JP2976317B2 - Plate-like processing apparatus and plate-like body conveying method - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for processing a plate-shaped object such as a semiconductor wafer and a method for transporting a plate-shaped object.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Generally, in a semiconductor wafer manufacturing process, a number of processes such as a film forming process, a resist film forming process, and an etching process are performed, but each process requires a specific time to obtain a predetermined processing state. Therefore, in order to improve the throughput, some contrivance is required for the transfer of the wafer between the processing stations and the loading and unloading of the wafer in the processing station.

For example, a description will be given of an example of loading a wafer and a layout of each part in a conventional resist film forming apparatus with reference to FIGS.
A plurality of (four in the figure) carrier mounting tables 1 which can be moved up and down while being intermittently moved by an elevating mechanism are installed, and a wafer holding tweezers 21 which can move forward and backward (free in the X direction) and free in the θ direction. And the whole is carrier C
The transport mechanism 2 which can move in the arrangement direction (Y direction) is provided. Further, an alignment table 23 having a positioning mechanism 22 for centering (centering the center of) the wafer is provided between the transfer mechanism 2 and the processing station B.

The processing station A includes an adhesion processing section 31, which is a processing section for improving the adhesion between the wafer and the resist film, an application section 32 for applying a coating liquid for forming a resist film to the wafer, and a resist film. Bake sections 33 for evaporating the solvent remaining in the main transfer arm 34 are arranged on both sides of the transfer path 35 of the main transfer arm 34. To improve the processing efficiency, the coating section 32 and the bake section 33 are appropriately arranged as shown in the figure. It is arranged in several places.

In the above-described resist film forming apparatus, the wafer W in the carrier C is taken out by the tweezers 21 and then moved to the position aligned with the alignment table 23, and then the tweezers 21 are moved in the θ direction, ie, rotated. Then, the wafer W is transferred to the alignment table 23, where the positioning mechanism 22 centers the wafer W, and then the main transfer arm 34 receives the wafer W and sets it on the adhesion processing unit 31. Then, the transport mechanism 2 returns to the position facing the carrier C, raises the mounting table 1 and retrieves the next wafer in the carrier C, while the main transport arm 34 keeps moving until the next wafer W is received. The wafer is moved between the processing units. The wafer on which the resist film has been formed is returned into the carrier C by the reverse flow. A plurality of main transfer arms 34 are prepared, for example, to receive the wafer W and move between each process in parallel, so that the transfer mechanism 2 can move continuously without waiting. Thus, the wafer W can be smoothly carried into the processing station B.

[0006]

However, in the above-described apparatus, the rotation of the upper tweezers 21 in which the wafer must be once placed on the alignment table 23 before the wafer is transferred from the transfer mechanism 2 to the main transfer arm 34 is performed. Requires a long time for the wafer to be transferred from the transfer station A to the processing station B, and also requires alignment when the wafer is transferred from the processing station B to the transfer station A. Since it is transported via the table 23, a long time is required. Further, since the mounting table 1 is intermittently moved up and down, it takes a long time to perform the mapping for detecting the presence or absence of the wafer in the carrier C by the sensor on the transfer mechanism 2 side.
This also contributes to the long loading time.

In order to reliably transfer the wafer between the carrier C and the tweezers 21, it is desirable that the mounting table 1 and the tweezers 21 be set in parallel regardless of the height position. Since a lifting mechanism is provided for each mounting table 1, the verticality of each lifting axis and the horizontality of the mounting table 1 must be accurately obtained.
It takes a lot of time and effort to position the wafer, and the wafer may jump out of the carrier due to the elevating operation of the mounting table.

The present invention has been made under such circumstances, and an object of the present invention is to shorten a delivery time when carrying a plate-like body such as a wafer stored in a container into a processing unit. It is an object of the present invention to provide a plate-like body processing apparatus which can perform the processing.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a plate-like processing apparatus in which the position of the container mounting table and the transfer mechanism can be easily adjusted.

