JP4859814B2 - Wafer processing equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a wafer processing apparatus for processing a wafer, and more particularly to a wafer processing apparatus including a plurality of processing units.

  In recent years, miniaturization of semiconductors has progressed, and accordingly, semiconductor manufacturing processes tend to increase year by year. Since the working time increases as the number of manufacturing steps increases, it is desired to shorten the working time by continuously performing a plurality of manufacturing steps.

Patent Document 1 discloses a processing apparatus in which a rough grinding grinding apparatus, a finish grinding grinding apparatus, and a lapping polishing apparatus are linearly arranged along a conveyor. In Patent Document 1, the rough grinding process, the finish grinding process, and the lapping process can be performed continuously, and as a result, the working time required for the grinding process and the polishing process is shortened.
JP 7-40239 A

  Here, the grinding process and the polishing process as disclosed in Patent Document 1 are similar to each other, and the same surface of the wafer is processed in these grinding and polishing processes. For this reason, it is not difficult to incorporate these grinding process and polishing process in the same processing apparatus.

  By the way, in the semiconductor manufacturing field, back grinding (back surface grinding) is performed to grind the back surface of a wafer in order to increase the mounting density. After back grinding, dicing tape sticking process to stick dicing tape on the back side of the wafer, surface protection film peeling process to peel off the surface protection film stuck on the wafer surface, and dicing to dice the wafer from the wafer surface with a dicer The steps are performed sequentially.

  The processing content in such a back grinding process, a dicing tape sticking process, a surface protection film peeling process, and a dicing process is different from each other, and the equipment used for this is also different for each process. Therefore, it is not easy to incorporate devices that perform each of these steps in the same processing apparatus.

  Furthermore, even when a processing apparatus capable of performing all these steps is manufactured, it is necessary to stop the entire processing apparatus when repairing a part of the processing apparatus. For this reason, since all the process steps in the processing apparatus are stopped, the processing efficiency is greatly reduced.

  The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and a practical wafer processing apparatus capable of continuing wafer processing even when it is necessary to repair a part of the wafer processing apparatus. The purpose is to provide.

In order to achieve the above-described object, according to the first invention, a plurality of processing units for performing predetermined processing on a wafer are provided, and each of the plurality of processing units is detachably connected to an adjacent processing unit. And a common transport path is formed, and at least one of the plurality of processing units includes a rotation drive body that rotates the suction table, and further slides on the transport path. A wafer processing apparatus comprising: a sliding body, the sliding body including at least a suction table that sucks the wafer; and the sliding body further includes a clutch that connects the rotary driving body and the suction table. Provided.

That is, in the first invention, since a common suction table is used, it is not necessary to attach or detach the wafer when moving the sliding body from one processing unit to another processing unit. As a result, the processing time required for performing a plurality of processes can be shortened. Further, even when some of the processing units need to be repaired, it is possible to maintain the transfer path by changing the arrangement of the processing units, thereby continuing the wafer processing. Furthermore, it is possible to eliminate the necessity of sliding a relatively heavy rotary drive body, for example, a drive motor together with the slide body.

According to a second invention, in the first invention, each of the plurality of processing units includes a vacuum source passage extending from a vacuum source used to suck the wafer onto the suction table, The sliding body includes a suction table passage connecting the suction table and the vacuum source passage, and an on-off valve provided in the suction table passage.
That is, in the second aspect of the invention, it is possible to prevent the wafer from falling off the suction table by closing the on-off valve when the sliding body slides. After the sliding body arrives at the other processing unit, the on-off valve is opened so that the adsorption action from the vacuum source can be received again.

According to a third invention, in the first or second invention, at least one of the plurality of processing units includes a liquid supply means for supplying a liquid to the wafer, and the sliding body Includes a liquid receiving portion that is disposed around the suction table and receives the liquid supplied from the liquid supply means.
That is, in the third aspect of the invention, since the liquid receiving portion is arranged so as to surround the suction table, it is possible to prevent the liquid supplied from the liquid supply means from being scattered on the sliding body other than the suction table.

