JP2010165998A - Grasping device, conveyer, transfer device and conveying method for disk-like object - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a grasping device for carrying a plurality of wafers in and out along a vertical direction, in order to store compactly the large-sized semiconductor wafer into a container while preventing deflection. <P>SOLUTION: This grasping device for a disk-like object includes a slender plate-like end effector 3 arranged on an upper side of a horizontal line passing the center of the wafer 8 in the container, and having a tip curved in a thickness direction, and in a direction along a peripheral edge in a wafer deep side, a depth side pad 4 provided in a thick part on a curved side of the end effector tip, and for grasping a peripheral edge part of the wafer, a lower this-side pad 6 located on an underside of a straight line passing a position with the depth side pad contacting a wafer peripheral edge and the center of the wafer, and for contacting the wafer to grasp the peripheral edge, and an upper this-side pad 5 located on an upper side of the straight line, and for contacting the wafer to grasp the peripheral edge, each pad has a recess in a portion contacting the wafer peripheral edge, and at least one of the respective pads is operated to grasp the wafer in the peripheral edge. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2010,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a disc-shaped gripping device, a transporter, a transfer device, and a disc-shaped transporting method used in the field of the electronics industry. More specifically, a disk-shaped object gripping device, which is an arm end of a robot that grips and transports a disk-shaped object such as a semiconductor wafer, a liquid crystal display, an organic EL, an optical disk, and a hard disk, a robot transporter, and the robot The present invention relates to a transfer apparatus and a transport method having the above.

An integrated circuit is generally manufactured from a disk-shaped material called a wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer) made of silicon or gallium arsenide intermetallic compound, which is a semiconductor material. In the semiconductor industry where dust is extremely hated, usually 25 wafers are stored in a container, which is a clean box, and are transferred between various processing apparatuses. Currently, the wafer has the largest diameter of 300 mm, and is horizontally placed on 25 shelves in a container called FOUP (Front Opening Unified Pod, FIG. 3 in FIG. 3) or FOSB (Front Opening Shipping Box, FIG. 2). The space between the shelves is set to 10 mm according to the Semi standard.
Further, for example, as shown in FIG. 3, the FOUP 18 has a lid for the FOUP 18 opened by a load port 27, and a wafer stored in a horizontal state is transferred to a conventional SCARA robot mounted in a clean booth 21. It is sent to the processing device 25 by the machine 26 and used for returning to the original FOUP 18 after the processing is completed.

  In recent years, it has been proposed to increase the wafer diameter to 450 mm in order to increase the productivity of integrated circuits. However, when the wafer is bent horizontally due to the increased diameter, care must be taken not to contact the upper and lower wafers when inserting the end effector of the gripping device into the container. For this reason, it is necessary to increase the space between shelves as compared to the case of a wafer with a diameter of 300 mm, and the container becomes larger in size, becomes thicker to increase the strength, and incorporates a reinforcing material to increase the weight and increase the transportation efficiency. Many problems have been pointed out, such as falling.

  Therefore, in order to prevent the above-described bending, a container for storing a disk-shaped wafer in a vertical position is considered. 2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a wafer vertical type cassette has been used in a process of inserting a plurality of wafers into a plurality of grooves and immersing them in a liquid such as a cleaning solution. Since this cassette is used in a clean room or clean booth, it does not have a lid or is not stored in a container.

When transporting a wafer in a dusty atmosphere, it must be stored in a clean container, but when using the above-mentioned wafer vertical container, whether the container lid should be on the top or side or front Have been discussed. FIG. 4 shows a wafer vertical placement type front opening / closing container 10. This container is provided with a plurality of V-shaped grooves 12 at the lower part inside the main body [FIG. 4 (a)] and a plurality of V-shaped grooves 11 in the longitudinal direction on the back and forth walls and the inner wall, and a plurality of wafers 8 [FIG. 4 (b)] is stored, and the lid [FIG. 4 (c)] is closed, and at the same time, the wafer 8 is fixed in the container as shown in FIG. 4 (d). The present invention is limited to the vertically placed front opening / closing type container 10 shown in FIG. 4 in which falling dust is difficult to enter, and a wafer gripping device as a new arm working end of a robot when a wafer is loaded into and unloaded from this container, and the same A robot transfer machine, a wafer transfer device, and a wafer transfer method are provided.

  Conventionally, a wafer gripping device attached to an end portion of a robot arm is used in a horizontal state in order to pick up and carry a wafer placed horizontally in a container or a processing apparatus. As a method for fixing the wafer to the wafer gripping device, there are a back surface adsorption method and an edge grip method. Examples of the latter include the following document 1, and as shown in the plan view of FIG. 1 (a), the peripheral edge of the wafer is placed on the pads provided at the distal end and the proximal end of the horizontal end effector 40, and the proximal end. The wafer is pressed and held by a movable pad from the side. As shown in FIG. 1C, in order to unload a wafer on an arbitrary shelf of the container, the end effector is inserted into the gap between the target wafer and the wafer below it, and then as shown in FIG. FIG. 2 shows a state in which the target wafer is placed on the wafer gripping apparatus after being lifted by a very small height, the movable pad is advanced, the wafer is pressed and pressed against the tip pad. Thereafter, the wafer gripping device is extracted from the container, and the wafer is transferred to a destination.

  By the way, when loading / unloading a wafer into / from a vertically mounted wafer front open / close container, for example, the surface of the end effector 3 as shown in FIG. It is possible to use it. At this time, each pad for firmly holding the wafer is provided with a V-shaped groove and pressed with a movable pad.

  Further, the following document 2 proposes an apparatus for vertically holding and transferring a wafer in order to minimize an increase in the installation area of an apparatus such as a process chamber, but it is housed in a front opening / closing type container. It is not a gripping device. Here, as for the container, a method of rotating the gripping device while holding the wafer to make it horizontal and then storing it in a horizontal cassette (FOUP) is illustrated.

