JP2850044B2 - Carrier stocker - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial application field) The present invention relates to a carrier stocker.

(Prior Art) A conventional carrier stocker is disclosed in
There is one described in Japanese Patent Publication No.

This carrier stocker has a multi-stage carrier setting plate for mounting a carrier, and a carrier holder provided vertically slidable and slidable in the horizontal direction, and after holding the carrier on the carrier holder, The carrier is raised to a predetermined carrier setting plate, and the carrier is placed on the predetermined carrier setting plate.

The transport mechanism on which the plurality of carriers are mounted includes a carrier port for loading a carrier supplied from the outside,
It is provided so as to be able to reciprocate between transfer portions for transferring wafers to the quartz boat for heat treatment.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) However, in such a carrier stocker, while a wafer is transferred to a quartz boat in a transfer section between a wafer boat for a batch type heat treatment furnace and a wafer carrier,
The carrier supplied from the outside cannot be carried in at the carrier port, a part of the function of the carrier stocker has to wait, the carrier stagnates in front of the carrier port, and the throughput is poor. There is a problem that the flow of carrier movement in the factory stops.

The present invention has been made in view of the above points, and an object of the present invention is to provide a carrier stocker which carries a carrier carried in and out of a carrier port into and out of a carrier stocker without stagnation and has a high throughput.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention provides a carrier mounting shelf provided on a side wall of a main body in a plurality of stages in a vertical direction; A carrier port for temporarily mounting a carrier, a carrier station provided below the main body, a carrier liner provided below the main body, the carrier being mounted thereon and movable to a wafer transfer section, A carrier that transfers the carrier regardless of the operation of the carrier liner between a carrier port and the carrier station; and a plurality of carriers, the carrier station and the carrier liner and the carrier mounting shelf. And a carrier arm mechanism for transferring the carrier regardless of the operation of the carrier liner. A configuration in which transfer of the carrier between a rear port and the carrier station and between the carrier station and the carrier mounting shelf and movement of the carrier to the wafer transfer unit by the carrier liner can be simultaneously performed. A carrier stocker characterized by being performed.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the carrier stocker according to the first aspect, the carrier port, the carrier station, and the transporter each include an in-side for loading the carrier into the main body, and an unloading port. The carrier stocker is provided with two types on the out side.

(Operation) In the present invention, the carrier is transferred between the carrier port and the carrier station by the carrier, and the carrier is transferred between the carrier station and the carrier liner and the carrier mounting shelf by the carrier arm mechanism. Is performed, the transfer of the carrier from the carrier port to the carrier station and the transfer of the carrier to the wafer transfer unit by the carrier liner can be performed at the same time.

(Embodiment) Hereinafter, an embodiment in which the present invention is used for a carrier transport device will be described in detail with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a schematic configuration of an entire heat treatment apparatus using the carrier transport device.

As shown in FIG. 1, the heat treatment apparatus includes a carrier stocker 1 for accommodating a large number of wafer carriers each accommodating, for example, 25 semiconductor wafers, and a wafer accommodated in a wafer carrier for wafer conveyance. A transfer mechanism 3 for transferring to a board, a boat transfer mechanism 5, a boat transfer mechanism 7 for transferring a wafer boat to a heat treatment section, and an elevator 9 for loading and unloading a wafer boat containing semiconductor wafers to be processed into a vertical reaction tube. , Furnace body 11, gas supply source for supplying gas for processing
With 13.

The carrier stocker 1 carries a plurality of substrates to be processed, for example, a plurality of carriers for accommodating a plurality of semiconductor wafers, for example, 25, into a carrier port corresponding to the type of the wafer by a virtual address at each predetermined position. House the carrier.

The transfer mechanism 3 automatically transfers wafers between a carrier sent from the carrier stocker 1 and a heat-resistant quartz boat capable of mounting 100 to 150 wafers by a robot arm.

The boat transfer mechanism 5 transfers a wafer boat between the boat transport mechanism 7 and the transfer mechanism 3.

The elevator 9 inserts and removes the wafer boat transferred by the boat transfer mechanism 7 into the reaction tube of the furnace body 11.

 The furnace body 11 performs desired oxidation, diffusion, CVD processing, and the like.

The gas supply source 13 supplies a predetermined processing gas to each processing chamber of the furnace body 11.

The carrier stocker 1, the transfer mechanism 3, the boat transfer machine 5, and the boat transport mechanism 7 are provided with a blower fan, a HEPA filter, and a discharge fan (not shown) so that clean air is supplied by downflow.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the structure of the carrier stocker 1 and its vicinity.

On the carrier stocker 1, shelves 15 on which carriers are placed on the main body 12 are formed on the left and right in multiple stages, for example, four stages.

