JP4858070B2 - Wafer aligner, wafer transfer system including the same, and semiconductor manufacturing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to an edge grip type pre-aligner device that is used in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus or an inspection apparatus and performs angle adjustment such as wafer centering and notching.

In semiconductor manufacturing equipment, etc., a pre-aligner device is mainly used in combination with a wafer handling robot, and grips (grips) a wafer transferred from the robot and rotates the wafer to preliminarily make a notch on its outer periphery. This is a device that detects notched portions such as a flat plate and an orientation flat, aligns them in a predetermined angular direction based on this, and determines the center position of the wafer itself (centering). This pre-aligner apparatus is installed in a so-called locally cleaned casing in which a downflow airflow that has passed through a filter is isolated by a box together with a wafer handling robot in a recent semiconductor manufacturing apparatus. In addition, a cassette opener (referred to as a POD opener or a FOUP opener) that opens and closes a cassette (FOUP or the like) that contains a wafer is provided on the side surface of the casing. Open and close cassettes without intruding. Then, while the wafer handling robot aligns the wafers in the cassette with the pre-aligner, the aligned wafer is transported to a processing apparatus installed adjacent to the housing. In the processing apparatus, for example, CVD, etching, etc. A predetermined process such as exposure is performed. Then, the wafer that has been processed by the processing apparatus is stored in the cassette again. In the case of this form, the housing constitutes a conveying device called a front end device or the like. In addition, a plurality of cassette openers described above are provided on the side of the casing, and a casing has been developed in which a wafer handling robot moves wafers while aligning with an aligner between a plurality of cassettes on the plurality of cassette openers. Yes. The form of the housing is a conveying device called a sorter. In any case, the pre-aligner is frequently used in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus because it aligns the position and direction of the wafer.

By the way, while the outer diameter of recent wafers used in semiconductor manufacturing factories has shifted to larger sizes such as 300 mm, the use of 8-inch wafers has continued, so in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, wafers used in factories A device corresponding to the diameter is incorporated in the manufacturing apparatus. However, when these different-diameter wafers are used together in a factory, for example, in each production lot, the equipment in the production apparatus is often manually replaced with a device suitable for the wafer diameter. However, in particular, the recent wafer aligner apparatus needs to perform alignment only by gripping a limited part such as the edge of the wafer for the reason of miniaturization of semiconductor manufacturing, and the aligner apparatus is limited as described above. Since it is often installed in a space (housing), downsizing is also required, and it is difficult to configure so that wafers of different diameters can be aligned by simply replacing parts. Therefore, in particular, in the conventional aligner apparatus, there are few products that can deal with wafers of different diameters without replacing parts.
An object of the present invention is to construct a pre-aligner apparatus capable of aligning different diameter wafers without exchanging components or the like from such technical background and problems.

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention is configured as follows.
The invention of claim 1 comprises a gripping mechanism for gripping a wafer by an opening / closing operation, a turning mechanism for rotating the gripping mechanism, and a sensor mechanism for detecting a specific shape of the outer periphery of the wafer rotated by the turning mechanism. A wafer aligner that determines a position of the wafer by an operation of the gripping mechanism and rotates the wafer in a desired rotation direction by the turning mechanism, wherein the gripping mechanism includes a clamper capable of mounting wafers having different diameters; a pair of clamper base for supporting the clamper, thereby movably supporting each of said pair of clamper base in a horizontal direction, a base for pivoting by the pivoting mechanism, attach to each of said pair of clamper base A pair of link mechanisms and a bridging that rotatably supports each of the pair of link mechanisms. Di rotatably supports the bridge to the base pivot axis coaxial with that and a vertical member for vertical movement by a driving source, and the aligner device wafer according to claim.
The invention of claim 2 is characterized in that the clamper has a first clamper capable of gripping a first wafer and a second clamper capable of gripping a second wafer having a diameter smaller than that of the first wafer. And
The first and second clampers are provided on the clamper base so that the wafer gripping position of the first clamper is higher than the wafer gripping position of the second clamper. A wafer aligner according to claim 1.
The invention of claim 3 includes a first wafer detection sensor and a second wafer detection sensor for detecting the first and second wafers placed on the first and second clampers, respectively. When both the first wafer detection sensor and the second wafer detection sensor detect a wafer, it is determined that the first wafer exists in the first clamper, and the first wafer detection sensor 3. The wafer aligner according to claim 2, wherein when the second wafer detection sensor detects a wafer, it is determined that the second wafer exists in the second clamper. 4. The device.
The invention of claim 4 is a cassette opener that opens a lid of a wafer cassette containing a wafer, a wafer handling robot that transports the wafer from the cassette opener,
A wafer transfer system comprising at least a wafer aligner for aligning the wafer, wherein the wafer aligner is the wafer aligner according to claim 1.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus is characterized in that a semiconductor is manufactured by processing wafers having different diameters transferred by the wafer transfer system according to the fourth aspect.