Special table 2002-51942 JP 2000-260858 A

However, the conventional wafer gripping apparatus as shown in FIG. 1 is provided with a fixed claw (fixed pad) having a V-shaped groove and a movable claw (movable pad) on the frame surface of the end effector in order to fix the wafer. For a heavy wafer having a diameter of 450 mm, the thickness of the end effector 3 needs to be increased by 5 to 8 mm in order to increase the rigidity as shown in FIG. The thickness is 4 to 6 mm, and when these are added together, the thickness is 9 to 14 mm. Considering some wafer deflection, V-groove spacing accuracy, and robot transfer positioning accuracy, when inserting the end effector so as not to contact the adjacent wafer, the wafer pitch ranges from 12 mm (about 11 mm wafer gap in the container) to 19 mm (container The inner wafer gap needs to be about 18 mm). In other words, when the end effector represented by Document 1 or Document 2 is used in a vertical position, even if a 450 mm diameter wafer is used as a vertical container, the same 25 sheets as a conventional 300 mm diameter wafer can be accommodated. Larger size and higher strength are required for the container, and the weight will increase.
In addition, when a pad having a V-shaped groove is placed on a table with a horizontal gripping device, if the grip is released at a slightly high position, the wafer will drop, and the table will be held slightly while being gripped. Stopping too much will damage the wafer, so it must be lowered so that it touches the table very accurately.

In the present invention, in the disk-shaped object gripping device for a robot transporter for loading and unloading the disk-shaped object into and out of the disk-shaped object vertically placed front opening / closing container, the disk-shaped object is disposed above the periphery of the disk-shaped object in the container. A disc-shaped end effector that is fixed to the end portion of the end effector that is bent in the thickness direction and in the direction along the periphery of the back side of the disc-like object, and the thickness portion on the bent side of the end effector tip. A lower side of a straight line passing through at least one back pad for gripping the peripheral edge of the object, a position where the back pad having the at least one contact point contacts the peripheral edge of the disk and the center of the disk A lower near-side pad having at least one contact point that contacts the periphery of the disk-shaped object and grips the periphery of the disk-shaped object; Touch Another upper near side pad having at least one contact point for gripping the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object, each pad having a recess in a portion contacting the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object, There is provided a disk-shaped object gripping device characterized in that at least one of the pads operates to grip the disk-shaped object at a peripheral portion.

  In order to prevent a disk-shaped object such as a wafer from falling while being held vertically, the line connecting the contact points between the back pad and the peripheral edge of the lower front pad is below the center of the disk-shaped object. It is a necessary condition. That is, the line connecting the back pad contact position and the disk center and the line connecting the lower front pad contact position and the disk center need to exceed 180 degrees, but 240 degrees is sufficient. Preferably, it is 200 to 230 degrees.

  In the present invention, the front-rear direction toward the opening / closing surface of the container is referred to as the Y direction, the left-right direction as the X direction, and the up-down direction as the Z direction. The disk-shaped object gripping device of the present invention has a mechanism for rotating the gripping device and / or the end effector around the Y axis (hereinafter referred to as θ rotation), a Y-direction reciprocating mechanism of the end effector or movable pad, and an end factor. Rotate up and down with respect to the part, that is, a mechanism that rotates about the X axis (φ rotation), an entire disc-shaped object gripping device has an X axis center rotation (φ rotation) mechanism with respect to the robot arm, or two or more mechanisms You may have.

    At least one of one back-side pad and two near-side pads provided in the disc-shaped object gripping device of the present invention grips and fixes the disk-shaped object by moving an attachment that fixes the pads. Of the three, it is preferable that the back pad is fixedly provided on the disc-shaped object side of the end effector tip, and the two front pads are movable.

Here, the robot transport machine provided with the disk-shaped object gripping device of the present invention can move the disk-shaped object gripping device in each of the X, Y, and Z directions. The robot transporter may be provided with a rotatable and controllable shaft on the wrist unit in order to place the wafer horizontally from the vertical container at the carry-out destination.

  The thickness of the end effector is preferably 2 to 5 mm, and the width is preferably at least twice the thickness, that is, about 4 to 25 mm. The width of the end effector is of course defined by the gap between the apex of the wafer placed vertically and the container ceiling, but requires at least 4 to 15 mm. At this time, a high elastic modulus material such as carbon fiber reinforced plastics or ceramics is preferable in order to hold a heavy 450 mm wafer vertically and not cause rolling. As the ceramic, a sintered body of alumina, silicon nitride, silicon carbide, zirconia or the like is used.

  A V-shaped or U-shaped groove having a depth of 2 mm or more is provided on the thickness side surface of the pad in order to accommodate and hold the periphery of the 450 mm wafer. Therefore, the thickness of the pad is preferably 3 to 7 mm. As the material of the pad, since it is in contact with the peripheral edge of the silicon wafer, which is high in level and polished, it is softer than silicon and hard to be worn, such as crosslinked polyurethane, abrasion resistant polyester, polyether ether ketone (PEEK), poly Engineering plastics such as oxymethylene (POM), polyethersulfone (PES) and polyphenylene oxide (PPO) are preferred. As for the shape of the pad, the side surface contacting the wafer is preferably circular so that the contact area is small, and other surfaces may be circular, semicircular, elliptical, semielliptical, etc., except for providing grooves. . The other surface is circular, and a shaft provided at the center thereof is fixed to an end effector or a front pad attachment.

  The present invention also includes a disk-shaped object gripping device in which a plurality of, for example, 5 to 25 end effectors are provided in one disk-shaped object gripping device. At this time, the lower front side pad or its pad attachment is provided for each end effector or is provided in communication, and the upper front side pad or its attachment is provided for each end effector or in communication. It may be.

