JP2626499B2 - Wafer supply device - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wafer supply apparatus for taking out a thin disk such as a semiconductor crystal wafer from a case without damaging it and supplying it to a measuring instrument or the like at a high speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Thin disks, such as semiconductor crystal wafers, are taken out one by one from a case in which a large number of thin disks are set in parallel in a previous process and supplied to a measuring instrument or the like for inspection. Was performed manually by the elderly. For this reason, there has been a problem that the risk of damaging the wafer is great, the supply speed is slow, and labor costs are high.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to take out a wafer from a case at a high speed without damaging the wafer and automatically supply the wafers one by one to a measuring device. And

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention comprises a suction pad which is slidably and elastically slidable, and includes means for turning and moving the suction pad up and down.
A transfer mechanism that moves between the wafer case and the measuring instrument; and a unit that stops the apparatus when the suction pad applies a predetermined force or more to the wafer in the wafer case, and stores a previous movement amount of the transfer mechanism. In addition, there is provided a wafer supply apparatus configured to control a high-speed movement of a transfer mechanism based on the stored movement amount.

[0005]

Since the apparatus of the present invention is constructed as described above, when the wafers set in the wafer case are vertically arranged, for example, by means of turning and raising / lowering means of the suction pad of the transfer mechanism, the suction pad is used. The pad is swiveled sideways, moved to a height at which it comes into contact with the wafer, and moved to suck and hold one wafer. Next, the suction pad is lifted upward, extracted from the wafer case, moved by the transfer mechanism toward the measuring instrument, and the suction pad is turned horizontally,
After reaching the position of the measuring instrument, the suction pad is lowered to supply the wafer to the measuring instrument.

At this time, when a force exceeding a predetermined level is applied when the suction pad comes into contact with the wafer, the apparatus is stopped, so that the wafer is not damaged.

Further, the previous movement amount of the transfer mechanism is stored in the control unit, and moves at a high speed by the movement amount, then moves at a low speed, and the suction pad contacts the wafer, so that the wafer can be efficiently supplied. it can.

[0008]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. 1A and 1B are views showing the entirety of the present invention, wherein FIG. 1A is a front view, and FIG. 1B is a partial side view of a transport mechanism. FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the operation of the suction pad portion, and FIG.
5 is a flowchart showing the operation of the device of the present invention.

In the figure, wafers 1 supplied to a measuring device 14 are arranged vertically and parallel in a case 2.
Reference numeral 3 denotes a suction pad, which is slidably held by a linear bush 4 held by the arm 6 so as to be pivotable by 90 degrees. Reference numeral 5 denotes a coil spring, which applies a weak force in a direction in which the suction pad 3 is pushed out. Reference numeral 7 denotes a pulse motor for rotating the arm 6. These units are configured to be able to be raised and lowered by a pulse motor 8 via a rack 9 and a spur gear (not shown), and are further horizontally moved between the case 2 and the measuring device 14 by a slide unit 10. It has become. The movement amount is configured to be stored in a control unit (not shown).

Further, a case receiving table 11 on which the case 2 is placed
Is held by the slide unit 12 and is pressed by the coil spring 13 to the left in FIG. Then, when the force applied from the left direction becomes equal to or more than a certain value and the case receiving base 11 moves rightward, a sensor (not shown) is activated and the apparatus is stopped.

Next, the operation of the apparatus of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. At the start of the operation, the suction pad 3 is located at the left end in FIG. When the operation starts, the slide unit 10 operates, and the suction pad 3 starts moving to the right, and the amount of movement is counted as a pulse. When the movement reaches the predetermined position, the movement is switched to a low speed, and suction of the suction pad 3 starts. When the suction pad 3 sucks the wafer 1, the movement to the right stops. At this time, since the suction pad 3 is elastically held by the linear bush 4, the wafer is not damaged.
Then, the control unit stores the pulse count number corresponding to the movement amount up to this point.

Next, the suction pad 3 is raised, and the wafer 1 is pulled out of the case 2. Next, the suction pad 3 is turned to the downward direction, and the slide unit 10 is operated.
Move to the left in (a). When it moves by the stored pulse count, it stops, the suction pad 3 descends, and supplies the wafer to the measuring device 14. The suction pad 3 from which suction has been released rises to an intermediate height, and further turns rightward.

Next, in order to suck the second wafer 1 in the case 2, the suction pad 3 moves rightward again, but at a high speed by the previously stored pulse count number. Then, the operation is switched to low-speed operation. Thereafter, the second wafer 1 is supplied to the measuring device 14 by the same operation as described above.

Thereafter, the same operation is repeated, and in case 2
When all the wafers 1 in the inside are gone, when the unit holding the suction pad 3 moves rightward, the right limit is detected and the apparatus stops. During this operation, if a force enough to damage the wafer is applied in the right direction, the case receiving base 11 moves, the sensor operates and the apparatus stops, so that the wafer does not break.

[0015]

As described above in detail, according to the wafer supply apparatus of the present invention, wafers can be automatically taken out of the case one by one at a high speed and supplied to the measuring instrument without damaging the wafers. This has the effect.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the entire apparatus of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram illustrating an operation of a suction pad portion.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the operation of the device of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Wafer 2 Case 3 Suction pad 4 Linear bush 5 Coil spring 6 Arm 7 Pulse motor 8 Pulse motor 9 Rack 10 Slide unit 11 Case holder 12 Slide unit 13 Coil spring 14 Measuring instrument

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A suction pad is held slidably and slidably, and means for turning and moving the suction pad up and down are provided.
A transfer mechanism that moves between the wafer case and the measuring instrument; and a unit that stops the apparatus when the suction pad applies a predetermined force or more to the wafer in the wafer case, and stores a previous movement amount of the transfer mechanism. A wafer supply device configured to control the high-speed movement of the transfer mechanism based on the stored movement amount.