JPH0230194B2 - HANDOTAISEIZOSOCHI - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and in particular to semiconductor manufacturing equipment that can be used as a complex system including scrubbers, coaters, developers, baking equipment, etc. that are indispensable peripheral equipment for aligners. Regarding equipment.

[Prior Art] In conventional semiconductor manufacturing equipment of this type, wafers are conveyed in a linear flow using a belt system, so most of the equipment has a linear arrangement. Therefore, the width of the entire apparatus is determined by, for example, the number of hot plates for wafer baking and the number of cup units for various processes, and as these numbers increase, the width of the apparatus becomes longer.
Another problem is that when these devices are placed inside a clean bench to maintain cleanliness, the clean bench must be rebuilt each time the unit or the like is changed.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned problems, and its purpose is to avoid increasing the length of the entire device and achieve compactness, as well as to solve the request for changing the unit. It is an object of the present invention to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that can easily cope with the above problems, realize a clean bench with fixed dimensions, and improve compatibility with an automated line.

[Means for Solving the Problems] In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, the common pedestal is provided with a front row, a middle row, and a rear row of regions in order from the front of the operation front to the back, A pair of indexers functioning as at least one of a sender and a receiver to which wafer carriers can be attached are arranged on the left and right sides of the front row, respectively, at least one cup unit for wafer processing is arranged on the middle row, and a vertical indexer is arranged on the rear row. A multistage oven for baking wafers configured in multiple stages in the vertical direction is arranged, and a wafer handling mechanism for conveying wafers without a belt is arranged in the center with respect to the front of the operation, and is arranged along the vertical direction. By moving each of the plurality of wafer transfer beams in the wafer transfer direction (horizontal direction) and the vertical direction of the multi-stage oven, the wafers are sequentially transferred into and out of the plurality of stages of the multi-stage oven. A transfer beam mechanism (crank mechanism, lever mechanism, servo motor) is provided for transferring the oven in the longitudinal direction from one side to the other.

In the present invention, each apparatus unit may be arranged on a common pedestal and the whole may be covered as a clean bench or a thermal chamber, and when the wafer is to be cooled during baking, a wafer forced cooling unit may be arranged. In this case, the wafer forced cooling unit is placed on top of the oven in the rear row or placed in the center of the middle row.

[Function] According to the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention, since the wafer baking oven as an aligner peripheral device is arranged in a vertically multi-stage structure and arranged in the rear row, it is possible to save space and centralize the heat source. Seed processing units can be placed on the left and right sides of the middle row, and wafers are transferred between the wafer carriers of these equipment units in a belt-less manner. , it is possible to install a clean bench of fixed size on top of the equipment. In addition, since the wafer carrier is placed in the front row on the top surface of the gantry in front of the operation front, it can easily be used when setting up an automated line with other equipment.

[Embodiments] Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows the appearance of an embodiment of the present invention, and the upper surface of a common pedestal 11 of an apparatus that can be converted into a clean bench by a shield chamber (not shown) includes a front row region 11a, a middle row region 11b, and a rear row region 11c.
In the front row area 11, indexers 1 and 2 are arranged on the left and right, in the middle row area 11b, a handling mechanism 3 is arranged in the center and cup units 4, 5 are arranged on the left and right, and in the back row area 11c, a delivery chuck is arranged in the center. A forced cold unit 6 having a temperature control unit 7 and a multi-stage oven 9 arranged in multiple stages on a hot plate are arranged one on top of the other. It is becoming possible to Note that 121 is a computer for controlling the system.

A typical example of the arrangement pattern of each device unit on the front side of the common pedestal 11 is a star arrangement shown in FIG.

