JP3200285B2 - Substrate transfer 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 reticle (photomask) in a substrate transfer apparatus, particularly in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus (exposure apparatus, cleaning apparatus, inspection apparatus, etc.) or in a semiconductor device manufacturing process.
The present invention relates to a substrate transfer device for automatically transferring substrates such as wafers and wafers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A reticle (photomask) or a substrate such as a wafer used in a semiconductor device manufacturing process is usually stored in a desired storage container. Therefore, when used in the semiconductor manufacturing process, the substrate is automatically extracted from the storage container by hand and transported to a target processing (exposure, cleaning, inspection, etc.) station. In order to prevent the substrate from dropping from the hand during transfer, the hand generally holds the substrate by a plurality of vacuum suction pads provided on the holding surface.

Conventionally, as means for holding a substrate by vacuum suction, a means using a rubber sucker which is flexible so as to be able to suck the substrate even if the error in the parallelism of a plurality of pads on the hand is somewhat large, In some cases, a rigid body has a coil spring or a leaf spring laid under the pad to absorb a parallelism error between a plurality of pads.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view of a rubber sucker showing the former conventional example. In this example, a rubber sucker 11 is directly attached to a hand 12. Lip portion 11a of rubber sucker 11
Contacts a substrate (not shown). In-hand vacuum communication groove 12b, vacuum introduction hole 12a formed in hand 12
Is supplied to the vacuum suction groove 11c through the vacuum introduction hole 11b in the rubber suction cup 11, and the substrate is vacuum-sucked to the lip portion 11a of the rubber suction cup 11. In this figure, reference numeral 13 denotes a lid for sealing the bottom of the hand 12.

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a suction pad showing the latter conventional example. In this example, a metal suction pad 14 is attached to a hand 17 via a compression coil spring 18.
The suction pad 14 can be parallelized to the hand 17. A nipple 15 having a nipple hole 15a for supplying a vacuum to the vacuum suction groove 14a is fixed to the suction pad 14, and a vacuum supply hose 16 having a hose hole 16a is connected to the nipple 15. The hose 16 passes through a groove 17 a formed on the lower surface of the hand 17.

[0006]

However, of the conventional examples using a rubber sucker, it is difficult to clean the rubber sucker, so that the contact portion with the substrate contaminates the substrate when sucking the substrate. There was a problem that there was. In the case of a pad made of a rigid body so that the suction section is easily cleaned, the pad is separated from the hand by the intervention of a coil spring or the like.
Nipples and hoses had to be attached in order to connect a vacuum, and the structure was complicated and large, and the rigidity of the hoses affected the function of providing parallelism.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and has as its object to reduce the size of a small-sized substrate that can easily hold a substrate by vacuum suction without easily contaminating the substrate. An object of the present invention is to provide a transport device.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, a substrate transfer apparatus according to the present invention comprises a pad for holding a substrate by vacuum suction and a hand for transferring the substrate held by vacuum suction to the pad. If, have a resilient member forming a vacuum supply passage between the said pads hand, the path
The tongue is made of conductive mold resin,
The member is an O-ring interposed between the pad and the hand.
Elastic member, and the elastic member is a conductive rubber.
The feature is that it is made of rubber .

[0009] The pad is provided with the pad on the hand.
May be provided with a plurality of interposed members,
Substrate can be used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment
No.

[0010]

[0011]

According to the present invention, an elastic member is interposed between a pad for holding a substrate by vacuum suction and a hand for transferring the substrate held by the pad, and a vacuum is supplied to the pad via the elastic member. Holding a substrate. Therefore, the substrate is not contaminated unlike a rubber sucker, and the parallelism of the pad when the substrate is sucked can be easily brought out by deformation of the elastic member, so that the substrate can be accurately held by vacuum suction. It is possible to provide a small substrate transfer device.

In this type of hand, when a substrate to be conveyed (for example, a reticle or mask used in a semiconductor manufacturing process) is charged, a pattern for manufacturing a semiconductor device drawn on the substrate sparks. Since such a pattern may be broken, it is necessary to use a conductive material.

If a conductive mold resin pad is provided at a contact portion with the substrate, and an O-ring-shaped elastic member made of conductive rubber is placed under the conductive resin pad, the substrate also comes into contact with the hand via the conductive material. As a result, charging of the substrate can be prevented.

[0014]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS FIG. 1 is a diagram best representing the features of the substrate transfer apparatus of the present invention. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes a pad made of a conductive mold resin, 1a denotes a hole for vacuum introduction penetrating therethrough, and 1b denotes a substrate mounted on the pad 1 (for example, a reticle or a reticle used in a semiconductor manufacturing process). And a vacuum suction groove to which a vacuum is supplied when sucking the mask.

Reference numeral 2 denotes a transfer hand for transferring the substrate sucked and held by the pad 1, and 2a denotes a pad 1 therein.
The vacuum introduction hole 2a is formed so as to be substantially concentric with the vacuum introduction hole 1a of the pad 1. Reference numeral 2b denotes an in-hand vacuum communication groove connected to a vacuum supply source (not shown). The vacuum supplied from the vacuum source through this groove 2b is applied to the pad 1 through the vacuum introduction holes 2a and 1a in order. Is supplied to the groove 1b.