  Next, a method for loading and unloading wafers one by one into the container using the disk-shaped object gripping apparatus of the present invention will be described. First, as a first transport method, when loading and unloading a disk-shaped object into and out of a container in which a front door is opened and a plurality of disk-shaped objects can be stored vertically, and / or from the container, The disk-like object grasped substantially vertically by the back side pad, the near side pad, and the other near side pad of the disc-like object gripping device according to claim 1 or 2, and the inside of the container in the vicinity of the back wall At least one of each of the pads is moved to the bottom of the container and moved in the Z direction so as to fit in a groove provided in the bottom of the container and in the back of the container. To release the disc-shaped object, and if necessary, further move the disk-shaped object gripping device to the back side by a distance that the peripheral edge of the disc-shaped object is disengaged from the recessed groove of the back-side pad, The end effector is connected to an adjacent disk-like object. The X is moved to a gap or a designed gap space, the end effector is moved Y through the gap to the outside of the container, and the loading is finished. For unloading, the tip of the end effector is moved to the container. The Y-side movement is performed from the outside to the gap between the adjacent disk-like objects in the container or the design-side gap space to the inner peripheral edge of the disk-like object and the inner wall of the container. Move the X until it reaches the vicinity of the periphery of the object to be transported, and operate at least one of the back side pad, the near side pad, and the other near side pad to grip the object to be transported at the periphery. Then, the disk-shaped object gripping device is moved in the Z range in a range where the end effector does not hit the ceiling of the container, and then moved to the near side to move the disk-shaped object. Characterized in that a method for transporting disc-like object.

  In addition, when the plurality of end effectors according to claim 5 are gripped and transported by a single disc-like object gripping device at a time, they are carried in and out in the same manner as described above. You can also.

Next, as a second transport method, when loading and unloading a disk-shaped object into and out of a container in which a front door is opened and a plurality of disk-shaped objects can be stored vertically, and / or from the container, The disc-like object gripped in a substantially vertical state by the back-side pad, the near-side pad, and the other near-side pad of the disc-like object gripping device according to claim 3, the inside of the container to the vicinity of the back wall Y is moved, Z is moved downward so that the peripheral edge of the disk-like object is fitted in a groove provided in the container bottom and in the back, and the disk-like object is placed, and at least one of the pads To release the disc-shaped object, and if necessary, further move the disk-shaped object gripping device to the back side by a distance that the peripheral edge of the disc-shaped object is disengaged from the recessed groove of the back-side pad. Move the end effector by θ The end effector is moved Y out of the container through the gap between the disk-shaped object placed above and the ceiling of the container to finish loading, and when unloading, the end effector is moved outside the container. The tip of the end effector that has been rotated by θ and moved horizontally is moved Y through the gap between the disk-shaped object and the ceiling of the container to the inner periphery of the disk-shaped object and the inner wall of the container, The end effector is rotated by θ so that the end effector is along the vicinity of the periphery of the transport target disk-shaped object, and the periphery of the transport target disk-shaped object is formed by the back side pad, the near side pad, and the other near side pad. And move the disk-like object gripping device approximately Z within a range where the end effector does not hit the ceiling of the container, and then move it to the front side by Y movement. Unloading the disc-like object Te, a method for transporting disc-like object, characterized in that.

Next, as a third transport method, when loading and unloading a disk-shaped object into and out of a container in which a front door is opened and a plurality of disk-shaped objects can be stored vertically, and / or from the container, The disc-like object gripped in a substantially vertical state by the back side pad, the near side pad, and the other near side pad of the disc-like object gripping device according to claim 4, the inside of the container to the vicinity of the back wall Y is moved, Z is moved downward so that the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object is fitted in a groove provided in the container bottom and in the back, and the disk-shaped object is placed, and at least each of the pads Release one and release the gripping of the disk-shaped object, and if necessary, move the disk-shaped object gripping device to the back side by a distance where the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object is removed from the recessed groove of the back-side pad. Rotate the end effector in a non-contact state While lifting, let the wrist part move backward in the Y direction, lower in the Z direction, and pull out until the back side pad at the end effector tip is near the top of the disk-like object along the upper peripheral edge of the disk-like object, Then, the wrist part is moved in the Y direction to complete the loading, and when unloading, the end effector is rotated by φ outside the container and lifted so that the bent side of the end effector follows the peripheral edge of the disc-shaped object to be conveyed. The end effector is rotated in the non-contact state and rotated downward φ, while the wrist part is moved forward in the Y direction and raised in the Z direction so as to be along the upper peripheral edge of the disk-like object and in the vicinity of the container rear wall Until the peripheral pad of the transport target disk is gripped by the back pad, the near pad, and another near pad, and the disk gripping device is A disk-shaped object transporting method comprising: moving a disk-shaped object by moving the effector by a slight Z movement upwardly within a range where it does not contact the ceiling of the container, and then moving it Y toward the near side. .

  The bent side of the end effector used in the eleventh aspect of the present invention preferably has a true arc shape so as to be inserted along the upper peripheral edge of the wafer between the ceiling of the container and the stored wafer.

In the eleventh aspect, only the end effector is rotated by φ, but a joint in the X-axis direction is provided between the wrist portion and the robot arm, and the entire disc-shaped object gripping device of the present invention can be rotated by φ. At this time, the driving source for rotating φ may be provided in the wrist unit, the robot arm, or the shaft of the joint.

  Depending on the container, there is a case where the disk-like object is stored in a slight inclination with respect to the Z direction (vertical surface) (for example, if it is within ± 20 degrees, it is almost called the Z direction) in order to avoid rattling during transportation. Yes, the end effector can be tilted, the disc-shaped object can be tilted, moved obliquely (substantially Z-moved) from the V-shaped groove, and carried out.

