JP2002359273A - Opener for wafer transfer container - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an opener for solving the problem of the disturbance of an air current possibly causing raising of dust by the opening operation of the door of a hoop and of containing wafers stores in the hoop. SOLUTION: The opener is provided with a fitting frame fitted to a box B for EFEM 400, a hoop-placing part 3 on which the hoop 100 is placed, a door-holding part 4 for opening/closing the door 102 of the hoop 100 and holding the door 101, a slidingly elevating part 5 for sliding the door holding part 4 and raising and lowering it and a driving part 6 which is stored below the placing part 3 and drives the slidingly elevating part 5. The opener 1 which is thus constituted constitutes the opening/closing mechanism part 7 of the door, so that raising dust when the door 101 is opened can be suppressed and controls operation, in such a way that the door is opened by successively speeding it up and the door is closed at a prescribed speed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an opener for opening and closing a lid of a wafer transfer container for transferring a wafer having a predetermined diameter in a sealed state.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In a semiconductor factory, factory automation (Fa) is performed in proportion to the miniaturization of the circuit line width formed on a wafer.
Entry Automation (FA) is in progress. In this FA, one of the equipments for transporting wafers between and within processing steps is a Foop (Front opening) as a wafer transport container.
unified pod (hereinafter, referred to as a hoop).

A hoop responds to the demand for a mini-environment for localizing a clean area. The hoop main body can be sealed with an opening / closing lid (hereinafter, also referred to as a door), and the inside of the hoop main body has a wafer. A support portion for supporting the edge is provided, so that, for example, 25 300 mm wafers can be arranged in a horizontal direction at a predetermined pitch interval.

As shown in FIG. 11, a plurality of openers 200, 200... For automatically opening and closing a door 101 of a hoop 100 and a wafer are transferred to the processing process of the wafer conveyed by the hoop. EFEM (Equipment) equipped with a robot 300 to be transferred
Front End Module) 400.

That is, as shown in FIG.
In the M400, the box B is installed between the transport path 500 and the processing device 600, and the hoop 100 transported by RGV, AGV or the like is opened and closed by the opener 200 of the hoop 100. Then, the wafer 700 accommodated in the hoop 100 is transferred to the processing apparatus 600 by the robot 300 after mapping for scanning the presence or absence of the wafer 700 and alignment of the orientation flat. Note that reference numeral “401” in FIG. 11 denotes a CIM (Computer) of a semiconductor factory.
Integrated Manufacturing)
This is an EFEM control device that constitutes the system. 12, reference numeral "402" denotes a fan filter unit (FFU) for keeping the inside of the box B at a high degree of cleanliness, and reference numeral "403" denotes a traveling platform arranged in the longitudinal direction of the floor of the box B. “404” is a moving platform to which the robot 300 is attached and moves along the traveling platform 403.

[0006]

However, with respect to the opener 200, the following problems have become apparent. The first point is that the opening operation of the door 101 of the hoop 100 causes turbulence in the airflow which causes dust, and there is a possibility that the wafer 700 accommodated in the hoop 100 may be contaminated. After processing by the processing apparatus 600, the mapping of the wafers 700 accommodated in the hoop 100 has not been performed, and when the number of wafers before and after the processing did not match, appropriate and prompt measures could not be taken. The third point is that the door 101 opened by the opener 200 is moved up and down in the box B as described later, but it has caused dust generation depending on a drive source used for the elevation. In addition, since the lifting / lowering was performed only by the driving source, it was difficult to control a smooth lifting / lowering operation.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide an opener that can solve these problems.

[0008]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, an opener according to the present invention opens an opening / closing lid from a wafer transfer container at a gradually increasing speed, and closes the opening / closing cover to the wafer transfer container. Is performed at a predetermined speed (the invention according to claim 1).

According to the present invention, since the opening and closing of the opening / closing lid from the wafer transfer container is performed at a gradually increasing speed, the pressure in the wafer transfer container and the opening / closing cover are opened, and the space in the space where the wafer transfer container faces is opened. Even if the air pressure is different, the pressure can be balanced for removal. Therefore, it is possible to prevent the airflow from being disturbed due to the airflow being sucked into the wafer transfer container.

In the above invention, the mapping of the wafer accommodated in the wafer transfer container is performed when the open / close lid is lowered after the open / close lid is opened and when the open / close lid is raised before closing the open / close lid. (The invention according to claim 2). That is, since the mapping is performed before and after the processing of the wafer, it is possible to detect a mismatch in the number of wafers.

