JP5586992B2 - Wafer processing apparatus and wafer processing method - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a wafer processing apparatus, a wafer processing method, and a handling arm.

  In the wafer manufacturing stage, several processing steps are executed sequentially. In many of these processing steps, the wafer is transferred between a handling arm that holds the wafer on the holding surface and a chuck mechanism that holds the wafer on the wafer suction surface.

  However, when the wafer is warped, a delivery error due to a suction failure in the chuck mechanism may occur in the delivery of the wafer between the handling arm and the chuck mechanism. In recent years, this adsorption failure has led to the production of heavy and easily warped wafers such as SOS wafers with an opaque polysilicon layer on the back side of a sapphire wafer and SOQ wafers with a quartz layer on the back side of a sapphire wafer. Has increased.

  There are Patent Documents 1 and 2 regarding the configuration of the handling arm and the chuck mechanism.

JP-A-2-83182 JP-A-5-326386

  In view of the above-described facts, an object of the present invention is to reduce the chucking failure of the chuck mechanism during wafer delivery.

A wafer processing apparatus according to a first aspect of the present invention includes a handling arm provided with a wafer holding surface, and a chuck mechanism that receives the wafer from the handling arm with a wafer suction surface provided in parallel with the wafer holding surface. The handling arm includes an inclination mechanism for inclining a wafer held on the wafer holding surface with respect to the wafer suction surface, and the holding arm is held by the handling arm. The wafer is delivered at a position where the center of the wafer and the center of the wafer suction surface do not coincide with each other.

  According to the first aspect of the present invention, the handling arm has a wafer holding surface provided in parallel with the wafer suction surface, and the wafer on the wafer holding surface is removed from the wafer by the tilt mechanism provided on the wafer holding surface. Inclined and held with respect to the suction surface.

As a result, since the wafer can be transferred between the handling arm and the chuck mechanism in a state where the wafer is inclined with respect to the wafer adsorption surface, the end of the wafer adsorption surface that adsorbs the wafer is inclined. The wafer is first contacted with the wafer, and then the remaining wafer suction surface is sequentially contacted with the wafer.
As a result, even if the wafer is warped, it is possible to reduce the chucking failure of the chuck mechanism when the wafer is delivered.

  According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the wafer processing apparatus according to the first aspect, the tilt mechanism has at least one projecting portion projecting to the wafer side from the surface of the wafer holding surface. Yes.

In other words, the wafer is inclined with respect to the wafer holding surface by at least one protruding portion protruding toward the wafer from the surface of the wafer holding surface.
Thereby, the wafer delivery can be started between the handling arm and the chuck mechanism in a state where the wafer is inclined with respect to the wafer holding surface.

  According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the wafer processing apparatus according to the second aspect of the present invention, the protruding height of the protruding portion from the wafer holding surface can be changed.

That is, the inclination angle of the wafer with respect to the wafer holding surface can be changed by changing the protruding height of the protruding portion from the wafer holding surface.
Thereby, the delivery angle between the wafer and the wafer suction surface during delivery of the wafer can be changed.

According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, in the wafer processing apparatus according to any one of the first to third aspects, the handling arm and the chuck mechanism can move in a direction perpendicular to the wafer holding surface. It is characterized by being.
As a result, the handling arm and the chuck mechanism can be moved relative to each other in the direction perpendicular to the wafer holding surface. The wafer can be transferred between the handling arm and the chuck mechanism by utilizing the vertical relative movement with respect to the wafer holding surface.

According to a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a wafer processing apparatus comprising a chuck mechanism for sucking and holding a wafer by a wafer suction surface at an upper end, a transfer means for moving between transfer locations for transferring the wafer, A handling arm that holds and conveys the peripheral edge of the wafer by a wafer holding surface; and an inclination mechanism that is provided on the wafer holding surface and inclines the wafer with respect to the wafer holding surface, The wafer is transferred in accordance with the vertical movement of the handling arm and the chuck mechanism at a position where the center of the wafer held by the handling arm and the center of the wafer suction surface do not coincide with each other. A handling unit.

  According to the fifth aspect of the present invention, the transfer means includes the chuck mechanism that holds the wafer by suction, and moves between the delivery locations in order to transfer the wafer. The handling unit holds and transfers the wafer on the wafer holding surface of the handling arm, and transfers the wafer to and from the transfer means at the transfer location. At this time, the wafer holding surface is provided with a tilt mechanism for tilting the wafer with respect to the horizontal plane.