  The present invention also includes a robot transporter having the disk-shaped object gripping device of the present invention. Furthermore, it is preferable that the above-described vertical gripping device of the present invention and the conventional horizontal gripping device are provided in one robot transporter. This is a so-called W-arm type robot transporter having a vertical gripping device on one arm and a horizontal gripping device on the other arm. In this W-arm type robot transporter, by specializing each function, it is possible to optimally design each gripping device, such as pad groove shape, end effector shape and strength, and there is no failure and reliability A disk-shaped object transporter having a high height can be provided. Here, the robot carrier is preferably a horizontal articulated robot, but may be a vertical articulated robot.

The present invention also includes a disk-shaped object transfer device having a robot transporter having the above-described disk-shaped object gripping device and a disk-shaped object vertical placement type front opening / closing container load port. Furthermore, the present invention also includes a disk-shaped object transfer device characterized by having the above-described robot transporter and a disk-shaped object vertically placed front opening / closing container load port. More specifically, the above-mentioned robot transporter, a disk-like object vertically placed front opening / closing container load port, a disk-like object horizontally placing front opening / closing container load port, and at least one disk-like object vertically It also includes a disk-like object transfer device characterized by having a reversing machine that can be rotated horizontally. Here, the disk-shaped article transfer device that accommodates the above-described robot transporter can be a clean booth that downflows clean air.

In the above disk-shaped object transfer device, the disk-shaped object gripping device of the present invention and the disk-shaped object can be rotated at least 90 degrees with the disk-shaped object while the disk-shaped object is gripped by the above-described robot transfer device. There is also provided a method of transporting a disk-shaped object, characterized in that the reversing machine is directly gripped with each other.

  In the disc-like object gripping device of the present invention, as described above, the shape is an elongated plate-like end effector bent in the direction along the peripheral edge on the back side of the disc-like object, and on the thickness portion of the tip on the bent side. Since the back pad is attached, the wafer pitch stored vertically in the container can be reduced to 6-8 mm when inserting the end effector between the wafers in the container, compared to 10-15 mm of the conventional method. It was. Further, by providing the end effector with a rotation mechanism, the end effector is inserted into the upper portion of the wafer in the container, so that the wafer interval can be further reduced to a minimum of 2 mm, that is, a minimum of 3 mm of the wafer pitch. Therefore, the width of the container can be reduced, the size of the entire container can be reduced, and the container strength can be sufficiently maintained. Therefore, in the present invention, a container accommodating 25 450 mm wafers can be optimally designed in shape, light and compact, and a large number of containers can be loaded during container transportation.

The vertical transfer device of the present invention and the conventional horizontal transfer device are respectively held by the left and right arms of one robot transfer machine, so that the vertical type container and the horizontal type container are moved via the reversing machine. Since it can be mounted, a disk-shaped object transfer device such as a wafer can be manufactured in a compact form.

Furthermore, by providing the vertical gripping device of the present invention and the conventional horizontal gripping device in one robot transporter, each of them is specialized in vertical gripping and horizontal gripping, thereby improving reliability and production. I was able to improve the sex. That is, in the horizontal gripping apparatus having the pad with the V-shaped groove as shown in FIG. 1C, it is very difficult to place the wafer on the horizontal base as described above. In this respect, if the groove of the pad of the holding device dedicated for horizontal placement is formed from a vertical cut and a horizontal cut (the wafer mounting surface is inclined so as to be lowered toward the wafer center usually 10 to 20 degrees), Since it is only necessary to control the mounting so that it touches the table or goes too far down, the mounting operation can be performed with high productivity and low cost.

  FIG. 5 shows a state in which the disc-shaped object gripping apparatus 1 of the present invention grips the wafer 8 in the vertically placed front opening / closing container 10. The wafer 8 is fitted in a plurality of V grooves cut before and after the lower wafer receiver 12 provided in the container 10, and is fitted in the groove of the back wafer stand 11 which is also cut in the V groove. And kept vertical.

The plate-like end effector 3 attached to the wrist portion 2 is curved so as not to contact along the peripheral edge of the wafer, and the back side pad 4 fixed to the thickness side of the plate-like end effector at the tip thereof is a point A wafer. It is in contact with the periphery. The wrist part 2 is provided with a front / rear movable upper front pad 5 and a front / rear movable lower front pad 6 which are in contact with the periphery of the wafer at points C and B, respectively, and hold the wafer. Here, the straight line AC is on the upper side of the wafer center O, and the straight line AB is on the lower side of the wafer center O. The list unit 2 is provided with a rotating shaft 9 for horizontalizing after the wafer 8 is extracted from the vertical container 10.

FIG. 6A shows a first embodiment of the disc-like object gripping device 1a according to the present invention, in which an end effector 3 having a back side pad 4 on the thickness side inside the bent tip is fixed to the wrist portion 2. The wrist part 2 which has the attachment tool 7 provided with the front and rear movable upper pad 5 and the attachment tool 7 provided with the front and rear movable lower pad 6 is shown. Here, the two attachments 7 are provided with driving units such as an air cylinder, a motor with a screw shaft, and a spring, and the upper front side pad 5 and the lower front side pad 6 are moved linearly to press the wafer periphery to move the wafer. Hold 8

FIG. 6B shows a gripping device 1b in which the arc-shaped pad 37 in which the two movable front pads shown in FIG. . FIG. 6 (c) shows a gripping device 1c in which two near side pads are supported by one inverted J-shaped fixture 7, and the two near side pads are both or one of them via a spring. When the wafer periphery is pressed and gripped, damage to the wafer due to gripping stress or impact can be reduced. The front side pad and the attachment 7 shown in FIGS. 6A, 6B and 6C are combined with any of the holding devices 1a to 1h which are different in how to attach the end effector 3 which will be described later to the wrist unit 2. Also good.

FIG. 7 (a) shows the end effector 3 of the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 with the back side pad 4 fixed to the thick part at the tip, and the end effector 3 does not interfere with the wafer in the gaps between the plurality of vertically placed wafers. Indicates that it will be inserted. In this embodiment, as shown in FIG. 7B, the end effector 3 and the back pad 4 do not overlap each other with a thickness of 3 mm. Can be inserted between wafers with high accuracy. That is, the wafer pitch can be set to a minimum of 6 mm. In industrial mass production, it is preferable that the wafer gap is set to a pitch of 7 to 8 mm in view of margins such as accuracy of the V-groove interval of the wafer receiver 12 of the container 10 and robot transfer accuracy.

