JP3475400B2 - 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 substrate in a chamber, such as a glass substrate or a wafer, which is drawn in an electron beam drawing apparatus, which is transferred into the drawing chamber via an air lock chamber. The present invention relates to a substrate transfer device suitable for linear transfer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art For example, in an electron beam drawing apparatus, since it is necessary to carry a substrate such as a glass substrate or a wafer into a drawing chamber kept in a vacuum state, an air lock chamber is provided in the drawing chamber via a gate valve. The substrates are connected, and the substrate is carried in and out of the drawing chamber through the air lock chamber.

Conventionally, in a substrate transfer apparatus using such an air lock chamber, in order to prevent the substrate from being damaged and to be transferred by a transfer apparatus having a simple mechanism, the substrate is stored in a dedicated cassette, A general method is to linearly reciprocate between the airlock chamber and the drawing chamber by a rod that guides the cassette by a guide roller and pushes and pulls the cassette.

[0004]

However, the method of transferring the substrate via the cassette is inferior to the method of directly transferring the substrate in the mounting position accuracy when the substrate is set at a predetermined position on the drawing stage. At the same time, there is a drawback that the cost required for the cassette increases.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a substrate transfer apparatus that can directly and accurately transfer a substrate in a chamber as described above directly without using a cassette or the like.

[0006]

In order to achieve the above object, a substrate transfer apparatus according to the present invention is arranged in parallel with a chamber, the front end side of which is inserted into the chamber through the wall of the chamber and the substrate at the front end. And at least two rods that support the rod, a gripping drive unit that is provided outside the chamber and that moves a part of the rod and the remaining portion in directions opposite to each other in the longitudinal direction, and that is also provided outside the chamber. The grip drive unit and a transport drive unit that integrally moves all of the rods in the longitudinal direction of the rod, and the tip end portion of each rod is moved in the opposite direction by the grip drive unit to cause an outer peripheral surface of the substrate. The substrate is formed so as to be capable of gripping the substrate by having a step portion that comes into contact with and separates from the substrate.

In this substrate transporting device, at least two rods grip the substrate placed on the leading end of the substrate by the reverse movement of the grasping drive unit and convey it by the integral movement of the transporting drive unit. Therefore, since the substrate is reliably transported in the chamber and the driving unit is located outside the chamber, there is no contamination in the chamber due to dust generation from the driving unit and the chamber volume may be small.

When the substrate has a rectangular shape, one of the rods supports a substantially central portion of one side of the substrate, and the remaining rods have substantially opposite end portions of opposite sides parallel to the one side. If they are configured to respectively support, the rectangular substrate can be reliably supported and gripped.

Further, for the tip of the rod,
By configuring the substrate to be carried in and out from the outside of the chamber in the direction perpendicular to the rod, the transfer from the outside to the rod tip portion inside the chamber can be performed easily and accurately.

[0010]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 is a processing chamber such as a drawing chamber of an electron beam drawing apparatus. An air lock chamber 3 is connected to the processing chamber 1 via a first gate valve 2. The air lock chamber 3 is provided with a second gate valve 4 on a side wall (a lower wall in FIG. 1) that is perpendicular to a side wall (a lower wall in FIG. 1) having the first gate valve 2.

Inside the air lock chamber 3, a side wall (FIG. 1) opposite to the side wall provided with the first gate valve 2 is provided.
In the first gate valve 2 and the processing chamber 1, three rods 5, 6 and 7 which are arranged in parallel with each other and penetrate through the upper wall) are inserted. Center rod 6
The original ends of the rods 5 and 7 on both sides are connected and fixed to the first plate 8 placed outside the air lock chamber 3, and the original ends of the rods 5 and 7 on both sides are also outside the air lock chamber 3.
It is connected and fixed to the second plate 9 placed in parallel with.

These first and second plates 8 and 9 include
The left and right screw parts of the left and right screws 10 extending parallel to the rods 5, 6, and 7 are engaged with each other, and the left and right screws 10 are given forward and reverse rotations by the first motor 11. This left and right screw 1
The 0 and the first motor 11 constitute a gripping drive unit together with the first and second plates 8 and 9, and connect the rod 6 and the rods 5 and 7 via the first and second plates 8 and 9. It is adapted to move in opposite directions along these longitudinal directions.

The first motor 11 is attached to the moving table 12. The moving table 12 is moved in parallel with the rods 5, 6 and 7 along the guide plate 15 by the feed screw 14 which is normally and reversely rotated by the second motor 13. Mobile stand 1
The second motor 13, the feed screw 14, and the guide plate 15 form a drive unit for transporting the rods 5, 6, and 7.

At the tips of the rods 5 and 7, as shown in FIG. 1 (b), stepped portions 5a and 7a lower than the respective upper surfaces thereof are formed.
The rod 6 is provided with a stepped portion 6a lower than the upper surface of the tip and a stepped portion 6b lower than the upper surface, and the three stepped portions 5a, 6a, 7a support the substrate 16 at three points. ing. In addition, each step 5
a, 6a, 7a, when the substrate 16 is rectangular as in FIG. 1, the stepped portion 6a of the central rod 6 supports the central portion of the lower side of the substrate 16 in FIG. It is preferable that the step portions 5a and 7a be formed so as to respectively support substantially both end portions of the upper side parallel to the lower side.

Stepped portions 5a, 6a of the rods 5, 6, 7
7a, the rising surface adjacent to these step portions faces the outer peripheral surface of the substrate 16, moves (retracts) the central rod 6 upward in FIG. 1, and moves the rods 5 and 7 on both sides downward (forward). ), The steps 5a, 6
a, 7a, that is, their rising surfaces are formed so as to grip the substrate 16.