According to a fourth invention, in any one of the first to third inventions, the transport path forms a circulation path, and at least two of the sliding bodies can be circulated through the transport path.
That is, in the fourth aspect of the invention, the wafer is taken into the wafer processing apparatus in one processing unit constituting the transfer path, and the wafer is discharged from the wafer processing apparatus in another processing unit. In this case, since it is not necessary for the sliding body to reversely travel along the conveyance path, a plurality of sliding bodies can be circulated through the conveyance path.

According to a fifth invention, in any one of the first to fourth inventions, at least two processing units for performing the same processing on the wafer are arranged in parallel in at least a part of the transfer path. ing.
That is, in the fifth aspect , the processing time in the entire wafer processing apparatus can be shortened by arranging processing units having a relatively long processing time in parallel.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following drawings, the same members are denoted by the same reference numerals. In order to facilitate understanding, the scales of these drawings are appropriately changed.
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a wafer processing apparatus according to the present invention. A wafer processing apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 includes a plurality of processing units A to I, J1 to M1, J2 to M2, and N. These processing units are controlled by the control unit 11 as a host computer. The processing units J1 to M1 and the processing units J2 to M2 are the same as each other. Further, in FIG. 1, the two sliding bodies 20 controlled by the control unit 11 slide in the same direction along the conveyance path 15 formed by a plurality of processing units.

  Hereinafter, each processing unit of the wafer processing apparatus 10 shown in FIG. 1 will be described. Each of these processing units can operate independently. Of the plurality of processing units, the processing unit A includes a robot hand (not shown). Although not shown in the drawing, a cassette storing a plurality of wafers 30 is disposed adjacent to the processing unit A. It is assumed that a surface protective film 31 is pasted in advance on the surface of the wafer 30 stored in the cassette. In the processing unit A, the wafers 30 in the external cassette are taken into the wafer processing apparatus 10 one by one by the robot hand (see arrow X1). Then, in the processing unit A, the wafer 30 is sucked to the suction table 21 of the sliding body 20 so that the back surface thereof faces upward.

  Each of the processing units B to E includes a grinding wheel (not shown) and a rear portion of the rotating machine (not shown), and grinds and polishes the back surface of the wafer 30. The grindstone of the processing unit B is a rough grind, the grindstone of the processing unit C is a medium grind, the grindstone of the processing unit D is a finishing grind, and the grindstone of the processing unit E is a grindstone for polishing. It should be noted that a liquid such as a slurry can be used as appropriate during grinding or polishing in the processing units B to E.

  The processing unit F is used to clean the back surface of the ground and polished wafer 30. For this purpose, the processing unit F includes a cleaning liquid supply means 37 (described later) for supplying a cleaning liquid to the back surface of the wafer 30, for example, a nozzle.

  The processing unit G includes a dicing tape attaching mechanism. In the processing unit G, a dicing tape is stuck to the back surface of the wafer 30 by the dicing tape sticking mechanism, whereby the wafer 30 is integrated with a mount frame (not shown).

  The processing unit H includes a robot hand. In the processing unit H, the wafer 30 and the mount frame are inverted by the robot hand. In addition, the processing unit I includes a surface protective film peeling mechanism unit (not shown). In the processing unit I, the surface protection film 31 attached to the surface of the wafer 30 is peeled off.

  The processing units J1 and J2 are used to move the wafer 30 and the mount frame (not shown). Next, the processing units K1 and K2 include a dicing mechanism (not shown) provided with a dicer or the like. In these processing units K1, K2, the wafer 30 is diced by a known method. The processing units L1 and L2 have the same configuration as the above-described cleaning processing unit F, and are used to clean the diced wafer 30.

  The processing units M1 and M2 include the same robot hand (not shown) as the processing unit A. In these processing units M1 and M2, the wafer 30 is removed from the suction table 21, discharged from the wafer processing apparatus 10, and then stored in an empty cassette (not shown) (see arrows X2 and X3). Further, the processing unit N is used to return the sliding body 20 including the suction table 21 to the first processing unit A.

