above-mentioned delivery of the carrier 4 is performed by host computers mounted on each of the automatic guided vehicle 1 and the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 based on a command from a control system for controlling the entire production line. At the time of this transfer, it is necessary to operate the automatic guided vehicle 1 and the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 in cooperation with each other, so that the optical data transmission devices provided in both the automatic guided vehicle 1 and the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 transmit and receive necessary data. I have.

[0005] The transmitting and receiving operation by the light is performed by the automatic guided vehicle 1.
For loading and unloading the carrier 4 from the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 will be described. Automated guided vehicle 1 loaded with carrier 4
Arrives at a position facing the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2, the optical data transmission apparatus 11 of the automatic guided vehicle 1 uses an optical signal to transmit information necessary for its arrival and unloading to the optical data transmission apparatus of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2. Communicate to device 11. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 receiving this signal starts preparations such as opening a shutter (not shown) for receiving the carrier 4, and after this preparation is completed, completion of reception preparation is notified by an optical signal to the automatic guided vehicle 1. Is transmitted to the optical data transmission apparatus 11. After receiving the optical signal, the automatic guided vehicle 1 starts loading / unloading the carrier 4. Carrier 4
Is also loaded from the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 to the automatic guided vehicle 1 after the automatic guided vehicle 1 arrives at a predetermined stop position in the same manner as described above.

In the case of a liquid crystal display manufacturing line, a large-sized glass substrate is used instead of the semiconductor wafer 3. However, since the semiconductor wafer 3 is manufactured through similar processing steps, the same transfer as in FIG. 5 is performed. .

[0007] The transferred materials on these production lines are very expensive and fragile, and therefore must be handled carefully so as not to give an impact. For this reason, these transport systems are provided with an interlock mechanism for immediately stopping the transfer operation when any trouble occurs.

[0008]

In a production line for semiconductor devices and liquid crystal displays, production apparatuses are often arranged on both sides of a traveling path of an automatic guided vehicle in order to effectively use the installation floor area.

On the other hand, in the optical data transmission device 11, the range in which data can be transmitted is limited to the facing direction of the light emitter / receiver due to the straightness of light.

For this reason, conventionally, one optical data transmission device 11 is mounted on each of the right and left sides of the automatic guided vehicle 1 in the traveling direction, and any one of them is arranged according to the arrangement of the manufacturing device to which the transferred object is to be transferred. Data transmission was performed using one of them.

However, the use of two optical data transmission devices is not preferable because it increases the cost and complicates the wiring.

Therefore, the present invention is to improve an optical data transmission device mounted on an automatic guided vehicle so that a single optical data transmission device can perform optical data transmission with manufacturing devices arranged on the left and right sides. An object is to reduce the cost of a transmission system.

[0013]

The invention according to claim 1 of the present invention has an interlock mechanism for stopping the operation when a trouble occurs, and a plurality of manufacturing machines arranged on both sides of the traveling path by an automatic guided vehicle. An unmanned transport system in which an optical data transmission device is attached to both an unmanned transport vehicle and a manufacturing device in order to transmit the necessary data when transferring the transported products to the transport system that transports the transported products to the device. An optical data transmission device mounted on a car has two pairs of light emitters and receivers facing the light emitters and receivers of the optical data transmission devices of the manufacturing equipment on both sides of the traveling path, respectively, and a common transmitting / receiving circuit for the two pairs of light emitters and receivers. An optical data transmission system comprising a switching circuit for switching and connecting to the optical data transmission system.

In the above configuration, the optical data transmission device mounted on the automatic guided vehicle switches between two pairs of light emitters and receivers and shares an expensive transmission / reception circuit. Optical data transmission is possible. Therefore, it can be manufactured at a lower cost than when two optical data transmission devices are used.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there are provided an optical data transmission apparatus mounted on the automatic guided vehicle, comprising: two pairs of light emitting and receiving elements provided in the apparatus body; It is provided with two pairs of optical fibers that are optically coupled to the elements and extend to the light emitting and receiving positions on the automatic guided vehicle side.

