JP2006111421A - Conveyor system between floors - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a conveyor system between floors, having high conveying capacity. <P>SOLUTION: The conveying system 10 conveys objects 12 to/from the carrying-in side end part 16E of a carrying-in conveyor 16 and the carrying-out side end part 14E of a carrying-out conveyor 14 arranged side by side on each floor. The conveying system comprises conveying shafts 18 provided between the floors, receiving and delivering ports 20D, 20U formed on the conveying shaft on each floor so that they face the end parts of the carrying-in/carrying-out conveyors on each floor, a lifting cage 22 liftably disposed in the conveying shaft, lifting mechanisms 24, 26, 28, 30 for lifting the lifting cage, and two receiving and delivering conveyors 32, 34 arranged side by side in the lifting cage. When the lifting cage is positioned at one of the receiving and delivering ports, the receiving and delivering conveyors are connected to the conveyors 14, 16 facing the receiving and delivering ports respectively. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention relates to an inter-floor transfer apparatus for transferring a semiconductor wafer or the like between floors.

  2. Description of the Related Art In recent years, in semiconductor manufacturing factories, a plurality of semiconductor wafers are housed in a sealed container called FOUP (Front Opening Unified Pod) as the diameter of the semiconductor wafer is increased and mini-environment (local clean space) is increased. In general, inter-bay transportation and intra-bay transportation are generally performed.

  In addition, in order to effectively use the space in the factory building, a clean room is often constructed for each floor. In such a factory, when a series of processes spans between floors, a FOUP is used, for example, By using an inter-floor transport apparatus as disclosed in Patent Document 1, transport is made to each floor, and delivery to and from the inter-process transport section is performed.

The conventional inter-floor transfer device disclosed in Patent Document 1 is an elevating cage that is disposed so as to be movable up and down in a transfer chamber provided between the floors, and for loading and unloading conveyed items provided in the elevating cage. And a conveyor. Generally, since there is only one conveyor in the lifting cage, for example, when the lifting cage arrives on the second floor, first the FOUP placed on the conveyor in the cage is discharged, and then the inter-process transfer section on the second floor Another FOUP sent from is to be sent to the conveyor in the cage.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 11-209033

  By the way, regarding FOUP, the load port (entrance / exit port) of the wafer processing apparatus constituting the bay has been standardized (SEMI standard E15.1). Such a load port is suitable for access from above. Therefore, in general, the inter-process transport and the intra-process transport are performed by the ceiling transport device, and the FOUP delivery between the inter-floor transport device and the inter-process transport unit is also performed by the ceiling transport device.

  However, the ceiling conveyance device itself has a problem that the conveyance capability is low. For this reason, improvement of the conveyance efficiency in the conveyance between processes and in-process conveyance is calculated | required strongly. At the same time, it is desired to improve the transport capability of the inter-floor transport device, which is the object of the present invention.

  First, in making the present invention, the present inventor has proposed that a conveyor, preferably a roller conveyor, be used for inter-process conveyance. That is, the part which becomes the main conveyance path | route of the conveyance part between processes is comprised with a loop-shaped conveyor, and a bay is arrange | positioned around it. Compared to a ceiling transport device, the conveyor has an advantage that it has a high transport capability and can be easily branched to a bay or shortcut.

  If a conveyor is used, it may be possible to branch the carry-in / out conveyor from the main transfer path of the inter-process transfer unit and connect it to the entrance / exit of the inter-level transfer device. It is preferable not to use one conveyor for delivery, but to provide it separately for loading and unloading. Such a configuration has not been conventionally known and is a new configuration.

  The present invention has been conceived in connection with the above-described new configuration of the inter-process transport unit, and includes a carry-in end portion of the carry-in conveyor and a carry-out end portion of the carry-out conveyor that are arranged in parallel on each floor. On the other hand, it is an inter-floor transport device that transports transported objects such as FOUPs, facing the transport chamber provided between the floors, the carry-in end of the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out end of the carry-out conveyor on each floor The entrance / exit opening formed in the transfer chamber for each floor, the lift cage arranged to be raised and lowered in the transfer chamber, the lift mechanism for raising and lowering the lift cage, and the lift cage are arranged in parallel with each other. Two loading / unloading conveyors, and when the elevating cage is placed at any of the loading / unloading ports, the two loading / unloading conveyors are respectively opposite to the loading / unloading port. The carry-in end or the carry-out end of the carry-out conveyor; Is characterized in interfloor conveying device adapted to continue.

