JP2002280435A - Substrate processor - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent a vertically moving base of an elevator from falling when the timing belt of the elevator is cut off. SOLUTION: A slide base 13 is fitted to a guide 10 in a vertically movable manner. A plate 15 is provided integrally with the base 13. A motor 19 is fixed to the guide 10 through a bracket 20. A driving pulley 18 for the timing belt and a driving pulley 23 for a wire rope are fitted to the output shaft of the motor 19. A support 22 is fitted to the guide 10. A following pulley 21 for the timing belt and a following pulley 24 for the wire rope are supported rotatably by a support 22. The timing belt 16 is put around the timing belt 16, and both of the ends of the belt 16 are fixed to the plate 15. The wire rope 17 is put around the pulley 23 and the pulley 24, and both of the ends of the rope 17 are fixed to the plate 15.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

The present invention relates to a substrate processing apparatus such as a vertical diffusion apparatus and a vertical CVD apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a vertical diffusion apparatus and a vertical CVD apparatus, when a plastic container, that is, a pod or a cassette (hereinafter, a pod) containing semiconductor wafers is carried into a pod stage (IO stage, carry-in / out stage). And a pod loader for storing the pod on a shelf or transporting the pod to a pod opener. The pod loader includes an elevator for transporting the pod and a pod transport device (robot arm).

[0003] The elevator is for raising and lowering a pod, and conventionally comprises a ball screw, a guide and a motor.

[0004] However, since an elevator requires a stroke of 2 to 2.5 m, it takes a long time of several months to manufacture a ball screw, and the ball screw is expensive.

[0005] For this reason, as an elevator driving method,
It has been considered to use a timing belt and a pulley which have great advantages in terms of delivery date and price. This timing belt has a stainless steel wire inside,
The outside has a tooth shape formed of a resin such as polyurethane, and the tooth shape of the timing belt meshes with the tooth shape of the pulley.

[0006]

However, when a timing belt and a pulley are used as an elevator driving method, when the timing belt is used for a long time,
There is a risk that the timing belt is cut, the pod held by the elevator base and the semiconductor wafer stored therein falls, and the expensive semiconductor wafer is damaged.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to provide a substrate processing apparatus in which an elevator base does not drop even when an elevator timing belt is cut. .

[0008]

According to the present invention, there is provided a substrate processing apparatus having an elevator for vertically moving a substrate or a substrate storage container, wherein the elevator is moved up and down by a motor and a timing belt. Configure the base to move vertically,
A wire rope that operates together with the timing belt is attached to the lifting base.

[0009] In this case, a tension adjusting means may be provided on the mounting portion of the lifting base for the wire rope.

[0010]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an elevator of a vertical diffusion device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a vertical diffusion device having the elevator shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. Is a front view showing a part of the elevator shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 4 is a side view showing a part of the elevator shown in FIG. As shown in the figure, a pod stage 1 for loading and unloading a cassette or pod (hereinafter, a pod) 2 which is a substrate storage container storing a semiconductor wafer is provided, and a lid of the pod 2 is provided near the pod stage 1. A pod opener 5 for opening and closing the pod is provided, shelves 6 to 8 are attached to a housing 9 for housing a furnace for processing semiconductor wafers, and an elevator 3 is provided near the pod stage 1. A guide 10 of the elevator 3 is fixed to a base of a housing 14 of the vertical diffusion device via a support 11, and the guide 10 is fixed to a side surface of the housing 14 via a bracket 12. 13 is mounted so as to be able to move up and down in the Z-axis direction. And a pod loader for transporting the pod 2 to the pod opener 5. Further, a plate 15 is provided integrally with the slide base 13, and the slide base 13 and the plate 15 constitute a lifting base. A motor 19 is fixed to the guide 10 via a bracket 20, and the motor 19 is provided with a brake for stopping rotation when the power is turned off. A drive pulley 18 for the timing belt and a drive pulley 23 for the wire rope are attached to the output shaft of the motor 19, and the rotation center axis of the drive pulley 18 and the rotation center axis of the drive pulley 23 coincide with each other. The diameter of the pulley 18 is equal to the diameter of the driving pulley 23. A support 22 is attached to the guide 10 so that the position in the vertical direction can be adjusted.
A driven pulley 21 for a timing belt is provided on the support 22,
A driven pulley 24 for a wire rope is rotatably supported, and the rotation center axis of the driven pulley 21 and the rotation center axis of the driven pulley 24 coincide with each other, and the diameter of the driven pulley 21 is equal to the diameter of the driven pulley 24. . Further, the timing belt 16 is wound around the driving pulley 18 and the driven pulley 21, both ends of the timing belt 16 are fixed to the plate 15, and the wire rope 1 is connected to the driving pulley 23 and the driven pulley 24.
7, the wire rope 17 is wound twice around the driving pulley 23 (the wire rope 17 is in contact with the driving pulley 23 for 1.5 turns), and the wire rope 17 is half-turned around the driven pulley 24. Just in contact. The wire rope 17 is formed by bundling and twisting thin metal wires and knitting them into a rope shape. Even if the wire rope 17 has a small diameter, the wire rope 17 has high cutting strength, is easy to bend, and has good corrosion resistance. Further, one terminal 25 of the wire rope 17 is fixed to the plate 15 with bolts, and a block 27 is attached to the plate 15 so as to be slidable in a vertical direction, that is, in a vertical direction in FIG. 28 is provided, and the other terminal 26 of the wire rope 17 is fixed to the block 27 with bolts,
Block 27 and spring 28 provide wire rope 17
The tension adjusting means is configured to adjust the tension of the wire rope 17 in the direction of arrow A.