In the above invention, a balancer mechanism is mounted between a lifting / lowering unit for raising / lowering the opening / closing lid and a driving unit after the opening / closing lid is opened and before the closing thereof (the invention according to claim 3). ). According to the present invention, since the balancer mechanism is interposed in the elevating operation, the elevating unit can perform a smooth elevating operation.

In the above invention, the balancer mechanism comprises:
A rodless cylinder provided with a check valve is provided (the invention according to claim 4). The rodless cylinder functions as a shock absorber by a check valve, not as a driving means that requires air supply, and does not cause dust generation. Further, the balancer mechanism may be a rodless cylinder using vacuum air (the invention according to claim 5). According to the vacuum air, since there is no inflow / outflow of air, the dust generation effect can be enhanced.

[0013]

Embodiments of the invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a front view of the opener according to the embodiment, and FIG. 2 is a side view of the opener. In these drawings and the drawings described above and below, the same components are denoted by the same reference numerals, and redundant description will be omitted.

The opener 1 according to the embodiment includes the EF
An attachment frame 2 attached to a box B for EM400,
A hoop placement section 3 on which the hoop 100 is placed, and a hoop 10
0, a door holding unit 4 that opens and closes the door 101, and holds the door 101; and a sliding elevating unit that slides the door holding unit 4 in the left-right direction (on the drawing in FIG. 2) and moves up and down. The slide unit 5 includes a drive unit 6 that is accommodated below the placement unit 3 and drives the slide lifting unit 5.

The hoop mounting portion 3 is provided with three projections (not shown) that enable kinematic coupling for positioning the hoop 100.

In order to open and close the door 101 of the hoop 100, a positioning pin 40 inserted into the positioning hole of the door 101 and a latch key hole inserted into the door Is provided.

One of the features of the opener 1 configured as described above is to configure a door opening / closing mechanism and control its operation so as to suppress dust generation when the door 101 is opened. It is to be.

As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, the door opening / closing mechanism 7 is installed in the slide elevating unit 5, uses a motor 70 as a driving source, and uses a rotating force of a crank 71 and a tip of the crank 71. Roller 7 rotatably mounted on
2, the roller 71 is caused to travel on a concave cam 73 to convert the cam 73 into a linear motion. Then, the door holding section 4 to which the cam 73 is attached can be moved in the left-right direction in the drawing.

In this case, when the door 101 is opened, the door holding section 4 is operated so as to slowly open and remove the door 101 so as to increase the opening speed. Therefore, the box B
The balance between the internal pressure and the internal pressure of the hoop 100 can be eliminated, and turbulence in the airflow can be prevented. As a result, for example, even if dust or the like is attached near the door 101 of the hoop 100, the dust or the like is prevented from being sucked into the hoop 100, and contamination of the wafer can be prevented.

On the other hand, when the door 101 is closed after the wafer 700 processed by the processing apparatus 600 is stored in the hoop 100, the motor 70 is operated so as to close as soon as possible without any time interval. Let it.

When closing the hoop 100, the pressure inside the box B and the inside of the hoop 100 are equal, so there is little need to consider the turbulence of the air flow. Therefore, the throughput can be improved. Further, since the motor 70 is used as the driving source, the opening / closing speed of the door 101 can be easily controlled, and the driving source itself does not cause dust.

The second feature of the opener 1 is that the wafer is mapped before and after the processing by the processing apparatus 600 (double wafer mapping).
The mapping is performed by a sensor attached to the tip of a pair of arms 42 that can protrude and retract from the upper part of the door holding part 4 as shown in FIG. One end of the arm 42
It is rotatably attached to the door holding unit 4 and operates so as to be able to come and go by a motor. The sensor has one arm 4
A light-transmitting sensor is used in which a light-emitting element is attached to two ends and a light-receiving element is attached to the other arm 42 so as to face each other.

As shown in FIG. 6A, after the door holding unit 4 holds the door 101 and slides to the right,
As the arm 42 is unfolded and the door holding unit 100 is lowered as shown in FIG.
The presence or absence of a predetermined number of zeros is scanned.

On the other hand, after the processed wafer 700 is stored in the hoop 100 by the robot 300,
As shown in FIG. 7A, the arm 42 is deployed from the door holding unit 4 and the wafer 700 is scanned by the sensor while the door holding unit 4 is being lifted. After the scanning is completed, the arm 42 is housed. .