This is a structure in which the wiring length can be lengthened without noise contamination. Both sides of the automatic guided vehicle are the light emitting and receiving positions, and even if the wiring length from the apparatus main body becomes long, the optical data transmission device can be mounted. It can be done easily.

[0017]

An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a semiconductor device manufacturing line will be described. FIG. 1 shows an automatic guided vehicle 1 and a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 facing each other for delivery of semiconductors. The optical data transmission device 11A attached to the automatic guided vehicle 1 is obtained by extending two pairs of optical fibers 13, 13 from a device main body 12 attached at a predetermined position to a light emitting / receiving position facing the semiconductor manufacturing device 3. An optical data transmission device 11B is attached to the semiconductor manufacturing device 2 on the traveling road side of the automatic guided vehicle.

As shown in FIG. 2, the optical data transmission devices 11A and 11B are connected to host computers 14A and 14B mounted on the automatic guided vehicle 1 and the semiconductor manufacturing device 2, respectively. The host computers 14A and 14B receive a command from a control system that controls the entire semiconductor device manufacturing line, and perform travel control and semiconductor delivery control. The optical data transmission devices 11A and 11B
B performs data transmission with the destination of the semiconductor.

FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the optical data transmission device 11A attached to the automatic guided vehicle 1. In the figure, 15, 1
6 is a light emitting and receiving device, 17 is a switching circuit, 18 is a transmitting and receiving circuit, 1
9 is a modulation circuit, 20 is a detection and demodulation circuit, 21 is a control unit, 2
Reference numeral 2 denotes a connection line with the host computer.

The light emitting and receiving devices 15 and 16 comprise a light emitting device 23 and a light receiving device 24. The light projector 23 drives a light emitting element 25 such as an LED by a drive circuit 26, and emits the light emission output from the light emitting / receiving position through the optical fiber 13. The light receiver 24 is for making the light at the light projecting / receiving position enter the light receiving element 27 such as a photodiode through the optical fiber 13, and amplifying and outputting the received light output by the amplifier 28. One end of the optical fiber 13 is optically coupled to the light emitting element 25 and the light receiving element 27 by a predetermined attaching member, and the other end is fixed to the light emitting / receiving position in a predetermined direction. A lens or a field stop may be attached to the other end of the optical fiber 13 in order to divide the light emitting / receiving area.

The switching circuit 17 includes two pairs of light emitting and receiving devices 15, 1
6 is switched according to a switching signal, for example, an analog switch is used. The modulation circuit 19 modulates transmission data with a predetermined carrier.
The detection and demodulation circuit 20 detects the received light output that has passed through the switching circuit 17 and extracts transmission data from the other party.

The control section 21 is constituted by a CPU and the like.
Host computer 14 input through connection line 22
The transmission and reception are controlled based on the command from. The control unit 21 outputs transmission data and a carrier wave, receives reception data, and outputs a switching signal of the switching circuit 17 in accordance with the left and right arrangement of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus at the transmission / reception destination.

FIG. 4 shows the configuration of the optical data transmission device 11 B attached to the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2. This is equivalent to the configuration shown in FIG. 3 in which a pair of light emitting and receiving devices 29 that do not use optical fibers are used instead of the two pairs of light emitting and receiving devices 15 and 16 and the switching circuit 17 is eliminated. This emitter / receiver 29
May use an optical fiber 13 as shown in FIG.

In the optical data transmission using the optical data transmission devices 11A and 11B, the automatic guided vehicle 1
When the vehicle travels toward the opposite position and approaches the opposing position, it is started by the host computer 14A of the automatic guided vehicle instructing its own optical data transmission device 11A to transmit. At this time, the control unit 21 outputs a switching signal to the switching circuit 17 according to the left and right arrangement of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2 to which the semiconductor is to be delivered. As a result, the light emitter / receiver 15 (or 16) in the direction facing the optical data transmission device of the transmission / reception destination becomes operable, and the transmission data output from the control unit 21 is input to the light emitter 23 (24) through the modulation circuit 19. Then, transmission is started. On the other hand, the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 2
Since the optical data transmission apparatus 11B of this example always operates in the passive mode in which reception is prioritized, it receives this and outputs it to its own host computer 14B. The host computer 14B transmits data to be transmitted to the automatic guided vehicle 1 from its own optical data transmission device 11B. This data transmission is performed bidirectionally as necessary until the transfer of the transferred object is completed.