As described above, the present invention has the following effects.
(1) There is no replacement of parts due to the change of the wafer size, and the wafer size can be changed without stopping the apparatus by recognizing the changed wafer size by the sensor, thereby reducing the processing efficiency of the apparatus. do not do.
(2) Since it is not necessary to lay out a dedicated machine for each wafer size in the apparatus, the footprint in the apparatus can be greatly reduced and the cost can be reduced.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described below.

  Hereinafter, a first example of an embodiment of the pre-aligner device of the present invention will be described with reference to the following drawings. 1 is a side sectional view of a gripping mechanism and a sensor mechanism of the pre-aligner apparatus according to the first embodiment, FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. 1 and a sensor mechanism is omitted, and FIG. 4 shows a side sectional view of the entire apparatus of Example 1, respectively.

  As shown in FIG. 4, this apparatus is generally composed of an aligner main body 0, a wafer holding mechanism placed on the aligner main body 0, and a sensor mechanism for detecting a notch on the outer periphery of the wafer held by the wafer holding mechanism. Yes. Inside the main body, a mechanism for realizing gripping of the wafer gripping mechanism and a turning mechanism for turning the wafer gripped by the gripping mechanism and the gripping mechanism are incorporated.

First, the wafer gripping mechanism will be described. 1a shows a wafer having a diameter of 300 mm. Reference numerals 12a, 12b, 12c, and 12d are 300 mm clampers that can sandwich and hold the edge portion of the 300 mm wafer 1a. The clampers 12a and 12c are provided at the tips of the clamp arms 11a and 11c extending from the clamper base 21, respectively. 12b and 12d clampers are provided at the tips of clamp arms 11b and 11d extending from the clamper base 22, respectively. The clamp arms 11a to 11d extend in the horizontal direction from the clamper bases 21 and 22 as shown in FIG. 1 and then extend in the vertical direction to hold the edge portion of the 300 mm wafer 1a.
Further, as a clamper for 200 mm capable of sandwiching an edge portion of a wafer having a diameter of 200 mm, clampers 13a and 13c are provided at the tips of clamp arms 23a and 23c extending from the clamper base 21, respectively. As shown in FIG. 2, 13a and 13c are provided so as to be positioned between the 300mm clampers 12a and 12c when viewed from above. Clampers 13b and 13d are provided at the ends of clamp arms 23b and 23d extending from the clamper base 21, respectively. Similarly, 13b and 13d are provided so as to be positioned between 300b clampers 12b and 12d when viewed from above as shown in FIG. The clamp arms 23a to 23d extend in the horizontal direction from the clamper bases 21 and 22 as shown in FIG. 1 and then extend in the vertical direction to grip the edge portion of the 200 mm wafer 1b. And lower than the group of 300 mm clampers 12a to 12d. That is, in order to transfer the 300 mm wafer 1a to this apparatus, as shown in FIG. 3, the rear surface of the 300 mm wafer 1a does not interfere with the clampers 13a, 13b, 13c, and 13d that hold the edge of the 200 mm wafer 1b. The wafer handling robot that operates in cooperation with is configured to ensure a necessary and sufficient clearance X that does not interfere when the wafers 1a and 1b are transported to the apparatus.
As described above, the 300 mm clampers 12a and 12d, and 12c and 12d operate so as to move toward and away from each other toward the center direction of the 300 mm wafer 1a to be gripped (a turning center axis 20 described later). The wafer 1a is gripped and released. Similarly, the 200 mm clampers 13a and 13d and 13c and 13d operate so as to contact and separate from each other in the center direction of the 200 mm wafer 1b to be held, thereby holding and releasing the 200 mm wafer 1b. These operations are performed by operating the clamper bases 21 and 22 so as to be in contact with each other. As shown in FIG. 1, the clampers 12a to 12d and 13a to 13d are formed with a step following the arc around the wafer, and when the gripping operation is performed as described above, the step is followed. The horizontal position of the held wafer is determined.
In the above description, the configuration of four clampers per wafer is described, but it goes without saying that the number of clampers may be three. For example, if the 300 mm clamper 12d is eliminated and the 12b is positioned at an intermediate position between the original 12b and 12d, the wafer is gripped at three peripheral points. Is similarly determined.