FIG. 8A to FIG. 8E are operation diagrams showing the movement of picking up the vertically placed wafer 8 by the holding apparatus 1a of FIG. 8A shows a state before the operation of the gripping apparatus 1a is started, and FIG. 8B shows that the end effector 3 is moving in the Y direction through the gaps of the plurality of wafers 8. FIG. 8C shows a state in which the tip of the end effector 3 is stopped between the rear wall (not shown) of the container 10 and the wafer 8, moved to the back of the target wafer 8, and moved to the robot transfer machine. When the arm 19 is pulled in the minute Y direction (→), the back pad 4 is brought into contact with the wafer 8 and the two front pads 5 and 6 are pushed out in FIG. 8D. Shows the wafer 8 held by the back side pad 4, the upper front side pad 5, and the lower front side pad 6. Thereafter, the gripping device 1a is raised in the minute Z direction and pulled in the Y direction to take out the wafer 8 (not shown).

FIG. 9 is a partially omitted view of another embodiment of the present invention, and shows a gripping device 1d in which a root θ rotation mechanism 16 of the end effector 3 is provided in the wrist unit 2. 10A shows the case where the bending direction of the end effector 3 is vertical, and FIG. 10B shows the case where the end effector 3 is rotated 90 degrees and made horizontal, together with the wafer 8 placed vertically. . In FIG. 9, the motor and the gear are illustrated as the driving source of the θ rotation mechanism 16, but an air cylinder, a spring, or a combination of these may be used. Moreover, although the wrist part 2 which has the attachment 7 provided with the upper near side pad 5 of FIG. 9 and the attachment 7 provided with the lower near side pad 6 is shown, these two attachments 7 are air. A drive unit such as a cylinder, a motor with a screw shaft, or a spring is provided, and the upper front side pad 5 and the lower front side pad 6 are moved linearly to press the peripheral edge of the wafer to hold the wafer.

FIGS. 11A to 11F are operation diagrams showing the movement of the gripping apparatus 1d having the θ rotation mechanism 16 of FIG. 9 to take the vertically placed wafer 8. FIG. FIG. 11A shows that the end effector 3 is laid horizontally immediately after the operation of the gripping device 1d is started. 11B, the end effector 3 is moving in the Y direction on the upper part of the wafer 8, and FIG. 11C is a view of the end effector 3 between the back wall (not shown) of the container 10 and the wafer 8. FIG. The front end is stopped, this is rotated by θ on the upper portion of the target wafer 8, and FIG. 11D shows that the vertical gripping device 1 d is lowered in the Z direction and stopped slightly above the wafer, and is slightly pulled in the Y direction to pull the wafer. The back pad 4 is brought into contact with 8, and the upper front pad 5 and the lower front pad 6 in FIG. 11 (e) are pushed out in the Y direction, and the wafer 8 is gripped in FIG. 11 (f). Thereafter, the gripping device 1d is raised in the minute Z direction and pulled in the Y direction to take out the wafer 8 (not shown). The end effector 3 can be inserted even if the distance between the wafers is further narrowed by not passing through the gap between the wafers 8, and then rotated by θ to overlap the wafer thick part and the end effector 3 thick part after gripping the wafer. It becomes possible to take. Here, a 3 mm-thick back side pad 4 is fixed to a 3 mm-thick end effector, and when the wafer 8 is held in a V-shaped groove having a depth of 3 mm, a gap of at least 1 mm is provided on both sides of the back side pad 3. As a result, the vibration of the wafer 8 and the positioning accuracy of the robot arm were sufficiently cleared, and the wafer 8 could be carried out without contacting any adjacent wafer. That is, since the wafer thickness is 1 mm, the wafer interval is 2 mm and the wafer pitch is 3 mm.

  12, the advancing / retracting mechanism 15 is attached to the end effector 3 of FIG. 5 in the wrist part 2 at the base, and the upper front pad 5 and the lower front pad 6 are combined to hold the wafer 8 with three movable pads. It is a partial omission figure of grasping device 1e in other examples to grasp. As the drive source of the advance / retreat mechanism 15, known parts such as a combination of a motor and a gear, an air cylinder, a motor with a screw shaft, and a spring are used. Here, the two front pads 5 and 6 are such that their attachment portions 7 are both movable, and all three points are movable pads. The upper front side pad 5 and the lower front side pad 6 are fixed to the wrist unit 2 (not shown) via the pad attachment 7 and the wafer gripping operation is performed only by the advance / retreat mechanism 15 of the end effector 3. Also good. As the drive source of the advance / retreat mechanism 15, known parts such as a combination of a motor and a gear, an air cylinder, a motor with a screw shaft, and a spring are used.

  FIG. 13 shows a gripping device 1f of an embodiment of the disk-shaped object gripping device according to claim 4 of the present invention. The wrist part 2 is connected to the robot arm at the lower part thereof, and includes an end effector 3 having a back pad 4 fixed from the top to the bottom of the tip through a φ rotation mechanism 41, and then the upper front pad 5 is fixed. And the pad attachment 7 to which the lower front side pad 6 is fixed. Here, a tooth shape is formed or a gear is fixed to the base outer edge of the end effector 3, and a geared motor 42 meshed with the teeth and fixed to the wrist part 2 is provided to form a φ rotation mechanism 41. The inside of the end effector 3 is curved in a circular arc with a slightly larger radius of curvature than the wafer periphery.