In other words, in FIG. 2, wafer carrier equipment indexers that serve both the sender and receiver functions or are dedicated to each are arranged in the left and right A and B portions of the front row area, and in the E and F portions of the left and right middle row areas.
Cup units for various processing equipment such as coaters, developers, scrubbers, and post-exposure bakes are arranged in this area, and a multi-stage oven and forced cold unit are installed vertically in the C area in the center of the back row area, and are surrounded by these. A beltless hand mechanism for wafer transfer is arranged in the center D portion of the middle row area where the wafer is transferred. This beltless hand mechanism has a wafer holder, and the operation of inserting and pulling out the wafer holder into each unit.
The holding part can be moved toward each unit, and for example, the one described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 183736/1983 is used.

In this star-shaped arrangement, various units can be placed in the E and F sections on the left and right sides of the middle row, and by selecting and replacing them, it is possible to diversify the device.

Figures 2A to 2K show various examples of star configurations, in which CT represents the coater,
HMDS is an adhesion improver application part, PIQCT is a coater for polyimide resist, CELCT is a coater for solvent containing a light absorber, SOGCT is a coater for intermediate layer for multilayer resist, ND is a negative developer, PD
is a positive developer, PEB is a post exposure bake, CELDev is a peeling unit for CEL,
DeepUV is a DeepUV hardening unit, S/
R means a sender/receiver, S means a sender, and R means a receiver, and the multi-stage oven has a forced cold unit at the bottom.

In addition, in Figures 2F, 2G, and 2K, similar units are arranged on the left and right sides of the middle row, but in such cases, processing in each unit is performed alternately, and wafers from the unit that has completed processing are By sending the materials to the oven in this order, the central hand device can be effectively utilized and throughput can be increased without adding any other conveying means. Furthermore, in this case, it is also possible to arrange similar units in place of the oven and to send the processed products alternately to the S/R.

FIG. 3 shows an enlarged view of the unit arrangement on the star-shaped stand shown in FIG. 1. In addition, in Fig. 3, 4a is the wafer chuck of unit 4, and 5a is the wafer chuck of unit 4.
7 is a wafer chuck of the unit 5, and 7 is a wafer chuck of the cold unit 6, each of which can be moved up and down with a predetermined stroke.

The indexers 1 and 2 are connected to the elevator unit 1 so that they can be moved up and down when taking out or inserting a wafer.
The units 1a and 2a are supported by the units 1a and 2a, and each unit 1a and 2a is provided with a rotation mechanism 1b and 2b, respectively, so that the overall direction can be changed. These indexers 1 and 2 are arranged on the front side of the pedestal 1,
The indexer replacement work is facilitated by being arranged on the left and right sides of the front row facing the path for workers and the indexer replacement robot. When replacing the indexers 1 and 2, the elevator units 1a and 2a face directly toward the aisle (front side) as shown in FIG. 1, making the replacement work easier. When the replacement of indexers 1 and 2 is completed and processing work by units 4 and 5 etc. is started, elevator units 1a and 2a handle the wafer insertion/removal direction of indexers 1 and 2 as shown in FIG. It is rotated by the rotation mechanisms 1b and 2b so as to face the mechanism 3. The operation of this rotating mechanism is also performed in response to a work start command from the computer 121 shown in FIG.

The handling mechanism 3 includes an indexer 1,
Loading/unloading wafers to/from unit 2, each unit 4, 5
and each wafer chuck 4 of the cold unit 6.
A computer 12 controls the transfer of wafers to and from wafers a, 5a, and 7, and the movement of wafers between them.
Execute under the control of 1. The hand device is a wafer or chuck 4a, 5 in the indexers 1, 2.
Insert the hand under the wafer in the raised position held by the indexers a, 7, etc., then scoop up the wafer to receive it, transfer it to the desired position, lower the hand, and place it in another indexer or either one. Place the wafer on the chuck of
The hand is then moved back and returned to the initial position.

The specific construction of the forced cold unit 6, its chuck 7, multistage oven 9, and step-up beam 8 is as illustrated in FIG. In addition,
Figure 5 shows the step-up beam 8 in Figure 4.
6 is a right side view of the same, and FIG. 6 is a rear view of the main parts.

