JP2012134344A - Transfer mechanism and vacuum processing equipment comprising the same - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide inline-type vertical-transfer vacuum processing equipment using a rack-and-pinion technology, comprising a transfer mechanism capable of transferring a tray without being subject to vibration or impact caused by a synchronization shift between a pinion gear and a rack gear; and the transfer mechanism comprised in the equipment.SOLUTION: A rack-and-pinion mechanism in which at least two of a plurality of pinion gears rotate to sequentially engage with a rack gear to thereby deliver the rack gear from the pinion gear installed in a processing chamber at a current step to the pinion gear installed in a processing chamber at the next step, to transfer a tray, the mechanism comprises vertical drive units, each concurrently moving up and down the two pinion gears placed on both sides of each gate valve arranged between the process chambers. Vacuum processing equipment comprises the rack-and-pinion mechanism.

Description

  The present invention relates to a transport mechanism using a rack gear and pinion gear, and a vacuum processing apparatus including a rack gear and pinion gear that moves a tray or the like for transporting a substrate.

  A rack and pinion is a mechanism that combines a pinion gear and a rack gear that is toothed in the width direction on one side of a square bar, and converts the rotation of the pinion gear into the linear movement of the rack gear. It is used as a mechanism or a transport mechanism.

  For example, in a vacuum processing apparatus such as an in-line sputtering apparatus, a tray for holding a substrate is sequentially conveyed by a carrier with a rack and transferred between processing chambers to perform a desired process on the substrate. That is, the rack gear is fixed to the tray, the rack gear is engaged with a pinion gear provided in each processing chamber, the rack gear is rotationally driven, and sequentially transferred to the pinion of the processing chamber in the next process, thereby conveying the tray.

  FIG. 6 shows a schematic mechanism of an inline-type vacuum processing apparatus using vertical racking using the above-described rack-and-pinion technique, in which a substrate is transferred upright as an example of a conventional typical substrate processing technique. Is.

  In the inline type of the vertical transfer, for example, the load lock chamber 11 and the plurality of process chambers 12 are vertically arranged on a straight line so as to penetrate the load lock chamber 11 and the plurality of process chambers 12. A rack and pinion is provided as a transport mechanism for transporting the substrate 60.

Each chamber includes an exhaust means (not shown), and a gate valve 13 is provided between the chambers.
The substrate 10 is sequentially transferred to each chamber by the transfer mechanism in a state of being placed on the tray 14, and processing such as film formation is performed, for example. One of the chambers is a load lock chamber 11 that is opened to the atmosphere when the substrate 10 is loaded and unloaded.

  However, when the rack gear is transferred from the pinion gear in the current process to the pinion gear in the next process and meshed, the tooth tips of the rack gear and the pinion gear often collide with each other.

  When the tooth tips collide, the load is applied and the drive mechanism is damaged, the rack gear teeth ride on the pinion gear teeth, making it impossible to transport, or the board is damaged due to the collision when returning to normal engagement. It may cause product defects due to dust generation.

  In order to solve such problems, a technique of providing a one-way clutch has been proposed. These techniques have been created from the idea of automatically returning to normal meshing even if there is a collision between tooth tips.

  Further, a technique has been proposed in which the stop angle of the pinion gear is accurately managed by a sensor and a control mechanism, and the rack gear is engaged without colliding with the tooth tip of the pinion gear.

  In addition, a rack and pinion mechanism has been proposed in which the phase of the pinion gear is adjusted to the rack gear in advance by mechanical means (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

  Specifically, this mechanism supports the spherical member with a spring and presses it against the recess of the cam to set the stop angle of the pinion shaft to a predetermined position, and before the pinion gear and the rack gear mesh with each other, the pinion guide and the rack The phase is adjusted with a guide. According to this configuration, the rack gear and the pinion gear can be engaged with each other without causing a collision between the tooth tips.

JP-A-8-74661

  However, in any of the above techniques, depending on whether the tray is on the pinion gear or not, the load applied to the drive mechanism such as the servo motor is fluctuated. It was left as a problem to be solved for the out-of-synchronization.

  Once the synchronization deviation occurs, the tray rack gear will not mesh smoothly with the pinion gear placed in the processing chamber at the transfer destination, causing vibration or impact on the tray, causing displacement of the substrate mounted on the tray, substrate cracking, etc. It can be a cause.

