JPH05275515A - Platy body arranging pitch changing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To change the arranging pitched of platy bodies with high accuracy by positioning slide rollers put on the coupling shaft of two link plates which couple platy body holding members with each other to the center between platy body holding members by bringing the slide rollers into contact with a guide rod pressed by springs. CONSTITUTION:When driving shafts 41 and 42 rotate and a first and second driving arms 5A and 5B respectively move leftward and rightward, the position of a coupling shaft 73 coupling link plates 72 and 72 with each other moves downward. However, since slide rollers 74 put on the shaft 73 are always brought into contact with a guide rod 8 which is pressed by springs 94, the distances between the slide rollers 74 and a guide shaft 21 become the same. Therefore, each slide roller 74 is positioned to the center between the platy body holding members 3 and 3 and the arranging pitches of the members 3 become equal.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a plate-shaped array pitch conversion device.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In semiconductor devices such as ICs and LSIs, a semiconductor wafer cut out from an ingot is subjected to a number of processings such as surface processing, thermal oxidation processing, impurity diffusion processing, film forming processing and etching processing in order. Made and manufactured. In these processing steps, the semiconductor wafer is repeatedly subjected to heat treatment a plurality of times. A heating furnace is used to heat-treat the semiconductor wafer, and when the semiconductor wafer is taken in and out of the heating furnace, a dedicated quartz boat is used. On the other hand, when the semiconductor wafer is transferred from the previous process to the heating furnace, a dedicated storage container (carrier) is used. Usually, one carrier stores up to 25 semiconductor wafers in one lot.

In the handling of semiconductor wafers, it is prohibited for an operator's hand to directly touch the semiconductor wafer in order to prevent contamination. Therefore, a dedicated wafer transfer device is installed in the vicinity of the furnace opening as an auxiliary device of the heating furnace, and the transfer device automatically transfers the semiconductor wafer from the carrier to the quartz boat. The wafer transfer device has a carrier stage on which a carrier is mounted, a boat stage on which a quartz boat is mounted, a loading device which transfers semiconductor wafers from the carrier stage to the boat stage, and loads the quartz boat. .

When a semiconductor wafer is transferred from a carrier to a quartz boat by a transfer device, a plurality of carriers are arranged on a carrier stage, and the entire semiconductor wafer in the first carrier is pushed up by a push-up device to raise the semiconductor wafer. Are lifted above the carrier, sandwiched by a gripping device, conveyed to a quartz boat on a boat stage, the gripping portion is opened, and a semiconductor wafer is placed on the quartz boat. By the same operation, the semiconductor wafers from the second and subsequent carriers are sequentially transferred to the quartz boat, and the quartz boat is fully loaded with the semiconductor wafers. Then, the quartz boat is inserted into the furnace. A series of operations in such a transfer device is computer-controlled based on preset programming.

In the quartz boat, the arrangement pitch of the semiconductor wafers may differ depending on various kinds of processing such as diffusion and CVD. Therefore, there are various quartz boats in which the arrangement pitch of the mounting grooves of the semiconductor wafer is different depending on the application. For example, in the case of CVD, it is necessary to make the arrangement pitch of the semiconductor wafers wider than in other cases in order to improve the gas circulation. Also, CVD in the heating furnace
In the case of simply heating uniformly without performing the above, the arrangement pitch of the semiconductor wafers may be narrowed.

In order to transfer the semiconductor wafers to the quartz boats having different arrangement pitches at an appropriate arrangement pitch in this way, an arrangement pitch conversion device is used. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-169440 discloses an apparatus for automatically transferring semiconductor wafers between a carrier and a quartz boat, and Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-53945 discloses a semiconductor wafer on a quartz boat. In order to change the arrangement pitch, the semiconductor wafers are taken out one by one, housed in a pitch conversion container, and then collectively transferred to a quartz boat.

[0007]

However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-
Both the devices of Japanese Patent No. 169440 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 62-53945 have a problem that the precision of the array pitch is still insufficient. Therefore, the present invention is to provide a plate-shaped body arrangement pitch conversion device capable of converting the arrangement pitch with high accuracy.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the apparatus of the present invention is a guide for a plate-shaped body arrangement pitch conversion device for converting the arrangement pitch of a large number of plate-shaped bodies arranged in parallel. A shaft, and a large number of plate-shaped body holding members movably held by the guide shaft, the adjacent plate-shaped body holding members are connected by a plurality of link plates, and a shaft connecting the link plates A slide roller is provided on the guide roller, a guide rod that comes into contact with the slide roller is arranged in parallel with the guide shaft, and a pressing mechanism that elastically presses the guide rod so as to always come into contact with the slide roller is provided. To do.

[0009]

The slide roller provided on the shaft connecting the link plates moves up and down when the space between the plate-shaped member holding members changes. Since each slide roller is always in contact with the guide rod pressed by the pressing mechanism, the positions of the slide rollers are aligned at the same level. If the positions of the slide rollers are at the same level, the intervals between the plate-shaped body holding members are the same. Therefore, the arrangement pitch of the plate-shaped body holding members is always changed at equal intervals.