FIG. 4 is a front view of the apparatus, and the multi-stage oven 9 has wafer entrances 9a to 9d for each stage on the right side.
The wafer ejection port 9e is directed toward the left side of the top stage. As shown in FIG. 4A, each beam 8a of the step-up beam 8 is attached to each step of the plate.
A groove 132 is provided where ~8d can enter and move up and down.

The forced cold unit 6 and its chuck 7 are
Located at the bottom of the multi-stage oven 9, the cold unit 6 includes a chuck 7 and its vertical mechanism 134 whose operation is controlled by a control computer 121.
is provided.

A step-up beam 8 is located on the right side of the multi-stage oven 9 and the cold unit 6, and the raised position of the chuck 7 of the cold unit 6 is the wafer receiving position by the lowest beam 8a of the step-up beam 8. In FIG. 4, this is shown as the position of the wafer 133a.

A step-down beam 10 is disposed on the left side of the multistage oven 9 in FIG. 4, but is not shown. The step-down beam 10 has almost the same configuration as the step-up beam 8, but there is only one set of beams, and its stroke is from the top exit 9e of the oven 9 to the upward transfer position of the chuck 7 (as shown by a wafer 133a). Since the above steps are performed in one step, the stroke is an integral multiple of the stroke of the step-up beam 8, that is, the stroke is multiplied by the number of stages of the oven.

The details of the forced cold unit of the multi-stage oven with step-up beam 8 will be explained below in conjunction with FIGS. 4-6.

In FIGS. 4 to 6, 8a to 8e are beams for supporting and transporting the wafer from below, and these beams are arranged at equal intervals in the vertical direction. 102 is a support that supports each beam, 103 is a rail for sliding the support in parallel in the left and right direction in FIG. 4, 104 is an upper and lower stage that is integrated with the rail 103, and 105 is provided on the upper and lower stages. First servo motor, 105a is first servo motor 1
05 is a rotating shaft, 106 is a rotating arm fixed to the rotating shaft 105a, 107 is an annular arm slider rotatably provided at the tip of the rotating arm 106 around the axis 107a, and 108 is a support 10.
2, and this bar has slider 1
07 is fitted so as to be slidable in the length direction.
In FIG. 5, 109 is a slider that is integrated with the upper and lower stages 104 and can slide in the vertical direction, 110 is a vertical guide that guides the slider 109, 111 is a crank mechanism for reciprocating the slider 109 in the vertical direction, and 112 is a crank mechanism. 113 is a second servo motor that rotates the crank mechanism 111; 114 is a motor slider that supports the second servo motor 113 and is slidable along the vertical guide 110; 115 is a motor 116 is a fulcrum of the lever mechanism 115 provided on the fixed part, 117 is a piston mechanism for pushing up the motor slider 114 via the lever mechanism 115, and 118 is a mechanism for supplying fluid to the piston mechanism. This is a piston drive unit that supplies and drives the piston. The first servo motor 105 and the second servo motor 114 stop rotating depending on the energization state from the power sources 119 and 120, respectively, and the piston drive unit 11
8. Power supplies 119 and 120 are the control computer 12
1 controls the fluid supply and energization state.

The step-up beam is at the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. 4 with respect to the multi-stage oven 9 when it is not inserted into the lowest position.
When not inserted at the highest point, it is at the position indicated by the two-dot chain line. As shown in FIG. 4A, grooves 132 are provided in the bottom of each oven of the multi-stage oven through which the beams 8a to 8d can pass.

