JPH02253140A - Semiconductor wafer appearance checking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a semiconductor wafer from being damaged and to prevent dirt from being stuck to the wafer by taking in and out the wafer, which is stored in a storage box placed on a movable table, with a turnable or shakable and expansible/contractible blade. CONSTITUTION:A wafer storage box 4 in which many wafers 1 are stored is placed on a table 14, and the position of the storage box 4 and the position of a hole 15 of the table 14 are matched to each other. When a motor 11 is rotated and the table 14 is moved in the direction of an arrow 9 by a feed screw 6 and is stopped in a prescribed position, a blade 2 rises from the original position in the direction of an arrow 10 by a motor 8 according as a ram 16 rises, and one wafer 1 is clipped by the front end of the blade 2 and is picked and is thrust up from the storage box 4. A motor 7 is rotated and the blade 2 is rotated or shaked in the direction of an arrow 3 so that the wafer 1 can be always directly seen with an eye 5, and thus, it is checked. After the wafer is visually checked, rotation or shake of the wafer 1 is stopped, and a ram 16 is lowered to lower the blade 2, and the wafer 1 is stored in a rack of the storage box.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer appearance inspection apparatus for visually inspecting the surface of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as wafer).

[Conventional technology]

Typically, this type of visual inspection is performed after diffusing impurities or forming an oxide film on the wafer surface.
This is done to inspect the surface condition.

Conventionally, this type of inspection did not have any special inspection equipment;
The wafer was grabbed with tweezers, removed from the wafer storage box, and visually inspected while being held with the tweezers.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

However, the above-mentioned manual visual inspection has the disadvantage that it may damage the surface of the wafer or cause dust to adhere thereto. Furthermore, recently, the size of wafers has become larger and larger, reaching a diameter of 250 mm, which poses the problem of being too heavy to handle with tweezers. If you handle it with force, there is a risk of dropping the wafer and causing it to crack or chip.

An object of the present invention is to provide a wafer appearance inspection apparatus that does not cause scratches, cracks, or dust to adhere to the wafer.

[Means to solve the problem]

The wafer visual inspection apparatus of the present invention includes a wafer storage box having a large number of shelves for storing semiconductor wafers in one direction, and a hole in the surface on which the wafer storage box is placed, and a direction perpendicular to the surface to which the semiconductor wafers are placed. a table that can be moved in the same direction; a blade that moves the semiconductor wafer in and out of the wafer storage box by extending and contracting in the one direction through the hole in the table; and a drive mechanism section for controlling the drive mechanism.

〔Example〕

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

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wafer visual inspection apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of the blade drive section of FIG. 1. This wafer visual inspection apparatus includes a wafer storage box 4 having a large number of shelves into which wafers 1 are stored in one direction, and a table 14 which has a hole 15 on the surface on which the wafer storage box 4 is placed and can move in the direction of an arrow 9. , a blade 2 that passes through the hole 15 of the chiffle 14 and expands and contracts in the direction of arrow 10 to take in and take out the wafer 1 from the wafer storage box 4; and a blade 2 that rotates or oscillates the plate 2 in the direction of arrow 3 and The drive mechanism consists of motors 7 and 8 that extend and retract in the directions shown in FIG.

Next, the operation of this wafer visual inspection apparatus will be explained. First, the wafer storage box 4 containing a large number of wafers 1 is placed on the table 14. At this time, the position of the wafer storage box 4 and the position of the hole 15 of the table 14 are aligned. Next, the motor 11 is rotated, the table 14 is moved in the direction of the arrow 9 by the feed screw 6, and stopped at a predetermined position (the blade 2 is located below the hole 15 of the table 14). Next, the blade 2 is raised from its original position as the ram 16 is raised in the direction of the arrow 10 by the motor 8, and the wafer storage box 4 picks up one of the wafers 1 by pinching it with the tip of the blade 2.
Push up above.

After the wafer 1 is pushed up, the motor 7 is rotated, and the blade 2 is slowly rotated or swung in the direction of the arrow 3, so that the wafer 1 can always be inspected directly with the eye 5. Here, the sensor 12 controls the rotation or swinging motion of the blade 2, and the belt 13 is a transmission mechanism that transmits the rotation of the motor 7 to the blade 2.

Next, after the visual inspection is completed, the rotation or swinging motion of the wafer 1 is stopped, and the blade 2 is lowered by lowering the ram 16 so that both sides of the wafer 1 are parallel to the shelves of the wafer storage box 4. It descends and stores the wafer 1 on the shelf of the wafer storage box 4. This causes the blade 2 to return to its original position.

In this way, the appearance inspection can be automatically completed without touching the wafers stored in the wafer storage box 4 one after another. Therefore, this wafer visual inspection apparatus has the advantage that it can be applied to a so-called cassette-to-cassette online system by combining with other automated lines.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, the present invention eliminates the need to directly grasp the wafer with tweezers for visual inspection, and thus has the effect of providing a wafer visual inspection apparatus that does not cause scratches, cracks, or dust to adhere to the wafer.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wafer visual inspection apparatus showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of the blade drive section of FIG. 1. 1... Wafer, 2... Blade, 3.9.10.
...Arrow, 4...Wafer storage box, 5...Eye, 6...
・Feed screw, 7.8.11...Motor, 12...Sensor, 13...Belt, 14...Table, 15.
...hole, 16...ram. Agent BuF Physician Uchihara Buyer

Claims (1)

[Claims] a wafer storage box having a large number of shelves for storing semiconductor wafers in one direction; a table having a hole in the surface on which the wafer storage box is placed; a blade that moves the semiconductor wafer in and out of the wafer storage box by expanding and contracting in the one direction through the hole;
A semiconductor wafer appearance inspection apparatus comprising a drive mechanism that rotates or oscillates the blade and expands and contracts the blade in the one direction.