JPH042148A - Wafer carrier - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a stopper means from being lost in entanglement with other things during the wafer in-and-out work by incorporating the stopper means in the housing body. CONSTITUTION:A wafer 4 is stored in wafer-storing grooves 5 cut in the side boards 2a, 2b of a housing body 2. A wafer carrier 1 incorporates a stopper means 10 constituted of stopper boards 12 integral with a stopper shaft 11 and stopper grooves 13 at an arbitrary place on the wafer loading port 6. When the stopper shaft 11 and the stopper board 12 are pushed up, the wafer-storing groove 5 coincides with the stopper grooves 13 to release the wafer-storing grooves 5 in the direction ot the water loading port 6 so that wafers 4 can be freely loaded in and out.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a wafer carrier that requires a means to prevent wafers from slipping out during transportation of a semiconductor wafer storage container.

[Prior Art J] Conventional wafer carriers do not have a means for preventing wafers from slipping out, or even if they do have a mechanism, the mechanism is complicated, and the stopper means is manually operated.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] When transporting wafers, the wafers are stored in a wafer carrier and transported, but in order to allow wafers to be moved in and out of conventional wafer carriers, the entrance and exit of the housing body is open. Therefore, when the wafer carrier is tilted toward the wafer entrance/exit side, the accommodated wafers slip out, causing cracks and scratches on the wafers.

Furthermore, in conventional wafer carriers having stopper means, the stopper means is a separate component, which is cumbersome to operate by hand, and parts may be lost.

Furthermore, the stop bar built into the housing body has to be operated manually, which is cumbersome, and if the user forgets to operate it, the device may be installed with the wafer inlet/outlet not open, resulting in troubles, and the wafer may slip out due to no release button during transportation. There's a problem. The present invention provides a wafer carrier that eliminates problems such as troublesome operation of the stopper means and loss of parts, and also prevents troubles when installing the device due to forgetting to operate the stopper means and prevents wafers from coming out during transportation. provide.

[Means for solving the problem] When the wafer carrier is attached to the apparatus, the shaft portion of the stopper means protruding from the lower end of the housing body is pushed upward, the wafer carrier entrance and exit is in an open state, and the stopper means returns downward when the wafer is transferred. The problem was solved by providing a mechanism in which a stopper plate provided on the shaft of the stopper means blocks the wafer entrance and the wafer does not come out even if the wafer carrier is tilted toward the wafer entrance.

[Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings. 1st
The figure is an overall view of the wafer carrier 1 mounted on the apparatus stage 9, in which the wafer 4 is attached to the side plates 2a and 2b of the housing body 2.
The wafer is accommodated in a wafer accommodating groove 5 provided in the wafer. At any location on the wafer entrance/exit 6 side of the wafer carrier 1,
A stopper means 10 constituted by a stopper plate 12 integrated with a stopper shaft 11 and a stopper groove 13 as shown in FIG. 2 is incorporated. In this state, the stopper shaft 11 of the stopper means 10 is pushed upward by the pitch of the wafer accommodation groove 5 provided in the housing main body 2 by the stage 9, so that the stopper shaft 11 and the stopper plate 12 are separated as shown in FIG. The wafer accommodating groove 5 is pushed upward and the stopper groove 13 coincides with each other, and the wafer accommodating groove 5 becomes open to the direction of the wafer entrance/exit 6, so that the wafer 4 can be freely taken in and taken out. Next, when the wafer carrier 1 is transported, the wafer carrier 1 separates from the stage 9, and the stopper means 10 moves downward due to its own weight, and the lowermost part of the stopper plate 14 goes down until it hits the lowermost part 8 of the wafer storage groove, as shown in FIG. As shown, the stopper plate 12 is at a position overlapping the wafer storage groove 5 shown in FIG. It also hits the stopper plate 12 shown in FIG. 4 and cannot be pulled out.

[Effects of the Invention] Since the wafer carrier of the present invention incorporates the stopper means into the housing body, the stopper means will not get mixed up with other objects and be lost during the work of loading and unloading wafers. Since the stopper means can be operated only by moving the stopper shaft up and down, manual operation is not required, making the operation easier.Furthermore, since no operational errors occur, troubles in loading and unloading wafers and unloading wafers can be reliably prevented.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention in which a wafer is mounted on a stage of a wafer handling apparatus. Second
The figure is a block diagram of the stopper means shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the stopper means of FIG. 1 and the housing main body in which the stopper means is incorporated, placed on a stage. Fourth
The figure is a sectional view of the stopper means of FIG. 1 and the housing main body in which the stopper means is incorporated, in a conveyed state. 1. Wafer carrier, 2.°housing body, 3a
, 3b... side plate, 4... wafer, 5... wafer accommodation groove, 6... wafer entrance/exit, 7... lowermost part of wafer accommodation groove, 8... apparatus stage, 9... stopper means,
10. Stopper shaft, 11. Stopper plate, 12.
Stopper groove, 13... Above the bottom of the stopper plate

Claims (1)

[Claims] In a wafer carrier comprising a housing body that accommodates wafers in and out of the housing body, and stopper means for preventing the wafers housed in the housing body from coming out from the wafer entrance/exit, the stopper means are located at both upper and lower ends of the housing body. The shaft part is provided to be movable up and down, and the stopper part extends from the shaft in the lateral direction in accordance with the pitch of the wafer storage groove provided in the housing body, and the shaft part is located at the lower end of the housing body. A wafer carrier, characterized in that the wafer carrier protrudes from the housing body by a pitch of a wafer storage groove provided in the housing body.