[0010]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. The following examples are examples in which a semiconductor wafer is used as the plate-shaped body. The semiconductor wafer transfer process will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
Carrier C positioned on the upper carrier stage 96
The semiconductor wafer W therein is pushed up by the pushing-up device 97 arranged below as shown in FIG. 5 so as to be separated upward from the carrier C at the same arrangement pitch. The semiconductor wafer W pushed up is gripped by the gripping device 98 having the same array pitch, and transferred to the plate-shaped body array pitch converting device 99 of this embodiment. At this time, the arrangement pitch of the plate-like body arrangement pitch conversion device 99 is 3/16 inch, which is the same as the carrier. The plate-shaped body arrangement pitch conversion device 99 converts the arrangement pitch of the semiconductor wafers W so that the arrangement pitch is, for example, 6/16 inch, which is twice as large as the carrier. The semiconductor wafer W whose array pitch has been converted is
After conversion, it is gripped by a gripping device 98 having an arrangement pitch of, for example, 3/16 inch, and transferred to a quartz boat B having a holding groove having an arrangement pitch of 6/16 inch. In this case, the number of semiconductor wafers W whose array pitch has been changed is 2
It is transferred to the quartz boat B in one transfer step. The quartz boat B is housed in a heating furnace (not shown) and subjected to various heat treatments.

FIG. 1 is a front view for explaining the apparatus of this embodiment,
2 is an explanatory side view, and FIG. 3 is an explanatory plan view of the link mechanism. A guide shaft 21 is arranged between the side plates 11 and 12 so as to extend in parallel. A large number of plate-shaped body holding members 3 are movably held on the guide shaft 21 by a link mechanism 7.

A holding portion 31 for holding the semiconductor wafer W made of fluororesin is provided on the plate-shaped body holding member 3.
The semiconductor wafer W is placed in the holding groove of the holding portion 31. On the side of the bottom plate 13, a drive shaft 4 is arranged in which a first shaft 41 having a right-hand screw and a second shaft 42 having a left-hand screw are coaxially connected and fixed by a connecting member 43 at the center, and both ends thereof are a bottom plate. It is rotatably held by shaft holding members 44 and 45 fixed to the shaft 13. A shaft holding member 46 is also provided in the center of the drive shaft 4. The drive shaft 4 is provided with an encoder 47 that detects the amount of rotation thereof.

First drive arms 5A and 5A are respectively provided on the plate-shaped member holding member 3A at the rightmost end and the plate-shaped member holding member 3B at the leftmost end.
B is fixed. The first drive arm 5A is screwed onto the first shaft 41, and the second drive arm 5B is connected to the second shaft 42.
It is screwed to. When the shafts 41 and 42 rotate, the drive arms 5A and 5B move in a direction toward or away from each other. A pulley 61 is fixed to one end of the drive shaft 4, and the pulley 6
1 and the rotary shaft 63 of the drive motor 62 between the drive belt 6
4 are provided. The drive motor 62 is controlled by a control circuit (not shown) to a predetermined number of rotations by the output signal of the encoder 47.

A link mechanism 7 is provided between the plate-shaped member holding members 3 and 3.
Are linked by. The link mechanism 7 has a shaft 71 provided on the plate-shaped member holding member 3 and a link plate 72 rotatably provided on the shaft 71, and two link members are provided between the adjacent plate-shaped member holding members 3 and 3. A plurality of link plates 72 are arranged, and the link plates 72 are also rotatable with each other.
It is connected by 3. The distances between the shafts 71 provided on the plate-shaped member holding member 3 and the guide shafts 21 are all the same, the link plates 72 of the same size are used, and the link plates 72 are connected to each other. The shaft 73 is located at the center between the plate-shaped body holding members 3 and 3.

A slide roller 74 is provided on the connecting shaft 73, and a guide rod 8 that abuts on each slide roller 74 is arranged parallel to the guide shaft 21. This guide rod 8
Are elastically pressed by the pressing mechanism 9 so as to always come into contact with the slide rollers 74. The pressing mechanism 9 is 1
Two guide rods 8 are provided. In each pressing mechanism 9, two slide shafts 91 that stand upright from the bottom plate 13 are provided. The slide shaft 91 can slide up and down with respect to the lower bearing 92. A pressing member 93 is fixed to the upper ends of the two slide shafts 91, and a spring 94 is provided on the slide shaft 91 so that the upper surface of the pressing member 93 always contacts the guide rod 8.

Next, the operation of the apparatus according to this embodiment will be described. The drive shaft 4 rotates and the first drive arm 5A
Moves to the right in FIG. 1 and the second drive arm 5B moves to the left, the array pitch between the plate-shaped member holding members 3 increases. On the contrary, when the first drive arm 5A moves to the left side and the second drive arm 5B moves to the right side, the arrangement pitch between the plate-shaped body holding members 3 is narrowed. The array pitch can be changed steplessly and can be strictly controlled by the rotation amount of the drive shaft 4.

