JPH03225847A - Wafer cassette stocker - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable transportation among complex, multiple, and a large amount of processing devices to be achieved readily and efficiently by arranging a wafer cassette placing robot. CONSTITUTION:After a wafer cassette 12 is carried to an upper part of a wafer cassette stocker 3 for example from a remote preprocess treatment device by a ceiling carrying robbot 11, it is directly placed on a stage 5 of the wafer cassette stocker 3 by a wafer cassette placing robot 14 and is stored temporarily. Then, the wafer cassette stocker 3 is taken out of a storage/take-out port 4 by a space in a treatment device 1 and is carried to a treatment device 1, thereby enabling direct placement onto a carrying robbot of ceiling-running type which is carried at high speed over a long distance.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] This invention is directed to the wafer cassette stoning force that temporarily stores and stores completed or unfinished @ products in the semiconductor wafer manufacturing process, especially the wafer cassette stoning force. [Prior art] Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of the transportation mode of semiconductor wafer cassettes in a conventional semiconductor factory. A processing device for processing semiconductor sea urchin/X in the @ manufacturing process of sea urchin eight (not shown), 2
3 is a wafer cassette stocker for temporarily storing and storing completed or unfinished semiconductor wafers 1; 4 is a wafer cassette stocker for transporting wafer cassettes (not shown) between each processing device 1; FIG. 3 is a detailed side view of the structure of the wafer cassette stocker 3, and in the figure, 5 is a storage/take-out port for storing or taking out wafer cassettes. This mounting table 5 is connected in several stages in an annular manner by a chain 6, and has a mechanism in which it is rotated by a sprocket 7, and the transfer robot 2 is used to store and store wafer cassettes. When taking out an arbitrary mounting table, store it and position it at the outgoing port 4. And, at the manufacturing factory on the island, the processing equipment 1, transfer robot 2, and wafer cassette stocker 3 are installed in the factory. The lid is installed as shown in Fig. 2, and in order to balance the processing equipment in each process, the wafers are transported to the cassette B wafer cassette stocker 3 and temporarily stored or stored in the wafer cassette stocker 3.
The work of taking it out, transporting it to the processing device 1, and setting it is performed.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

In conventional wafer cassette stockers, when storing and taking out wafer cassettes using the transfer robot 2, as described above, only the front and back sides of the wafer cassette stocker have storage and removal openings. The storage and removal of wafer cassettes from the wafer cassettes is limited to ground-based transport robots. However, in recent years, the manufacturing process for semiconductor wafers involves hundreds of steps, and the processing equipment used in the manufacturing of semiconductor wafers also includes dozens of types. It becomes complicated. In addition, in order to transport wafer cassettes over long distances between various types of processing equipment installed flat on a wide floor in a factory, we use conventional ground-based transport robots to transport wafer cassettes at high speed and efficiently. Even if a high-speed ceiling-running type transfer robot is installed instead, the work of storing and removing wafer cassettes into and out of the wafer cassette stone can only be done with a ground-running type transfer robot, which is extremely difficult. There are other problems such as poor transport efficiency and the difficulty of handling complicated storage and retrieval work using ground-based transport robots alone. This is an overhead-traveling type transport roof that transports wafer cassettes over a long distance at high speed.

It is possible to take out and place the wafer cassettes directly from the wafer cassette stocker, and also to directly place the wafers from the overhead traveling type transfer robot into the wafer cassette stocker.
[Means for Solving the Problem] The wafer cassette stocker according to the present invention is a conventional wafer cassette stocker that has wafer cassette storage and ejection openings arranged on the front and back sides. A storage/take-out port for wafer cassettes is also arranged in the upper part of the baccent stocker, and a wafer cassette mounting robot is installed at the storage/take-out port in the upper part.

[Effect]

The wafer cassette stocker according to the present invention is provided with a storage and retrieval slot for univaccents at the upper part, and a wafer cassette loading robot is installed in the upper part of the wafer cassette stocker. It is possible to directly take out the wafer from the cassette stocker and place it on the transfer robot of the Eve, and it is also possible to store it directly into the wafer cassette stocker from the ceiling traveling type transfer robot〇 [Example] The following and this An embodiment of the invention will be explained with reference to the drawings.T0$1
FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention. In FIG. It is a traveling rail on which the traveling robot 11 of the ceiling traveling type runs, and lO is the traveling rail on which the traveling robot 11 of the ceiling traveling type runs.
Reference numeral 13 denotes a univaccent that is transported between each processing apparatus 1 by the automatic guided vehicle 8, the ground-type transport bot 2, and the overhead robot 11; The wafer cassette stocker 3 can take out the wafer cassettes stored in the wafer cassette stocker 3 and place them on the wafer cassette stocker 3 from the ceiling robot 11. This is a wafer cassette loading robot that stores wafer cassettes directly inside the wafer cassette.

Note that the arrangement structure of the mounting table 5, chain 6, and sprocket 7 inside the wafer cassette stocker 3 is the same as that in FIG. For example, if the ceiling transfer robot 11 is moved from a far-flung pre-processing device,
After the wafer cassette stocker 3 is carried above the wafer cassette stocker 3, the wafer cassette mounting robot 14 directly places the wafer cassette on the mounting table 5 (shown in FIG. 8) of the wafer cassette stocker 3, and temporarily stores the wafer cassette. Next, depending on the empty space in the processing apparatus l, the wafer cassette stock jJ3 is stored and taken out from the outlet 4 by the ground transport robot 2, and the processing bag a! transported to. On the other hand, the processed wafer cassettes are stored by the ground traveling robot 2, placed on the mounting table 6 of the wafer cassette stocker 3 through the take-out port 4, and then temporarily stored.
Depending on the availability of the next process, the wafer cassette stocker 3 is stored in the upper part, and the wafer cassette loading robot 14 is placed from the take-out port 13.
After being placed in the ceiling transport port 11, it is transported to the next process.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, a wafer cassette storage/unloading port is newly provided in the upper part of the wafer cassette stack, and the wafer cassette storage/unloading port in the upper part is used to place and take out the wafer cassette. By installing a wafer cassette loading robot, the complicated work of storing and unloading wafer cassettes into and out of the wafer cassette stocker can be performed directly on the ceiling traveling robot without transferring to various types of transfer equipment. It has the excellent effect of being able to quickly and efficiently transport a large amount of material between processing devices.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a wafer cassette stocker according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a conventional wafer cassette stocker, and FIG. 8 is a sectional view of a conventional wafer cassette stocker. Middle, 34': i Wafer cassette stocker, Shizuki, Nagi are storage, take-out port, 5 is mounting table, 6 is connecting chain, 7 is sprocket, P is wafer cassette,
14 is a wafer cassette mounting robot. Note that the same reference numerals in the figures indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Several stages of mounting stands for wafer cassettes containing a predetermined number of semiconductor wafers are connected in a ring shape, and the mounting stands are rotated and positioned at the storage and take-out ports arranged at predetermined heights on the front and back sides, and the wafer cassettes are A wafer cassette stocker for storing and taking out cassettes, characterized in that a wafer cassette stocker has an opening for storing and taking out wafer cassettes in the upper part thereof, and is equipped with a wafer cassette loading robot.