JP2003142555A - Robot for transferring substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To pull out a glass substrate that is accommodated in a cassette and is warped downward from the cassette without interfering with an upper glass substrate in a robot for transferring a thin and large substrate between cassettes. SOLUTION: A warped glass substrate 30 is set to be in the same warp shape as each of upper and lower substrates by a warp correction mechanism comprising a rod 2a and a thrust-up mechanism 2, the glass substrate 30 is retained by an suction pad 7 at a hand section 1, and the hand section 1 where the glass substrate is placed is pulled out of a shelf 25 in a cassette.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thin substrate transfer robot for pulling out and accommodating a large substrate that is thin and flexible.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, substrates used for display panels such as liquid crystal or plasma displays have become large in size, and in the transportation of substrates and the transfer of substrates during the manufacturing process, it is easy to automate the equipment in semiconductor manufacturing. The cassette-to-cassette method was adopted. However,
Unlike wafers, which are small and light semiconductor substrates, thin and large substrates, such as glass substrates, have problems with the rigidity of the arm that supports the weight of the substrate, how to hold a heavy substrate, and how to bend a bent substrate to an adjacent substrate. There is a need for a transfer robot that solves the problem of how to pull out from the cassette or how to store the cassettes without contacting each other.

4A and 4B are views for explaining a robot in a conventional example. As shown in FIG. 4B, the glass substrates 30 are stored in the respective shelves 25 of the cassette 29 sent from the upstream manufacturing process. When taking out the glass substrate 30 of the desired shelf 25 from the cassette 29, the desired shelf 25 and the shelf 25 below it are taken out.
The hand unit 28 is inserted between the above and by the operation of the slide mechanism 24. Then, the hand unit 28 is slightly lifted by the operation of the vertical movement mechanism (not shown), and the back surface of the glass substrate 30 is brought into contact with the suction pad 27, and the glass substrate 30 is suction-held.

Then, after the glass substrate 30 is lifted from the shelf 25 of the cassette 29, the slide plate 22 is moved so that the hand portion 28 on which the glass substrate 30 is placed is pulled out from the cassette 29. Then, at this time, the auxiliary suction pad 26 is operated so that the glass substrate 30 on the hand portion 28 is not displaced, so that the glass substrate 30 is held more reliably. As described above, the glass substrate 30 pulled out of the cassette 29 is stopped by the robot before the cassette for transferring the manufacturing equipment by the movement of the robot, and the hand of the glass substrate 30 placed on the cassette by the movement of the slide plate 22. The portion 28 was inserted, and the glass substrate 30 was stored in the shelf of the cassette for transfer.

[0005]

However, in the robot described above, the glass substrate 30 housed in the cassette 29 is bent downward by its own weight, so that the glass substrate 30 floats from the shelf 25 and the hand portion 28 rises. When raising the glass substrate 30, as shown in FIG.
Both ends of the glass substrate 30 hang downward, and conversely, the glass substrate 3
0 The central part bends upward and the glass substrate 30 of the upper shelf 25
Often comes in contact with the back of the.

As a result, when the hand unit 28 is pulled out from the cassette 29, the glass substrate on the hand unit 28 and the glass substrate on the shelf 25 on the hand unit 28 interfere with each other and cannot be pulled out smoothly, or the glass substrate 30 is pulled out. It may cause quality problems such as scratches on the film formed on the surface of the.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a substrate transfer robot which can smoothly withdraw a substrate from a cassette without interfering with the substrate on the shelf above it.

[0008]

A feature of the present invention is that a cassette having a plurality of shelves is inserted into the cassette to take out a substrate stored in the cassette and bent downward by its own weight. A bending correction mechanism for correcting the bending; a substrate holding mechanism having a suction pad that is inserted into the cassette and that contacts the back surface of the central portion of the substrate where the bending is corrected and sucks the substrate; A substrate moving mechanism that inserts or withdraws the held substrate holding mechanism from the cassette together with the bending correction mechanism, and a vertical movement mechanism that moves the substrate holding mechanism, the bending correction mechanism, and the substrate moving mechanism up and down. It is a substrate transfer robot provided.

Further, it is desirable to provide an auxiliary suction pad which is disposed outside the suction pad and suction-holds the back surface of the substrate. On the other hand, it is preferable that the bending correction mechanism includes a pair of rod members arranged outside the auxiliary suction pad and in contact with the back surface of the substrate, and a push-up mechanism that pushes up the pair of rod members.

