JP5654782B2 - Grinding equipment - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a grinding apparatus having a function of determining whether or not a workpiece to be ground has a chip.

  In the semiconductor device manufacturing process, a workpiece such as a semiconductor wafer in which a plurality of circuits such as ICs and LSIs are formed is ground to a predetermined thickness by grinding the back surface of the workpiece before it is divided into individual chips. Has been. A grinding apparatus that grinds the back surface of various workpieces is a turntable that is rotatably disposed along a workpiece attaching / detaching area and a grinding area, and is sequentially moved to the grinding area by rotation of the turntable. A plurality of holding means and a grinding means provided with a grinding wheel for grinding a workpiece held on the holding means disposed in the grinding area and positioned in the grinding area (for example, Patent Document 1). reference).

Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-086048

  However, since the grinding machine operates fully automatically and processes a plurality of workpieces, even if broken workpieces are mixed in the workpieces carried into the grinding device, they are damaged. There is a risk that the workpiece will be ground. If a damaged workpiece is ground, it takes time to process the workpiece, which is essentially unnecessary to grind, which causes a decrease in productivity. In addition, the grinding wheel may come into contact with the damaged portion and damage the grinding wheel.

  The present invention has been made in view of these facts, and a main technical problem thereof is a grinding apparatus capable of detecting the presence or absence of a workpiece chip before the workpiece is carried into a holding means of the grinding apparatus. Is to provide.

The present invention includes a cassette for storing a workpiece to be detected, a loading / unloading means for carrying out the workpiece from the cassette and loading the workpiece into the cassette, a holding means for holding the workpiece to be detected, and a workpiece held by the holding means. A grinding device having a grinding means for grinding the detection workpiece, and has a detection means for detecting the presence or absence of the chip of the detection workpiece before carrying the detection workpiece into the holding means, A support unit for supporting the detected workpiece carried out of the cassette by the loading / unloading means; an imaging unit for receiving light transmitted through the support unit and imaging the entire detected workpiece supported by the support unit; and an imaging unit A determination unit that processes the image data of the detected workpiece imaged by the image sensor to determine the presence or absence of a chip, and the imaging unit includes a plurality of pixels that emit electrical signals having an intensity corresponding to the intensity of received light, Size The unit sets a boundary value for the intensity of the electric signal, detects at least one of the pixels that output a stronger intensity than the boundary value or the pixels that output a weak intensity as the number of detections, The presence or absence of a defect is determined by comparing with a reference number that is at least one of the number of pixels that output a higher intensity or a lower intensity than the boundary value obtained by imaging a reference work that does not exist. If it is determined that there is a chip in the workpiece to be detected, the carry-in / out means does not carry in the workpiece to be detected having the chip in the holding means.

  Since the grinding apparatus according to the present invention includes detection means for detecting the presence or absence of a work piece before carrying the work into the holding means, the work with a chip should not be carried into the holding means. This makes it possible to prevent a suction error caused by trying to hold a workpiece with a chip in the holding means, and to increase the productivity of the grinding apparatus. In addition, it is possible to prevent the grinding wheel constituting the grinding means from being damaged by grinding a workpiece having a chip.

It is a perspective view which shows an example of a grinding processing apparatus. It is explanatory drawing which shows a mode that the structure of a detection means and the imaging of a workpiece | work are performed. It is a flowchart which shows the procedure which determines the presence or absence of a chip | tip of a workpiece | work. It is explanatory drawing which shows the binarized image of the workpiece | work without a chip | tip. It is explanatory drawing which simplifies and shows the structure of the pixel which an imaging part has. It is explanatory drawing which shows the binarized image of the workpiece | work with a chip.

  A grinding apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1 is an apparatus that takes out a workpiece accommodated in a cassette 20a and performs grinding, and accommodates the ground workpiece in 20b. Cassette placing portions 2a and 2b for placing cassettes 20a and 20b are disposed at the front of the apparatus.

  The cassettes 20a and 20b are opened toward the rear side of the apparatus. On the rear side of the cassettes 20a and 20b, loading / unloading means 3 for carrying out workpieces from the cassette 20a and loading workpieces into the cassette 20b is provided. It is arranged. The carry-in / out means 3 includes a suction unit 30 that sucks a workpiece, a rotation drive unit 31 that rotates the suction unit around a horizontal rotation axis, and an arm that moves the suction unit 30 and the rotation drive unit 31 to desired positions. Part 32.