Reference numeral 3 denotes an O-ring (elastic member) made of conductive rubber which is interposed between the hand 2 and the pad 1 made of conductive mold resin and connects the two. The space between the portion 2a and the vacuum introducing hole 1a of the pad 1 is substantially sealed, and a vacuum flow path is formed at this portion. 4 is a vacuum communication groove 2b formed in the hand 1.
Are cap screws 5 for preventing the pad 1 from falling off the hand 2, and are provided at the ends of the pad 1, respectively.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the entire transfer system of the present invention, in which 6 is a lower plate of a cassette for accommodating a substrate 9, and 7 is a lower plate 6.
The upper lid of the cassette which is almost in contact with
This is a lid opening mechanism that opens and closes with respect to. When the upper lid 7 is separated from the lower plate 6 by the lid opening mechanism 8, the hand 2 holds the substrate 9 in the cassette by vacuum suction, takes it out of the cassette, and transports the substrate 9 to the destination 10 for transport. The transfer destination 10 is, for example, an exposure stage in a semiconductor manufacturing exposure apparatus such as a stepper.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing only the hand 2, and the hand 2 is provided with pads 1 made of mold resin at four places as shown. Each of these pads 1 is configured as described above with reference to FIG. FIG. 4 shows FIG.
Is a cross-sectional view of the embodiment shown in FIG.

FIG. 5 shows another embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, instead of providing the O-ring 3 between the pad 1 and the hand 2, a thin elastic body 1 is provided under the resin pad 1.
c is formed integrally with the pad 1 and serves as the elastic member 3 in FIG. This embodiment can have a simpler configuration than the embodiment of FIG.

Next, the operation of the above embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. After the lid opening mechanism 8 opens the cassette containing the substrate 9, the hand 2 is moved by the drive mechanism (not shown) and enters the cassette, and takes out only the substrate 9 from the lower plate 6. The substrate 9 is held on the pad 1 by vacuum suction on the hand 2, and the target exposure stage 10 is held while being held.
And is attracted to the exposure stage 10.

Since a pattern to be exposed is drawn at a substantially central portion of the substrate 9, the four pads around the substrate are vacuum-adsorbed and held by the suction pad 1 as shown in FIG. In practice, it is difficult to make four points parallel.
In the prior art, the substrate 9 was vacuum-sucked by the rubber sucker 11, but the rubber was difficult to clean, and the substrate 9 was contaminated, leaving a trace of the sucker on the substrate 9.

The suction pad 1 of this embodiment is a pad made of a rigid mold resin instead of rubber, and has a structure that facilitates parallel alignment required for suction by the elastic effect of the O-ring 3 under the pad 1. It is. A groove 1b for vacuum suction is provided on the upper surface of the pad 1 so that the substrate 9 can be easily suctioned by vacuum.
Further, the vacuum passing through the vacuum introduction hole 1a passes through the O-ring 3 without leaking, and is connected to the vacuum source from the hole 2a of the hand 2 through the in-hand vacuum communication groove 2b.

The pad 1 can be freely tilted by the O-ring 3. However, since the pad 1 is merely mounted on the O-ring 3 and the O-ring 3 is also mounted only on the hand 2, the falling-off prevention screw 5 is provided so as not to slide in the horizontal direction. Stopper works. In other words, the falling-off prevention screw 5 is not completely closed, but is closed with a gap that does not press the pad, and a treatment such as a screw lock is performed to prevent loosening.

Since the pad 1 of this embodiment is a conductive mold resin, the substrate 9 is not charged. The O-ring 3 that contacts the pad 1 is also in contact with a metal hand made of conductive rubber. The elastic member is not limited to the O-ring 3. For example, as shown in FIG. 5, by forming the lower part of the resin pad 1 as an integrated but thin elastic body, the same effect as the O-ring can be obtained. It is possible.

[0025]

As described above, according to the present invention,
With a simple structure in which only an elastic member is placed under the pad, parallel suction can be easily performed, and the substrate can be accurately held by vacuum suction. Furthermore, if the elastic member is a conductive O-ring, a small substrate transfer device that does not charge the substrate can be provided.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a main part of one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing the entire embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing the hand of the embodiment of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a sectional view showing the embodiment from a direction different from that of FIG. 1;

FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a conventional example.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view showing another conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Pad 2 Hand 3 O-ring 5 Captive screw 9 Substrate

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continued on the front page (58) Field surveyed (Int.Cl. ⁷ , DB name) H01L 21/68 B25J 15/06 B65G 49/07

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] A pad for vacuum-holding and holding the substrate, a hand for transferring the substrate vacuum-held on the pad, and a vacuum supply flow path between the pad and the hand. An elastic member, the pad is made of conductive mold resin, the elastic member is an O-ring elastic member interposed between the pad and the hand, and the elastic member has electric conductivity. A substrate transfer device made of rubber. 2. The substrate transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a plurality of pads are provided on the hand via the elastic member. 3. The substrate transfer apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said substrate transfer apparatus is used in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.