Next, a method of operating the step-up beam 8 will be explained. The wafers are 133a, 133b,
The wafer 133e is located at positions 133c and 133d, and the wafer 133e is taken out by the step-down beam 10 when the step-up beam 8 starts operating. The computer 121 is the power supply 11
9 to rotate the first servo motor 105 approximately 180° in the direction of arrow A in FIG. At this time, the arm 106 makes a pendulum-like movement due to the rotation of the motor 105, and the arm slider 107 moves on a semicircle. The arm slider 107 is the bar 10
8 can be moved only in the vertical direction in the figure, the vertical component of the force applied to the slider 107 by the motor 105 is absorbed by the relative vertical movement of the arm slider 107 along the bar 108, and only the leftward component is absorbed. is transmitted to bar 108. Therefore, as the arm slider 107 moves to the left, the support 102 integrated with the bar 108 also moves to the left, so that the beams 8b to 8d advance through the grooves 132 in each stage of the oven. However, the lowest beam 8a moves forward while sandwiching the wafer transfer chuck 7, and comes under each wafer. Since such a mechanism is used to transport the wafer in the left-right direction, the wafer moves quietly at the beginning and end, and can move quickly in the middle. First servo motor 10
5 completes the 180° rotation, the computer 121
stops the first servo motor 105 and then issues a command signal to the piston drive section 118. The upper end of the piston mechanism is installed on a fixed part, and the computer 121 operates the piston mechanism 117 to raise the motor slider 114. At this time, the crank mechanism 111 is in a stopped state at the position shown in the figure, and the slider 109 is also pushed up by the rod 112. As a result, each beam 8a to 8d also moves to the slider 1.
09 rises by the amount that is pushed up, and at this time, a part of the beam comes out above the groove 132 and lifts each wafer. In this state, the computer 121
outputs a command signal to the power source 119 to rotate the first servo motor 105 by 180° in the direction opposite to arrow A.
As a result, each of the beams 8a to 8d retreats to the right and returns to its previous lateral position while supporting each wafer from below. After this is finished, computer 1
21 issues a command signal to the power source 120 to rotate the second servo motor 113 by 180 degrees from the position shown in the figure. At this time, due to the rotation of the crank mechanism 111, the slider 10
9 is further pushed up by the rod 112.
The distance pushed up at this time is the distance between each oven bottom of the multi-stage oven 9, that is, each beam 8a to 8d.
It is approximately equal to the vertical installation interval of . Each beam position at this time is indicated by a two-dot chain line in FIG. Each wafer will be lifted up to this point. After this, the computer 121 again controls the first servo motor 10.
5 rotates 180° in the direction of arrow A.
A command signal is issued to the Each of the beams 8a to 8d is inserted into an oven corresponding to a respective height while supporting each wafer, and each wafer is brought to a stage one level higher than the previous stage. After the motor 105 completes 180° rotation, the computer 121 issues a command signal to the piston drive unit 118 to return the piston mechanism 117 to its original state. The motor slider 114, which had been pushed up by the lever mechanism 115, falls back to its original position, and the beams 8a to 8e also fall into the groove 132 by this downward distance. The wafers on the beams 8a to 8d are placed on the bottom of each oven when the beams finish descending, and are separated from the beams. The computer 121 again issues a command signal to the power source 119 so that the first servo motor 105 rotates 180 degrees in the direction opposite to arrow A. Beams 8a-8d move to the right through grooves 132 under each wafer and return to their original lateral positions. Finally, the computer 121 issues a command signal to the power source 113 so that the second servo motor 113 rotates 180 degrees again. The crank mechanism 111 returns to the position shown in the figure, and each beam 8a to 8d
returns to its original position, that is, the position shown by the solid line in FIG. Through the above series of operations, the wafer is transferred to the next higher oven. By repeating this at regular baking time intervals, the wafer passes through each oven in the multi-stage oven 9 in order to the top, and finally, from the top stage, the step-down beam 10 is used to transfer the wafer to the external chuck 7.
will be transported to. The baking temperature of each multi-stage oven increases toward the upper stage, and the wafer is subjected to gradually higher heat treatment as it moves to the upper stage, so that it is possible to heat-process even resists that would peel off due to sudden thermal changes. This temperature difference may be reversed or eliminated depending on the case.