Next, the operation of this device will be described. The inside of the processing chamber 1 is vacuum, and the air lock chamber 3
In a state where the inside is also vacuum, the first gate valve 2 is closed, the inside of the air lock chamber 3 is returned to atmospheric pressure, and then the second gate valve 4 is opened, and the substrate 16 is left on the left side of the air lock chamber 3 in FIG. From air lock chamber 3
And the substrate 16 is placed in the stepped portion 5a of the rods 5, 6 and 7,
Place on top of 6a and 7a.

Next, the first motor 11 is operated to move the first and second plates 8 and 9 closer to each other by the left and right screws 10, that is, the first plate 8 is moved downward in FIG. 1, and the second plate 9 is moved downward. The outer peripheral surface of the substrate 16 is gripped by the step portions 5a, 6a, 7a by moving the rod 6 and the rods 5 and 7 connected and fixed to the upper portion in the same manner.

Next, the second gate valve 4 is closed and the air lock chamber 3 is evacuated. When the inside of the air lock chamber 3 has reached a vacuum pressure almost equal to that inside the processing chamber 1, the first gate valve 2 is opened. Then the second
The motor 13 is operated, and the moving table 12 is moved by the feed screw 14.
Is moved or advanced downward in FIG. As the moving table 12 moves forward, the rods 5, 6, 7 connected to the moving table 12 via the first motor 11, the left and right screws 10, and the first and second plates 8 and 9 move forward, and are supported by the tip end portions thereof. Then, the substrate 16 which is being gripped is transferred into the processing chamber 1 through the first gate valve 2.

When the substrate 16 is transferred to a predetermined position in the processing chamber 1, the first motor 12 is operated to move the first and second plates 8 and 9 in a direction in which they are separated from each other by the step portions 5a, 6a and 7a. The grip of the substrate 16 is released, and the substrate 16 is transferred to a substrate supporting portion (not shown) in the processing chamber 1 by a substrate transfer mechanism (not shown).

The unloading of the substrate 16 from the processing chamber 1 is performed by the reverse operation of the above loading operation.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of the present invention, in which the rod 7 in FIG. 1 is omitted and two rods 5 and 6 are provided, and the tip of the rod 5 is branched into two. Thus, the step portions 5a, 6a and 7a for supporting and gripping the substrate 16 are formed similarly to FIG.

In the above-described embodiment, the rectangular substrate 16
However, it is needless to say that the present invention can be applied to substrates having various shapes such as a circular shape.
It is preferable to support at a, 6a, and 7a, and depending on the shape or size of the substrate, it may be supported at four or more points.

Further, in the above-described embodiment, the example in which the left and right screws are used for the gripping drive unit is shown, but other reverse direction drive mechanism such as a link mechanism may be used, and the transport drive unit may also be used for the link and Other linear drive mechanisms such as linear motors can be used.

[0024]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the substrates are grasped and conveyed by the tips of at least two rods, the linear conveyance of the substrates in the chamber can be performed by a cassette or the like. It can be performed directly and accurately without using it. Also, the drive is outside the chamber,
Since only the rod is inserted into the chamber, there is no contamination in the chamber due to dust generation from the driving unit and the volume of the chamber may be small.

When the substrate has a rectangular shape, one of the rods supports a substantially central portion of one side of the substrate, and the remaining rods have substantially opposite end portions of opposite sides parallel to the one side. If each is configured to support, the rectangular substrate can be reliably supported and gripped.

Further, for the tip of the rod,
If the substrate is configured to be loaded and unloaded from the outside of the chamber in a direction perpendicular to the rod, it is possible to easily and accurately carry the substrate from the outside to the rod tip portion inside the chamber.

[Brief description of drawings]

1A and 1B are diagrams showing an embodiment of the present invention, in which FIG. 1A is a partially omitted schematic cross-sectional view, and FIG. 1B is a partial side view of FIG.

FIG. 2 is a partially omitted schematic sectional view showing another embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 processing chamber 2 First gate valve 3 Air lock chamber 4 second gate valve 5, 6, 7 rods 5a, 6a, 7a Stepped portion 8 first plate 9 Second plate 10 left and right screws 11 First motor 12 Mobile platform 13 Second motor 14 Lead screw 15 Guide plate 16 substrates

Claims (3)

(57) [Claims] 1. A chamber, at least two rods arranged in parallel with each other and having a tip side inserted into the chamber through a wall of the chamber to support a substrate at the tip portion, and rods provided outside the chamber. A gripping drive part for moving a part of them and the remaining part in opposite directions to each other in the longitudinal direction, and the gripping drive part and the rod, which are also provided outside the chamber, are integrally formed in the longitudinal direction of the rod. The rod drive unit is configured to move, and the tip of each rod has a step portion that comes in contact with and separates from the outer peripheral surface of the substrate by the reverse movement of the gripping drive unit so that the substrate can be held. A substrate transfer device characterized by the above. 2. The substrate is rectangular, one of the rods supports a substantially central portion of one side of the substrate, and the remaining rods are substantially opposite end portions of opposite sides parallel to the one side. The substrate transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate transfer apparatus is configured to support the respective substrates. 3. The substrate transfer apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the substrate transfer device is configured to load and unload the substrate from the outside of the chamber in a direction perpendicular to the rod with respect to the tip portion of the rod.