When the first drive arm 5A is moved to the left side and the second drive arm 5B is moved to the right side, the link plate 7 is moved.
Although the position of the connecting shaft 73 between the two and 72 moves downward in FIG. 1, a slide roller 74 provided on the connecting shaft 73.
However, since they are always in contact with the guide rod 8 pressed by the spring 94, the distances between the slide rollers 74 and the guide shaft 21 are all the same. Therefore, each slide roller 74 is always positioned in the center between the plate-shaped member holding members 3 and 3, and the arrangement pitch of the plate-shaped member holding members 3 becomes uniform. The state shown by the solid line in FIG. 1 shows the case where the distance between the first drive arm 5A and the second drive arm 5B is the maximum, and the arrangement pitch of the semiconductor wafers W is the maximum. The state shown by the dotted line in FIG. 1 shows the case where the distance between the first drive arm 5A and the second drive arm 5B is minimum, and the plate-shaped body holding members are arranged in a state of being opened by a thickness of the semiconductor wafer W or more. It is when the pitch is at a minimum. In the unlikely event that a wafer crack occurs on this unit, the wafer may be sandwiched between the plate-shaped holding members and damage the equipment. Therefore, even if the minimum pitch (3/16 inch) is reached, The plate thickness between the holding members is designed so that the clearance is larger than the thickness of the wafer.

According to the plate-shaped body arrangement pitch conversion device of this embodiment, the plate-shaped body holding member 3 moves along the guide shaft 21 by the link mechanism 7, but the plate-shaped body holding members 3, 3 are connected to each other. Since the slide roller 74 provided on the connecting shaft 73 of the two link plates 72 is in contact with the guide rod 8 pressed by the spring 94, it is always located in the center between the plate-shaped body holding members 3 and 3. Like Therefore, the arrangement pitch of the plate-shaped body holding members 3 can be made uniform with high accuracy.

The plate-shaped body arrangement pitch conversion device of this embodiment is
It can be preferably used in a heating furnace system for semiconductor wafers. A carrier used for transporting semiconductor wafers usually accommodates 25 semiconductor wafers at an arrangement pitch of 3/16 inch. The semiconductor wafer in the carrier is
The wafer is transferred to a quartz boat and subjected to heat treatment, but the arrangement pitch of semiconductor wafers in the quartz boat is 3
Three types, / 16 inch, 6/16 inch, and 9/16 inch, are widely adopted. When the semiconductor wafers are transferred to a quartz boat having an array pitch of 6/16 inch which is twice that of the carrier and 9/16 inch which is three times that of the carrier, the plate array pitch converting apparatus of the present embodiment is preferably used. it can.

Since the plate-shaped body arrangement pitch conversion device of the present invention can convert the pitch interval easily and with high accuracy by controlling the rotation of the drive motor 62, it can be applied to various heat treatments. You can The plate-shaped body arrangement pitch conversion device of the present invention can be applied to both vertical and horizontal heating furnaces. INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The plate-shaped body array pitch conversion device of the present invention can be applied not only to semiconductor manufacturing devices but also to LCD manufacturing devices and the like.

[0021]

According to the plate-shaped body arrangement pitch conversion device of the present invention, the arrangement pitch of the plate-shaped bodies can be converted with high accuracy.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front view for explaining a plate-shaped body array pitch conversion device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a side view for explaining a plate-shaped body array pitch conversion device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory plan view showing a link mechanism in the plate-shaped body array pitch conversion device according to the embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing an outline of a semiconductor wafer transfer device.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a push-up device and a grip device in the transfer device.

[Explanation of symbols]

W semiconductor wafer 11, 12 side plate 13 bottom plate 21 guide shaft 3 plate-shaped body holding members 3A, 3B plate-shaped body holding members 31 at both ends 31 holding portion 4 drive shaft 41 first shaft 42 second shaft 43 connecting member 44, 45 , 4
6 shaft holding member 47 encoder 5A first drive arm 5B second drive arm 61 pulley 62 drive motor 63 rotary shaft 64 drive belt 7 link mechanism 71 shaft 72 link plate 73 connection shaft 74 slide roller 8 guide rod 9 pressing mechanism 91 Slide shaft 92 Bearing 93 Pressing member 94 Spring 95 Transfer device body 96 Carrier stage 97 Push-up device 98 Grasping device 99 Plate-shaped body arrangement pitch conversion device C Carrier B Quartz boat

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An arrangement pitch conversion device for a plate-shaped body for converting the arrangement pitch of a large number of plate-shaped bodies arranged in parallel, wherein a guide shaft and a large number of plate-shaped body holdings movably held by the guide shaft are provided. The adjacent plate-shaped member holding members are connected by a plurality of link plates, a slide roller is provided on the shaft connecting the link plates, and the guide rod abutting on the slide roller is the guide shaft. An arrangement pitch conversion device for a plate-shaped body, which is arranged in parallel with, and is provided with a pressing mechanism that elastically presses the guide rod so as to always contact the slide roller.