As is clear from FIG. 3, the handling mechanism 3 is located in front of the cold unit 6, and the wafer transfer direction is perpendicular to that of the step-up beam 8 with respect to the unit 6.
Chuck 7 due to this handling mechanism 3
The transfer to and from the chuck 7 takes place at the lowered position of the chuck 7 (indicated by the chain line 7a in FIG. 4).

When heating the wafer in the multistage oven 9,
When the chuck 7 is not at the wafer transfer position with the handling mechanism 3, the up/down mechanism 134 of the unit 6 lowers the chuck 7 together with the unit 6 based on a command from the computer 121. This operation is not necessary if the chuck 7 has been lowered to the wafer transfer position with the handling mechanism 3 in advance. The handling mechanism 3 facing towards the multi-stage oven 9 extends its hand and inserts the wafer into the position shown in dotted lines in FIG.
Lower the hand and pass the chuck 7 between the two forks of the hand while leaving the wafer on the chuck 7 to transfer the wafer. When the hand is removed from the underside of the wafer, tighten the hand and the chuck 7 attracts the wafer. and catch it. Thereafter, the computer 121 operates the unit up/down mechanism 134 to raise the wafer together with the chuck 7, and stops it at the wafer transfer position with the beam 8a at the bottom of the step-up beam 8. This position is the position of the wafer 133a in FIG. After stopping the wafer at the transfer position, the computer 121 causes the step-up beam 8 to perform the wafer transfer operation described above, and at the same time causes the step-down beam 1 to perform the wafer transfer operation described above.
0 to carry out the operation of unloading the wafer 133e from the uppermost oven.

When the computer 121 issues a command so that the beam 8a of the step-up beam 8 lifts up the wafer on the wafer transfer chuck 7, the adsorption section of the chuck 7 also releases its chuck. After the step-up beam 8 removes the unheated wafer from the wafer transfer chuck 7,
A step-down beam 10 places the wafer after heat treatment on a wafer transfer chuck 7. Step-down beam 10 beam transfer chuck 7
When the computer 121 issues a command signal to lower the wafer onto the chuck 7, a suction operation is simultaneously started when the chuck 7 is attracted. When the step-down beam 10 returns to its original position, the computer 12
1 issues a command signal to the chuck up/down mechanism 134;
With the wafer placed on it, the chuck 7 is lowered to the position (7a) indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG.

Next, the computer 121 moves the U-shaped hand portion of the handling mechanism 3 to the wafer transfer position in a lowered state. The position (7a) indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 4 is slightly higher than the position of the U-shaped hand when it is inserted. After this,
The chuck of the suction part of the chuck 7 is released, the hand is slightly raised, and the wafer is placed on the hand part. As a result, the wafer is separated from the chuck 7 and raised to the position indicated by the two-dot chain line in FIG. The handling mechanism 3 retracts the hand and takes out the wafer after processing is completed.

The forced cold unit 6 is provided with a transfer chuck (not shown) and a mechanism for moving the chuck up and down. This transfer chuck is similar to the upper wafer transfer chuck 7, and the mechanism for raising and lowering this chuck moves it up and down between the wafer transfer position with the handling mechanism 3 and the wafer cooling position below. When the unit up/down mechanism 134 lifts the wafer transfer chuck 7 to the position shown in solid line in FIG. It is in. This position becomes the wafer transfer position between the forced cold unit 6 and the handling mechanism 3. Therefore, the handling mechanism 3 transfers the wafer to the forced cold unit 6 when the unit up/down mechanism 134 lifts the unit, and to the wafer transfer chuck 7 when the unit is lowered.

Note that the top stage of the multi-stage oven may be made into a forced cold unit, so that the wafer heated in the multi-stage oven can be immediately cooled down and returned to the indexer in a state where it has returned to room temperature. Further, in the case of a coater, a unit for film thickness measurement may be provided above the forced cold unit so that the film thickness of the wafer after processing can be immediately measured. Additionally, in the case of a positive developer, a Deep UV hardening unit may be provided on top.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the operation sequence of wafer transfer by the handling mechanism between each unit, multistage oven, and indexer described above.