As a result, the delivery is started with the wafer tilted, so that even if the wafer is warped, the end of the wafer suction surface that sucks the wafer of the chuck mechanism comes into contact with the tilted wafer first, followed by The remaining wafer attracting surfaces are sequentially brought into contact with the wafer.
As a result, it is possible to reduce the chucking failure of the chuck mechanism when the wafer is delivered.

Wafer processing method according to the invention of claim 6, the wafer mounted on the wafer holding surface provided on the handling arm, the wafer processing method of transferring the wafer suction surface provided in the chuck mechanism, the handling arm Comprises a tilting mechanism for tilting the wafer held on the wafer holding surface with respect to the wafer suction surface, and the handling is performed when the wafer is transferred from the wafer holding surface to the wafer suction surface. It is characterized in that the wafer is sequentially sucked from the end of the wafer suction surface at a position where the center of the wafer held by the arm and tilted by the tilt mechanism and the center of the wafer suction surface do not coincide with each other. .

Thereby, the transfer of the wafer from the wafer holding surface to the wafer suction surface is started from the end of the wafer suction surface, and the whole wafer is sequentially sucked.
As a result, it is possible to reduce the chucking failure of the chuck mechanism when the wafer is delivered.

A wafer processing method according to a seventh aspect of the present invention includes a handling arm provided with a wafer holding surface, a chuck mechanism for receiving a wafer from the handling arm at a wafer suction surface provided in parallel to the wafer holding surface, A wafer processing apparatus comprising: a wafer processing apparatus having a tilting mechanism for tilting the wafer held on the wafer holding surface with respect to the wafer suction surface. In the processing method, the step of moving the wafer held on the wafer holding surface to a position facing the wafer suction surface, and moving the handling arm or the chuck mechanism in a direction perpendicular to the wafer holding surface. The wafers in a state of being inclined with respect to the wafer suction surface are sequentially arranged from the end of the wafer suction surface. It is characterized by having a step of adsorbing the E c suction surface.

That is, first, a step of moving the wafer held on the wafer holding surface to a position facing the wafer suction surface is executed. Next, a step of moving the handling arm or the chuck mechanism in a direction perpendicular to the wafer holding surface and sequentially sucking the wafer tilted with respect to the wafer suction surface from the end of the wafer suction surface to the wafer suction surface is executed. To do.
Thereby, the adsorption | suction defect of the chuck mechanism at the time of delivery of a wafer can be reduced.

  According to an eighth aspect of the present invention, in the wafer processing method according to the seventh aspect, in the step of moving the wafer held on the wafer holding surface to a position facing the wafer suction surface, the handling arm includes the wafer The center of the suction surface is moved to a position where the center of the wafer held by the handling arm does not coincide.

  As a result, the wafer is transferred between the handling arm and the chuck mechanism even if the center of the wafer held by the handling arm and the center of the wafer suction surface of the chuck mechanism do not match due to the structure of the wafer processing apparatus. It can be carried out.

A ninth aspect of the present invention is the wafer processing method according to the eighth aspect, wherein the tilting mechanism tilts the wafer in a direction in which the center of the wafer suction surface is lower than the center of the wafer. It is said.
Thereby, the center of the wafer can be matched with the line connecting the center of the handling arm and the center of the chuck mechanism, and the delivery from the handling arm to the wafer is stabilized.

A tenth aspect of the present invention is the wafer processing method according to any one of the sixth to ninth aspects, wherein the wafer includes sapphire or quartz.
That is, even if the wafer is heavy and easily warped, such as a sapphire wafer or a quartz wafer, it is possible to reduce the chucking failure of the chuck mechanism during delivery of the wafer.

The wafer processing method according to an eleventh aspect of the present invention is to hold the peripheral portion of the wafer by tilting the wafer with respect to the holding surface by an inclination mechanism provided on the holding surface of the handling arm by the handling unit. A step of transporting the wafer to a delivery place with a transport mechanism having a chuck mechanism for sucking and holding the wafer by a wafer suction surface; a center of the wafer held by the handling arm at the delivery place; and the wafer A step of moving the handling arm and the chuck mechanism relative to each other in a vertical direction at a position where the centers of the suction surfaces do not coincide with each other, and holding the wafer by suction while eliminating the tilt of the tilted wafer on the wafer suction surface ; It is characterized by having.

  That is, first, the transfer step is executed, the wafer is tilted with respect to the holding surface by the tilting mechanism provided on the holding surface of the handling arm, and the wafer is transferred to the delivery place with the transfer means having the chuck mechanism for sucking and holding the wafer. Transport.