  In the movable range of the suction part 30 constituting the carry-in / out means 3, a detection means 4 for detecting the presence or absence of a workpiece that has been conveyed from the cassette 20a by the carry-in / out means 3 is arranged. The detecting means 4 images a support portion 40 that supports a workpiece (detected workpiece) that is a target for detecting the presence or absence of chipping, and the entire detected workpiece that is positioned above the support portion 40 and supported by the support portion 40. An imaging unit 41 and a determination unit 42 that processes image data of the detected workpiece imaged by the imaging unit 41 and determines whether or not the detected workpiece is missing are provided. The imaging unit 41 has a plurality of pixels that emit electrical signals having an intensity corresponding to the intensity of received light. The electrical signal emitted from the pixel can be read out by the determination unit 42 as digital information. The determination unit 42 includes a CPU and storage means such as a memory. Although not shown, the detection means 4 also has an alignment function for aligning the center of the work supported by the support portion 40 with a certain position.

  In the vicinity of the detection means 4, a first transfer means 5 a for unloading the workpiece to be detected from the detection means 4 is disposed. The first transport unit 5a includes a suction unit 50 that sucks the workpiece to be detected, and an arm unit 51 that turns and lifts the suction unit 50.

  Behind the first conveying means 5a is a holding means 6 for holding the workpiece to be detected when the workpiece is ground. The holding means 6 is configured to be rotatable and horizontally movable, and can be selectively positioned in the carry-in / out area A on the front side of the apparatus and the grinding area B on the rear side.

  In the grinding zone B, a grinding means 7 for grinding the workpiece to be detected held by the holding means 6 is disposed. The grinding means 7 includes a rotating shaft 70 extending in the vertical direction, a grinding wheel 71 attached to the lower end of the rotating shaft 70, and a motor 72 connected to the upper end of the rotating shaft 70 and rotating the rotating shaft 70. . A plurality of grinding wheels 710 are fixed to the lower surface of the grinding wheel 71 in an arc shape.

  The grinding means 7 is driven by the grinding feed means 8 and can be moved up and down. The grinding feed means 8 includes a ball screw 80 having a vertical rotation axis, a guide rail 81 disposed in parallel to the ball screw 80, a pulse motor 82 connected to one end of the ball screw 80 and rotating the ball screw 80, and grinding. A nut (not shown) that supports the processing means 7 and is screwed into the ball screw 80 is provided inside, and an elevating part 83 whose side part is in sliding contact with the guide rail 81 is provided. As the pulse motor 82 rotates the ball screw 80 by the pulse motor 82, the grinding feed means 8 moves up and down with the lifting / lowering portion 83 guided by the guide rail 81, thereby lifting and lowering the grinding means 7 supported by the lifting / lowering portion 83.

  In the carry-in / out area A, cleaning means 9 for cleaning the workpiece after grinding is disposed. The cleaning means 9 includes a rotary table 90 that rotates while holding the workpiece, and a nozzle (not shown) that ejects cleaning liquid and high-pressure air to the workpiece.

  In the vicinity of the cleaning unit 9, a second transport unit 5 b that transports the workpiece after grinding from the holding unit 6 to the cleaning unit 9 is disposed. The second conveying means 5b includes a suction part 52 that sucks the workpiece after grinding, and an arm part 53 that turns and lifts the suction part 52.

  As shown in FIG. 2, the support unit 40 constituting the detection unit 4 is formed in a flat plate shape larger than the workpiece to be detected, and the imaging unit 41 is formed of a material that transmits light having a wavelength with sensitivity, for example, glass. Yes. A light source 43 is disposed below the support portion 40. The light source 43 can emit light having a wavelength with which the imaging unit 41 has sensitivity.

Next, in the grinding apparatus 1 shown in FIG. 1, the operation of the apparatus when detecting the presence or absence of a workpiece chip and grinding a workpiece without a chip will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. The workpiece is not particularly limited. For example, silicon wafers, semiconductor wafers such as gallium arsenide, silicon carbide, ceramics, glass, sapphire (Al ₂ O ₃ ) based inorganic material substrates, sheet metal and resin ductile materials, , Flatness of micron order to submicron order (TTV: total thickness variation: difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the whole surface of the workpiece ground surface measured in the thickness direction with the workpiece ground surface as the reference surface) Various processed materials are mentioned.