In this flowchart, after the handling mechanism 3 is set to the home position in step 701 in response to a process start command from the operator, a sequence is established so that loading and unloading of wafers to and from the multi-stage oven 9 is given top priority among each processing unit. ing. That is, from step 702
Steps 706 each represent a condition determination step for a combination of a wafer output location and a location for receiving the output wafer, and the sequence is set in order of priority, with step 702 having the highest priority, followed by step 703, and so on down to 706. When any one of these steps 702 to 706 produces a result (Y) that meets the conditions, the following handling steps 709 to 709 are performed for the wafer unloading location and wafer receiving location corresponding to the condition combination of the steps that produced the result (Y). 717 is executed. In this case, if the condition matching result (Y) does not occur from any step, it is checked in step 207 whether the handling mechanism 3 is in the home position, and if it is not, it is returned to the home position in step 708. Then, the process returns to step 702, and in this way the handling mechanism waits until a condition matching result (Y) occurs in any of steps 702-706.

In the multi-stage oven 9, as described above, the step-up beam 8 and the step-down beam 10 perform a periodic wafer movement operation, and in this case, the wafer transfer chuck 7 receives unbaked wafers from the handling mechanism 3. Since the operation is used for both the operation of transferring the baked wafer to the step-up beam 8 and the operation of receiving the baked wafer from the step-down beam 10 and transferring it to the handling mechanism 3, the baked wafer is transferred from the step-down mechanism 10 to the chuck 7. When transferred, the handling mechanism 3 is removed as soon as possible to prevent it from being transferred to the oven 9 again, i.e. to avoid overbaking.
But it must be difficult to receive it. For this reason, step 702 is given the highest priority, and the priority order of steps 703 to 706 below is also determined by taking into consideration the processing contents and required time in each unit.

The judgment conditions in step 702 are that the baked wafer from the step-down beam 10 is transferred to the chuck 7 and lowered together with the unit 6, and a request is made to carry out the baked wafer from the oven 9, and the receiver 2, which receives the baked wafer, The question is whether there are any stages remaining that do not contain wafers.

Similarly, the judgment conditions in step 703 are that the processed wafer in the unit 4 (for example, a coater) is held in its chuck 4a and a request for unloading from the unit 4 is generated, and that the step-up beam is sent to the oven 9 that receives the wafer. 8 before the cycle in which the chuck 7 goes to receive a wafer, and whether the chuck 7 is empty and at the transfer position with the handling mechanism 3.

The judgment condition in step 704 is whether or not a processed wafer in the cold unit 6 is held in its chuck, a wafer transfer request is issued from the cold unit 6, and the chuck 4a of the unit 4 that receives the wafer is empty. be.

The judgment condition in step 705 is that unit 5
A processed wafer is held in its chuck 5a (for example, in the adhesion improver coating section), and a request for unloading is issued from the unit 5, and the cold unit 6 that receives the wafer is empty, and the chuck is empty, and each beam Whether or not unit 6 is in a rising state in relation to cycles 8 and 10.

The determination conditions in step 706 are whether or not there are wafers that can be transferred to the sender 1, and the unit 5 is empty and its chuck 5a is empty.

In order to provide a signal for the above judgment conditions,
For example, the sender 1 and the receiver 2 are each equipped with a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of a wafer in each of their wafer storage stages, and each chuck 4a, 5a,
7 and the chuck of unit 6 are equipped with a sensor that outputs a signal depending on the presence or absence of a suction wafer.
These chuck sensors are connected to each unit 4, 5,
6 and in relation to the operation of the oven 9 and each beam 8, 10, when the presence of a wafer whose work has been completed in that unit, etc. is detected, a wafer unloading request signal OUT (unloading OK) is generated for that unit, etc. When a wafer is passed from the chuck to the handling mechanism 3 and the chuck becomes empty, a work completion report signal READY (acceptance OK) is generated from the corresponding unit, etc., and when the chuck receives a wafer from the handling mechanism, a wafer handling completion report signal is generated. causes BUSY and therefore each step 702
~706 uses these signals to determine the status of the unit, etc. for each condition combination, i.e., OUT, READY.
(BUSY).