Next, an adsorption step is executed, and the handling arm and the chuck mechanism are moved relative to each other in the vertical direction at the delivery location, and the chuck mechanism holds the wafer in an inclined state while eliminating the inclination of the inclined wafer.
Thereby, the adsorption | suction defect of the chuck mechanism at the time of delivery of a wafer can be reduced.

A method for manufacturing a semiconductor device according to a twelfth aspect includes the wafer processing method according to any one of the sixth to eleventh aspects .

  Since the present invention has the above-described configuration, it is possible to reduce the chucking failure of the chuck mechanism when the wafer is delivered.

1 is a plan view showing a basic configuration of a wafer processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the holding surface of the handling arm in the wafer processing apparatus which concerns on the 1st Embodiment of this invention. 1 is an elevation view showing a basic configuration of a wafer processing apparatus according to a first embodiment of the present invention. It is a figure which shows the positional relationship of the holding surface of the handling arm of the wafer processing apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention, and a chuck mechanism. It is a figure which shows the delivery state of the holding surface of the handling arm of the wafer processing apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention, and the wafer of a chuck | zipper mechanism. It is a figure which shows the holding surface of the handling arm in the wafer processing apparatus which concerns on the 2nd Embodiment of this invention.

(First embodiment)
As shown in the plan view of FIG. 1, the wafer processing apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment has a handling unit 12. The handling unit 12 includes a handling arm 14, and a wafer holding surface 18 that holds the peripheral edge of the wafer 16 is formed at the tip of the handling arm 14.

  The handling unit 12 can move in the direction of arrow P and rotate around the axis in the vertical direction, and receives the wafer 16 held on the wafer holding surface 18 of the handling arm 14 by the receiving place 22 and the processing chamber 20. Transport between.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the wafer holding surface 18 is a metal plate having an L-shaped cross section and is formed in a C shape along an arc. The wafer holding surface 18 has a size that surrounds the outer periphery of the wafer 16, and holds the lower surface of the wafer 16 with a flat surface portion 18 </ b> F (fixing pins 28 and 30 described later). A rising portion 18H is provided on the outer peripheral portion of the flat portion 18F with a dimension higher than the height from the flat portion 18F of the wafer 16, and the rising portion 18H surrounds the outer periphery of the wafer 16. A portion of the wafer holding surface 18 is cut out, and a shaft portion 38 of the shuttle 24 described later can be surrounded from the side by using the cutout portion.

Two fixing pins 28 protrude from the flat surface portion 18F of the wafer holding surface 18 and one fixing pin 30 whose protruding height from the flat surface portion 18F is higher than the fixing pin 28 in the circumferential direction. The protrusions are provided at intervals and are in contact with the lower surface of the wafer 16.
That is, the three fixing pins 28 and 30 support the wafer 16 while being inclined with respect to the flat surface portion 18F.

  As shown in the elevation view of FIG. 3, the shuttle 24 as a transport means includes a chuck mechanism 26 that holds the wafer 16 at an upper portion thereof at a portion other than the peripheral portion held by the wafer holding surface 18, and is provided at the lower portion. The moving means 42 moves the wafer 16 in the horizontal direction (in the direction of the arrow P3) between the delivery locations 21 and 22 or between the delivery locations 22 and 23.

  Further, the chuck mechanism 26 includes a height changing means 40 and is movable in the vertical direction (the direction of the arrow P2) while being supported by the moving means 42 via the shaft portion 38.

The chuck mechanism 26 has an outer diameter smaller than the inner diameter of the handling arm 14, and the upper surface is a wafer suction surface 26 </ b> U that sucks and holds the wafer. The wafer attracting surface 26U attracts and holds the wafer 16 by, for example, a decompression unit or a magnetic unit.
With this configuration, the wafer 16 can be processed by the wafer processing apparatus 10 according to the following procedure.

  As shown in FIG. 1, first, the load-side shuttle 24 attracts and holds the unprocessed wafer 16, which has been transported by the load-side carrier elevator 32, at the delivery location 21 by the chuck mechanism 26, and delivers the delivery location 22. Transport to.

  The handling unit 12 moves the handling arm 14 to the delivery location 22 and sets the wafer holding surface 18 under the wafer 16. Thereafter, the shuttle 24 lowers the chuck mechanism 26 to release the adsorption of the wafer 16 and place the wafer 16 on the wafer holding surface 18 of the handling arm 14. Thereafter, the handling unit 12 conveys the wafer 16 to the processing chamber 20 by the handling arm 14. The shuttle 24 moves to the delivery location 21.