  In this inter-story transfer device, two entry / exit conveyors are provided in the lifting cage and can be connected to the carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor, respectively. It becomes possible.

  In order to further increase the conveyance capacity, it is effective to divide the elevating cage into a plurality of stages in the vertical direction and to arrange two entry / exit conveyors in parallel at each stage.

  As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to carry out and carry in the conveyed items to and from the raising / lowering cage on each floor at the same time, so that the conveying ability is improved. In particular, when the inter-process transfer unit in the semiconductor manufacturing factory is configured by a conveyor, it is possible to sufficiently cope with the improvement of the transfer capability even in hierarchical transfer.

  DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In the drawings, the same or corresponding parts are denoted by the same reference numerals.

  FIG. 1 is an overall view schematically showing an embodiment of an inter-floor transport apparatus according to the present invention. The inter-story transfer device 10 according to the illustrated embodiment is for transferring a semiconductor wafer between the first floor and the second floor in a state where the semiconductor wafer is stored in a FOUP (conveyed object) 12 in a two-story semiconductor manufacturing factory. Although not shown in the figure, each floor is provided with one inter-process transport unit and intra-process transport units in a plurality of bays provided along the inter-process transport unit, It comprises a conveyor, preferably a roller conveyor. Reference numerals 14 and 16 shown in FIG. 1 are conveyors that extend from the main conveyance path of the inter-process conveyance unit. One conveyor 14 is a conveyor for carrying out FOUP from the inter-process transport unit to the inter-floor transport apparatus 10 (hereinafter referred to as “unloading conveyor”), and the other conveyor 16 is transported from the inter-floor transport apparatus 10 to the inter-process. It is a conveyor for carrying FOUP into the section (hereinafter referred to as “loading conveyor”). It is effective that the carry-out conveyor 14 and the carry-in conveyor 16 are divided into a plurality of zones and each zone is constituted by a distributed drive type roller conveyor that can be started and stopped independently. This is because the FOUP 12 can be made to wait on these conveyors 14 and 16 as necessary. The carry-out conveyor 14 and the carry-in conveyor 16 are installed in a state of being adjacent to each other in parallel, and the carry-out side end portion 14E and the carry-in side end portion 16E are disposed at positions adjacent to the inter-story transport device 10.

  The inter-floor transfer apparatus 10 includes a transfer chamber 18 indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. The illustrated transfer chamber 18 is a rectangular column-shaped cylindrical body, but may be configured by a framework.

  In the transfer chamber 18, entrance / exit ports 20 </ b> D and 20 </ b> U are formed on the front portion of each floor. Each entrance / exit 20D, 20U faces the end 14E of the carry-out conveyor 14 and the end 16E of the carry-in conveyor 16 on the respective floors.

  A lifting cage 22 is disposed in the transfer chamber 18. The raising / lowering cage 22 is a box-shaped body, and the inside of the conveyance chamber 18 can be raised / lowered by the raising / lowering mechanism. Although various raising / lowering mechanisms are conceivable, in the illustrated embodiment, the electric motor 24 fixed to the ceiling portion of the transfer chamber 18 and the pulley or sprocket 26 of the electric motor 24 are wound around and connected to the raising / lowering cage 22 at one end. The other end is composed of a wire, belt or chain 30 with a weight 28 connected to the other end, and by controlling the electric motor 24, the lifting cage 22 is connected to the first floor entrance / exit 20D and the second floor It can be moved up and down between the entrance / exit 20U. The front side of the lift cage 22 is open. Therefore, when the elevating cage 22 is located at the entrance / exit 20D, 20U, the inside and outside of the elevating cage 22 communicate with each other.