Preferably, a rotation mechanism for rotating the entire mechanism including the substrate holding mechanism, the bending correction mechanism and the substrate moving mechanism is provided. Further, it is desirable that the rod member and the back surface of the substrate contact each other through a ring-shaped member. Further, it is desirable that the ring-shaped member is made of polytetrafluoroethylene.

[0011]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

1 (a) to 1 (c) are a top view, an AA sectional view and a BB arrow view for explaining a substrate transfer robot according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, this substrate transfer robot has a rod 2a that is inserted into a cassette to take out a glass substrate 30 that is housed in a shelf 25 and is bent downward by its own weight, and that corrects the bending of the glass substrate 30. It is equipped with a bending correction mechanism including.

In this bending correction mechanism, a pair of rods 2a that come into contact with the back surface of the glass substrate 30 that serves as a fulcrum so that the center portion of the glass substrate 30 is bent downwardly are pushed up, and the pair of rods 2a are pushed up. The push-up mechanism 2 is provided to correct the center portion of the bent glass substrate 30 so that the center portion of the bent glass substrate 30 is bent downward. Further, in order to prevent the glass substrate 30 from being scratched, a sleeve 3 made of polytetrafluoroethylene having a small friction is provided at a portion in contact with the rod 2a and the glass substrate 30.
Is desirable.

Further, the push-up mechanism 2 is shown in FIG.
As shown in (c), it is composed of an air cylinder 4 that moves the shaft 9 up and down, and a link 10 that revolves around a fulcrum shaft 5 to which a rod 2a is attached and fixed at one end. The push-up mechanism 2 has the advantage that the glass substrate 30 can be efficiently corrected as compared with the simple upward push-up method because the link 10 turns to push up the rod 2a.

2 (a) and 2 (b) are views for explaining the operation of the rod and the hand portion in the cassette. First, as shown in FIG. 2A, the hand unit 1 and the rod 2a are inserted between the shelves of the cassette 29 with the push-up mechanism 2 of FIG. 1C not operating. Next, as shown in FIG. 2B, a vertical movement mechanism (not shown)
Thus, the entire hand unit 1 including the rod 2a is lifted to bring the suction pad 7 into contact with the back surface of the glass substrate 30, and the suction pad 7 holds the glass substrate 30 by suction.

Next, the shaft 9 is lowered by the air cylinder 4 of the pushing-up mechanism 2 shown in FIG. 1C to push up the rod 2a as shown by the chain double-dashed line, and the bending of both ends of the glass substrate 30 which bends downward is corrected. To do. As a result, both ends of the glass substrate 30 are bent upward, so that the glass substrate 30 has substantially the same bending shape as the upper and lower substrates. Then, the vertical mechanism (not shown) is slightly raised to float the glass substrate 30 from the shelf 25, and the glass substrate is separated from the shelf 25. At this time, the gaps C1 and C2 between the upper glass substrate 30 and the lower glass substrate are sufficient to allow the glass substrate 30 and the hand portion 1 to be pulled out, so that the hand portion 1 on which the glass substrate 30 is placed is placed in the cassette 2
Pull out from 9.

Then, in the pulled-out state, the push-up mechanism 2 is released so that the rod 2a and the hand portion 1 are in a horizontal state and brought into contact with the auxiliary suction pad 8 so that the glass substrate 30 is not displaced. The glass substrate 30 is held more reliably.

Then, the slide plate 6 is moved, and the hand portion 1 on which the glass substrate 30 is placed is pulled out from the cassette 29 together with the bending correction mechanism including the rod 2a.

FIG. 3 is a plan view for explaining the operation in which the substrate transfer robot of FIG. 1 stores the glass substrate pulled out from the cassette in the transfer cassette of the manufacturing facility. In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, the substrate transfer robot includes a slide mechanism 11 that moves a slide plate 6 that is connected to the hand unit 1 with a bending correction mechanism, and a slide mechanism 11 that rotates the slide mechanism 11 to move the hand unit 1. A rotating mechanism 12 for setting the direction,
A vertical movement mechanism 13 for vertically moving the entire mechanism including the slide mechanism 11 and the rotation mechanism is provided.

First, the hand unit 1 on which the glass substrate 30 pulled out from the cassette is placed is moved to the hand of the robot body by the slide mechanism 11. Next, the position and orientation of the cassette 29a of the manufacturing equipment are extracted from the memory, the rotation mechanism 12 operates according to a command from a control unit (not shown), and the hand unit 1 including the slide mechanism 11 moves, for example,
The hand unit 1 is rotated once to match the orientation of the hand unit 1 with the cassette for transfer.