  The present invention has been made in order to solve the above-described problems. The pinion gear and the rack gear can be transported without causing vibration or shock to the tray due to the synchronization shift, and the tray is transported between different processing chambers. It is an object of the present invention to provide a transport mechanism that does not require complicated alignment control and a vacuum processing apparatus including the transport mechanism.

The configuration of the present invention made to achieve the above object is as follows.
That is, the rack and pinion mechanism according to the first invention includes a rack gear and a plurality of pinion gears coupled to a drive source and meshing with the rack gear, and at least two of the plurality of pinion gears are synchronized. By rotating and meshing sequentially with the rack gear, the rack gear is changed from the first pinion gear arranged in the first process chamber of the current process to the second pinion gear arranged in the second process chamber of the next process. A rack-and-pinion mechanism that delivers and transports the mounting table, and has a common vertical drive unit that simultaneously moves the synchronized first and second pinion gears up and down.

  The rack-and-pinion mechanism arranged in the vacuum processing apparatus according to the present invention has a vertical drive system that can disengage the rack gear when each pinion gear does not need to transport the tray.

  A rack and pinion mechanism that is a transport drive unit according to the present invention is a transport drive system used for transport when transporting a tray from one processing chamber to another in a vacuum processing apparatus having a plurality of processing chambers. Can be switched by the vertical drive unit of the pinion gear, and since it can handle conveyance from either the left or right side, it does not depend on the conveyance direction of the tray, and complicated alignment control is not necessary.

It is the schematic of the conveyance mechanism of the vacuum processing apparatus of this invention. FIG. 3 is a state diagram when a tray is transported from the first processing chamber to the second processing chamber of the vacuum processing apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a state diagram when the tray conveyance from the first processing chamber to the second processing chamber of the vacuum processing apparatus of the present invention is completed. FIG. 5 is a state diagram when a tray is conveyed from the second processing chamber to the third processing chamber of the vacuum processing apparatus of the present invention. FIG. 6 is a state diagram when the tray conveyance from the second processing chamber to the third processing chamber of the vacuum processing apparatus of the present invention is completed. It is the schematic which looked at the vacuum processing apparatus as an example of the conventional typical substrate processing technique from the upper surface.

An embodiment of the conveyance drive unit of the vacuum processing apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG.
In FIG. 1, the first processing chamber 1a, the second processing chamber 1b, and the third processing chamber 1c can be assumed to be a process chamber in FIG. 6 or a combination of a load lock chamber and a process chamber.

  The structure of the conveyance drive unit according to the present invention is that the first pinion gear 2a, the second pinion gear 2b, the third pinion gear 2c, and the fourth pinion gear 2d are each rotated by a servo motor mechanism 3a, 3b with a built-in driver function. The upper and lower drive units 6a and 6b for moving up and down the respective pinion gears incorporating the movement amount storage units 7a and 7b, and the positioning mechanisms 8a, 8b and 8c for fixing the tray 4 at predetermined positions in the processing chambers.

  A drive control method for the rack and pinion mechanism according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5 (S1 to S7).

  First, in FIG. 2, the conveyance of the tray 4 is completed to a predetermined position while the positioning mechanism 8a is operated by the servo motor 3a with a built-in driver function.

  The tray 4 in the first processing chamber 1a is fixed at a predetermined position in the first processing chamber 1a by the positioning mechanism 8a, and the second processing is performed from the first processing chamber 1a. The first pinion gear 2a and the second pinion gear 2b used for transport to the chamber 1b are moved up by being driven by the vertical drive unit 6a, and the rack gear 5 of the tray 4 and the first pinion gear 2a are engaged with each other. Is in a state.

  At this time, the amount of movement of the vertical drive unit 6a when the first pinion gear 2a and the second pinion gear 2b are raised is the position data collected before the movement and the position data collected at the moved position after the movement. It is preferable to calculate from the above comparison and store it in the storage unit 7a of the vertical drive unit 6a, and operate the vertical drive unit to move based on this movement amount data.