  FIG. 14 shows a state in which the wafer 8 stored in the container 10 is gripped and carried out by the gripping device 1f of FIG. FIG. 14A shows that the φ rotation mechanism 41 is driven outside the container to lift the end effector 3 so that the back pad 4 is slightly higher than the top of the target wafer, and the gripping device 1 f is moved below the wrist unit 2. The arm of the attached robot transporter 19 is extended in the Y direction so as to approach the periphery of the target wafer, so that the back pad 4 goes to a minute top of the wafer apex, and the end effector 3 goes to the vicinity of the wafer 8. Insert into container. Next, as shown in FIG. 14B, the arc of the end effector 3 follows the peripheral edge of the wafer in a non-contact state while operating the robot arm so as to advance in the Y direction while raising the wrist portion 2 in the Z direction. Then, the φ rotation mechanism 41 is driven downward to insert the end effector 3 into the container 10. When the root of the end effector 3 becomes almost horizontal as shown in FIG. 14C, the robot arm and the φ rotation mechanism 41 are moved. Once stopped, the end effector 3 is pulled in the minute Y direction to bring the back pad 4 into contact with the wafer periphery. Then, as shown in FIG. 14 (d), the two near side pads 5 and 6 are pushed out to hold the wafer, the wrist part 2 is lifted in the minute Z direction, and then pulled in the near side Y direction (not shown). The wafer 8 is unloaded from the container.

  When the wafer 8 is carried into the container 10 by the gripping device 1f of FIG. 13, the reverse of FIG. That is, the gripping device 1f that vertically grips the upper portion of the wafer 8 is inserted so as not to hit the vicinity of the ceiling of the container 10, and is fitted into an arbitrary V-shaped groove of the back wafer stand 11 of the container 10, and in the minute Z direction. The wafer 8 is lowered and placed on the lower wafer stand 12, the front pads 5 and 6 are released, and the wafer 8 is released. Then, the φ rotation mechanism 41 and the robot arm are operated so that the end effector 3 follows the wafer periphery in a non-contact manner, and the wrist unit 2 is pulled in the Y direction while being lowered in the Z direction and fixed to the tip of the end effector 3. After the back side pad 4 has moved back to the top of the wafer 8, it is pulled in the Y direction to complete the loading. When the gripping device 1f shown in FIG. 13 is used, the wafer pitch in the container can be reduced to a minimum of 3 mm as in the case of the gripping device 1d shown in FIG.

  FIG. 15A shows an embodiment in which a plurality of end effectors 3 are provided in one list unit 2. Usually, it is preferable to hold 25 wafers accommodated in a container at a time, but the number of end effectors may be determined so as to hold, for example, 5 wafers or 10 wafers as needed. In this figure, the upper and lower front pads 5 and 6 are the same as in FIG. 6 for transferring one wafer, and are provided in the same number as the end effector. In FIG. 15B, both the upper and lower pads 38 and 39 are formed in a bar shape, and each of them touches all the wafers to be gripped. This bar-shaped pad may be provided with recess cuts such as a plurality of V-shaped grooves in order to fix the wafer. Further, in order to make the rod-shaped pads (38) and (39) movable, the pad mounting portion 7 having a drive system is described here at two locations for each rod-shaped pad. Arbitrary number is provided in the position.

  Next, in FIGS. 18A to 18D, the wafer 8 held vertically by the W-arm type robot transfer machine 19 having the holding apparatus 1a of the present invention is horizontally replaced by using the reversing machine 23. An example is shown. Before that, first, as shown in FIG. 16, the reversing machine 23 has a reversing machine pad base that protrudes in a direction perpendicular to the plane (finger surface) formed by the two fingers 28 at the tip of the reversing machine finger 28. The plate 34 is fixed, and two reversing machine pads 33 are attached to the protrusions, and the wafer 8 is fitted to the reversing machine pads 33. The reversing machine pad 33 in FIG. 16 has a V-shaped groove cut out, but the upper bank may be cut out to be a vertical surface (in the same direction as the paper surface).

As shown in FIG. 17, in order to hold the wafer 8 held vertically in the holding apparatus 1a of the present invention by the reversing machine 23, the vertical rotating unit 36 is lifted 45 degrees around the horizontal axis 29, The reversing machine list unit 35 is rotated 90 degrees like the rotation mark 30 so that the surface (finger surface) formed by the two fingers 28 is vertical and the two reversing machine fingers 28 are opened slightly larger than the diameter of the wafer 8. . Next, the robot carrier 19 of the present invention operates the arm, and inserts one reversing machine pad base plate 34 into the gap between the end effector 3 and the wafer 8 from the protruding side, and V of the reversing machine pad 33. After confirming that the groove and the V-groove of the reversing machine pad 33 of the other reversing machine finger 28 are at the peripheral edge of the wafer 8, the two reversing machine fingers 28 are closed and the wafer 8 is gripped.

Then, as shown in FIGS. 17 and 18A, the gripping device 1a pulls the upper and lower front pads 5 and 6 to completely copy the load of the wafer 8 on the reversing machine 23, and then grips the gripper according to the present invention. The device 1a is slightly moved forward in the Y direction, then moved slightly in the X direction, and pulled in the Y direction as shown in FIG. Next, the wafer 8 on the reversing machine 23 is rotated by 90 degrees, and as shown in FIG. 18C, the wafer 8 is rotated downward by 45 degrees around the horizontal axis 29, and a gripping aligner as shown in FIG. Place on 24 aligner fingers 31. Instead of the gripping aligner 24 shown here, a simple wafer stage (not shown) may be used. If the above procedure is followed in reverse, the horizontally placed wafer 8 can be held vertically by the holding apparatus 1a of the present invention.