[0010]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a container mounting table for mounting a container in which a plurality of plate-like bodies before processing are vertically stacked, and a plate-like body in the container. A transfer mechanism having a plate-like body holding member that can move forward and backward so as to sequentially hold and take out, and can move up and down relatively with respect to the container mounting table, and when the plate-like body holding member retreats, A positioning mechanism for abutting the plate-shaped body held by the holding member and positioning the plate-shaped body, and a process of receiving the plate-shaped body positioned by the positioning mechanism from the transfer mechanism and transferring the plate-shaped body to the processing unit And a component transfer mechanism.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect of the present invention, the delivery transport mechanism is configured to be movable along a line of the containers.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the above-mentioned invention,
The container mounting table and the transfer mechanism are mounted on a common base frame. According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the above-described invention, the delivery transporting mechanism includes a holding member configured to hold a bottom surface of the plate-like body, a through-hole formed in a thickness direction of the holding member, When the plate-like body is transferred to and from the processing unit transport mechanism, the push-up member pushes up the plate-like body from the holding member when the plate-like body is transferred to and from the processing unit transport mechanism. The invention of claim 5 is
In the above-described invention, the delivery transport mechanism includes a mapping sensor for detecting the presence or absence of the plate-like body at each stage in the container. According to a sixth aspect of the present invention, the drive shaft of the delivery transport mechanism is provided below the container mounting portion. The invention according to claim 7 is a step of placing a container in which a plurality of plate-like bodies before processing are housed in a vertically stacked manner on a container mounting portion, and then a transfer mechanism for delivering the plate-like bodies. Is relatively raised and lowered at a position facing the container, and a mapping sensor provided in the transfer mechanism detects the presence or absence of the plate-like body at each stage of the container. A step in which the holding member of the transfer mechanism is moved into the container to receive the plate-shaped body for the stage determined to have the body, and a state where the plate-shaped body is held by the holding member of the transfer mechanism for transfer thereafter And a step of transferring the plate-shaped body from the delivery transfer mechanism to the processing unit transfer mechanism, and transferring the plate-shaped body to the processing unit by the processing unit transfer mechanism. It is characterized by That is a method of transporting the plate-like body.

[0013]

For example, when a plurality of containers are arranged side by side on a mounting table, the transfer mechanism for transfer moves to a position facing one container, and the holding member enters into the container and moves into the container. The plate-like body is retracted after holding the plate-like body. For example, when the plate-like body is retracted to a predetermined position, the positioning of the plate-like body is performed. Next, the positioned plate-like body is delivered to the processing unit transport mechanism and transported to a predetermined processing unit. Therefore, since the alignment table does not intervene between the transfer transport mechanism and the processing section transport mechanism, the plate-like body can be quickly carried into the processing station. In addition, since the transfer mechanism for delivery can be raised and lowered and the plate-like body in the container can be sequentially taken out, the container mounting table does not need an elevating mechanism, so if the container mounting table and the transfer mechanism for delivery are mounted on a common base frame, Positioning of the container mounting table with respect to the transport mechanism can be easily performed with high accuracy.

[0014]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment in which the present invention is applied to a processing apparatus for forming a resist film on a plate-like body such as a semiconductor wafer will be described below. FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention. In a delivery station A, a wafer carrier (a carrier is a container of the present invention) is opposed to a wafer loading / unloading port of a processing station B for forming a resist film. A carrier mounting table 3 for mounting C is installed. The mounting table 3 is provided with a guide portion 31 for carrier positioning so that, for example, four carriers C can be mounted side by side. Twenty-five carriers C stacked one above the other at intervals of about 6 mm are placed with the take-out surface facing the processing station B with the guides 31 positioned.

Between the mounting table 3 and the processing station B, the unprocessed wafer in the carrier C is transferred to a main transfer arm, which will be described later, on the processing station B side, and the processed wafer is transferred from the main transfer arm. A transfer mechanism 4 for receiving and returning the carrier to the inside of the carrier C is provided. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the transfer mechanism 4 includes a tweezers 5 as a wafer holding member provided on a transfer base 41 so as to be able to advance and retreat, an elevating mechanism 42 for moving the transfer base 41 up and down, and a horizontal direction. That is, a moving mechanism 43 for moving the carriers C in the arrangement direction is provided.