  Further, in the elevating cage 22, two conveyors 32 and 34 for loading and unloading, preferably roller conveyors are provided in parallel to each other. These conveyors 32 and 34 are of a type that can be conveyed in both forward and reverse directions. In a state where the lifting cage 22 is at the position of the first floor entrance / exit 20D, the conveyors 32 and 34 respectively have a carry-in end 16E of the carry-in conveyor 16 on the first floor and a carry-out end 14E of the carry-out conveyor 14. Facing each other at the same height, the conveyor 32 and the conveyor 16 and the conveyor 34 and the conveyor 14 are connected as a series of conveyors. In addition, as shown in FIG. 1, in the state where the lifting cage 22 is at the position of the entrance / exit 20U on the second floor, the conveyors 32 and 34 are similarly connected to the unloading end of the unloading conveyor 14 on the second floor. 14E and the loading end 16E of the loading conveyor 16 face each other at the same height.

  In addition, in order to raise the conveyance capability, the conveyors 32 and 34 for loading / unloading can arrange two FOUPs 12 side by side.

  Next, an example of the FOUP transport method by the inter-floor transport apparatus 10 having the above configuration will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 and 3.

  The state shown in FIG. 2A is a state when the FOUP 12 is placed on the conveyor 34 in the lifting cage 22 on the first floor, and the lifting cage 22 is lifted and arrives on the second floor. At this time, the FOUP 12 for lowering to the first floor is waiting at the unloading side end portion 14E of the unloading conveyor 14 on the second floor.

  When the elevator cage 22 arrives at the second floor and the conveyors 32 and 34 are connected to the second-level carry-out conveyor 14 and the carry-in conveyor 16, the conveyors 32, 34, 14, and 16 are simultaneously driven to carry out the carry-out conveyor 14. The upper FOUP 12 is sent onto the conveyor 32, and the FOUP 12 on the conveyor 34 is sent out to the carry-in conveyor 16 ((b) in FIG. 2). In this process, if it is a conventional inter-floor transfer device, it is necessary to discharge the FOUP in the elevating cage to the outside, and then switch between the external carry-in conveyor and the carry-out conveyor to feed the FOUP into the elevating cage. However, according to the present embodiment, the loading / unloading of the FOUP 12 with respect to the lifting cage 22 can be performed at the same time, and the operation of switching between the carry-in conveyor 14 and the carry-out conveyor 16 is unnecessary. Therefore, it becomes possible to carry the floor between floors in a short time.

  Thereafter, the electric motor 24 is controlled to lower the elevating cage 22 to the first floor ((c) in FIG. 2). When arriving at the first floor, the FOUP 12 waiting on the carry-out conveyor 14 is placed on the conveyor 34 in the same manner as described above except that the driving direction of the conveyors 32 and 34 is reversed. At the same time, the FOUP 12 on the conveyor 32 is transferred to the carry-in conveyor 16 ((d) and (e) in FIG. 3). Then, as shown in FIG. 3 (f), the elevating cage 22 is raised again, and thereafter, (a) to (c) in FIG. 2 and (d) to (f) in FIG. 3 are repeated.

  In this way, the inter-floor transport apparatus 10 according to the present embodiment can simultaneously put the FOUP 12 to the inter-process transport section and the FOUP 12 from the inter-process transport section into and out of the lifting cage 22 on each floor, so the transport capability is It can be remarkably improved, and it is possible to sufficiently cope with the high speed of conveyance due to the inter-process conveyance unit and the in-process conveyance unit being configured by a conveyor.

  4 and 5 are explanatory views similar to FIGS. 2 and 3, showing a second embodiment of the inter-story transport apparatus according to the present invention. This inter-story transport device 100 is shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 only in that the inside of the elevating cage 122 is divided into two upper and lower stages, and storage conveyors 32U and 34U; 32D and 34D are installed in each stage. It differs from the inter-floor transfer apparatus 10 shown.

  The operation of the inter-story transport device 100 is as follows. First, it is assumed that the lifting cage 122 is raised from the first floor to the second floor in a state where the FOUP 12 is placed on the upper and lower conveyors 34 ((h) in FIG. 5). Then, if the lift cage 122 approaches the second floor, and the upper conveyors 32U and 34U in the lift cage 122 are connected to the carry-out conveyor 14 and the carry-in conveyor 16 on the second floor as shown in FIG. Therefore, the lifting cage 122 is temporarily stopped, the upper conveyors 32U, 34U and the conveyors 14, 16 are simultaneously driven, and only two FOUPs 12 on the carry-out conveyor 14 are fed onto the conveyor 32U, and the FOUPs 12 on the conveyor 34U are fed. Is delivered to the carry-in conveyor 16 ((b) of FIG. 4). Thereafter, the lifting cage 122 is slightly raised to connect the lower conveyors 32D and 34D to the conveyors 14 and 16. Similarly, the FOUP 12 on the carry-out conveyor 14 is transferred onto the lower conveyor 32, and at the same time, the FOUP 12 on the lower conveyor 34 is discharged to the carry-in conveyor 16 ((c) in FIG. 4). When lowering to the first floor, the lower conveyors 32D and 34D are connected to the first floor conveyors 16 and 14 first, and then the upper conveyors 32U and 34U are connected to the conveyors 16 and 14, as described above. Thus, the FOUP 12 can be replaced ((d) in FIG. 4 to (g) in FIG. 5).

