JPH05146984A - Robot for handling wafer cassette - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To hold adjacent wafer cassettes having flanges on side face sides in succession with a simple action. CONSTITUTION:In a wafer cassette handling robot having a hand 100 fitted rotatably by a rotary shaft J16 at the tip of an arm A1 provided with multiple joints and a pair of chuck sections 130 provided on the hand 100 to hold a semiconductor wafer cassette C1, a pair of chuck sections 130 are arranged point-symmetrically with the rotary shaft J16 as viewed from the axial direction of the rotary shaft 16.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a handling robot for semiconductor wafer cassettes (hereinafter referred to as wafer cassettes). In particular, the present invention relates to a wafer cassette handling robot capable of performing continuous gripping operations of a wafer cassette by simple control.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An example of a conventional wafer cassette handling robot is shown in FIGS. This is mounted on a trackless automatic guided vehicle V that travels in a clean room, and a hand 10 is rotatably attached by a rotation axis J6 to the tip of a vertically articulated arm A having 6 axes J1 to J6. Has been.

As shown in FIG. 10, the hand 10 includes a hand body 11 fixed to a rotary shaft J6, and a hand body 1
1 is provided with hand portions 12 and 12 slidably provided in the directions of arrows X1 and X2, and a pair of chuck portions 13 and 13 provided on the hand portions 12 and 12, respectively.

In such a wafer cassette handling robot, the wafer cassette C is attached to the chuck portions 13 and 13.
Wafer cassette C between the cassette stocker and the process equipment in the clean room
Is to be handed over. In addition, 14 is C
It is a CD camera, which corrects the error in the stop position.

[0005]

Recently, in handling a wafer cassette, various handling postures such as a vertical direction, a horizontal direction, and an oblique direction have been required due to diversification of process apparatuses.

The conventional wafer cassette handling robot has no problem when the flange F of the wafer cassette C is located on the upper surface side as shown in FIG.
When the flange is located on the side of the cassette as shown by the phantom line F'in the figure, the following problems occur.

That is, the conventional chuck portions 13, 13
10 is not arranged point-symmetrically with respect to the rotation axis J6 of the hand as seen in the axial direction of the rotation axis J6 as shown in FIG. 10, but is arranged on one side (upper side in FIG. 10), In order to grip the flange F ′ located on the side surface side of the cassette C, it is necessary to grip the hand body 11 in a posture such that the hand body 11 is located above, as shown in FIG.
In a posture in which the hand body 11 is located below, the hand body 11 is used for the other cassette C ′ and the mounting table 20 for the cassette.
It cannot be held because it interferes with.

Therefore, as shown in FIG. 11A, first, the left cassette C is gripped, and subsequently, as shown in FIG. 11B, the adjacent right cassette C'is gripped. In this case, in order to make the hand main body 11 in a gripping posture such that it is always positioned above, it is not enough to swing the hand 10 (that is, the axis J6) around the axis J5 (see FIG. 9). You also have to rotate it.

Therefore, the conventional wafer cassette handling robot requires posture control around two axes, which complicates the operation and also complicates the control.

An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems, and to perform the simple operation even in the case where the flange is on the side surface side and the adjacent wafer cassette is continuously gripped. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wafer cassette handling robot capable of performing the following.

[0011]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a hand rotatably attached to the tip of an arm having a plurality of joints by a rotary shaft, and a hand for gripping a semiconductor wafer cassette. In the wafer cassette handling robot provided with a pair of chuck portions provided in the above, the pair of chuck portions are arranged point-symmetrically with respect to the rotation axis when viewed in the axial direction of the rotation axis.

[0012]

Since the present invention has the above-mentioned structure, the following operational effects are obtained.

That is, since the pair of chuck portions provided on the hand for gripping the semiconductor wafer cassette are arranged point-symmetrically with respect to the rotation axis of the rotation axis of the hand when viewed in the axial direction, the flange has a side surface. Even when the adjacent and adjacent wafer cassettes are continuously gripped, it is not necessary to rotate the hand around the rotation axis, and the wafer cassette can be gripped simply by swinging the rotation axis. You can get the posture.

Therefore, according to the wafer cassette handling robot of the present invention, even if the adjacent wafer cassette is continuously gripped by the flange on the side surface side, this is performed by a simple operation. The effect is that you can.

[0015]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of a wafer cassette handling robot according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a plan view, FIG. 3 is a side view, FIG. 4 is a front view of a hand, and FIG. 5 is a plan view. 6 is a sectional view taken along line VI-VI in FIG.

