JP3227033B2 - Semiconductor manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a semi-conductor manufacturing apparatus, in particular a half
The present invention relates to a wafer transfer device in a conductor manufacturing device .

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional wafer transfer apparatus in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a cassette transfer device, 2 denotes a cassette stocker, 3 denotes a wafer transfer machine, and 4 denotes a boat elevator.

The cassette transfer device 1 has a cassette receiver 5 which can be moved up and down. The cassette receiver 5 can receive two wafer cassettes 6 in parallel, and can advance and retreat with respect to the cassette stocker 2. It is.

The cassette stocker 2 has a cassette shelf 7 of two rows and two stages (four stages are shown in the figure).
Is provided on the slide stage 16 so as to be able to traverse, and the row of shelves facing the wafer transfer machine 3 is changed when the cassette shelf 7 is traversed. Although not shown, a buffer cassette stocker is provided above the cassette stocker 2 as needed.

The wafer transfer machine 3 has an elevating stage 8 which can be moved up and down, and a rotatable seat 9 is rotatably provided on the elevating stage 8, and a chuck having a plurality of wafer chucks 10 is provided on the rotatable seat 9. The king head 11 is provided movably in the horizontal direction.

The boat elevator 4 has a boat arm 12 which can be moved up and down. The boat arm 12 is provided with a boat seat 13, and a boat 14 can be mounted on the boat seat 13. The boat 15 has a wafer 15
Are held in multiple stages in a horizontal posture.

The transfer of the wafer 15 between the outside and the inside of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is performed while the wafer 15 is loaded in the wafer cassette 6.

A wafer cassette 6 loaded with wafers 15 is placed on the cassette receiving table 5. The cassette transfer device 1 raises and lowers the cassette receiver 5 so that the cassette receiver 5 faces the empty shelf of the cassette shelf 7, and inserts and places the wafer cassette 6 on the cassette shelf 7.

When the wafer cassette 6 in the cassette shelf 7 to which the wafer 15 is to be transferred is determined, the cassette stocker 2 traverses the cassette shelf 7 so that the target wafer cassette 6 faces the chucking head 11. Let it.

The wafer transfer machine 3 transfers the wafers 15 to the boat 14 by a combination of the lifting and lowering of the lifting stage 8, the rotation of the rotary seat 9, and the horizontal movement of the chucking head 11. To change the target wafer cassette 6, as shown in FIG. 4, the wafer cassettes at the same height on the cassette shelf 7 are changed in row and the wafers are transferred, and then the upper and lower stages are shifted. To go. During the traversing operation of the cassette shelf 7, the transfer of the wafer is stopped.

When the transfer of the wafers 15 to the boat 14 is completed, the boat elevator 4 raises the boat arm 12, loads the boat 14 into a reaction furnace (not shown), and processes the wafers 15.

After the processing is completed, the boat arm 12 is lowered, the procedure for transferring the wafers 15 to the boat 14 is reversed, and the wafers 15 are transferred to the wafer cassette 6 of the wafer cassette transfer device.

As described above, since the transfer operation of the wafer transfer device 3 involves the traversing operation of the cassette shelf 7, while the wafer transfer device 3 is transferring a wafer, the wafer transfer of the cassette transfer device 1 is performed. The transfer operation of the cassette 6 is stopped, and the transfer operation of the wafer transfer device 3 is stopped during the transfer operation of the wafer cassette 6 of the cassette transfer device 1.

[0015]

As described above, during the traversing operation of the cassette shelf 7, the transfer operation of the wafer transfer machine 3 is stopped, and the cassette shelf 7 is transferred every time a wafer is transported in each stage. In addition, while one of the cassette transfer device 1 and the wafer transfer device 3 is in operation, the other is in a halt state, so that the halt time increases the wafer transfer time. And the production efficiency is affected.

Further, since the above-mentioned apparatus has a structure in which the wafer cassettes 6 on the left and right sides of the cassette shelf 7 cannot be exchanged, the rows of the cassette shelves are fixed as the apparatus.
For this reason, as shown in FIG.
For the line A of 2,103, the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus 10
When the equipment is arranged so that the lines B of 4, 105 and 106 are opposed to each other, the left and right of the rows of the cassette shelves 7 are reversed between the line A and the line B. Therefore, when the external transfer device 107 of the wafer cassette 6 is operated with reference to the line A as shown in FIG.
07 and the access direction to each shelf are reversed,
There is a problem that the transfer efficiency is significantly reduced.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and aims at eliminating the waiting time during wafer transfer, reducing the pause time of the transfer operation, and shortening the wafer transfer time.

[0018]

According to the present invention, in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus having at least a wafer transfer machine and a cassette transfer device for a cassette stocker, the cassette transfer device can be traversed with respect to the cassette stocker. And the cassette stocker has a plurality of rows and rows of wafer cassettes.
And the wafer transfer machine has a cassette storage shelf.
A semiconductor that performs a transfer operation on a predetermined fixed row of shelves
It relates to a manufacturing apparatus.

[0019]

Since the cassette transfer device can be traversed and the cassette stocker can be fixed, the transfer operation of the wafer transfer device and the cassette transfer device with respect to the cassette stocker can be performed in parallel.

