JP2000332095A - Method and device for sorting wafer - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To introduce a gas of the same flow rate to each storage chamber through the introduction of an inert gas by providing an orifice in the middle of each branch piping connected to each storage chamber, whereto inert gas is introduced. SOLUTION: An inert gas extracted from of a gas supply source 7 is made to pass through a regulator 6, a flow meter 5 and a filter 4 one by one and branched to an inlet tube to each storage chamber 2 as clean inert gas of a fixed pressure and flow rate and fed to each storage chamber 2. After piping and branch to each storage chamber 2, an orifice 8 is provided in the middle of piping to each storage chamber 2. Therefore, even if there is a difference in resistance for each storage chamber piping due to difference in lengths, etc., of a path in the middle of an inert gas inlet piping of each storage chamber 2, since the flow resistance of the inert gas in the orifice 8 is large, the former resistance becomes so small as to be negligible. Thereby, inert gas can be supplied to each storage chamber evenly.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus and a method for storing a semiconductor substrate, a glass substrate, and other precision substrates such as a reticle and a mask used in a manufacturing process of a display device such as a semiconductor device and a liquid crystal.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional apparatus and method for storing various substrates will be described. The manufacturing process of a semiconductor device or a liquid crystal display device is composed of many processes. Therefore, when shifting from one process to the next process, the difference in processing capability of the manufacturing process or the processing capability of the manufacturing device during the manufacturing process. Therefore, it is necessary to temporarily store the flowing semiconductor substrate or glass substrate. At this time, the surface of these substrates is oxidized by oxygen in the air in the surrounding atmosphere, which may cause a significant obstacle in manufacturing. For example, in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, the thickness of a gate oxide film of a MOS transistor tends to be further reduced to about 10 nm in order to improve the operation speed and the like. In addition, in particular, the time between processes may be as long as two to three days in the production plan. . Therefore, a substrate storage device and a substrate storage method capable of temporarily storing these semiconductor substrates and glass substrates in a favorable atmosphere are demanded. To achieve such an object, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open
There is a substrate storage device and a substrate storage method described in JP-A-148399.

[0003]

However, the substrate storage apparatus and the substrate storage method of Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 8-148399 have the following problems. Once the inert gas is introduced into the manifold and supplied from the manifold to each storage room, the pipes must have the same thickness and length to make the pressure the same, and the manifold arrangement and pipe routing Is quite limited and difficult. In addition, extra piping must be provided to keep the length constant. Alternatively, the cost increases due to the provision of gas flow control means between the manifold and each storage room, or the gas flow control valve moves for some reason during transportation or use, causing the gas flow rate to fluctuate and the gas flow rate to be adjusted again. You may have to do it.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been devised in view of the above-described conventional substrate storage apparatus and substrate substrate storage method, and has been developed from a plurality of storage chambers by introducing an inert gas. In the substrate storage apparatus, an orifice is provided in the middle of each branch pipe connected to each storage chamber for introducing an inert gas, and the inert gas is introduced. Further, in a substrate storage apparatus including a plurality of storage chambers by introducing an inert gas, an orifice is provided at an end of each branch pipe immediately before the storage chamber connected to each storage chamber to which the inert gas is introduced. It is characterized by introducing an active gas.

That is, as described above, an orifice is provided at the end of the pipe, that is, immediately before each storage chamber, or when an orifice is provided in the middle of the pipe, a pipe of substantially the same length and thickness is provided from the orifice outlet to the storage chamber. The same flow rate of gas is introduced into each storage room by connecting with the pipes.

The diameter of the orifice is preferably 0.2 to 0.6 mm as described later.

[0007]

1 to 3 show an embodiment of the present invention.
This will be described in detail with reference to FIG. As shown in FIG. 1, an inert gas, for example, nitrogen, argon, or the like is taken out from a gas storage cylinder or a gas supply source 7 in an indoor pipe.

This inert gas is passed through the regulator 6, the flow meter 5, and the filter 4 sequentially, and is branched as a clean inert gas of a constant pressure and flow rate into the inlet pipe to each storage chamber. Is supplied with an inert gas.

At this time, as shown in FIG. 3, an orifice is provided in the middle of the pipe after branching the pipe to each storage chamber and going to each storage chamber.

Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 2, after the pipe branch to each storage room, providing an orifice at the end of the branch pipe, that is, immediately before each storage room, has a further effect. This is because the gas flow from the orifice to each storage chamber is not changed at all, and the pipe resistance is substantially determined by the orifice. The orifice diameter is 0.1 to 1.0 mm. More preferably, it is 0.2 to 0.6 mm. If the diameter is smaller than 0.2 mm, the gas does not easily flow, and if it is larger than 0.6 mm, the gas flow rate is difficult to be constant. Also more preferably
0.3 to 0.5 mm. This is because this range provides the most ideal gas flow rate. The reason why the orifice was provided in the branched inert gas supply pipe was that there was a difference in the resistance to each storage room pipe due to differences in the length of the path along the inert gas introduction pipe in each storage room. Even so, the resistance of the inert gas flowing through the orifice is so large that these resistances are negligibly small.

Therefore, no matter how the piping is routed, a substantially constant gas flow can be achieved without providing a flow control valve. In the oxygen concentration characteristic graph of FIG. 6, when the nitrogen supply rate was 5 liters / min, the oxygen concentration was 13.03% on average after 30 minutes. This oxygen concentration indicates the residual ratio of oxygen when the air in the storage room is replaced with nitrogen by supplying nitrogen.

As shown in FIG. 7, the maximum value of oxygen concentration is 14.24% and the minimum value of oxygen concentration is 12.36% in the case of 16 storage rooms, all of which show good results.

The above is the description based on one embodiment of the present invention. The following modifications are possible in addition to the main invention described in the claims. (1) The substrate storage device according to claim 1, wherein the orifice diameter is 0.2 to 0.6 mm. (2) The substrate storage method according to claim 3 or 4, wherein the orifice diameter is 0.2 to 0.6 mm.

[0014]

As described above, according to the substrate storage apparatus and the substrate storage method of the present invention, the supply of the inert gas to each storage chamber can be made uniform, and the length of the pipes can be made uniform. Since there is no need for this, it is possible to freely and easily perform the routing, and the production cost of the storage device can be reduced because no flow rate adjusting valve or the like is required.

Further, since the flow control valve is not used, the set value of the flow control valve does not deviate from the set value of the flow control valve during transportation, use, or the like for some reason.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 schematically shows a substrate storage device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 shows a gas supply piping system diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 3 shows a gas supply piping system diagram of the present invention.

FIG. 4 schematically shows a conventional substrate storage device.

FIG. 5 shows a structure of a manifold section of a conventional substrate storage device.

FIG. 6 is an oxygen concentration characteristic graph.

FIG. 7 Measured oxygen concentration data

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Substrate storage apparatus 2 Storage room 3 Gas supply pipe 4 Filter 5 Flowmeter 6 Regulator 7 Gas supply source 8 Orifice 9 Manifold

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Tsuyoshi Nishina 3-12-16 Iwatokita, Komae-shi, Tokyo Dan Industries Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Minoru Sato 6th Kadotacho Industrial Park, Aizuwakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture F-term within AMD Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (reference) 3E096 BA15 BB03 CA01 FA04 5F031 CA02 CA05 CA07 DA17 NA04

Claims (4)

[Claims] An orifice is provided in the middle of each branch pipe connected to each storage chamber for introducing an inert gas in a substrate storage apparatus comprising a plurality of storage chambers by introducing an inert gas. Characteristic substrate storage device. 2. An orifice is provided at an end of each branch pipe immediately before a storage room connected to each storage room into which an inert gas is introduced in a substrate storage device comprising a plurality of storage rooms by introducing an inert gas. A substrate storage device characterized by being provided. 3. An inert gas is provided by providing an orifice in the middle of each branch pipe connected to each storage chamber for introducing an inert gas in a substrate storage apparatus comprising a plurality of storage chambers by introducing an inert gas. A substrate storage method characterized by introducing a gas. 4. An orifice is provided at an end of each branch pipe immediately before a storage room connected to each storage room into which an inert gas is introduced in a substrate storage apparatus comprising a plurality of storage rooms by introducing an inert gas. A substrate storage method, wherein a substrate is provided and an inert gas is introduced.