As the door holding unit 4 moves up and down, the interruption of light from the light emitting element is detected at regular intervals, and a predetermined number of sheets is detected. When the edge of the wafer is carried obliquely without being positioned at the predetermined support portion, the presence or absence of oblique carrying is detected because the light is not blocked. When the edges of the two wafers are supported by the same support portion and loaded twice, the presence or absence of the double loading is detected because the cutoff time is long. Therefore, when a mismatch between the numbers of wafers before and after the processing is detected, appropriate and prompt measures can be taken. Further, it is possible to avoid the risk that the wafers which are carried in obliquely or doubly are damaged in the carrying process or the next process. Further, it is possible to prevent the processing surface of the double loaded wafer from being damaged in the transfer process.

A third feature of the above-mentioned opener is that a balancer mechanism 8 is combined with the drive section 6 in order to smoothly move the door up and down section 5 up and down. Similar to the door opening / closing mechanism 7 in FIG. 4 described above, the driving unit 6 includes a motor 60, a crank 61 to which the rotational force is transmitted, and a rotation at the tip of the crank 61 as shown in FIGS. A roller 62 that is mounted so as to be able to rotate,
It comprises a concave cam 63 that converts the rotational force of the motor 60 into a lifting force while sliding. A liner section 81 of a rodless cylinder 80 is fixed to the concave cam 63 of the driving section 6, and a fin 82 is projected from the liner section 81, and the fin 82 is provided on the mounting plate 2. It is fixed to the slide elevating unit 5 via a groove (not shown). By providing a check valve 83 at one end of the air tank of the rodless cylinder 80,
And a balancer mechanism.

FIG. 10A shows the operation of the balancer mechanism.
Description will be made based on (b). As shown in FIG. 10A, when the motor 60 is turned on and the slide elevating unit 5 starts to descend, the runner 81 fixed to the concave cam 63 is pushed down. At this time, air flows only in one direction by the check valve 83, that is, air does not enter the air tank of the cylinder 80.
The pressure in the tank is reduced. Therefore, the load becomes constant by applying a force in the upward direction with respect to the descending direction, so that it is possible to control the slide elevating unit 5 to smoothly descend while avoiding a sudden fall.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 10B, when the slide elevating unit 5 starts to ascend, the load on the motor 60 can be reduced by the upward force of the air of the air cylinder which increases to atmospheric pressure. it can.

According to the balancer mechanism 8, since no air is supplied in addition to the above-mentioned effects, dust generation can be prevented. Note that, instead of the rodless cylinder 80, a normal air cylinder having a cylinder rod may be used, but by using a rodless cylinder, space efficiency can be improved. In this embodiment, the check valve 83 is attached.
Without providing this valve 83, a rodless cylinder using vacuum air or a normal air cylinder may be used. According to the vacuum air, the air in the cylinder is always drawn out,
Dirt generated by swinging inside the cylinder is not generated in the apparatus. That is, since no air flows in and out, the dust generation effect can be enhanced.

According to the balancer mechanism of each of the above structures, an inexpensive motor having a relatively small torque can be used by assisting the motor, and the components constituting the mechanism can be provided in total at low cost. The motor 6
Any kind of 0 may be used, but even if a DC motor having excellent controllability is used, the disadvantage of the DC motor with respect to a hanging load can be eliminated.

The opener 1 is controlled by the EFEM control device 401 constituting the CIM system as follows.

The control device 401 controls the hoop 100
Is detected on the hoop mounting portion 3 of the opener 1, the latch key 41 of the hoop holding portion 4 is detected.
Is operated, and the door 101 is latched. At this time, the robot 300 has moved to the opener 1. Next, the control device 401 outputs a command to open the door 101 to the opener 1. At first, the control device 401 outputs a low rotation signal for lowering the rotation speed of the motor 70, and increases the rotation speed for removal. To output a high rotation signal,
Is gradually increased and the door 101 is opened by sliding.

Next, the control device 401 outputs a deployment command signal to the motor for deploying the arm 42,
In addition to sending an excitation signal to the light emitting element of the sensor, a lowering command signal is output to the motor 60 to lower the slide elevating unit 5, and the mapping process is started. When the slide elevating unit 5 is lowered to a predetermined position and the mapping process is completed, the control device 401
At the same time, a lowering stop signal is output to 0, and an accommodation command signal for the arm 42 is output to the motor for expanding the arm 42, and the arm 42 is stored in the door holding unit 4.