[0020]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

1 and 2, the same components as those shown in FIG. 3 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted.

The cassette shelf 20 of the cassette stocker 17 is fixedly erected on the base 19 via the leg plate 18, and the cassette shelf 20 has three rows and four stages. Above the cassette stocker 17, a buffer cassette stocker 21 having three rows and four stages of shelves is provided. A cassette transfer device 30 is provided to face the buffer cassette stocker 21 and the cassette stocker 17.

The cassette transfer device 30 will be described.

A screw rod 22 is rotatably provided on the base 19 in parallel with the cassette shelf 20, and a slide motor 23 is connected to the screw rod 22. The lower end of the elevator unit 24 is screwed into the screw rod 22, and a support block 25 is fixed to a middle portion of the elevator unit 24.
Is slidably engaged with a support guide 26 provided at the lower end of the buffer cassette stocker 21.

The elevator unit 24 has a lift 27
Is provided so as to be able to move up and down, a pair of robot arms 28 are provided on the left and right sides of the elevating table 27, and a wafer cassette receiving plate (not shown) is provided at the tip of the robot arm 28. Each of the robot arms 28 can be independently extended and contracted linearly with respect to the cassette shelf 20, and the wafer cassette 6 can be stored in and dispensed from the cassette shelf 20 in cooperation with the elevator unit 24 and the robot arm 28. I have. In the figure, reference numeral 29 denotes a reaction furnace.

The operation will be described below.

The object to be transferred by the wafer transfer machine 3 is fixed to the center row of the cassette shelf 20.

The elevator unit 24 traverses via the screw rod 22 by the driving of the slide motor 23. In this traversing operation, the elevator unit 24 is prevented from falling and tilting by the engagement between the support block 25 and the support guide 26. With the cooperation of the traversing operation of the elevator unit 24, the expansion and contraction operation of the robot arm 28, and the elevating operation of the elevator 27, the wafer cassettes 6 of unprocessed wafers are arranged in a central row from one of the left and right rows. The wafer cassette 6 for the completed wafers is transported to one of the left and right rows.

The wafer transfer device 3 performs transfer operations on all stages in the center row of the cassette shelf 20, and the cassette transfer device 30 also transports the wafer on all stages and all rows of the cassette shelf 20. Do the work. Thus, the wafer transfer machine 3
The wafer transfer machine 3 and the cassette transfer device 30 can work at the same time by making the work target stages of the cassette transfer device 30 different from each other so as not to interfere with each other.

Further, the cassette transfer device 30 transfers the wafer cassette 6 to and from the external transfer device 107, transfers the processed wafer cassette 6 to the external transfer device 107, and transfers the unprocessed wafer cassette 6 to the external transfer device 107.
Is received from the external transport device 107 and stored in the cassette stocker 17 or the buffer cassette stocker 21. Further, the wafer cassette 6 of the unprocessed wafer from the buffer cassette stocker 21 to the cassette stocker 17 is stored.
Is carried.

The transfer of the wafer cassettes 6 in the cassette transfer device 30 can be carried out simultaneously by two robot arms 28 on the left and right sides, and it is also possible to carry out only one wafer arm on either the left or right robot arm 28. Thus, the cassette transfer device 30 can freely exchange wafer cassettes,
The wafer transfer device 3 and the cassette transfer device 30 can operate in parallel without being restricted by the mutual operation.

In the above embodiment, the cassette shelf 20 has 3
There were four rows, but four rows, five or more rows may be used.
The robot arm may be one set or three or more sets.

[0033]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following excellent effects are exhibited.

Since the cassette shelf is fixed, the wafer transfer device and the cassette transfer device can be operated in parallel, and the transfer efficiency is improved.

Since the cassette shelves are fixed, all the space occupied by the cassette shelves can be used as the storage space for the wafer cassettes, and the number of wafer cassettes stored increases.

Since the cassette shelf is fixed, position adjustment between the wafer transfer device and the cassette shelf is easy.

Since the wafer cassettes can be exchanged in the cassette shelf, the degree of freedom in the line configuration of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is increased, and the efficiency of wafer cassette transfer with external transfer equipment is improved.

[Brief description of the drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram of a conventional example.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory view of a conventional example.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a conventional example and an external transport device.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a conventional example and an external transport device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 3 Wafer Transfer Machine 6 Wafer Cassette 17 Cassette Stocker 20 Cassette Shelf 21 Buffer Cassette Stocker 22 Screw Rod 24 Elevator Unit 27 Elevating Table 28 Robot Arm 30 Cassette Transfer Device

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (56) References JP-A-3-40084 (JP, A) (58) Fields investigated (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) B65G 1/00 541 H01L 21/68

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A semiconductor manufacturing device comprising at least a wafer transfer machine and a cassette transfer device for a cassette stocker.
In the apparatus , the cassette transfer device can be traversed with respect to the cassette stocker, and the cassette stocker can
A plurality of rows of wafer cassette storage shelves;
The transfer machine is moved to a predetermined fixed row of the cassette shelf.
And a transfer operation.