The above description is for the case where the present invention is applied to a semiconductor device manufacturing line.
The present invention is applicable to a transfer system using an automatic guided vehicle having an interlock mechanism. For example, in the case of a liquid crystal display production line, the same processing steps as those of the above-described semiconductor device production line are performed, and the procedure for transferring and transferring the transferred object performed between the automatic guided vehicle and the production apparatus is substantially the same. Therefore, the same optical data transmission device can be used.

[0026]

According to the present invention, a single optical data transmission device is provided.
Since data transmission can be performed to any of the manufacturing apparatuses arranged on the left and right sides of the traveling path of the automatic guided vehicle, the cost of attaching the optical data transmission device to the automatic guided vehicle can be reduced.

Further, by using an optical fiber in which an optical fiber is optically coupled to a light emitting element and a light receiving element as the light emitting and receiving device, the optical data transmission apparatus can be easily attached to an automatic guided vehicle in which noise is prevented from being mixed.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an optical data transmission system of the present invention attached to an automatic guided vehicle and a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in a semiconductor device manufacturing line.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a connection between an unmanned carrier of the optical data transmission device facing as shown in FIG. 1 and a semiconductor manufacturing device;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an optical data transmission device of the present invention mounted on an automatic guided vehicle.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing a configuration example of an optical data transmission device of the present invention attached to a semiconductor manufacturing device.

FIG. 5 is a view showing a semiconductor delivery state performed between the automatic guided vehicle and the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for each type of the automatic guided vehicle. 1 automatic guided vehicle 2 semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 3 semiconductor wafer 4 transferred object (carrier) 11A) Optical data transmission device attached to automatic guided vehicle 12 Device main body of optical data transmission device attached to automatic guided vehicle 13 Optical fiber 11B Optical data transmission device attached to semiconductor manufacturing device 2 14A, 14B Host computer 15, 16 Receiver 17 Switching circuit 18 Transmitter / receiver circuit 23 Projector 24 Receiver 25 Light emitting element 27 Light receiving element

──────────────────────────────────────────────────の Continued on the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁷ Identification symbol FI Theme coat ゛ (Reference) H04B 10/105 G05D 1/02 T 5K002 10/10 H04B 9/00 R 9A001 10/22 // G05D 1 / 02 (72) Inventor Yoji Maejima 2-1-112 Sonezaki, Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Prefecture Inside (72) Inventor Naohiro Shimaji 2-1-1-12 Sonezaki, Kita-ku, Osaka-shi, Osaka Hokuyo Electric Co., Ltd. In-house F-term (reference) 3C033 PP11 PP20 3C042 RB27 RB38 RH05 RK04 RK17 RK29 3F022 AA08 CC02 EE05 KK18 LL07 MM02 MM08 MM11 5F031 CA02 DA01 FA03 GA45 5H301 AA02 AA09 BB05 CC03 DD07 DD16 KK29 KK02 KK05 FA01 FA03 GA04 GA05 9A001 BB06 CC02 HH19 JJ48 JJ49 KK16 KK54

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A transfer system having an interlock mechanism for stopping operation when a trouble occurs, and transferring the transferred material to a plurality of manufacturing apparatuses arranged on both sides of the traveling path by an unmanned carrier. The optical data transmission device attached to both the automatic guided vehicle and the manufacturing equipment to transmit the necessary data by two-way communication at the time of delivery of the optical data transmission device attached to the automatic guided vehicle It is characterized in that it comprises two pairs of light emitting and receiving devices facing the light emitting and receiving devices of the optical data transmission device of the manufacturing device, respectively, and a switching circuit for switching and connecting the two pairs of light emitting and receiving devices to a common transmitting and receiving circuit. Optical data transmission system. 2. An automatic data transmission device mounted on an automatic guided vehicle, comprising: two pairs of light emitting and receiving devices provided on a device main body; 2. The optical data transmission system according to claim 1, further comprising two pairs of optical fibers extending to said light emitting and receiving positions.