JP5003890B2 - Substrate transport robot, substrate transport apparatus including the same, and semiconductor manufacturing apparatus - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a substrate transfer robot used in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus or inspection apparatus having a function of generating a transfer path of a substrate and a function of selecting the shortest transfer time among the transfer paths.

2. Description of the Related Art In a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and inspection apparatus (hereinafter collectively referred to as a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus), a substrate transfer robot has been conventionally used to transfer a substrate (semiconductor wafer or mask) to a desired position. This substrate transfer robot is provided with a plurality of arms rotatably connected on a horizontal plane, and a substrate gripping unit called a hand or a fork is provided at the tip of the arm. And a board | substrate is mounted in this board | substrate holding part, and is conveyed to a desired position.
When a conventional substrate transfer robot is moved from a previously taught position to another taught position (target position), it is based on the taught position, information on the waypoint, and information on the minimum turning posture. The trajectory connecting them is generated as a transport path to the target position. That is, position teaching is performed for each position where the substrate transport robot transports the substrate, such as a substrate storage container or a substrate processing apparatus, and one transport path from a certain position to a certain target position is generated. Using this transfer path, the substrate is transferred between the storage container and the processing apparatus or between the processing apparatuses.

However, it is a semiconductor manufacturing device that needs to shorten the substrate transfer time between the storage container and the processing device or between the processing devices, and the substrate transfer robot has the maximum performance (the rotation speed of the arm is almost the limit. In order to further reduce the substrate transport time, the conventional method requires adjustment of the teaching position or adjustment of information on the waypoint generation. It was.
In addition, the transfer path may not be the transfer path that operates in the shortest time at a certain position and any desired position of the substrate transfer robot, and only one transfer path is insufficient to shorten the substrate transfer time. Met.

The present invention has been made in view of such a problem. Regarding a transfer path from a certain teaching position to a target position, a controller of the substrate transfer robot generates a plurality of transfer paths by itself, and an object from a certain position. It is an object of the present invention to provide a method for determining a transport path that can minimize the transport time to a position.

In order to solve the above problem, the present invention is as follows.
The invention according to claim 1 includes a substrate gripping portion that holds a substrate, and a plurality of arms that have the substrate gripping portion at a tip and are rotatable in a horizontal plane, and are taught in advance. In the substrate transport robot for transporting the substrate between, the controller of the substrate transport robot generates an access standby position for each of the teaching positions when the plurality of teaching positions are taught, and the access standby position A plurality of paths from the rotation center of the substrate gripper to the tip of the substrate gripper among the plurality of teaching positions and a plurality of paths from the substrate transfer robot to the minimum turning posture of the substrate transport robot; A substrate transfer robot that stores a straight path between the position and the access standby position of each of the second teaching positions is stored.
According to the second aspect of the present invention, one of the paths from the access standby position to the minimum turning posture of the substrate transfer robot is from the turning center of the substrate transfer robot to the rotation center of the substrate gripping portion. 2. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 1, wherein the substrate transfer robot is a path that moves to the minimum turning posture while maintaining the vector direction of the connected straight lines.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, one of the paths from the access standby position to the minimum turning posture of the substrate transport robot is a vector direction from the rotation center of the substrate gripping portion to the tip of the substrate gripping portion. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 1, wherein the substrate transfer robot is a path that moves to the minimum turning posture while maintaining the above.
Further, the invention according to claim 4, in the substrate transfer robot according to any of claims 1 to 3, when specified to carry from the previous SL first teaching position to the second teaching position, was the first teaching position of access wait from said position the second teaching position of the substrate transfer robot you judged whether before Symbol linear transport is possible to access the standby position.
According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, in the substrate transport robot according to any one of the first to fourth aspects, the controller calculates a transport time of each of the plurality of paths or a transport time of the linear transport path. It was.
Further, in the invention according to claim 6, the controller compares the transport times including the transport time of each of the plurality of routes and the transport time of the linear transport route, and determines the shortest transport time. 6. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 5, wherein the route is selected.
According to a seventh aspect of the present invention, there is provided the substrate transfer robot according to any one of the first to sixth aspects, and at least two substrate storage containers that store the substrate, and the gap between the substrate storage containers. A substrate transfer apparatus for transferring the substrate was used.
The invention described in claim 8 is a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus including the substrate transfer robot according to any one of claims 1 to 6.