(1) Preparatory process First, as shown in FIG. 2, the reference | standard workpiece | work W1 of a normal state without a chip | tip is mounted in the support part 40 of the detection means 4 (step S1). Then, light is emitted from the light source 43 toward the support portion 40. The light emitted from the light source 43 is light having a wavelength with which the imaging unit 41 has sensitivity, and is light that passes through the support unit 40 but does not pass through the workpiece W. The imaging unit 41 captures an image of the work W1 with an area including at least the peripheral edge of the support unit 40 as an imaging range 41a (step S2). When the reference workpiece W1 in a normal state without any defects is imaged in this way, the image information is sent to the determination unit 42. In the determination part 42, the binarization process is performed with respect to the image information (step S3), for example, the normal workpiece binarization information 100 shown in FIG. 4 is acquired. Then, the number of white pixels among the pixels constituting the normal work binarization information 100 is calculated (step S4), and the value of the number of pixels is stored as a threshold value in a memory included in the determination unit 42 (step S4). S5).

  For example, when the imaging unit 41 has (16 × 16) pixels as in the image information 101 illustrated in FIG. 5, the number of white pixels, that is, the pixels in the bright part where the part other than the reference work W1 is reflected is counted. The number is stored in the determination means 42 as a threshold value. Since the actual pixel detects the degree of light reception with, for example, 255 gradations, it is necessary to perform binarization that distributes the amount of light received at each pixel to either strong or weak. For example, the boundary value between the strong and weak distributions is set to 128 gradations, and at least one number of pixels that output an electric signal with an intensity stronger than 128 gradations or pixels that output an electric signal with an intensity weaker than 128 gradations. It is detected as a reference number (threshold value) and stored in the determination means 42. Here, the number of white pixels that output an electric signal having an intensity stronger than 128 gradations is used as a reference. Instead of white pixels, black pixels, that is, pixels in a portion where the reference work W1 is shown may be counted, and the number may be stored in the determination unit 42 as a threshold value. The actual number of pixels is much larger than in the example of FIG. 5, and one pixel can be grasped in either white or black.

(2) Full auto processing Next, it is determined whether or not the workpiece to be ground is chipped. First, the workpiece to be detected housed in the cassette 20a of FIG. 1 is held and taken out by the suction portion 30 of the carry-in / out means 3 and placed on the support portion 4 of the detection means 4 (step S6).

  As shown in FIG. 2, the detected workpiece W2 placed on the supporting portion 4 is transmitted through the supporting portion 40 and irradiated with light from the light source 43, and an image is picked up by the imaging portion 41. An image is obtained (step S7). Then, binarization processing is performed on the detected workpiece image to obtain a detected workpiece binary image 102 as shown in FIG. 6, for example. The binarization process is performed by the same process as the process performed for the reference workpiece W1 (step S8).

  Next, the determination unit 42 calculates the number of white pixels constituting the detected workpiece binary image 102 shown in FIG. 6, and the number of white pixels in the detected workpiece binary image 102 and the normal workpiece binary value. The reference number obtained with reference to the conversion information 100 is compared (step S9). If the number of white pixels in the detected workpiece binarized image 102 is larger than the threshold value, it means that the area of the detected workpiece W2 is smaller than the reference workpiece W1, and therefore the detected workpiece W2 is missing. Judge that there is. On the other hand, when the number of white pixels of the detected workpiece binary image 102 is equal to or less than the threshold value, it is determined that the detected workpiece W2 is not missing (step S10). If the determination unit 42 stores the black pixel as a threshold value in step S5, it compares with the number of black pixels in the detected workpiece binary image 102 in steps S9 and S10. When the number of pixels is smaller than the reference number, it is determined that the detected workpiece W2 is missing, and when the number of black pixels is equal to or larger than the reference number, it is determined that the detected workpiece W2 is not missing.

  If the determination means 42 determines that the detected workpiece W2 is missing in step S10, the operator is notified that there is an error, or information that indicates an error is stored in a memory or the like inside the apparatus (step S10). S11). When the operator is notified of the error, the operator removes the workpiece having the chip from the support portion 40 of the detection means 4. On the other hand, when information indicating an error is stored in a memory or the like inside the apparatus, the carry-in / out means 3 performs a process such as holding a workpiece with a chip and returning it to the cassette 20a (step S12).