  In FIG. 1, these processing units A to N are detachably connected to other adjacent processing units. Each processing unit A to N forms a closed conveyance path 15. As shown in the figure, a branch path 15 ′ including processing units J <b> 2 to M <b> 2 arranged in parallel with the processing units J <b> 1 to M <b> 1 is also formed.

  FIG. 2 is a partial view partially showing the wafer processing apparatus shown in FIG. In FIG. 2, only the three adjacent processing units B to D are partially shown, but the other units have substantially the same configuration. For the sake of brevity, FIG. 2 does not show a drive motor 38, which will be described later.

  As shown in FIG. 2, a pair of rails 18 for sliding the sliding body 20 are provided on the upper surface 16 of each of the processing units B to D. These rails 18 extend in the longitudinal direction to both ends of each processing unit. Each of these rails 18 constitutes a field yoke including a plurality of permanent magnets.

  Since the processing units have the same dimensions, when the processing units B to D are arranged adjacent to each other, the pair of rails 18 are connected to each other. Thereby, the conveyance path 15 and the branch path 15 'shown in FIG. 1 are formed. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the slit 17 formed between the pair of rails 18 is also integrated with the adjacent slit 17. As can be seen from the conveyance path 15 and the branch path 15 ′ shown in FIG. 1, the shapes of the rails 18 and the slits 17 in the processing units A, F, H, J1, J2, M1, and M2 are described above. Note that it is different.

  FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the cleaning processing unit F of the wafer processing apparatus. In FIG. 3, the processing unit F includes a cleaning water source 36 that stores cleaning water. The cleaning water from the cleaning water source 36 is supplied to the wafer 30 on the suction table 21 through a cleaning liquid supply means 37, for example, a cleaning nozzle.

  As shown in FIG. 3, the sliding body 20 includes a housing 26 in which a suction table 21 is provided. An air bearing 23 is attached to the lower surface of the suction table 21, and a rotary joint 24 extends beyond the lower surface of the housing 26 below the air bearing 23. Further, an upper electromagnetic clutch 29 is attached below the rotary joint 24. As shown in the drawing, the upper electromagnetic clutch 29 passes through the slit 17 and is located below the upper surface 16 of the cleaning processing unit F.

  On the other hand, a drive motor 38 is disposed in the cleaning processing unit F. A lower electromagnetic clutch 39 extending from the drive motor 38 is engaged with the upper electromagnetic clutch 29 of the sliding body 20. When these electromagnetic clutches 29 and 39 are engaged, the suction table 21 can be rotated by the drive motor 38.

  Such a drive motor 38 and the lower electromagnetic clutch 39 are provided only in a processing unit that needs to rotate the wafer 30, such as the processing unit F. Although the sliding body 20 slides on the conveyance path 15, in the present invention, it is not necessary to slide the relatively heavy drive motor 38 together with the sliding body 20. For this reason, energy required for sliding the sliding body 20 can be suppressed, and the sliding body 20 can be stopped more accurately at a desired position.

  As shown in FIG. 3, a generally bowl-shaped liquid receiving portion 25 is disposed around the suction table 21 inside the housing 26 and above the air bearing 23. The liquid receiving unit 25 serves to receive and temporarily store the cleaning water supplied from the cleaning liquid supply unit 37 or a liquid such as slurry used for grinding or polishing in the processing units B to E. The liquid receiving portion 25 can prevent the cleaning water and the like from being scattered in places other than the suction table 21. In addition, when the wafer processing apparatus 10 is composed only of processing units that do not use cleaning water or slurry, the liquid receiving unit 25 and the members related to the liquid receiving unit 25 may be excluded.

  The sliding body 20 includes an adsorption table 21, an air bearing 23, a rotary joint 24, an upper electromagnetic clutch 29, a housing 26, and a liquid receiving portion 25. An armature 28 formed of a coil is attached to the lower surface of the housing 26 so as to face the rail 18 of the cleaning processing unit F. Since it is such a structure, the sliding body 20 can slide on the conveyance path | route 15 of the rail 18 which consists of a field yoke.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 3, a suction table pipe line 43 extending from the lower surface of the suction table 21 is connected to a multi-connector 49 arranged on the side wall of the housing 26. The suction table pipe line 43 is provided with an on-off valve 44.