  The wafer 16 that has been processed in the processing chamber 20 is transferred from the processing chamber 20 to the delivery location 22 by the handling arm 14. Prior to this, the unload-side shuttle 24 moves the chuck mechanism 26 to the delivery place 22 with the handling arm 14 and lowers the chuck mechanism 26.

  After the wafer 16 is transported to the transfer location 22 by the handling arm 14, the shuttle 24 raises the chuck mechanism 26 to attract and receive the wafer 16.

  According to the wafer processing apparatus 10 and the wafer processing method according to the present embodiment, delivery of the wafer 16 to the unload side can be started with the wafer 16 on the wafer holding surface 18 inclined.

  As a result, when the wafer 16 is attracted uniformly to the wafer attracting surface 26U of the chuck mechanism 26 without tilting the wafer 16 on the wafer holding surface 18, uniform warping tends to be hindered. Even when the wafer 16 is sucked, the end of the wafer suction surface 26U of the chuck mechanism 26 is brought into contact with the wafer 16 first by tilting the wafer 16, and the whole suction surface is sequentially sucked and held. Therefore, it is possible to reduce the suction failure of the chuck mechanism 26 when the wafer 16 is delivered.

 The present embodiment can also be applied to a heavy and easily warped wafer such as an SOS wafer having an opaque polysilicon layer on the back surface of a sapphire wafer or an SOQ wafer having a quartz layer on the back surface of a sapphire wafer. .

  In the embodiment shown in FIG. 4, due to the structure of the wafer processing apparatus 10, the center C1 of the handling arm 14 and the center C2 of the wafer suction surface 26U of the chuck mechanism are not set to coincide with each other.

  Here, since the fixing pin 30 is disposed on the opposite side to the center C2 of the wafer suction surface 26U with respect to the center C1 of the handling arm 14, the wafer 16 is positioned on the wafer suction surface from the center C1 side of the handling arm 14. It is inclined in a direction to lower the center C2 side of 26U.

  For example, if the wafer 16 is tilted in the opposite direction, the wafer 16 is displaced in the direction of increasing the tilt angle by the pushing force of the chuck mechanism 26, so that a suction failure on the wafer suction surface 26U is likely to occur. On the other hand, in the wafer processing apparatus 10, delivery is started as shown in FIG. 5B from the state shown in FIG. Then, as shown in FIG. 5C, the wafer 16 is rotated about the fixing pin 30 by the lifting force of the rising chuck mechanism 26, so that the wafer 16 is attracted to the wafer attracting surface 26U.

  As a result, due to the structure of the wafer processing apparatus 10, even when the center C1 of the handling arm 14 and the center C2 of the chuck mechanism 26 do not coincide with each other, it is possible to reduce the chucking failure of the chuck mechanism 26 when the wafer 16 is delivered.

  In the above description, an example in which the wafer 16 is placed on the wafer holding surface 18 set horizontally and received by the wafer suction surface 26U parallel to the wafer holding surface 18 is shown. The surface 18 may also be provided with a function of attracting the wafer 16, and the wafer 16 may be transferred to and from the wafer attracting surface. As a result, the delivery posture of the wafer 16 is not limited to a horizontal posture, and delivery can be performed in an inclined posture.

(Second Embodiment)
As shown in FIG. 6, the wafer processing apparatus 50 according to the second embodiment is provided with two variable pins 44 on the wafer holding surface 18 of the handling arm 14 with a gap in the circumferential direction.

  The variable pins 44 are provided in place of the fixed pins 30 described in the wafer processing apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment, and the number of the fixed pins 30 is two as opposed to one. Note that the two fixing pins 28 have the same positions and shapes as in the first embodiment.

  The variable pin 44 is provided with a male screw on the outer peripheral surface and is screwed with a female screw 46 provided through the flat surface portion 18F. Thereby, the height from the flat surface portion 18 </ b> F can be adjusted by the screwing amount of the variable pin 44. If the two variable pins 44 are set higher than the fixed pins 28, the wafer 16 is held at a high inclination on the variable pin 44 side. Further, if the heights of the two variable pins 44 are different, the direction of the inclined surface of the wafer 16 can be adjusted.

  Note that the support portion of the variable pin 44 may have a structure that rises, for example, electrically. Thereby, height adjustment becomes easy. It is also possible to change the setting of inclination and no inclination during loading and unloading, or change the setting of the inclination angle of the wafer 16.