Next, the configuration of the gripping mechanism operation unit that realizes the gripping operation of the gripping mechanism will be described. The clamper bases 21 and 22 are connected to sliders 9a, 9b, 10a, and 10b respectively engaged with linear guide rails 9 and 10 mounted on the plate-like turning base 2. The linear guide rails 9 and 10 are provided in parallel. The clamper base 21 is connected to the sliders 9a and 10a, and the clamper base 22 is connected to 9b and 10b. Accordingly, the clamper bases 21 and 22 are guided linearly by the linear guide rails 9 and 10 and can move in the horizontal direction.
Further, one end of a link bar a25 and one end of a link bar b26 are connected to the clamper bases 21 and 22, respectively. The link bar a25 and the link bar b26 extend in the horizontal direction toward the through hole 24 provided in the substantially central portion of the turning base 2, and the other end thereof is one end of the link bar c27 and the link bar d28. And one end of the shaft is rotatably supported. The other ends of the link bars c and d are rotatably supported by the bridge bar 32, respectively. Near the center of the bridge bar 32, as shown in FIG. 2, the rotation axis of the bearing 19 is embedded so as to coincide with the center axis of the wafer held by the clamper. It is in contact. In addition, a cylinder bar 29 that comes into contact with the inner peripheral portion of the bearing 19 is provided in the vertical direction from the lower surface of the bridge bar 32. The cylinder bar 29 is inserted into the main body of the machine through the through hole 24 described above. The lower end of the cylinder bar 29 is connected to the output shaft of the air cylinder 18. The output shaft of the air cylinder 18 moves up and down by compressed air. The main body of the air cylinder 18 is fixed inside the main body of the machine. Further, the side surface of the cylinder bar 29 is connected to a guide 30 provided in the vertical direction inside the main body of the machine, and the cylinder bar 29 can be operated in the vertical direction by the operation of this and the air cylinder 18. .
Therefore, the clamper bases 21 and 22 operate so that the link bars a to d are simultaneously operated by the ascending operation of the air cylinder 18 so as to be close to the extending shaft of the cylinder bar 29, that is, the rotating shaft of the bearing 19. That is, by this operation, the 300 mm clamper 12 and the 200 mm clamper 13 grip the edge of the wafer. Similarly, the clamper bases 21 and 22 operate so that the link bars a to d are simultaneously operated by the lowering operation of the air cylinder 18 and are separated from the extending shaft of the cylinder bar 29, that is, the rotating shaft of the bearing 19. That is, by this operation, the 300 mm clamper 12 and the 200 mm clamper 13 open the edge of the wafer.