  In step S10, when the determination unit 42 determines that the detected workpiece W2 is not missing, the first transfer unit 5a transfers the detected workpiece W2 to the holding unit 6. At this time, the holding means 6 is positioned in the carry-in / out area A.

  Next, the holding means 6 is moved to the grinding zone B, and the workpiece W2 is positioned below the grinding means 7. Then, by rotating the grinding wheel 71 and lowering the grinding means 7 by the grinding feed means 8, the rotating grinding wheel 710 is brought into contact with the workpiece W2 for grinding, and the workpiece W2 is finished to a predetermined thickness. (Step S13).

  When grinding is completed, the workpiece W2 after grinding is conveyed and held on the rotary table 90 of the cleaning means 9 by the second conveying means 5b. Then, the cleaning liquid is jetted onto the workpiece W2 while the rotary table 90 is rotated, and the grinding dust adhering to the workpiece W2 is removed, and then the cleaning liquid is also removed by spin drying (step S14).

  The workpiece W2 that has been cleaned is held by the loading / unloading means 3 and stored in the cassette 20b (step S15).

  For all the workpieces stored in the cassette 20a, the processing of the above steps S6 to S12 or steps S6 to S15 is performed by full auto, so that a workpiece with a chip and a workpiece without a chip are selected and a workpiece with a chip is obtained. In this case, no conveyance and grinding to the holding means 6 are performed, and only a workpiece having no chip can be ground and stored in the cassette 20b. Therefore, by detecting the presence or absence of the workpiece to be detected before carrying the workpiece to be held in the holding means 6, it is possible to prevent an adsorption error caused by trying to hold the workpiece having a chip in the holding means 6. The productivity can be increased by improving the MTBF (Mean Time Between Failure) of the processing apparatus 1. Further, it is possible to prevent the chipped work from being stored in the cassette 20b and to prevent the grinding wheel from being damaged by grinding the chipped work.

  Also, calculate the number of pixels of the stronger or weaker pixel among all the pixels, and the number of pixels of the stronger or weaker pixel calculated in advance for the work without defects. Therefore, it is not necessary to compare individual pixels, and it is possible to perform the process for determining the presence / absence of a defect at high speed.

1: Grinding apparatus A: carry-in / out area B: grinding areas 2a, 2b: cassette mounting part 20a, 20b: cassette 3: carry-in / out means 30: suction part 31: rotation drive part 32: arm part 4: detection means 40 : Support part 41: imaging part 42: determination part 43: light source 5a: first transport means 50: suction part 51: arm part 5b: second transport means 52: suction part 53: arm part 6: holding means 7: Grinding means 70: Rotating shaft 71: Grinding wheel 710: Grinding wheel 8: Grinding feed means 80: Ball screw 81: Guide rail 82: Pulse motor 83: Lifting unit 9: Cleaning means 90: Rotary table

Claims (1)

A cassette for storing the workpiece to be detected;
Unloading / unloading means for unloading the workpiece from the cassette and loading the workpiece into the cassette;
Holding means for holding the workpiece to be detected;
Grinding means for grinding the workpiece to be detected held by the holding means;
A grinding apparatus comprising:
Having detection means for detecting the presence or absence of a workpiece to be detected before carrying the workpiece to be detected into the holding means;
The detection means includes a support portion for supporting the workpiece to be detected carried out from the cassette by the carry-in / out means;
An imaging unit that receives light transmitted through the support unit, and images the entire workpiece to be detected supported by the support unit;
A determination unit that processes the image data of the detected workpiece imaged by the imaging unit to determine the presence or absence of a chip,
The imaging unit has a plurality of pixels that emit an electrical signal having an intensity corresponding to the intensity of received light,
The determination unit
A boundary value is provided for the intensity of the electrical signal, and at least one of the pixels that output a stronger intensity than the boundary value or the pixels that output a weak intensity is detected as a detection number. The presence or absence of a defect is determined by comparing a reference number that is at least one of the number of pixels that output a stronger intensity than the boundary value obtained by imaging a reference workpiece or a lower intensity.
When the determination unit determines that the detected workpiece has a chip, the carry-in / out means does not carry the chip-in detected workpiece into the holding unit.

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