  FIG. 4 is a front view of the multi-connector. As shown in FIG. 4, the multi-connector 49 includes a plurality of conduits and electrical wiring within the block 48. The plurality of pipes and electrical wiring are simultaneously connected when connecting to the multi-connector 59 on the processing unit side.

  Further, the multi-connector 59 attached to the processing unit F is connected to the vacuum source 56 through the vacuum source pipe line 53. The multi-connectors 49 and 59 are disposed at a height that can be opposed to each other, one being a female type and the other being a male type. Such a vacuum source 56, a vacuum source pipe 53, and a multi-connector 59 are individually provided in all the processing units. Alternatively, a common vacuum source 56 may be used in a plurality of processing units by branching the vacuum source pipe line 53.

  In the present invention, by closing the on-off valve 44, the sliding body 20 can be slid from one processing unit to another processing unit while the wafer 30 is adsorbed to the adsorption table 21. When the sliding body 20 arrives at the adjacent processing unit, the multi-connector 59 on the processing unit side protrudes to the multi-connector 49 of the sliding body 20 by a mechanism not shown. Thereby, these multi-connectors 49 and 59 are connected to each other. Thereafter, when the on-off valve 44 is opened, the wafer 30 is again subjected to the suction action from the vacuum source 56. Further, when the sliding body 20 arrives at a certain processing unit, a guide pin (not shown) protrudes to fix the sliding body 20 to the processing unit.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the waste liquid conduit 41 extends from the lower surface of the liquid receiving portion 25 to the multi-connector 49. The waste liquid pipe 41 is provided with an on-off valve 42. The processing unit F is provided with a waste liquid tank 55, and a pipeline 51 extending from the waste liquid tank 55 is connected to the multi-connector 59. The waste liquid tank 55 and the pipe line 51 are provided only in a processing unit that uses a liquid such as cleaning water or slurry, such as the processing unit F.

  During the operation of such a processing unit, the on-off valve 42 is opened, and a liquid such as cleaning water is discharged to the waste liquid tank 55 through the waste liquid conduit 41 and the conduit 51. And when the sliding body 20 slides, the on-off valve 42 is closed, and it prevents that the washing water etc. which were stored in the liquid receiving part 25 flow out to another processing unit.

  Referring again to FIG. 1, in a typical embodiment of the present invention, the wafer 30 to which the surface protection film 31 is attached is taken into the wafer processing apparatus 10 in the processing unit A and sucked to the suction table 21 of the sliding body 20. Is done. Next, the wafer 30 slides along the transfer path 15 together with the sliding body 20, thereby sequentially receiving the predetermined processing described above in the processing units B to I and J 1 to L 1. Next, in the processing unit M1, the wafer 30 is discharged from the wafer processing apparatus 10 and stored in a cassette (not shown). Thereafter, the sliding body 20 returns to the processing unit A through the processing unit N.

  As described above, in the present invention, each processing unit A to M1 receives various processes using the common suction table 21. When the wafer 30 is moved between the processing units, it is not necessary to attach or detach the wafer 30 from the suction table 21. As a result, it is possible to shorten the processing time required to perform all of the plurality of processes. In the present invention, the wafer 30 is attached / detached only when the wafer 30 is reversed in the processing unit H.

  Further, in the present invention, the slide body 20 returns to the first processing unit A after the wafers 30 are discharged in the other processing units M1 and M2. For this reason, it is not necessary to reversely move the sliding body 20 to the processing unit A. Therefore, in the present invention, it is possible to transport a plurality of sliding bodies 20 to the transport path 15 in the same direction. It will also be seen that the maximum value of the slide 20 that can be mounted is equal to the number of processing units.

  Further, in the wafer processing apparatus 10 of the present invention, when some of the processing units need to be repaired, it is sufficient to simply replace the processing units with the same new processing unit. That is, in the present invention, it is not necessary to stop the entire wafer processing apparatus 10 until the repair of some processing units is completed. Similarly, when upgrading only a part of the processing units, it is not necessary to stop the entire wafer processing apparatus 10.