Now, the operation sequence of the handling mechanism 3 in steps 709 to 717 is as follows: First, in step 709, the hand of the handling mechanism 3 is moved at high speed to the chuck belonging to the sender or unit that has issued an output request (OUT), and in step 710, the hand is received. In step 711, the handling mechanism performs a predetermined operation to receive the wafer, and when the wafer is delivered to the hand, it is transferred from the unit, etc. that carried out the wafer to the unit, etc. in step 712. Output the completion report signal (READY). Next, in step 713, the hand is retracted, in step 714, the hand is rotated and moved back and forth, and the wafer is moved at low speed by the handling mechanism 3 to the corresponding wafer receiving unit, etc., and in step 715, the hand is extended to the wafer delivery position of the receiving unit, etc. In step 716, a handling completion report signal (BUSY) is output upon completion of wafer transfer to the chuck, etc., and in step 717, the empty hand is shortened by half, and the process returns to step 702.

In this way, wafer handling is performed between each unit one after another, but the basic wafer transfer order in the sequence shown in FIG. 7 is sender 1→
(Hand) → Unit 5 → (Hand) → Cold unit 6 → (Hand) → Unit 4 → (Hand) → Chuck 7 → (Step-up beam 8)
→Multi-stage oven 9→(Step-down beam 1
0)→chuck→(hand)→receiver 2, where (hand) is the operation by the handling mechanism 3.

Note that the flow of the operation sequence shown in FIG. 7 is just an example, and the order of steps 702 to 706 is not limited to this.

FIG. 8 shows the arrangement pattern on the top surface of the common pedestal in another embodiment of the present invention. In this example, compared to FIG. 2, the handling mechanism arrangement part D is located in the center of the front row, and in the center of the middle row The difference is that a forced cold unit arrangement part G is located so that it will be easier to match when the device is inlined in the future.

A specific example of the example shown in FIG. 8 is as shown in FIG. 9. In FIG. 9, 51 and 52 are transmitter-receivers on the left and right sides of the front row, 53 is a handling mechanism in the center of the front row, and 54 and 55 are on the left and right sides of the middle row. 56 is a forced cold unit in the center of the middle row, 57 is a wafer transfer chuck, 58 is a step-up beam, 59 is a multi-stage oven, 60
is a step-down beam, 61 is an X-axis hand device for left-right transfer, and 62 is a Y-axis hand device for front-back transfer.The hand devices for transferring wafers are arranged in the center of each row in the third row. There is not much difference from the example in the figure. The X-axis hand device for left and right transfer includes a forced cold unit 56 and each cup unit 54, 55.
It has a chucking mechanism (not shown) below that grips the wafer, and the holding part of the handling mechanism 53 is passed between the two pillars. Although it looks far away in the figure, it is actually located directly above the forced cold unit 56.

The operation sequence in the example shown in FIG. 9 is not much different from that shown in FIG. 3, so a description thereof will be omitted.