Next, the operation of the vertical diffusion device shown in FIGS. 1 to 4 will be described. First, RGV from outside the device
When the pod 2 containing the semiconductor wafer is loaded onto the pod stage 1 by an external carrier such as
Rotates the drive pulley 18, the slide base 13 descends, and the pod transport device 4 descends from the state shown in FIG.
The pod transport device 4 clamps the pod 2 on the pod stage 1. Next, when the motor 19 rotates the drive pulley 18 in the opposite direction, the slide base 13 is raised, the pod transport device 4 is raised, and the pod transport device 4 places the pod 2 on one of the shelves 6 to 8. Transport. The same operation is performed when the pod 2 is transported to the pod opener 5. The rotation center axis of the driving pulley 18 and the rotation center axis of the driving pulley 23 coincide with each other.
Is equal to the diameter of the driving pulley 23, and the center axis of rotation of the driven pulley 21 and the center axis of rotation of the driven pulley 24 are equal, and the diameter of the driven pulley 21 is equal to the diameter of the driven pulley 24. The wire rope 17 operates at the same speed and in the same direction as the timing belt 16. Further, even when the timing belt 16 of the elevator 3 is cut, the elevator base of the elevator 3 is held by the wire rope 17, so that the elevator base of the elevator 3 does not fall.

In such a vertical diffusion device, the timing belt 16 is used for driving the elevator 3, so that the delivery time can be shortened and the price can be reduced as compared with the case where a ball screw is used. . Further, even when the timing belt 16 of the elevator 3 is cut, the lifting base of the elevator 3 does not fall, so that the pod 2 clamped by the pod transport device 4 does not fall, and is stored in the pod 2. The expensive semiconductor wafer can be prevented from being damaged. In addition, since the tension adjusting means is provided at the mounting portion of the wire rope 17 of the plate 15 of the lifting base, the tension of the wire rope 17 can be kept constant.
7 can be prevented from being cut by a large force. Further, since the timing belt 16 is used, the vibration when the pod 2 is moved up and down is smaller than when the ball screw is used, so that high-speed conveyance is possible, and the substrate processing ability is improved. In addition, the wire rope 17
Is wound twice around the drive pulley 23, so that the frictional force between the wire rope 17 and the drive pulley 23 can be increased, so that the wire rope 17 can be reliably wound up by the drive pulley 23. The motor 19
Is provided with a brake that stops rotation when the power is turned off, so that the elevator base of the elevator 3 does not fall even when the power of the motor 19 is turned off. Pod 2 clamped to 4
Will not fall. Also, support 2 for guide 10
Since the position of the driven pulley 21 is adjustable so that the position of the driven pulley 21 in the vertical direction can be adjusted, the tension of the timing belt 16 can be adjusted.

In the above embodiment, the vertical diffusion apparatus has been described. However, the present invention is applied to another substrate processing apparatus such as a vertical CVD apparatus having an elevator for moving a substrate or a substrate container vertically. Can be applied. In the above embodiment, three shelves 6 to 8
Is provided, but four or more shelves (a plurality of shelves) may be provided. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the tension adjusting means is provided at the mounting portion of the wire rope 17 of the plate 15 of the lifting base, but both terminals of the wire rope may be directly fixed to the lifting base.

As described above, the motor is fixed to the guide of the elevator, and the driving pulley for the timing belt and the driving pulley for the wire rope are attached to the output shaft of the motor. And the diameter of the drive pulley for the timing belt is made equal to the diameter of the drive pulley for the wire rope.

Further, a support is fixed to a guide of the elevator, and a driven pulley for a timing belt and a driven pulley for a wire rope are rotatably supported on the support, and the rotation center axis of the driven pulley for the timing belt and the wire rope are supported. And the diameter of the driven pulley for the timing belt is made equal to the diameter of the driven pulley for the wire rope.

Further, the wire rope is wound around the driving pulley for the wire rope a plurality of times. In this case, the frictional force between the wire rope and the driving pulley for the wire rope can be increased.

Further, the motor is provided with a brake for stopping the rotation when the power is turned off. In this case, the elevator base of the elevator does not drop even when the power of the motor is turned off.

The support is attached to the elevator guide so that the position in the vertical direction can be adjusted. In this case, since the vertical position of the driven pulley for the timing belt can be adjusted, the tension of the timing belt can be adjusted.

[0019]

According to the substrate processing apparatus of the present invention,
Even when the elevator timing belt is cut, the elevator base does not fall.

Further, when the tension adjusting means is provided in the mounting portion of the wire rope of the lifting base, the tension of the wire rope can be kept constant.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an elevator of a vertical diffusion device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic view showing a vertical diffusion device having the elevator shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a front view showing a part of the elevator shown in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a side view showing a part of the elevator shown in FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 2 ... Pod 3 ... Elevator 5 ... Pod opener 6-8 ... Shelf 13 ... Slide base 15 ... Plate 16 ... Timing belt 17 ... Wire rope 18 ... Drive pulley 19 ... Motor 21 ... Driving pulley 23 ... Drive pulley 24 ... Driving pulley 27 ... Block 28 ... Spring

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor Koichi Noto 3-14-20 Higashinakano, Nakano-ku, Tokyo F-term within Hitachi Kokusai Electric Co., Ltd. 3F022 CC02 EE05 FF01 JJ19 MM51 5F031 CA02 FA03 FA09 GA35 GA49 GA51 LA07 MA28 PA20 PA30 5F045 AA03 EN05

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A substrate processing apparatus having an elevator for moving a substrate or a substrate storage container in a vertical direction, wherein the elevator is configured to move an elevator base in a vertical direction by a motor and a timing belt. A substrate processing apparatus comprising a wire rope that operates together with the timing belt. 2. A substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a tension adjusting means is provided at a mounting portion of the lifting base for the wire rope.