The lifting mechanism 42 includes, for example, a transport base 41.
Table 42a for supporting the ball screw 4 and the ball screw 4
2b, and the moving mechanism 43
It is composed of a ball screw 43b extending in the horizontal direction so as to move the holding frame 43a of the ball screw 42b in the left-right direction. The ball screws 42a and 43b are driven by a servo motor (not shown). The holding frame 43c for holding the ball screw 43b is attached to the base frame 32 for fixing the carrier mounting table 3, so that the mounting table 3 and the transport mechanism 4 are shared by a common base frame in this embodiment. It will be provided.

The tweezers 5 have stepped portions 51 and 52 at the front end and the rear end, respectively, projecting upward from the wafer mounting surface in order to regulate the front and rear positions of the wafer. As shown in FIG. 3, which is an operation explanatory diagram described later, the portion is lower than the wafer mounting surface in order to reduce the contact area with the wafer.

When the tweezers 5 are retracted to the rear end position, the transfer base 41 has a contact member 62 formed on the inner surface thereof, which abuts against a rear peripheral edge of the wafer held by the tweezers 5. 61 are fixedly provided on both sides of the moving path of the tweezers 5. The step 51 on the front end side of the tweezers 5 and the positioning member 61
The contact portion 62 of the wafer in the above is, when the tweezers 5 is retracted to the rear end position, on a circle drawn by the peripheral edge of the wafer so that each of them abuts on the peripheral edge of the wafer or on a circle slightly larger than the circle. The position is set, and centering (positioning of the center of the wafer) is performed by restricting the peripheral edge of the wafer by the step portion 51 and the positioning member 61. In this example, the positioning mechanism 6 is constituted by the step portion 51 of the tweezers and the positioning member 61.
It is configured in combination.

At the front end of the transfer base 41, a mapping sensor comprising a light emitting section 44 and a light receiving section 45 which are provided at a distance from each other so as to be located on both left and right sides of a part of the periphery of the wafer so as to freely advance and retreat. The mapping sensor has a role of detecting the presence or absence of a wafer by moving forward after facing the carrier C. Further, the transport base 41 has
A wafer push-up mechanism (not shown) is incorporated, and this push-up mechanism causes a push-up member, for example, a pin to protrude through a hole 53 which is a through hole formed in, for example, four places of the tweezers 5, whereby the wafer is moved to the It is configured to be pushed up from the mounting surface and held. In the transport mechanism 4, for example, a mechanism below the tweezers 5, including the transport base 41, is housed in a housing, and if a blower fan is provided below the housing, particles accompanying the driving of the tweezers 5 can be removed. It is desirable because it can be sucked and discharged and the adhesion of particles to the wafer can be suppressed.

In the processing station A, for example, as shown in FIG. 4 in the section of "Prior Art", a processing section necessary for forming a resist film on a wafer is arranged, and at the center position. A main transfer arm 7 serving as a processing unit transfer mechanism is provided movably, vertically, and rotatably along a transfer path arranged in the front-rear direction. The main transfer arm 7 is connected to the front end side (transfer station). A
Side), the wafer lifted by the pins on the tweezers 5 can be received from behind the tweezers 5. Although not shown, in this example, a plurality of, for example, two main transfer arms 7 are provided and arranged vertically so as not to interfere with each other.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described. Assuming now that a carrier C containing, for example, 25 wafers before processing is mounted on the mounting table 3 by an operator or a transfer robot, the transport base 51 is first moved to a position facing the carrier C, Subsequently, after the light emitting unit 44 and the light receiving unit 45 are advanced to a position where a part of the peripheral portion of the wafer in the carrier C is located therebetween, the transfer base 41 is continuously moved from the uppermost stage to the lowermost stage of the carrier C, for example. Lower to level. Thus, for example, by providing an encoder in the servo motor, each height position and light on,
The data corresponding to the OFF state is taken into a control unit (not shown), and the presence / absence of a wafer in each stage in the carrier C can be detected at high speed. In this case, the height position of each wafer can be detected.
May be stopped. In this case, high-speed mapping can be realized, but in the present invention, the mapping sensor may be intermittently moved.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 3A, the tweezers 5 are advanced to enter the carrier C, and slightly raised to hold the wafer W lifted from the mounting surface in the carrier C. In the drawing, the wafer W is drawn for convenience, but if the wafer W is normally stored in the carrier C, it will be mounted on the mounting surface of the tweezers 4.
The removal of the wafer W is performed sequentially from the wafer W located on the lower side.