  FIG. 19 shows the disk-shaped article transfer device 17 of the present invention, and FIG. 20 shows a cutaway view along the plane AA ′. In the embodiments shown in these figures, clean air is blown into the clean booth 21 from the fan filter unit 20, and even if the robot transporter 19 that is installed inside and moves on the X-axis slider 22 operates, Drain along the surface or under the punching plate floor. In addition, a load port 27 in which the wafer vertical container 10 is placed on one side of the clean booth 21 and a load port 27 in which a horizontal FOUP 18 is placed on the other side are attached with the robot transporter 19 in between. Furthermore, a grip type aligner 24 and a reversing machine 23 are incorporated in the corner of the clean booth 21. The wafer 8 accommodated in the vertically placed front opening / closing container 10 is gripped by the gripping device 1 of the robot transporter 19 of the present invention and pulled out from the container 10, and the robot transporter 19 turns 90 degrees to the left. It moves on the X axis and stops in front of the reversing machine 23. The reversing machine 23 raises the horizontal reversing machine fingers 28 by 45 degrees around the horizontal rotation shaft 29 and further rotates the surface of the reversing machine fingers 28 by 90 degrees to prepare the wafer 8 receiving system. Next, according to the procedure described in FIG. 16, the wafer 8 is placed on the aligner finger 31 of the gripping aligner 24, and the fan of the gripping aligner 24 rotates the 31 to detect and position the notch. Stop. The wafer is gripped from the aligner finger 31 by the horizontal gripping device 40 provided on the other arm of the robot transfer machine 19 of the present invention, and stored in a predetermined FOUP 18.

FIG. 21 shows an embodiment of a system in which the wafer 8 is transferred from the vertically placed container 10 to the processing device 25 by the robot transfer machine 19 of the present invention. Although not shown here, a clean booth 21 having a fan filter unit 20 similar to that shown in FIG. 17 is provided with a reversing machine 23, a horizontal placing table or a gripping aligner 24. After being taken out by the vertical gripping device 1, it is placed horizontally and inserted and placed in the processing device 25 by the other horizontal gripping device 40. After the processing, the wafer 8 is stored in the same or different vertical container 10 by the vertical gripping apparatus 1 of the present invention through the horizontal placing table or gripping aligner 24 and the reversing device 23 by the horizontal gripping apparatus 40.

Conventional horizontal wafer gripping device Conventional horizontal wafer container Example of wafer transfer equipment / processing equipment system with conventional wafer horizontal container Vertical container used in the present invention Disc-shaped object gripping device of the present invention in a container Example of disc-like object gripping device of the present invention End effector tip that can be inserted between wafers The figure which shows the wafer holding method by the disk shaped object holding apparatus of this invention of FIG. Another embodiment of the disc-like object gripping device of the present invention The figure which shows rotation of the end effector of the disk shaped object holding apparatus of FIG. The figure which shows the wafer holding method by the disk shaped object holding apparatus of this invention of FIG. Another embodiment of the disc-like object gripping device of the present invention Another embodiment of the disc-like object gripping device of the present invention FIG. 14 is a diagram illustrating a method of gripping a wafer by the gripping apparatus of FIG. Another embodiment of the disc-like object gripping device of the present invention Diagram showing the wafer gripping method of the reversing machine The figure which shows the wafer delivery of the disk shaped object holding apparatus of this invention, and a reversing machine The figure which shows a wafer conveyance to the aligner from the disk-shaped object holding device of this invention Plan view of the wafer transfer apparatus of the present invention Sectional view of the wafer transfer apparatus of the present invention Example of a wafer processing apparatus system provided with the robot transfer device of the present invention

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Vertical disk-shaped object holding apparatus 2 List part 3 End effector 4 Back side pad 5 Upper near side pad 6 Lower near side pad 7 Pad attachment 8 Wafer 9 Wrist part rotating shaft 10 Vertical type front opening / closing type container 11 Back side Wafer stand 12 Lower wafer receiver 13 Lid 14 Wafer holder 15 Advance / retract mechanism 16 θ rotation mechanism 17 Disk-shaped object transfer device 18 Front open / close type horizontal container (FOUP)
19 robot transfer machine 20 fan filter unit 21 clean booth 22 X-axis slider 23 reversing machine 24 gripping aligner 25 processing device 26 conventional robot transfer machine 27 load port 28 reversing machine finger 29 horizontal shaft 30 wafer reversing shaft 31 aligner finger 32 aligner Rotating shaft 33 Reversing machine pad 34 Reversing machine pad base plate 35 Reversing machine list unit 36 Vertical rotating unit 37 Arc-shaped pad 38 Upper bar-shaped pad 39 Lower bar-shaped pad 40 Horizontal wafer gripping device 41 φ rotating mechanism 42 Motor with gear

Claims (13)

