JPH03288460A - Conveying method of wafer accommodation jig - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To eliminate restrictions of the direction and the peripheral space of a wafer accommodation jig, and realize free introduction into an automating line, by moving clamping claws of a conveying robot in the direction perpendicu lar to the facing side plates so as to set the wafer accommodation jig as the reference, and clamping the wafer accommodation jig. CONSTITUTION:A wafer accommodation jig 1 is provided with side plates 3 facing each other so as to keep a specified spacing. On the inner surfaces of the facing side plates, a lot of retaining grooves 9 to orderly retain semiconduc tor wafers are formed so as to face each other at constant pitches. When the jig 1 is conveyed, clamping claws 6, 6' are closed by moving them, with a robot hand switching mechanism 16, in the direction perpendicular to the direction of the facing side plates 3, thereby clamping the jig 1 in the manner in which claws 14, 14' are engaged with flanges 12, 12', and claws 13, 13 ' are engaged with grooves 11, 11'. Next the jig 1 is moved to the location for conveying, by driving a robot arm.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention provides a wafer storage jig suitable for transporting a large number of semiconductor wafers between a plurality of semiconductor manufacturing devices by a traveling robot. Concerning the transportation method.

[Conventional technology]

Dust is a natural enemy in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, and the cleanliness of the working atmosphere directly affects the yield of products.

For this reason, semiconductor devices are manufactured in a clean room that is adjusted to keep the number of floating dust below a certain level. In recent years, automation of manufacturing equipment in clean rooms and unmanned transportation of semiconductor wafers have been actively considered, with the belief that unmanned clean rooms will lead to dust-free clean rooms.

A plurality of manufacturing devices are arranged in the clean room, and semiconductor wafers are manufactured by being sequentially or selectively transferred to each manufacturing device. Semiconductor wafers are generally supplied to such manufacturing equipment in product lots by arranging and storing a plurality of semiconductor wafers in a wafer storage jig called a carrier.

For this reason, various robots are used in clean rooms to transport wafer storage jigs.

This wafer transfer robot is equipped with a traveling device for moving in a clean room, an arm that can move in three dimensions, and a pair of clamp claws provided at the tip of the arm. The storage jig is gripped by clamp claws and supplied to and taken out from the manufacturing equipment.

The wafer storage jig has a box-like structure with an open surface, and a flange is formed at the outer corner, and a large number of storage grooves are formed inside the wafer storage jig. A wafer is removably inserted into the wafer. The wafer storage jig that stores the wafers is generally loaded into manufacturing equipment with the opening facing sideways and the wafers being horizontal. When viewed from the operation side of the device (the side where the transfer robot is present), there are four directions: back, front, left, and right, and these vary depending on the individual manufacturing device.

In addition, related to such wafer storage jigs and transfer robots, for example, Japanese Utility Model Application Publication No. 63-38330,
JP-A-63-141343, JP-A-1-155640
There are publications etc.

In recent years, as the structure of semiconductor devices has become smaller, the cleanliness of the clean room in which semiconductor manufacturing equipment is installed has become increasingly necessary, increasing installation costs and requiring smaller floor space for manufacturing equipment. It has become. In addition, manufacturing equipment needs to have more sophisticated functions, and its volume is increasing. Therefore, equipment control devices are placed close to the wafer storage jig loaded into the manufacturing equipment, and the supply and removal route for the wafer storage jig is limited to the front side of the wafer storage jig. It has become.

Furthermore, when the manufacturing equipment becomes larger, the manufacturing equipment main body 19 is installed in a maintenance area 21 adjacent to a clean room 20 to handle wafers, as shown in FIG.
Only the part 22 that requires a high degree of cleanliness is isolated and connected to the adjacent clean room No. J, and through a hole in the boundary wall 23 between the clean room and the maintenance room,
In some so-called through-the-rall manufacturing apparatuses that supply and take out wafer storage jigs, there is no space above the wafer storage jigs for the robot's wrist 8 to fit into them. In this case, the robot's wrist must remain in front of the wafer storage jig, and the clamp claw 6 must protrude beyond the wrist to grip the wafer storage jig.

By the way, as shown in Fig. 6, the flange 2, 2° provided on the outer surface of the wafer storage jig in order to grip the wafer storage jig l with the wafer horizontally held by the robot's clamp claws is connected to the opposing side plate. It exists in the direction of the side plate 3 facing the end plates 4 and 5 that connect both ends of the plate 3.