Next, an embodiment in which the tray 4 is transported from the state shown in FIG. 2 to the second processing chamber 1b which is the next process from the first processing chamber 1a which is the current process shown in FIG. S1-S3).

a) Third pinion gear used for transfer from the second processing chamber 1b to the third processing chamber 1c
2c, the fourth pinion gear 2d is moved downward (reference numeral 31) to a lower position where it does not interfere with the rack gear 5 by the vertical drive unit 6b shown in FIG. 2 (S1).

At this time, the tray 4 is in the first processing chamber 1a and is still in a stopped state. The first pinion gear 2a and the second pinion gear 2b are lifted and remain engaged with the rack gear 5 (shown in FIG. 2).

b) Release the positioning mechanism 8a, drive the servo motor mechanism 3a, rotate the pinion gear 2a and the pinion gear 2b, and transport the tray 4 to a predetermined position while operating the positioning mechanism 8b in the second processing chamber 1b. (S2).

c) After transporting the tray 4 to the second processing chamber 1b, the tray 4 positioning mechanism 8b in the second processing chamber 1b is fixed at a predetermined position in the second processing chamber 1b (shown in FIG. 3, S3). ).

Next, FIGS. 4 and 5 show an embodiment in which the tray 4 is transferred from the second processing chamber 1b to the third processing chamber 2c (S4 to S7).

a) The third pinion gear 2c and the fourth pinion gear 2d used for conveyance from the second processing chamber 1b to the third processing chamber 1c are moved up (reference numeral 32) by the vertical drive unit 6b (S4).

The position of the vertical drive unit 6b when the third pinion gear 2c and the fourth pinion gear 2d are raised is moved to the position data at the start of conveyance collected when the movement amount is confirmed.
By raising the pinion gear at the position at the start of conveyance, the rack gear 5 of the tray 4 and the third pinion gear 2c mesh smoothly.

b) The first pinion gear 2a and the second pinion gear 2b that are not used for transport from the second processing chamber 1b to the third processing chamber 1c are moved downward (reference numeral 33) by the vertical drive unit 6a (S5). .

c) Release the positioning mechanism 8b and drive the servo motor mechanism 3b having a driver function to rotate the third pinion gear 2c and the fourth pinion gear 2d to position the tray 4 in the third processing chamber 1c. The mechanism 8c is moved to a predetermined position while operating (S6).

After the tray 4 is conveyed to the third processing chamber 1c, the tray 4 in the third processing chamber 1c is fixed at a predetermined position in the third processing chamber 1c by the positioning mechanism 8c (S7 in FIG. 5).

  Thus, in the vacuum processing apparatus according to the present invention, when transporting a tray from one processing chamber to another processing chamber, the drive system used for transport may be switched by the pinion gear vertical drive unit, and the complicated position This can be done without the need for control for matching.

The configurations, shapes, sizes, and arrangement relationships described in the above embodiments are merely schematically shown to the extent that the present invention can be understood and implemented. Therefore, the present invention is not limited to the described embodiments, and can be variously modified without departing from the scope of the technical idea shown in the claims.

1a 1st processing chamber 1b 2nd processing chamber 1c 3rd processing chamber 2a 1st pinion gear 2b 2nd pinion gear 2c 3rd pinion gear 2d 4th pinion gear 3a 1st servo motor mechanism 3b 2nd servo Motor mechanism
4, 14 Tray 5 Rack gear 6a First vertical drive unit 6b Second vertical drive unit
7a, 7b storage unit
8a, 8b, 8c Positioning mechanism
10 Board
11 Load lock chamber
12 Process chamber
13 Gate valve
31, 32, 33 Movement direction of vertical drive

Claims (2)

A rack gear, and a plurality of pinion gears connected to a drive source and meshing with the rack gear, and at least two of the plurality of pinion gears rotate in synchronization and sequentially mesh with the rack gear, thereby A rack and pinion that transfers from the first pinion gear arranged in the first processing chamber of the current process to the second pinion gear arranged in the second processing chamber of the next process and conveys the mounting table. Mechanism,
A rack-and-pinion mechanism comprising: a common vertical drive unit that simultaneously moves the first pinion gear and the second pinion gear simultaneously moved up and down. The rack gear is fixed to a mounting table that carries a transported object and moves on a transport track,
The object to be transported is a substrate, and includes the rack and pinion mechanism according to claim 1 as a transport mechanism of the mounting table.
A vacuum processing apparatus, wherein the plurality of processing chambers are connected so as to be evacuated along the transfer track.