In the disk-shaped object gripping device for a robot transporter for loading and unloading the disk-shaped object into and out of the disk-shaped object vertically placed front opening / closing container,
One end effector in the form of an elongated plate that is disposed on the upper side of the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object in the container, and whose tip is bent in the thickness direction and along the peripheral edge on the back side of the disk-shaped object;
At least one back-side pad that is fixed to a bending-side thickness portion of the end effector tip and grips a peripheral portion of the disc-like object;
The back pad having the at least one contact point is on the lower side of a straight line passing through the position where the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object contacts the center of the disk-shaped object, and contacts the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object. A lower near side pad having at least one contact point for gripping the peripheral edge of the object,
Another upper near side pad having at least one contact point that is above the straight line and contacts the periphery of the disk-shaped object and grips the periphery of the disk-shaped object;
Each of the pads has a recess in a portion that comes into contact with the periphery of the disk-shaped object,
A disk-shaped object gripping device, wherein at least one of the pads operates to grip the disk-shaped object at a peripheral edge. The end effector is fixed to the wrist part,
The disk-shaped object gripping device according to claim 1, wherein either one or both of the two near-side pads operate to grip the disk-shaped object at a peripheral edge. A mechanism capable of rotating the end effector by θ with respect to the wrist;
2. The disk-shaped object gripping device according to claim 1, wherein either one or both of the two near-side pads operate to grip the disk-shaped object at a peripheral portion. A mechanism that allows the end effector to rotate φ relative to the wrist;
2. The disk-shaped object gripping device according to claim 1, wherein either one or both of the two near-side pads operate to grip the disk-shaped object at a peripheral portion. In the disk-shaped object gripping device according to claim 1 or 2,
Instead of one end effector per disc-shaped object gripping device,
A plurality of end effectors are provided in one disc-like object gripping device,
A plurality of lower front pads and / or attachments thereof are provided for each end effector or in communication with each other.
A disk-shaped object gripping device, wherein a plurality of upper front side pads and / or attachments thereof are provided or connected to each end effector. A robot transporter comprising at least the disk-like object gripping device according to any one of claims 1 to 5. The robot transporter according to claim 6, further comprising a horizontal disc-like object gripping device in one robot transporter. A robot transporter according to claim 6 or 7,
Load port for a disk-like vertical installation type front openable container,
A disk-shaped object transfer device comprising: In addition, a disk-shaped horizontal loading type front opening / closing container load port,
A reversing machine capable of rotating at least one disk-like object vertically and horizontally;
The disk-shaped object transfer device according to claim 8, wherein When a front door is opened and a plurality of disk-shaped objects can be stored vertically, and / or when the disk-shaped objects are loaded and unloaded from the container,
In carrying in,
The disk-shaped object gripped substantially vertically by the back side pad, one near side pad, and the other near side pad of the disk shaped object gripping device according to any one of claims 1, 2, and 5, Move Y in the container to the vicinity of the back wall,
Move the Z-shaped downward so that the peripheral edge of the disk-like object is fitted in a groove provided in advance in the bottom and back of the container.
Release at least one of the pads to release the disc-shaped object,
If necessary, further move the disk-shaped object gripping device to the back side by a distance that the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object is removed from the recessed groove of the back-side pad,
The end effector is moved X in front of the gap between adjacent disk-like objects or in front of the designed gap space,
Moving the end effector Y through the gap and out of the container,
In addition, when carrying out
The tip of the end effector extends from the outside of the container to a gap between adjacent disk-like objects in the container or through a designed gap space between the inner peripheral edge of the disk-like object and the inner wall of the container. Move Y,
Next, move the X-side pad until the back side pad comes to the rear of the periphery of the object to be conveyed
Operating at least one of the back-side pad, the near-side pad, and the other near-side pad to grip the transport target disk-like object at the periphery,
The disk-shaped object gripping device is configured to move the disk within a range in which the end effector does not hit the ceiling of the container, and then move the disk to the front side to carry out the disk-shaped object. Transport method. When the front door is opened and a disc-shaped object can be stored vertically, and / or when a disc-shaped object is carried in and out of the container,
In carrying in,
The disk-like object grasped in a substantially vertical state by the back side pad, the near side pad, and the other near side pad of the disc-like object gripping device according to claim 3, and the inside of the container to the vicinity of the back wall Y Move
Place the disk-shaped object by Z-moving downward so that the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object is fitted in a groove provided in the container bottom and in the back in advance,
Release at least one of the pads to release the disc-shaped object,
If necessary, further move the disk-shaped object gripping device to the back side by a distance that the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object is removed from the recessed groove of the back-side pad,
Rotate the end effector by θ to make it horizontal,
The end effector is moved Y out of the container through the gap between the disk-shaped object placed above and the ceiling of the container, and the loading is finished.
In addition, when carrying out
The tip of the end effector that has been turned into a horizontal state by rotating the end effector by θ rotation outside the container passes through the gap between the disk-like object and the ceiling of the container, and the inner peripheral edge of the disk-like object and the inner wall of the container Move Y between
Rotate the wrist part by θ so that the end effector is along the vicinity of the periphery of the disc-shaped object to be transported,
Grasping the periphery of the discoid object to be transported with the back side pad, the near side pad, and the other near side pad,
Move the disk-shaped object gripping device approximately Z upward in a range where the end effector does not hit the ceiling of the container,
Next, move this to the near side and carry out the disk-shaped object.
A method for conveying a disk-like object. When the front door is opened and a disc-shaped object can be stored vertically, and / or when a disc-shaped object is carried in and out of the container,
In carrying in,
5. The disk-like object gripped in a substantially vertical state by the back side pad, the near side pad, and the other near side pad of the disc-like object gripping device according to claim 4, wherein the inside of the container is near the back wall. Move
Place the disk-shaped object by Z-moving downward so that the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object is fitted in a groove provided in the container bottom and in the back in advance,
Release at least one of the pads to release the disc-shaped object,
If necessary, further move the disk-shaped object gripping device to the back side by a distance that the peripheral edge of the disk-shaped object is removed from the recessed groove of the back-side pad,
The end effector is lowered in the Z direction while retreating in the Y direction while lifting and rotating the end effector within a range that does not contact the disk and the ceiling of the container, and along the upper peripheral edge of the disk. Pull out until the back pad at the tip of the end effector comes near the top of the disk-shaped object,
Next, move the list part Y to finish loading,
In addition, when carrying out
The end effector is rotated by φ outside the container and lifted,
Approach the bent side of the end effector so as to follow the peripheral edge of the disc-shaped object to be conveyed,
As long as the end effector is not rotated in contact with the disk and the ceiling of the container, the wrist effector is moved forward in the Y direction while being rotated by φ downward, and moved upward in the Z direction to reach the upper peripheral edge of the disk. And insert it up to the vicinity of the back wall of the container,
Grasping the periphery of the discoid object to be transported with the back side pad, the near side pad, and the other near side pad,
Move the disk-like object gripping device by a slight Z in the upward direction within a range where the end effector does not hit the ceiling of the container,
Next, move this to the near side and carry out the disk-shaped object.
A method for conveying a disk-like object. While holding the disk-shaped object,
A disk-shaped object gripping device according to any one of claims 1 to 4,
At least between the reversing machine that can rotate the wafer surface by 90 degrees,
A method for transporting a disk-shaped object, characterized in that it is directly gripped with each other.