The direction in which the clamp claws 6 of the robot are opened and closed in order to grasp this is also the direction of the opposing side plate 3 (indicated by arrow 7 in the figure). Therefore, if there is no space above the wafer storage jig 1, the robot's wrist 8 is generally placed near the wafer storage jig in a direction perpendicular to the opposing side plate 3 (not directly above it).

The orientation of the wafer storage jig loaded into semiconductor manufacturing equipment is to keep the wafer surface horizontal, and in most wafer storage jigs, the opening side faces toward the back when viewed from the operator's side. can be transported with the hand M8 placed in the front, but this is not the case; there are also devices with the opening facing left or right, and they are mixed on the production line.

[Problem to be solved by the invention]

The above-mentioned conventional technology is a manufacturing device in which there is no space for the robot wrist around the wafer storage jig, and a traveling device is provided between the manufacturing devices in which the opening faces of the wafer storage jig are not aligned in the same direction. When a wafer storage jig is transported by a transfer robot with a common clamp, the robot using a common clamp claw cannot transport the wafer because its wrist interferes with the device, and the clamp claw and its opening/closing mechanism are It was necessary to replace it depending on the device, but there was no replacement device that could be used in a clean environment. Therefore, it is necessary to make sure that there is enough space around the wafer storage jig, or to assemble a production line that only combines manufacturing equipment with a unified orientation of the wafer storage jig. There was a fear that it would not be possible to introduce the

An object of the present invention is to eliminate restrictions on the orientation of wafer storage jigs and the surrounding space, and to enable the latest high-performance equipment to be freely introduced into automated lines.

[Means to solve the problem]

In order to achieve the above object, in addition to the conventional method, the present invention transports the wafer storage jig by moving the clamp claw of the transfer robot in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the opposing side plate with the wafer storage jig as a reference. It is characterized by

Furthermore, in order to achieve the above object, a new robot transfer groove or flange is added in a direction perpendicular to the direction in which the conventional robot transfer periphery flange of the wafer storage jig is attached.

[Effect]

When gripping a wafer or storage jig with a transfer robot, the robot's clamp claw can be moved not only in the direction of the conventional side plate, but also in a direction perpendicular to the side plate, so the opening surface of the wafer storage jig can be moved in a direction perpendicular to the side plate. However, the wafer storage jig can be gripped by the robot's clamp claws in any of the four right-angled directions of the back, front, left and right when viewed from the robot's wrist.

This allows the transport robot to transport the wafer storage jig regardless of whether the opening surface of the wafer storage jig on the manufacturing equipment is facing toward the back, front, left, or right when viewed from the operation surface side. In addition, no space around the wafer storage jig is required for transportation.

This makes it possible to freely introduce the latest high-performance equipment into automated lines.

[Example of practical restrictions]

FIG. 1 shows an embodiment of the method for transporting a wafer storage jig according to the present invention.

The wafer storage jig 1 has opposing side plates 3 connected at a predetermined interval, and on the inner surfaces of the opposing side plates, a large number of holding grooves 9 for aligning and holding semiconductor wafers are formed at a constant pitch and facing each other. It is.

The lower ends of the opposing side plates 3 are connected by an end plate 5, and the upper end is connected by an end plate 4.
It is connected by .

In the direction of the side plate 3 opposite to the upper end plate 4, there are collars 2, 2, respectively.
A wafer (not shown) held in the holding groove 9 of the side plate 3 is provided on the side near the 2.2° side of the flange 10 and 10' provided on the side where the wafer (not shown) held in the holding groove 9 of the side plate 3 is inserted and pulled out (opening side). A groove 11.11' with a catch in the direction perpendicular to the surface is provided,
A flange 12.12 having a catch in the direction perpendicular to the wafer surface on the side opposite to the opening surface of the side plate 3 and close to the flange 2, 2゛.
' is provided.

The clamp claw 6 of the robot hand consists of a claw 13.13' corresponding to the groove 11.11'' and a claw 14°14' corresponding to the collar 12.12', and the clamp claw 6' on the opposite side is composed of the clamp claw 6. Construct symmetrically.

The wafer storage jig is transported as follows.

