JPH02243427A - Wafer standing transfer machine - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a wafer hard to be scratched and also to be stuck with dust by installing a wafer storage part, being situated in the upper part of a wafer guide part and housing the wafer vertically piece by piece, and a shutter part being situated in the midway between the wafer guide part and the wafer storage part and opened or closed in response to each sheet of the wafer, respectively. CONSTITUTION:A wafer 2 housed in a wafer carrier 31 passes through a wafer guide part 12 pushed up by a pusher part 9 and is housed in a wafer storage part 14, while a shutter part 15 is closed, and the wafer 2 is housed in the wafer storage part 14. Next, a pusher 10 goes down, an empty wafer carrier 4 moves horizontally and it is positioned beneath the wafer guide part 12. Then, the pusher 10 goes up, and a shutter 16 conformed to the wafer 2 to be intended to be transferred onto the empty wafer carrier 4 is opened, thus the wafer drops. This dropped wafer comes to a stop as the pusher 10 serves as a stopper. Afterward, with the pusher 10 lowered, the wafer is guided to the lower part, and it is housed in the empty carrier 4.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a transfer machine for transferring disc-shaped products from one carrier to another, and particularly to a wafer transfer machine used in a semiconductor factory.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, this type of wafer transfer machine takes out wafers one by one from a wafer carrier that stores wafers in a horizontal state and transfers them to another carrier.

Additionally, there was a wafer transfer machine that held the wafers vertically and transferred a large number of wafers at the same time. There was no advance payment machine.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The conventional wafer advance machine mentioned above takes out one wafer at a time.
The drawback was that it was time consuming. Furthermore, in order to take out the wafers one by one, it is necessary to transport the wafers by suctioning their back surfaces or to transport the wafers with a belt, which has the disadvantage that the wafers are damaged and dust is deposited on them. In addition, since the wafer is handled in a horizontal state, there is a drawback that dust tends to accumulate in a downflow clean room.

An object of the present invention is to provide a wafer advance machine that solves the above problems.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, the wafer unloading machine according to the present invention includes a wafer carrier that stores wafers vertically, a carrier positioning section that horizontally moves and positions the empty wafer carrier, and a wafer positioning section that moves the empty wafer carrier horizontally to position it, and a A pusher section that pushes the wafers upward, a wafer guide section that vertically guides the pushed wafers one by one, and a wafer storage section that is located above the wafer guide section and stores the guided wafers vertically one by one. and a shutter section that is located between the wafer guide section and the wafer storage section and opens and closes for each wafer.

〔Example〕

Next, the present invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the main parts.

In the figure, a carrier positioning section 1 is composed of a wafer carrier 3 that vertically stores a wafer 2, a moving table 5 holding an empty wafer carrier 4, a fixed table 6, a motor 7, and a screw 8, and a pusher section. 9 is composed of a pusher 10 and a vertical mechanism 11. The pusher 10 passes through the carrier 3 and lifts the wafer 2 upward, as shown in FIG. The wafer guide section 12 has a groove 13 for guiding the wafers 2 one by one, and the wafer storage section 14 has a groove similar to the wafer guide section 12. The shutter section 15 is composed of a plurality of shutters 16 corresponding to each wafer, a solenoid group 17 that drives the shutters, and a driving force transmission cable group 18 that transmits driving force from the solenoid group 17 to the shutter 16.

Next, the operation of the present invention will be explained in detail.

The wafer 2 stored in the wafer carrier 3 is pushed up by the pusher part 9, passes through the wafer guide part 12, and is stored in the wafer storage part 14, the shutter part 15 is closed, and the wafer 2 is stored in the wafer storage part 14. Next, the pusher 10 is lowered, and the empty wafer carrier 4 is horizontally moved and positioned under the wafer guide section 12. Next, the pusher 10 is raised, and the shutter corresponding to the wafer to be transferred to the empty wafer carrier is moved. 16 opens and the wafer falls. The dropped wafer is stopped by the pusher 10 as a stopper, and then the pusher 10 is moved downward.

The wafer is guided downward and stored in the empty wafer carrier 4. Next, the wafer carrier 3 is moved again to the wafer guide section 12.
The remaining wafers are stored in the carrier 3 again by raising the pusher 10, opening the shutter 16, and lowering the pusher 10.
By the above operation, only the wafers to be transferred from the wafer carrier 3 can be transferred to the empty wafer carrier 4.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, in the present invention, only the wafers that need to be transferred can be transferred at the same time, so compared to the case where wafers are handled and transferred one by one, the process can be carried out in a shorter time and is more economical. be.

In addition, since the wafer is transferred in a vertical position and only the outer periphery and the slightly inner part of the wafer come into contact with the guide, the wafer is less likely to be scratched and dust is less likely to adhere to it. .

In the wafer process process for high-mix low-volume production, many lofts are loaded together in the same wafer carrier, and it is necessary to divide lots or combine lots in the middle of the process. It has a positive effect. Furthermore, the present invention can also be used in the magnetic disk manufacturing process, and has the effect that transfer operations between carriers can be performed efficiently.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing the main part of the present invention. 1...Carrier positioning section 2...Wafer 3...
Wafer carrier 4...Empty wafer carrier 5...
・Moving base 6...Fixed base 7...Motor 8...Screw 9...Pusher part
10... Pusher 11... Vertical mechanism
12...Wafer guide part 13...Groove
14... Wafer storage section 15... Shutter section 16... Shutter l7... Solenoid group 18... Driving force transmission cable group Fig. 1

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) A wafer carrier that stores wafers vertically, a carrier positioning section that horizontally moves and positions an empty wafer carrier, a pusher section that pushes up the wafer in the wafer carrier from below the wafer carrier, and the pushed wafer a wafer guide section that vertically guides the wafers one by one; a wafer storage section located above the wafer guide section that vertically stores the guided wafers one by one; and a wafer storage section located between the wafer guide section and the wafer storage section. 1. A wafer advance machine, comprising: a shutter section located at the shutter section, which opens and closes correspondingly to each wafer.