Next, a turning mechanism that rotates (turns) the wafer held by the holding mechanism will be described. As described above, one end of the hollow cylindrical rotary shaft 3 is connected to the lower surface of the through hole 24 provided near the center of the turning base 2. A pulley 5 is connected to the other end of the rotating shaft 3. The outer peripheral surface of the rotating shaft 3 is fitted so that the inner peripheral surface of the bearing 4 is in contact therewith. The rotation axis of the bearing 4 coincides with the rotation axis of the bearing 19, and this is the turning center axis 20. The turning center axis 20 is provided so as to coincide with the center axis of the wafer held by the clamper 12 or 13. The outer peripheral surface of the bearing 4 is held by the main body 0 of the machine. Therefore, the turning base 2 can rotate on the rotating shaft of the bearing 4 together with the rotating shaft 3 and the pulley 5. A belt 8 is wound around the outer periphery of the pulley 5. A pulley 7 is also wound around the belt 8. The pulley 7 is connected to the output shaft of the motor 6, and the motor 6 is connected to a control device (controller) (not shown). The control device also controls the air cylinder 18.
Therefore, the turning base 2 rotates on the turning center shaft 20 via the belt 8 by the rotation of the motor 6. On the other hand, clamper bases 21 and 22 are placed on the turning base 2 via linear guides 9 and 10, and the clamper bases 21 and 22 are fixed inside the main body via link bars a to d and the like. Although connected to the air cylinder 18, due to the action of the bearing 19 provided on the bridge bar 32, regardless of the vertical movement of the air cylinder 18, that is, regardless of the gripping state of the clampers 12, 13, etc., the turning base 2 can rotate (turn).

Next, a description will be given of a sensor mechanism that detects the position of a notch or the like on the outer peripheral portion of the wafer when the wafer held by the holding mechanism is turned by the turning mechanism. Several inverted L-shaped sensor bars 31 are erected on the upper surface of the main body 0 of this machine, and sensors 14 a and 14 b for detecting notches and the like of the 300 mm wafer 1 a near the tip of the sensor bar 31 from the turning center shaft 20. It is arranged at a position near 150 mm. Similarly, sensors 15a and 15b for detecting notches and the like of the 200 mm wafer 1b are disposed near the tip of the sensor 15a and 15b in the vicinity of 100mm from the turning center axis 20. Further, on the upper surface of the main body 0, the 300 mm wafer 1a is detected at a position of 100 mm or more and 150 mm or less from the turning center axis 20 in order to automatically identify the 300 mm wafer 1a and the 200 mm wafer 1b placed on the gripping mechanism. The sensor 17 for detecting the 200 mm wafer 1b is disposed at a position of 100 mm or less from the turning center axis 20.
Therefore, the wafer held by the holding mechanism is rotated by the action of the turning mechanism while being held, and the position of the notch or the like is determined by the action of the sensor mechanism.
As described above, the wafer held by the holding mechanism is determined in the horizontal direction (referred to as centering) so that the center axis of the wafer coincides with the turning center axis 20 by the holding operation of the holding mechanism, and the sensor mechanism and the turning mechanism. The position of the notch or the like is determined by the action of the above, and the wafer can be rotated so that the notch or the like comes to a desired position.

Next, the operation of the machine configured as described above will be described.
The operation of the apparatus after the 300 mm wafer 1a is mounted on the apparatus by a wafer handling robot (not shown) will be described.
First, the apparatus opens the clampers 12a to 12d and the clampers 13a to 13d by the lowering operation of the cylinder 18 and prepares for mounting the wafer.
Next, when the 300 mm wafer 1a is mounted on this apparatus by a wafer handling robot or the like, the clampers 12a to 12d and the clampers 13a to 13d are closed by the ascending operation of the cylinder 18, and the gripping mechanism grips the 300mm wafer 1a.
After the 300 mm wafer 1a is gripped, the wafer detection sensor 16 detects the wafer, and the sensor 17 also checks whether the wafer is detected.
When the detection sensors 16 and 17 are detected, it is recognized that a 300 mm wafer is mounted on the apparatus, and the turning base 2 is turned using the motor 6 as a drive source while holding the wafer by the holding mechanism. In this case, only the detection signals of the sensors 14a and 14b are employed to specify the position of the notch or the like of the 300 mm wafer 1a. When the position of the notch or the like can be specified, the turning base 2 is further rotated (alignment operation is performed) so that the notch position comes to a desired position.
If the 200 mm wafer 1b is mounted on the clampers 13a to 13d in this machine, the gripping mechanism similarly grips the 200mm wafer 1b, and then the signals of the detection sensors 16 and 17 are confirmed. When the detection and the detection sensor 17 detect the wafer, it is recognized that a 200 mm wafer is mounted on the apparatus, and an alignment operation similar to the above is executed while the wafer is held by the holding mechanism.
In this way, this machine is equipped with the clampers 12a to 12d and 13a to 13d mounted on a common clamper base so that they can operate integrally, and these different diameter clampers are erected from the clamper base in the height direction. Since they are at different positions, wafers of different diameters can be mounted without interfering with each other. In addition, since the gripping mechanism simultaneously operates these different diameter clampers simultaneously, the gripping operation can be performed without any problem even if the different diameter wafer is mounted on any clamper. In addition, regardless of whether or not the gripping mechanism performs a gripping operation, the gripping mechanisms can be turned by the turning mechanism.