Next, the tweezers 5 are retracted, and the wafer W
Is removed from the carrier C, but when the tweezers 5 are returned to the rear end position, the step portion 51 of the tweezers 5 and the contact portions 62 of the positioning members 61 on both sides abut on the peripheral edge of the wafer W. It falls within the circle determined by these, and eventually the centering is performed as shown in FIG. Thereafter, the tweezers 5 are moved to the center position of the transfer station A, that is, on the extension of the transfer path of the main transfer arm, and then, as shown in FIG.
Is pushed up through the hole 53, thereby holding the wafer W at a position floating above the tweezers 5.

Next, the main transfer arm 7 approaches from behind the tweezers 5 and scoops up and holds the wafer W on the pins 54. The wafer W is carried into the processing station B by the main transfer arm 7 and the resist film is formed. Each processing for formation, for example, adhesion processing, coating processing,
Bake processing and the like are performed. On the other hand, the already processed wafer W is carried out to the transfer station A by another main transfer arm (not shown), transferred to the pins 54 protruding above the tweezers 5, and subjected to, for example, the original process by the above-described reverse process. It is returned into the carrier C. When returning the wafer W, if the transfer position by the main transfer arm is high performance, centering may or may not be performed.

According to the above-described embodiment, since the centering is performed simultaneously with the removal of the wafer W from the carrier C by the tweezers 5, the space for the alignment table is not required as compared with the case where the centering is performed separately. The time required for the transfer can be shortened, the wafer W can be directly transferred from the transfer mechanism 4 to the main transfer arm 7 without transferring the wafer W to the alignment table, and the rotating operation of the tweezers 4 becomes unnecessary. Therefore, the transfer time of the wafer becomes very short. The one cycle is defined as a cycle from taking out the unprocessed wafer in the wafer carrier C with the tweezers 5 and transferring it to the main transfer arm 7 and receiving the already processed wafer from another main transfer arm and returning it to the carrier C. 4 is compared with the conventional apparatus shown in FIG. 4 and the apparatus of the above-described embodiment. The former is about 45 seconds, but the latter is about 20 seconds, which is reduced to about half. The high speed of the transfer was confirmed. Further, since the carrier W is taken out and stored by moving the transfer mechanism 4 side up and down while the carrier C is kept stationary, there is no risk of the wafer jumping out unlike the case where the mounting table side is moved up and down.

In the above description, the timing of the positioning for centering the wafer may not be at the same time as when the wafer W is taken out from the carrier C, but may be immediately before the wafer is transferred to the main transfer arm 7.

The mounting table 3 and the transport mechanism 4 are connected to the mounting table 4
It is desirable to fix to the common base frame 32 in that the parallelism with the tweezers 5 can be easily obtained with high accuracy over the entire surface of the base frame 32. The mounting table 3 and the transport mechanism 4 are fixed to another base frame (not shown) in addition to the configuration of being fixed to the base frame 32 as shown in FIG. 2, and this base frame is fixed to the base frame 32 of FIG. It may be configured as follows.

Furthermore, the transport base 41 is not necessarily limited to moving linearly in the horizontal direction. For example, when the carrier mounting table 3 is formed along an arc, the carrier base 41 is moved so as to draw an arc locus. Just do it.

Further, the carrier mounting table may be one on which only one carrier is mounted. In this case, the main transfer arm is kept at the same position after taking out the wafer without moving the transfer transfer mechanism sideways. Can also be passed to

The transfer mechanism for the processing section (main transfer arm in the embodiment) is not limited to a mechanism for directly transferring the wafer to the processing section, but may be once transferred to a buffer stage in the processing station, or may be transferred to the processing station. Also includes an intermediate transfer mechanism for transferring to another transfer mechanism.