  For example, when only the processing unit K1 for dicing is damaged, the processing unit K1 may be removed and the processing unit K2 may be moved to the position of the processing unit K1. Thereby, since the conveyance path | route 15 can be maintained, the process of the wafer 30 can be continued. Alternatively, for example, when only the processing unit K1 for dicing is damaged, the branch passage 15 'including the processing unit K2 may be used instead.

  Further, when the processing time in a specific processing unit, for example, the processing unit K1, is relatively long, it is preferable to use the branch passage 15 'together with the transport passage 15. In such a case, while processing the wafer 30 of one sliding body 20 in the processing unit K1, the other sliding body 20 is slid to the processing unit K2 on the branch passage 15 ′, and the other sliding body 20 is moved. The wafer 30 can be processed similarly. That is, in the present invention, by arranging the branch passages 15 ′ composed of the processing units J <b> 2 to M <b> 2 in parallel, it is possible to perform the same processing simultaneously with a plurality of processing units.

  Thereby, even when the processing time in the specific processing unit is relatively long, the sliding body 20 is prevented from staying in the specific processing unit, and the processing time required for the entire wafer processing apparatus 10 can be shortened. it can. As a matter of course, a configuration including two or more branch passages or a configuration including other branch passages including other processing units may be used.

  Further, the wafer processing apparatus 10 according to the present invention is not limited to the configuration shown in FIG. It is possible to further assemble a processing unit for performing other processing in the wafer processing apparatus 10 or to remove some of the processing units described above.

  Further, as shown in FIG. 1, the control unit 11 includes a display unit 12, for example, a liquid crystal display. The display unit 12 displays an outline of the wafer processing apparatus 10 and indicates in which processing unit of the plurality of processing units the sliding body 20 is located. For this reason, it will be understood that one operator can manage the operation of the entire wafer processing apparatus 10.

1 is a schematic view of a wafer processing apparatus according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a partial view partially showing the wafer processing apparatus shown in FIG. 1. It is sectional drawing in the processing unit for washing | cleaning of a wafer processing apparatus. It is a front view of a multi connector.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Wafer processing apparatus 11 Control part 12 Display means 15 Transfer path 15 'Branch path 16 Upper surface 17 Slit 18 Rail 20 Slide body 21 Adsorption table 23 Air bearing 24 Rotary joint 25 Liquid receiving part 26 Housing 28 Armature 29 Upper electromagnetic clutch 30 Wafer 31 Surface Protection Film 36 Cleaning Water Source 37 Cleaning Liquid Supply Means 38 Drive Motor 39 Lower Electromagnetic Clutch 41 Waste Liquid Pipe Line 42 Open / Close Valve 43 Adsorption Table Pipe Line 44 Open / Close Valve 49, 59 Multi-connector 51 Pipe Line 53 Vacuum Source Pipe Line 55 Waste Liquid Tank 56 Vacuum source A to N Processing unit

Claims (5)

A plurality of processing units for performing predetermined processing on the wafer, each of the plurality of processing units being detachably connected to an adjacent processing unit to form a common transfer path , At least one of the processing units includes a rotary drive that rotates the suction table,
Furthermore, it comprises a sliding body that slides on the transport path,
The sliding body includes at least a suction table that sucks the wafer, and the sliding body further includes a clutch that connects the rotary drive body and the suction table . Each of the plurality of processing units includes a vacuum source passage extending from a vacuum source used to suck the wafer onto the suction table;
The wafer processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sliding body includes a suction table passage connecting the suction table and the vacuum source passage, and an opening / closing valve provided in the suction table passage. At least one of the plurality of processing units includes a liquid supply means for supplying a liquid to the wafer,
The wafer processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the sliding body includes a liquid receiving portion that is disposed around the suction table and receives the liquid supplied from the liquid supply unit. The wafer processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the transfer path forms a circulation path, and at least two of the sliding bodies are circulated through the transfer path. 5. The wafer processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein at least a part of the transfer path includes at least two processing units that perform the same processing on the wafer arranged in parallel.

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