At the lower front of the carrier stocker 1, the in-side port 17
And an out-side port 19 is fixedly provided.

An inside station below the inside of the carrier stocker 1
21, the out side station 23 is fixed. Further, a carrier liner 25 capable of mounting and transporting a plurality of carriers is provided so as to be movable in the horizontal direction.

The transporter 27a moves vertically downward from below the in-side port 17, receives the carrier placed on the in-side port 17, and then moves horizontally to reach the upper part of the in-side station 21; Then, the carrier is placed on the in-side station 21, and then moves downward. When the carrier reaches a predetermined position, the carrier moves horizontally and returns to the original position.

Conversely, the transporter 27b rises from below the out-side station 23, receives the carrier placed on the out-side station 23, rises to a predetermined position, and moves in the horizontal direction,
When the carrier reaches the upper side of the out-side port 19, it descends, the carrier is placed on the out-side port 19, and then moves down in the horizontal direction after returning by a predetermined amount, and returns to the original position.

6 holds the carrier inside the carrier stocker 1.
A carrier arm mechanism 29 provided with a plurality of gripping mechanisms is provided movably in the Y-axis and Z-axis directions in the figure.

In the carrier arm mechanism 29, six gripping mechanisms operate independently, and transfer carriers between the in-side station 21, the out-side station 23, the carrier liner 25, and the shelf 15.

The carrier liner 25 is provided so as to be able to move horizontally between the carrier stocker 1 and the transfer mechanism 3 with six carriers placed thereon, and between the carrier stocker 1 and the transfer mechanism 3. Carry the carrier.

Next, the movement of the carrier in the carrier stocker shown in FIG. 2 will be described.

When the carrier 14 accommodating a wafer is loaded and loaded in the in-side port 17, the carrier 14a is moved by the carrier 27a and placed in the in-side station 21.

Thereafter, the six carriers 14 placed on the in-side station 21 by the carrier arm mechanism 29 are placed on the shelf 15 or the carrier liner 25 at one time.

The carrier liner 25 transports the loaded carrier while moving in the horizontal direction to the transfer mechanism 3. Thereafter, the wafer is inserted into a processing boat, for example, into a boat to be processed, and the wafer is inserted into the furnace body 11 by the boat transfer mechanism 5, the boat transport mechanism 7, and the elevator 9, and heat treatment is performed.

The wafer after the heat treatment is taken out from below the vertical reaction tube of the furnace body 11 by the elevator 9. Thereafter, one or 25 wafers in the wafer boat are simultaneously grasped and taken out by the transfer mechanism 3, and the wafers are stored in the carrier. The carrier is placed on the carrier liner 25, and the carrier liner 25 moves below the carrier stocker 1.

The carrier arm 29 places the carrier placed on the carrier liner 25 on the out-side station 23, and
b moves the carrier on the out side station 23 to the out side port 19.

Since a plurality of furnace bodies 11 are provided, the transfer mechanism 3 constantly transfers wafers from the carrier to the boat or vice versa. During this time, a carrier containing unprocessed wafers is loaded from the in-side port. , The carrier containing the processed wafer is carried out from the out-side port. Therefore, there is no stagnation of carriers at the in-side and out-side ports.

In the above embodiment, the heat treatment has been described as the processing, but if the processing is processing, etching, coating processing, ion implantation,
Any may be used.

[Effects of the Invention] As described in detail above, according to the present invention, a carrier stocker with a high throughput can be provided without carriers stagnating in a carrier port.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a heat treatment apparatus having a carrier stocker according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a partially cutaway perspective view showing a configuration of the carrier stocker 1 and its vicinity. 1 Carrier stocker 15 Shelf 21 Inn side station 23 Out station 25 Carrier liner 29 Carrier arm

Claims (2)

(57) [Claims] 1. A carrier mounting shelf vertically provided on a side wall of a main body, a carrier port provided outside the main body and temporarily mounting a carrier, and a carrier provided below the main body. A carrier liner provided below the main body, mounted with a carrier and movable to a wafer transfer unit; and the carrier port between the carrier port and the carrier station regardless of the operation of the carrier liner. A carrier for transferring, a carrier arm mechanism for gripping a plurality of carriers, and transferring the carriers between the carrier station and the carrier liner and the carrier mounting shelf independently of the operation of the carrier liner; And between the carrier port and the carrier station and the carrier station. Carrier stocker, wherein the transfer of the carrier between the emission and the carrier mounting shelf, that was configured to perform at the same time the movement of the carrier to the above mentioned, by a carrier liner wafer transfer station. 2. The carrier stocker according to claim 1, wherein said carrier port, said carrier station,
A carrier stocker, wherein two types of the transporters are provided, an inside side for carrying the carrier into the main body and an outside side for carrying out the carrier.