Further, the present invention can be applied even when the center C1 of the handling arm 14 is coincident with the center C2 of the chuck mechanism.
Other configurations are the same as those of the wafer processing apparatus 10 according to the first embodiment, and a description thereof will be omitted.

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Wafer processing apparatus 12 Handling unit 14 Handling arm 16 Wafer 18 Wafer holding surface 21 Delivery place 22 Delivery place 23 Delivery place 24 Shuttle (carrying means)
26 Chuck mechanism 26U Wafer suction surface 30 Fixing pin (tilt mechanism, protrusion)
44 Variable pin (tilt mechanism, protrusion)

Claims (12)

A handling arm with a wafer holding surface;
A chuck mechanism for receiving a wafer from the handling arm at a wafer suction surface provided in parallel with the wafer holding surface;
A wafer processing apparatus comprising:
The handling arm includes an inclination mechanism for inclining the wafer held on the wafer holding surface with respect to the wafer adsorption surface, and the center of the wafer held on the handling arm, and the wafer adsorption surface A wafer processing apparatus for delivering the wafer at a position where the centers do not coincide.   2. The wafer processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the tilt mechanism has at least one protrusion that protrudes toward the wafer from the surface of the wafer holding surface.   The wafer processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein the protrusion has a protrusion height changeable from the wafer holding surface.   4. The wafer processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the handling arm and the chuck mechanism are capable of moving in a direction perpendicular to the wafer holding surface. 5. A chucking mechanism for chucking and holding the wafer on the wafer suction surface at the upper end, and a transport means for moving between the delivery locations to transport the wafer;
A handling arm that holds and conveys the peripheral edge of the wafer with an upward wafer holding surface; and an inclination mechanism that is provided on the wafer holding surface and inclines the wafer with respect to the wafer holding surface. The wafer is held by the relative movement in the vertical direction between the handling arm and the chuck mechanism at a position where the center of the wafer held by the handling arm does not coincide with the center of the wafer suction surface at the delivery location. A handling unit that delivers
A wafer processing apparatus. In a wafer processing method of transferring a wafer mounted on a wafer holding surface provided in a handling arm to a wafer suction surface provided in a chuck mechanism,
The handling arm includes a tilt mechanism that tilts the wafer held on the wafer holding surface with respect to the wafer suction surface;
When the wafer is transferred from the wafer holding surface to the wafer suction surface, the center of the wafer held by the handling arm and tilted by the tilt mechanism does not coincide with the center of the wafer suction surface. The wafer processing method, wherein the wafer is sequentially sucked from an end of the wafer suction surface. A wafer processing apparatus comprising: a handling arm provided with a wafer holding surface; and a chuck mechanism for receiving a wafer from the handling arm at a wafer suction surface provided in parallel with the wafer holding surface, wherein the handling arm comprises: A wafer processing method using a wafer processing apparatus comprising an inclination mechanism for inclining the wafer held on the wafer holding surface with respect to the wafer suction surface,
Moving the wafer held on the wafer holding surface to a position facing the wafer suction surface;
The handling arm or the chuck mechanism is moved in a direction perpendicular to the wafer holding surface, and the wafer tilted with respect to the wafer adsorption surface is adsorbed to the wafer adsorption surface sequentially from the end of the wafer adsorption surface. Step to
A wafer processing method comprising: In the step of moving the wafer held on the wafer holding surface to a position facing the wafer suction surface,
The wafer processing method according to claim 7, wherein the handling arm is moved to a position where a center of the wafer suction surface and a center of the wafer held by the handling arm do not coincide with each other.   The wafer processing method according to claim 8, wherein the tilt mechanism tilts the wafer in a direction in which a center of the wafer suction surface is lowered from a center of the wafer.   The wafer processing method according to claim 6, wherein the wafer contains sapphire or quartz. A chuck mechanism that holds the peripheral edge of the wafer by tilting the wafer with respect to the holding surface by a tilting mechanism provided on the holding surface of the handling arm by the handling unit, and holding the wafer by suction on the wafer suction surface. Transporting the wafer to a delivery location with transport means;
At the delivery location, at the position where the center of the wafer held by the handling arm and the center of the wafer suction surface do not coincide with each other, the handling arm and the chuck mechanism are moved relative to each other in the vertical direction. And suction holding while eliminating the tilt of the wafer in the tilted state;
A wafer processing method.   The manufacturing method of the semiconductor device containing the wafer processing method of any one of Claims 6-11.

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