[Effects of the Invention] As described above, according to the present invention, the upper surface of the common pedestal of the apparatus is configured in three rows: front, middle, and rear, and the necessary processing units are arranged in the middle row. In any processing equipment configuration, the wafer carrier can be placed in the front row at the front of the equipment, which is advantageous for automatic line integration with other equipment, and a wafer handling mechanism that does not rely on a belt is placed in the center of each row. , either of the left or right indexers in the front row can be used as a sender or receiver, or one of them can be used to buffer wafers during the processing process, allowing for greater versatility in wafer handling. be. In addition, since two cup units can be placed on the left and right sides of the middle row, various combinations of processing units can be selected, and changing them will not increase the length of the equipment, allowing the equipment to be configured as a clean bench with fixed dimensions, improving cleanliness. , it is easy to ensure temperature control. Furthermore, a wafer baking oven with a multi-stage structure is arranged vertically in the center of the back row, and baking is performed while wafers are sequentially transferred vertically using multiple transfer beams, making it easy to centrally control the heating means. At the same time, even if the number of base stages increases, the floor space of the device does not change, which is advantageous in terms of space occupancy.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing the appearance of an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view showing an embodiment of the arrangement pattern on the top surface of the common pedestal, and FIGS. 2A to 2K show various specific examples of the arrangement pattern. FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a specific configuration example of the arrangement pattern, FIG. 4 is a front view showing an arrangement example of the multi-stage oven, cold unit, and step-up beam, and FIG. 4A is a front view showing an example of the arrangement. 5 is a right side view of the step-up beam shown in FIG. 4, FIG. 6 is a rear view of the main part of the step-up beam, and FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing an example of the operation sequence. FIG. 8 is a schematic plan view showing another example of the unit arrangement pattern on the top surface of the pedestal, and FIG. 9 is a perspective view showing a specific example of the structure of the pattern shown in the previous figure. 1, 2, 51, 52: Sender/receiver indexer, 3, 53: Handling mechanism, 4, 5, 54, 55: Cup unit,
6, 56: forced cold unit, 7, 57: wafer chuck, 8, 58: step-up beam, 9, 59: multi-stage oven, 10, 60: step-down beam, 11: common frame, 11a: front row area, 11b: middle Row region, 11c: Back row region,
121: Control computer.

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A common pedestal is provided with a front row, a middle row, and a rear row in order from the front to the back of the front of the operation, and each of the left and right of the front row functions as at least one of a sender and a receiver to which a wafer carrier can be attached. at least one cup unit for wafer processing is arranged in the middle row;
A multistage oven for baking wafers configured in multiple stages in the vertical direction is disposed in the rear row, and a wafer handling mechanism for conveying wafers without a belt is disposed in the center with respect to the front of the operation, and By moving each of the plurality of arrayed wafer transfer beams in the wafer loading/unloading direction of the multistage oven and the vertical direction,
A semiconductor manufacturing apparatus comprising a transfer beam mechanism that transports the wafer in the vertical direction from one side of the multi-stage oven to the other side while sequentially loading and unloading the wafer into and out of a plurality of stages of the multi-stage oven. 2. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the entire upper surface of the common pedestal is covered to form an environment control chamber. 3. The common pedestal is provided with a front row, a middle row, and a rear row in order from the front to the back of the operation front, and a pair of indexers that act as at least one of a sender and a receiver to which a wafer carrier can be attached are arranged on the left and right sides of the front row, respectively. and at least one cup unit for wafer processing is arranged in the middle row,
A multistage oven for baking wafers configured in multiple stages in the vertical direction is arranged in the rear row, a wafer handling mechanism for conveying wafers without a belt is arranged in the center with respect to the front of the operation, and a chuck of a wafer forced cooling unit is arranged. The wafer is transferred to the wafer transfer position of the multi-stage oven, and each of the plurality of wafer transfer beams arranged along the vertical direction is connected to the wafer loading/unloading direction of the multi-stage oven and the vertical direction. The present invention is characterized by being provided with a transfer beam mechanism that transports in the vertical direction from one side of the multi-stage oven to the other side while sequentially loading and unloading the plurality of stages of the multi-stage oven by moving in the direction of the multi-stage oven. Semiconductor manufacturing equipment. 4. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the wafer forced cooling unit is disposed below the multi-stage oven. 5. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the wafer forced cooling unit is arranged at the center of the middle row of the common pedestal.