The wafer cassette handling robot of this embodiment is mounted on a trackless automatic guided vehicle V1 which runs in a clean room, and has six axes J11 to J16.
The hand 10 at the tip of the vertically articulated arm A1 having
0 is rotatably attached by a rotary shaft J16.

As shown in FIG. 4, the hand 100 is provided with a hand body 110 fixed to the rotary shaft J16, hand portions 120 and 120 provided on the hand body 110, and hand portions 120 and 120, respectively. And a pair of chuck portions 130, 130,
130 is arranged in point symmetry with respect to the rotation axis J16 when viewed in the axial direction of the rotation axis J16.

As shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, in the hand portion 120, a prismatic base 121 is inserted into the hand body 110, and the base 121 is an L-shaped connecting member 1 in plan view.
It is fixed to one end portion 122 a of 22. Connecting member 12
2 is fixed to a slide block 124 that slides along a guide rail 123 fixed to the main body 110, and the other end 122b is connected to a nut body 126 via two rods 125. The rod 125 is fixed to the nut body 126, and the connecting member 122.
Can be inserted (sliding). Around the rod 125, the connecting member 122 and the nut body 12
6, a spring 127 is provided in a state of being interposed between the connecting member 122 and the nut 6, and acts in a direction in which the connecting member 122 and the nut body 126 are separated from each other. 125a is a stopper. The nut bodies 126, 126 are screwed together with a single screw body 128 in which screws in opposite directions are formed at the respective screwing portions, and the screw body 128 is fixed to the bevel gear 1 fixed thereto.
29a and the bevel gear 12 fixed to the motor shaft M1
It is adapted to be rotationally driven by a motor M via 9b. Therefore, when the motor M is driven, the screw body 12
When 8 rotates, the hand unit 12 is rotated according to the rotating direction.
0 and 120 slide in the X1 direction or the X2 direction,
When slid in the X2 direction, the flange F of the wafer cassette C is gripped from both sides as shown in FIG. At this time, the nut bodies 126, 126 move to such an extent that the tip of the rod 125 slightly projects from the connecting member 122, so that the gripping of the flange F by the hand portion 120 has the elasticity of the springs 127, 127. It is supposed to be done. Note that the flange F is provided with a notch 140 as shown in FIG. 8 in order to restrict the movement of the cassette C in the arrow Y direction with respect to the chuck portions 130, 130 when gripped, and the chuck portion 130.
The notch 140 is provided with a protrusion 131 that engages with the notch 140.

Reference numeral 150 denotes a CCD camera for correcting the error of the stop position, which is incorporated in the main body 110 in this embodiment.

In the wafer cassette handling robot as described above, the pair of chuck portions 130, 130 provided on the hand 100 are pointed with respect to the rotation axis J16 when viewed in the axial direction of the rotation axis J16 of the hand (see FIG. 4). Since they are arranged symmetrically, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG.
Even in the case where the flange F is on the side surface side and the adjacent wafer cassettes C1 and C2 are continuously gripped,
It is not necessary to rotate the hand 100 around the rotation axis J16, and after grasping the cassette C1 in the posture as shown in FIG. 1, simply rotating the rotation axis J16 around the axis J15 as shown in FIG. The posture for gripping can be obtained.

Therefore, according to such a wafer cassette handling robot, even in the case where the flange F is located on the side surface side and the adjacent wafer cassettes C1 and C2 are continuously gripped, a simple operation is possible. This can be done with and its control can be simplified.

Although one embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications can be appropriately made within the scope of the present invention.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view showing an embodiment of a wafer cassette handling robot according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the same.

FIG. 3 is a side view of the same.

FIG. 4 is a front view of a hand according to the embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a plan view of the same.

6 is a sectional view taken along line VI-VI in FIG.

FIG. 7 is an explanatory view of the operation of the above embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view of a wafer cassette.

FIG. 9 is a front view of a conventional robot.

FIG. 10 is a bottom view showing the hand of the conventional robot.

FIG. 11 is an operation explanatory view of a conventional robot.

[Explanation of symbols]

 A1 Arm C Wafer cassette J16 Rotation axis 100 Hand 130 Chuck part

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A wafer cassette comprising a hand rotatably attached to a tip of an arm having a plurality of joints by a rotary shaft, and a pair of chuck portions provided on the hand for gripping a semiconductor wafer cassette. A handling robot for a wafer cassette, wherein the pair of chuck portions are arranged point-symmetrically with respect to the rotation axis when viewed in the axial direction of the rotation axis.