The processing at the processing station is not limited to the processing of forming a resist film on a wafer. The processed plate-like body may be carried out from another carry-out port. Not limited to a wafer, a glass substrate, an LCD substrate, a glass mask, a compact disk (CD), a printed substrate, or the like may be used.

[0032]

As described above, according to the first, second and seventh aspects of the present invention, the plate member in the container is taken out by the holding member of the transport mechanism, and the plate member is positioned while holding the plate member. Therefore, the plate-like body can be transported at high speed from the inside of the container to the processing section.

According to the third aspect of the invention, the container mounting table is fixed, the transfer mechanism is moved up and down, and the container mounting table and the transfer mechanism are provided on a common base frame. In addition, the parallelism of the mounting table with respect to the holding member can be easily obtained with high accuracy, and stable wafer removal and storage can be performed. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, the holding member of the transfer transport mechanism is provided in combination with the push-up member of the plate-like body. Therefore, even if the positioning mechanism is provided, the transfer with the processing unit transport mechanism is easy. Can be done. According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, since the mapping sensor is provided in the transfer transport mechanism, mapping of the plate-like body in the container can be easily performed. According to the sixth aspect of the present invention, since the drive shaft of the transfer mechanism is provided below the container mounting portion, it is possible to suppress particle contamination of the plate-like body.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the overall configuration of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view showing a carrier mounting table and a transfer mechanism for delivery.

FIG. 3 is an operation explanatory view of the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory plan view showing a conventional example of a plate-like processing apparatus.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory side view showing a conventional example of a plate-like processing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1, 3 Carrier mounting table C Wafer carrier 4 Delivery transfer mechanism 5 Tweezers 6 Positioning mechanism 61 Positioning member 7 Main transfer arm W Wafer

Claims (7)

(57) [Claims] 1. A container mounting table for mounting a container in which a plurality of plate-like bodies before processing are stacked one on top of another, and a plate-like body in the container is successively retractable so as to be held and taken out. A transfer mechanism having a plate-like body holding member that can be moved up and down relatively with respect to the container mounting table; and a plate-like body held by the holding member when the plate-like body holding member is retracted. A positioning mechanism for abutting the peripheral edge to position the plate-shaped body, and a processing unit transport mechanism for receiving the plate-shaped body positioned by the positioning mechanism from the transport mechanism and transporting the plate-shaped body to the processing unit. A plate-like body processing apparatus, characterized in that: 2. The plate-like body according to claim 1, wherein the container mounting table is configured to mount a plurality of containers side by side, and the transfer mechanism for transfer is configured to be movable along a line of the containers. Processing equipment. 3. The plate-like body processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the transfer mechanism is configured to be movable up and down, and the container mounting table and the transfer mechanism are provided on a common base frame. . 4. A transfer mechanism for transferring a holding member configured to hold a bottom surface of a plate-like body, a through-hole formed in a thickness direction of the holding member, and a vertically moving member inside the through-hole. ,
4. The plate-like body according to claim 1, further comprising a push-up member that penetrates upward and pushes up the plate-like body from the holding member when the plate-like body is transferred to and from the processing unit transport mechanism. Processing equipment. 5. The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the delivery transport mechanism includes a mapping sensor for detecting the presence or absence of each stage of the plate in the container. 6. The transfer mechanism according to claim 1, wherein the drive shaft of the transfer mechanism is provided below the container mounting portion.
The processing apparatus according to 4 or 5. 7. A step of placing a container, in which a plurality of plate-like bodies before processing are housed in a vertically stacked manner, on a container mounting part, and then, a transfer mechanism for delivering the plate-like bodies. A step of relatively elevating and lowering at a position facing the container, and detecting the presence or absence of a plate-like body at each stage of the container by a mapping sensor provided in the delivery transport mechanism; A step of receiving the plate-like body by moving the holding member of the delivery conveyance mechanism into the container for the stage determined to be present, and then positioning the plate-like body while holding the plate-like body by the holding member of the delivery conveyance mechanism And a step of transferring the plate-shaped body from the transfer mechanism for transfer to the transfer mechanism for the processing unit, and transferring the plate-shaped body to the processing unit by the transfer mechanism for the processing unit. Features Transfer method of the plate-like body.