Next, which shelf of the cassette 29a is to be stored is read from the memory, and the vertical mechanism 13 is instructed via the control unit. The vertical movement mechanism 13 includes a cassette 29 to be transferred.
The height is adjusted so that the hand unit 1 can be inserted between the shelf a and the shelf above it. Then, as indicated by the chain double-dashed line, the hand portion is extended by the operation of the slide mechanism 24 and the cassette 29
inserted in a. Then, the vertical movement mechanism 13 descends and the glass substrate 30 is placed on a desired shelf. The hand unit 1 released from the glass substrate 30 by descending is returned to the hand of the robot body by the slide mechanism 11, and is rotated by the rotating mechanism 12.
As a result, the hand unit 1 rotates in the reverse direction and returns to the original position.

Then, again, as described with reference to FIG. 1, the hand mechanism 1 is extended by the slide mechanism 11 to enter the cassette, and as described above, the glass substrate 30 is pulled out from the cassette and placed on the shelf of the cassette for transfer. Store. By repeating this operation, all the glass substrates 30 of the cassette 29 carried in from the upstream process are stored in the transfer cassette 29a of the manufacturing equipment.

On the other hand, even when the glass substrates 30 are stored in the empty cassette 29 from the transfer cassette 29a processed in the manufacturing facility, one glass is transferred from the transfer cassette as described with reference to FIG. The substrate 30 may be pulled out and the glass substrate 30 may be stored in the empty cassette 29 as described with reference to FIG.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, even if the substrate accommodated in the cassette bends, the substrate placed on the upper and lower shelves is interfered with by providing the means for correcting the deflection. The advantage is that the substrate can be pulled out from the cassette without any problem, and even thin and large substrates can be transferred smoothly.

Further, since there is no contact between the substrates, the film formed on the surface is not damaged, and there is an effect that the quality yield can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a top view, an AA sectional view, and B for explaining a substrate transfer robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the operation of a rod and a hand portion in a cassette.

FIG. 3 is a plan view for explaining the operation of the substrate transfer robot of FIG. 1 for storing the glass substrate pulled out from the cassette in the transfer cassette of the manufacturing facility.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a robot in a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

1,28 Hand part 2a rod 2 Push-up mechanism 3 sleeves 4 Air cylinder 5 fulcrum axis 6 slide plate 7 Adsorption pad 8 Auxiliary suction pad 9 axes 10 links 11 Slide mechanism 12 rotation mechanism 13 Vertical movement mechanism 29,29a cassette 30 glass substrate

   ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued front page    F-term (reference) 3C007 AS03 CT04 CT05 CU02 DS03                       ES17 FS01 FU00 FU02 NS12                 3F022 AA08 CC02 EE05 KK10 KK20                 5F031 CA05 DA01 FA02 FA07 FA11                       GA08 GA32 GA35 GA47 GA48                       GA49 PA13

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A bending correction mechanism which is inserted into the cassette to take out a substrate which is housed in the cassette having a plurality of shelves and which is bent downward by its own weight, and which corrects the bending of the substrate, A substrate holding mechanism including a suction pad that is inserted into a cassette and that contacts the back surface of the central portion of the substrate whose deflection has been corrected and sucks the substrate,
A substrate moving mechanism that inserts or withdraws the substrate holding mechanism holding the substrate from the cassette together with the bending correction mechanism, and a vertical movement that moves the substrate holding mechanism, the bending correction mechanism, and the substrate moving mechanism up and down. A substrate transfer robot comprising a mechanism. 2. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 1, further comprising an auxiliary suction pad which is disposed outside the suction pad and suction-holds the back surface of the substrate. 3. The bending correction mechanism includes a pair of bar members arranged outside the auxiliary suction pad and in contact with the back surface of the substrate, and a push-up mechanism for pushing up the pair of bar members. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 1 or 2. 4. The substrate according to claim 1, further comprising a rotating mechanism that rotates the entire mechanism including the substrate holding mechanism, the bending correction mechanism, and the substrate moving mechanism. Transfer robot. 5. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 1, wherein the rod member and the back surface of the substrate are in contact with each other via a ring-shaped member. . 6. The ring-shaped member is made of polytetrafluoroethylene.
The substrate transfer robot described.