As described above, the descent of the slide elevating unit 5 is stopped. However, the slide elevating unit 5 can be accurately and safely stopped by the balancer structure 8. If there is a possibility that the robot 300 will interfere with the door holding unit 4 when the robot 300 moves the wafer 700 in and out, the door holding unit 4 is further lowered.

Next, the control device 401 takes out the wafers 700 one by one from the hoop 100 by the robot 300, and executes the orientation flat alignment process and the delivery process to the processing device.

The processed wafer 700 is placed in the hoop 10
0, the control device 401 outputs a lift command signal to the motor 60 and a deployment command signal to the motor for deploying the arm 42 in order to raise the slide lifting unit 5. Thereafter, an excitation signal is sent to the sensor of the arm 42, and a double mapping process is started.

After the mapping is completed, the control device 401 outputs a command signal for accommodating the arm 42,
Further, a closing command signal for closing the door 101 is output to the motor 70. In this case, a high rotation signal for increasing the number of rotations is output from the beginning, and the door 101 is closed by sliding the door holding unit 4.

[0038]

According to the first aspect of the present invention, when the opening / closing lid of the wafer transfer container is opened, it is possible to avoid the occurrence of turbulence in the air flow due to the suction of the air flow into the wafer transfer container. Therefore, dust generation can be prevented.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, in addition to being able to detect inconsistency in the number of wafers and the like, it is also possible to detect oblique carry-in and double carry-in of the wafer, so that the wafer is not damaged until the next step. Can be transported to

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the balancer mechanism is interposed in the elevating and lowering, the elevating unit can smoothly move up and down.

According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the rodless cylinder functions as a shock absorber by a check valve, not as a driving means that requires air supply. It will not be.
Further, the installation space can be reduced as compared with a general air cylinder.

According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since there is no inflow and outflow of air, the dust generation effect can be enhanced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view of an opener according to an embodiment,

FIG. 2 is a side view of the opener,

FIG. 3 is a side view of the opener,

FIG. 4 is a plan view of a main part of the opener,

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the opener,

FIGS. 6A and 6B are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the opener.

FIGS. 7A and 7B are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the opener.

FIG. 8 is a configuration explanatory view of the opener,

FIG. 9 is a perspective view of a main part of the opener,

FIGS. 10A and 10B are explanatory diagrams of the operation of the opener.

FIG. 11 is a perspective view of a conventional example,

FIG. 12 is a front view of a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Opener 100 Hoop 101 Door 2 Mounting frame 3 Hoop mounting part 4 Door holding part 40 Positioning pin 41 Latch key 42 Arm 5 Slide elevating part 6 Driving part 60 Motor 61 Crank 62 Roller 63 Concave cam 7 Door opening / closing mechanism 70 Motor 71 Crank 72 Roller 73 Concave cam 8 Balancer mechanism 80 Rodless cylinder 81 Liner section 82 Fin 83 Check valve 400 EFEM 600 Processing device

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (72) Inventor Sato Onodera 4-2 Hagizaki, Kadozaki, Kawasaki-mura, Higashiiwai-gun, Iwate F-term (reference) 3E084 AA05 AA14 AB10 BA02 CA03 DA03 FA09 FD20 GA08 GB12 GB19 5F031 CA02 DA08 EA14 GA30 GA36 GA42 JA05 JA13 JA25 JA43 KA20 LA07 LA11 LA15 MA17 NA10 NA13 PA02 PA26

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. An opener for opening and closing an opening / closing lid of a wafer transfer container for transferring a wafer of a predetermined diameter in a sealed state, wherein opening and closing of the open / close lid from the wafer transfer container is performed at a gradually increasing speed, and the wafer is transferred to the wafer transfer container. Wherein the opening / closing lid is closed at a predetermined speed. 2. The mapping of wafers contained in the wafer transfer container is performed when the open / close lid is lowered after the open / close lid is opened and when the open / close lid is raised before the open / close lid is closed. The opener for a wafer transfer container according to claim 1, wherein 3. The wafer transfer according to claim 1, wherein a balancer mechanism is mounted between a lifting / lowering unit that raises / lowers the opening / closing lid and a drive unit thereof before and after the opening / closing lid is opened. Opener for container. 4. The opener for a wafer transfer container according to claim 3, wherein said balancer mechanism comprises a rodless cylinder provided with a check valve. 5. The opener for a wafer transfer container according to claim 3, wherein the balancer mechanism is a rodless cylinder using vacuum air.