According to the present invention, an access standby position is automatically generated for the teaching position, and a plurality of routes to the minimum turning posture are generated and stored in the controller. Therefore, a program for conveying from the teaching position to another target position is assembled. In this case, an arbitrary route can be selected.
Further, according to the present invention, when a conveyance program from the first teaching position to the second teaching position is designated in which the postures of the substrate gripping portions are the same, these are linearly performed without passing through the minimum turning posture. Since the path through which the substrate can be transferred between the access standby positions is also stored, the number of path options can be increased.
In addition, according to the present invention, since it has a function of calculating the transport time of each of the transport paths generated above and comparing them, it is possible to select the transport path that has the shortest transport time.
Further, according to the present invention, throughput in substrate transportation can be improved as a substrate transportation apparatus or a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

  Hereinafter, specific examples of the method of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a substrate transfer robot having a transfer path generation function and a shortest path selection function of the present invention. In the figure, reference numeral 1 denotes a horizontal articulated substrate transfer robot, and W denotes a substrate to be transferred. The substrate transfer robot 1 includes a first arm 4 that swivels in a horizontal plane around a swivel center 3 with respect to a support column 2 that is a cylindrical or prismatic body that can move up and down in a vertical direction, and a tip of the first arm 4. Are provided with a second arm 5 that is pivotably mounted in a horizontal plane, and a substrate gripping portion 6 that is pivotally mounted on the tip of the second arm 5 within the horizontal plane. The substrate gripping unit 6 is a Y-shaped hand on which the substrate W is placed. The first arm 4 can be turned to an arbitrary position by a motor (not shown) with respect to the support column 2, and similarly, the second arm 5 can be turned to an arbitrary position by a motor (not shown) with respect to the first arm 4. Similarly, the substrate gripping portion 6 can be turned to an arbitrary position with respect to the second arm 5 by a motor (not shown).
The substrate transport robot 1 is connected to a controller (not shown), and transports the substrate W to the target position while reproducing the transport path generated from the teaching position stored in advance.

FIG. 2 is an example of a layout of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus (apparatus 7) in which the substrate transfer robot of FIG. 1 is used, and a plan view thereof is shown.
The substrate transfer robot 1 is positioned substantially at the center of the apparatus 7 and makes the substrate gripper 6 access to the storage containers 8 a and 8 b for the two substrates or the substrate processing apparatus 9 to perform the transfer operation of the substrate W.

3 and 4 are diagrams showing a substrate transfer path of the substrate transfer robot 1 between the taught position 10 and the origin position 13 taught to access the storage container 8a in FIG.
The access standby position 11 is a position generated from the teaching position 10 and corresponds to a position immediately before the substrate transfer robot 1 can start storing the substrate W in the storage container 8a. This is the position where the substrate W can be inserted. The access standby position 11 is the same in FIGS. 3 and 4, and the postures formed by the arms 4 and 5 of the substrate transfer robot 1 and the substrate gripping unit 6 are the same. Here, the access standby position 11 for the storage container 8a is described, but there is also an access standby position for the position taught to transfer the substrate W, including the processing device 9 of FIG. The access standby position is a position immediately before the substrate W can be exchanged at a position where the grip portion and the substrate do not interfere with the teaching position.
Here, the origin position 13 indicates a state in which the arms 4 and 5 and the substrate gripping portion 6 are in a minimum turning posture, and the tip of the substrate gripping portion 6 is directed leftward in the drawing. The minimum turning posture refers to a posture in which the turning radius required in a plane becomes the smallest when the posture formed by the arms 4 and 5 and the substrate gripping portion 6 is rotated around the turning center 3.