First, the robot wrist 8 is placed in the direction of the side plate of the wafer storage jig 1 to be transferred by driving the robot arm, and the claws 14.1 of the clamp claws 6 are opened with the clamp claws 6, 6' open.
4' is placed near the collar 12.12' of the wafer storage jig, and the claw 13.13'' (not shown) of the clamp claw 6'' is placed near the groove 11.11° of the wafer storage jig. Next, the robot hand opening/closing mechanism 16 opens the clamp claw 6.
6゛ in the direction perpendicular to the direction of the opposing side plate 3 (arrow in the figure)
5) to close it, and then tighten the claws 14 and 14' to the tsuba 12.
．． 12', engage the claws 1.3.13'' into the grooves 11.11°.Next, drive the robot arm to move the wafer storage jig to the place where it should be transferred.Next, the robot hand opening/closing mechanism Open the clamp claws 6, 6' with
1. Release the mesh with 11'.

Next, drive the robot arm to tighten the clamp claw 6°6'.
By using two or more methods of moving the robot wrist 8 away from the wafer storage jig 1, the robot wrist 8 can be placed in the direction of the side plate of the wafer storage jig 1 and the wafer storage jig 1 can be transported.

By providing the clamp claw 6 with a claw 17 that corresponds to the conventional collars 2, 2', it is also possible to transport the wrist 8 with the wrist 8 placed in a direction perpendicular to the opposing side plate, as shown in FIG. can. As a result, the robot wrist 8 can be positioned in all four directions of the wafer storage jig without changing tools when gripping the wafer storage jig.

Another embodiment is shown in FIG. In place of the collar 12.12' of the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, the wafer storage jig 1 is provided with a groove 18.18° for catching in the direction perpendicular to the wafer surface, and the clamp claw 6 is provided with a hook 14.14'. Grooves 18, 18' instead
A corresponding claw 24.24" is provided.Other than this, the method is the same as that described in FIG. 1.The tsuba 12 described in FIG.
．． If the protrusion of the wafer storage jig 12' becomes an obstacle when placing the wafer storage jig on an existing device, the method shown in FIG. 3 is used to carry the wafer storage jig.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, the wrist can be placed in all four directions of the wafer storage jig and the wafer storage jig can be gripped by the clamp claws, so that the wafer storage jig loaded onto the manufacturing apparatus 19 can be held as shown in FIG. Even when the robot's wrist 8 is placed on the front side when viewed from the operator side of the manufacturing equipment and the wafer storage jig is transferred, the wafer storage jig is moved as shown in FIG. 4(A). When the opening surface of the jig faces towards the back, when it faces towards you (not shown), when it faces to the right and when it faces to the left as shown in Figure 4 (B). (not shown), and in either case, the wafer storage jig can be transported by a transport robot.

Therefore, the latest high-performance equipment can be freely introduced into the automated line, regardless of the presence or absence of space around the loaded wafer storage jig and the orientation of the opening surface of the wafer storage jig.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing another embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 4 is an explanatory view showing an example of application of the present invention. , FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing an example of a new manufacturing apparatus, and FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a conventional wafer storage jig and its transport method. 1... Wafer storage jig, 2, 2'... Tsuba, 11.
11'...groove, 12.12'...tsuba, 18.1
8'...Groove, 6,6'...Clamp claw, 8...
・Robot wrist. Foil l Roman 4 Hard (A) CB) No.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a transfer method in which a wafer storage jig is supplied and taken out by a robot to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, the wafer storage jig is placed so that the wafer in the wafer storage jig is approximately horizontal. When the wafer storage jig is loaded into the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus and the clamp claws of the robot grip the wafer storage jig, the wafer storage jig is placed in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of opposing side plates on which a large number of holding grooves are formed. A method for transporting a wafer storage jig, comprising moving the clamp claws. 2. A large number of holding grooves for aligning and holding semiconductor wafers are formed at a fixed pitch on the inner surfaces of opposing side plates connected at a predetermined interval, and the semiconductor wafers held in the holding grooves of the side plates are inserted and withdrawn. In a wafer storage jig, a flange is provided on the side where the wafer is carried out, and a flange is provided on at least one of the end plates connecting both ends of the opposing side plates, mainly for transport by the robot, in which the wafer is inserted and removed. of the tsuba provided on the side;
A groove having a catch in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the wafer is provided near the collar for transport by the robot, and the groove is provided on the opposite side of the opposing side plate from which the wafer is inserted and removed, and the robot 1. A wafer storage jig, characterized in that a groove or a flange having a catch in a direction perpendicular to the surface of the wafer is provided near the flange for transporting the wafer.