  As described above, the two-level conveyor device 100 according to the second embodiment is provided with the two conveyors 32U and 34U; 32D and 34D in the elevating cage 122, so that the conveyance capability is further improved. However, since it is arranged in two upper and lower stages, the conveyors 32U, 34U; 32D, 34D of each stage are transported to the carry-out conveyor 14 and the carry-in only by stopping for a short time during the continuous process of ascending or descending. By sequentially connecting with the conveyor 16, it is possible to efficiently replace the FOUP 12.

  As mentioned above, although preferred embodiment of this invention was described to the bond used, it cannot be overemphasized that this invention is not restricted to the said embodiment.

  For example, the above embodiment relates to inter-level conveyance in a two-story semiconductor manufacturing factory, but the present invention is also applicable to inter-level conveyance of three or more floors.

  The conveyed product is not limited to a FOUP containing a semiconductor wafer, but may be a wafer cassette, a container containing a glass plate for panel display, or other articles.

  Furthermore, the conveyors 32 and 34 in the elevating cages 22 and 122 can be three or more stages.

It is a perspective view which shows roughly the interstory conveyance apparatus which concerns on 1st Embodiment of this invention. It is a schematic explanatory drawing which shows the procedure of the conveyance between floors using the floor conveyance apparatus of FIG. It is a schematic explanatory drawing which shows the procedure of the conveyance between floors using the floor conveyance apparatus of FIG. 1, and follows FIG. It is a schematic explanatory drawing similar to FIG. 2 which shows the interlayer conveying apparatus which concerns on 2nd Embodiment of this invention with the procedure of interlayer conveyance. FIG. 5 is a schematic explanatory view similar to FIG. 3, showing the inter-floor transfer device according to the second embodiment of the present invention together with the inter-floor transfer procedure, and is continued from FIG. 4.

Explanation of symbols

  DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10,100 ... Interfloor conveying apparatus, 14 ... Unloading conveyor, 14E ... Unloading side edge, 16 ... Loading conveyor, 16E ... Loading side edge, 18 ... Transfer chamber, 20D, 20U ... Loading / unloading port, 22, 122 ... Lifting cage, 24 ... Electric motor, 32, 34 ... Conveyor for loading / unloading.

Claims (2)

Floors for transporting the conveyed product (12) to the carry-in end (16E) of the carry-in conveyor (16) and the carry-out end (14E) of the carry-out conveyor (14) arranged in parallel on each floor A transport device (10) comprising:
A transfer chamber (18) provided between the floors;
Each floor is formed in the transfer chamber (18) so as to face the carry-in end (16E) of the carry-in conveyor (16) and the carry-out end (14E) of the carry-out conveyor (14) on each floor. The entrance / exit (20D, 20U),
An elevating cage (22) disposed in the transfer chamber (18) so as to be movable up and down;
Elevating mechanism (24, 26, 28, 30) for elevating the elevating cage (22);
Two storage conveyors (32, 34) arranged in parallel in the elevating cage (22),
When the elevating cage (22) is placed at any of the entry / exit ports (20D, 20U), the two entry / exit conveyors (32, 34) are respectively connected to the entry / exit ports (20D , 20U), the inter-floor transfer device adapted to be connected to the carry-in end (16E) of the carry-in conveyor (16) or the carry-out end (14E) of the carry-out conveyor (14) .   The interfloor according to claim 1, wherein the elevating cage (122) is partitioned into a plurality of stages in the vertical direction, and two entry / exit conveyors (32U, 34U; 32D, 34D) are provided for each stage. Conveying device.

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