Here, the conveyance path | route production | generation function of this invention is demonstrated.
As shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, when the teaching position 10 is taught as a substrate transfer position to the storage container 8a, the controller (not shown) of the robot 1 rotates from the storage container 8a at the same time as the generation of the access standby position 11. A plurality of safe transport routes to the posture are also generated. The safe transfer path refers to a transfer path that prevents the substrate holding portion 6 and the semiconductor wafer W from coming into contact with the storage container 8a when accessing the storage container 8a.
In other words, at this time, the controller generates the following two paths as a transport path from the access standby position 11 that is a via point to the minimum turning posture.
First, as shown in FIG. 3, the minimum turning posture is maintained while maintaining the vector direction of a straight line connecting from the access standby position 11 to the turning center 3 of the substrate transfer robot 1 to the rotation center of the substrate gripping unit 6. This is a route to move to (minimum turning A posture 12).
The other is, as shown in FIG. 4, from the access standby position 11 to the minimum turning posture (referred to as the minimum turning B posture 14) while maintaining the vector direction from the rotation center of the substrate gripping portion 6 to the tip thereof. It is a route to move.
These two routes have the same information regarding the teaching position 10 and the waypoint (access standby position 11), but the movement paths for moving from the access standby position 11 to the minimum turning posture are different.
As described above, the multiple transport path generation described above generates an access standby position for each teaching position in the same manner as described above, regardless of whether the processing device 9 in FIG. 2 is taught or the storage container 8b is taught. A plurality of transport paths that move from the position to the minimum turning posture are generated.
Of course, a plurality of transport paths may not be generated depending on the teaching position.
In practice, it may be possible to designate permission / non-permission of the generation of a plurality of transport paths at each teaching position by a parameter for each teaching position. Thereby, the path | route which can be selected at the time of selection of the shortest path | route mentioned later can be restrict | limited.

Next, a further transport route generation function will be described. In the transfer route generation function of the present invention, in addition to the transfer route having the minimum turning posture as described above, another transfer route is generated in the case described below.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a transport path from the storage container 8a to another storage container 8b. As shown in the figure, the storage containers 8a and 8b are arranged on the same side with respect to the turning center 3 of the substrate transfer robot 1, and when the substrate transfer robot 1 accesses these, the rotation center of the substrate gripping portion 6 is placed. The vectors from to the tip are parallel to each other. That is, the directions of the substrate gripping portions 6 at these access standby positions are the same. If such a storage container 8a, 8b is designated by the programming to the controller to move the robot from the storage container 8a to 8b, the controller first of course must first make the minimum turning A or FIG. 3 shown in FIG. It is possible to select a conveyance path passing through the B posture. That is, the conveyance path as shown in FIG. In the case of FIG. 5, a route is shown which is selected so as to include the transport route shown in FIG. 4 and reaches the storage container 8 b through the minimum turning B posture 14. Note that the route including the conveyance route shown in FIG. 3 needs to turn to the minimum turning B posture 14 after passing through the minimum turning A posture 12, and in this case, the conveying route of FIG. Is selected.
However, it can be seen from FIG. 5 that the movement distance can be shortened by moving directly from the access standby position 11 to the access standby position 15 of the target position (storage container 8b) without passing through the minimum turning B posture 14. In this way, if a safe transport path can be secured, the controller permits the direct movement from the access standby position 11 of the storage container 8a to the access standby position 15 of the storage container 8b, which is the target position. A route is generated as a new transport route. FIG. 6 shows this conveyance path. In FIG. 6, without passing through the minimum turning A posture 12 as shown in FIG. 5, the substrate is moved from the access standby position 11 to the target access standby position 15 while maintaining the vector direction from the rotation center of the substrate gripping portion 6 to its tip. The transport route to be selected is selected.