Side sectional view of a gripping mechanism and a sensor mechanism of the pre-aligner device of Embodiment 1. FIG. 2 is a top view of FIG. 1 with the sensor mechanism omitted. Partial enlarged view in FIG. Side sectional view of the entire machine of Example 1

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 0 Main body 1a 300mm wafer 1b 200mm wafer 2 Turning base 3 Rotating shaft 4 Bearing 5 Pulley 6 Motor 7 Pulley 8 Belt 9 Linear guide rail 10 Linear guide rail 9a-b Slider 10a-b Slider 11a-d Clamp arm 12a-d Clamper 13a -D clamper 14a-b 300mm wafer sensor 15a-b 200mm wafer sensor 16 300mm wafer detection sensor 17 200mm wafer detection sensor 18 air cylinder 19 bearing 20 turning center shaft 21 clamper base 22 clamper base 23a-d clamp arm 24 through hole 25 Link bar a
26 Link bar b
27 Link bar c
28 Link bar d
29 Cylinder bar 30 Guide 31 Sensor bar 32 Bridge bar

Claims (5)

A gripping mechanism for gripping the wafer by opening and closing operations;
A turning mechanism for rotating the gripping mechanism;
A sensor mechanism for detecting a specific shape of the outer periphery of the wafer rotated by the turning mechanism,
In the wafer aligner device that determines the position of the wafer by the operation of the gripping mechanism, and rotates the wafer in a desired rotation direction by the turning mechanism.
The gripping mechanism is
A clamper capable of mounting wafers of different diameters;
A pair of clamper bases supporting the clamper;
A base that supports each of the pair of clamper bases so as to be movable in the horizontal direction, and is pivoted by the pivot mechanism;
A pair of link mechanisms that are attach to each of said pair of clamper base,
A bridge that rotatably supports each of the pair of link mechanisms;
An upper and lower member that supports the bridge so as to be rotatable coaxially with the turning center axis of the base and that moves up and down by a drive source;
A wafer aligner. The clamper
A first clamper capable of gripping a first wafer and a second clamper capable of gripping a second wafer having a smaller diameter than the first wafer;
The first and second clampers are provided on the clamper base so that the wafer holding position of the first clamper is higher than the wafer holding position of the second clamper;
The wafer aligner according to claim 1. A first wafer detection sensor and a second wafer detection sensor for detecting the first and second wafers respectively placed on the first and second clampers;
When both the first wafer detection sensor and the second wafer detection sensor detect a wafer, the first clamper determines that the first wafer exists,
Determining that the second wafer is present in the second clamper when the first wafer detection sensor does not detect a wafer and the second wafer detection sensor detects a wafer;
The wafer aligner according to claim 2. A cassette opener that opens the lid of the wafer cassette containing the wafer;
A wafer handling robot for transferring the wafer from the cassette opener;
A wafer transfer system comprising at least a wafer aligner for aligning the wafer,
The wafer aligner apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the wafer aligner apparatus is a wafer aligner apparatus.
A wafer transfer system. Processing a wafer having a different diameter transported by the wafer transport system according to claim 4 to manufacture a semiconductor;
A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

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