Next, the shortest path automatic selection function of the present invention will be described.
The shortest path automatic selection is a function for selecting a transport path that minimizes the transport time from a certain position to a target position. A plurality of transport paths from the teaching position to the minimum turning posture are generated when the teaching positions of the storage containers 8a and 8b and the processing device 9 are taught as described above. Therefore, in the conveyance path that operates from the teaching position 10 described in FIGS. 3 and 4 to the origin position 13 as the target position in this case, for example, the movement time from the teaching position 10 to the access standby position 11 and the access standby position The controller can calculate in advance the movement time from 11 to the minimum turn A or B posture 12, 14 and the movement time from the minimum turn A or B posture 12, 14 to the origin position 13. From the sum of the travel times of these sections, the transport time to the target position by each transport route can be calculated, and the shortest route is selected based on the comparison judgment of the transport time. Which of the transfer paths in FIGS. 3 and 4 is the shortest depends on the rotational operation speeds of the arms 4 and 5 and the substrate gripping unit 6 of the substrate transfer robot 1 at that time and the operation amount in each section. In the actual operation, each time the robot moves from a certain teaching position to the target position, the moving time is calculated and a comparative judgment is performed.
Further, the above-mentioned transport route (the transport route shown in FIG. 6 that does not pass through the minimum turning posture) is also included in the shortest route automatic selection candidate route, and as a result of comparison judgment, the transport route shown in FIG. If it is determined that there is, the conveyance path as shown in FIG. 6 is operated.

The top view which shows the structure of the robot for board | substrate conveyance to which this invention was applied An example of a layout of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus using the substrate transfer robot of FIG. The figure which shows the 1st conveyance path | route of the board | substrate between the teaching position 10 and the origin position 13. The figure which shows the 2nd conveyance path | route of the board | substrate between the teaching position 10 and the origin position 13. The figure which showed the 1st conveyance path | route from the storage container 8a to another storage container 8b. The figure which showed the 2nd conveyance path | route from the storage container 8a to another storage container 8b.

Explanation of symbols

1. 1. substrate transfer robot Supporting part 3. Central axis 4. First arm 5. Second arm 6. Wafer gripping part 7. Device 8. Containment container 9. Processing device 10. Teaching position11. Access standby position 12. Minimum turning A posture13. Origin position 14. Minimum turning B posture 15. Access standby position

Claims (8)

A substrate having a substrate gripping portion for holding a substrate and a plurality of arms having the substrate gripping portion at a tip and capable of rotating in a horizontal plane, and transporting the substrate between a plurality of taught positions taught in advance In the transfer robot,
The controller of the substrate transfer robot is
When the plurality of teaching positions are taught, an access standby position for each of the teaching positions is generated,
A plurality of paths from the access standby position to the minimum turning posture of the substrate transfer robot ;
Among the plurality of teaching positions, the vector from the rotation center of the substrate gripping portion to the tip of the substrate gripping portion is between the access standby positions of the first teaching position and the second teaching position, which are parallel to each other. A straight path,
Remembering,
A substrate transfer robot characterized by   One of the paths from the access standby position to the minimum turning posture of the substrate transfer robot maintains the vector direction of a straight line connecting the turning center of the substrate transfer robot to the rotation center of the substrate gripping portion. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 1, wherein the substrate transfer robot is a route that moves to a minimum turning posture.   One of the paths from the access standby position to the minimum turning posture of the substrate transfer robot moves to the minimum turning posture while maintaining the vector direction from the rotation center of the substrate gripping portion to the tip of the substrate gripping portion. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 1, wherein the substrate transfer robot is a route for transferring the substrate. The substrate transfer robot according to any one of claims 1 to 3,
If it specified to carry from the previous SL first teaching position to the second teaching position, before Symbol linear transport from the access standby position of the first teaching position to access the standby position of the second teaching position substrate transfer robot according to claim judgment to Rukoto whether possible.   5. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 1, wherein the controller calculates a transfer time of each of the plurality of paths or a transfer time of the linear transfer path. 6.   The controller compares the transport times including the transport time of each of the plurality of routes and the transport time of the linear transport route, and selects the route having the shortest transport time. 6. The substrate transfer robot according to claim 5.   7. A substrate comprising: the substrate transfer robot according to claim 1; and at least two substrate storage containers for storing the substrate, wherein the substrate is transferred between the substrate storage containers. Conveying device.   A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising the substrate transfer robot according to claim 1.

Images