JPH0528498B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a cassette transfer device suitable for use when performing diffusion treatment on disk-shaped members such as semiconductor silicon wafers and glass wafers.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, a cassette transfer device of this type has been constructed as shown in FIG. To explain this based on the figure, 1 is a cassette used for transporting a disk-shaped semiconductor silicon wafer 2 between processes. freely held. A large number of narrow grooves 1a and 1b are formed inside the cassette 1 to support semiconductor silicon wafers 2 in a removable manner. A guide member 5 guides the peripheral edge of the semiconductor silicon wafer 2, and is composed of two upper and lower rails 6, 7 each having a guide groove 6a, 7a facing each other in its opening. (not shown). The guide grooves 6a and 7a of the guide member 5 are formed in the cassette 1.
It is inclined from there toward the rising portions 6b and 7b. Reference numeral 8 denotes an L-shaped push-up rod, which is disposed near the holding device 4 and is used to push up the cassette 1 by a drive device (not shown) when wafers are aligned.
The structure is such that the semiconductor silicon wafer 2 inside is pushed up to the rising portions 6b and 7b. Reference numeral 9 denotes a reversing device for reversing the cassette 1, which has a disk-shaped support 9a and supports the push-up rod 8.
It is located below. Reference numeral 10 denotes a collection station on which the cassette 1 after wafer transfer is placed, and is disposed near the reversing device 9.

In the cassette transfer device configured in this manner, the cassette 1 placed on the support base 9a can be reversed by rotating the holding device 9 by 180 degrees, and the transfer operation can be performed automatically. can.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

By the way, in this type of cassette transfer apparatus, when the transfer of the semiconductor silicon wafers 2 to the diffusion boat (not shown) is completed, the cassette 1 is directly placed on the collection station 10.
Some items are once reversed on the support stand 9a of the reversing device 9 and placed on the collection station 10.

That is, the shape of the cassette 1 is not symmetrical, and therefore, when the cassette 1 is transported to the next process, it is necessary to align the orientation to avoid confusion in the next process.

As a result, when the cassette 1 is held in an inverted state in the holding device 4, the cassette 1
The next cassette 1 cannot be held by the holding device 4 until the next cassette 1 is placed on the collection station 10, which poses a problem in that it takes a lot of time to transfer the semiconductor silicon wafers 2.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and it is an object of the present invention to provide a cassette transfer device that can efficiently perform cassette transfer operations.

[Means for solving problems]

The cassette transfer device according to the present invention includes a cassette having a number of narrow grooves formed therein for removably supporting disc-shaped members, and a large number of discs that are provided on a moving rail so as to be movable back and forth. a holding device that receives and holds the input-side cassette supporting the disc-shaped member, and sends out the recovery-side cassette in which the transfer of the disc-shaped member has been completed; A loading side reversing device which includes a conveying device for conveying the cassettes to and from the device, and an input side reversing device in which the loading side cassette is placed between the conveying device and the holding device and reverses its direction as necessary; A recovery side reversing device is provided on which the recovery side cassette is placed and for reversing the direction of the recovery side cassette as necessary.

[Effect]

According to the present invention, when reversing a cassette, it is possible to use the inverting device on the input side when holding the cassette in the holding device and the reversing device on the collecting side when collecting the cassette, and to continuously transfer cassettes. It can be done accurately.

〔Example〕

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a cassette transfer device according to the present invention. In this figure, the same members as in FIG. 2 are denoted by the same reference numerals, and detailed description thereof will be omitted. In the same figure, the reference numeral 21 denotes a conveying device having a gripper 22 for gripping the cassette 1, which is disposed near the holding device 4 so as to be able to move forward and backward, and is equipped with reversing devices on the input side and the retrieval side, which will be described later. The cassette 1 is conveyed between the cassette 1 and a stocker (not shown). 23 and 24
are an input-side reversing device and a recovery-side reversing device for reversing the cassette 1, respectively;
24a, the holding device 4 and the conveying device 2
1. The input-side reversing device 23 is configured to have the input-side cassette 1 placed thereon and to reverse its direction as necessary, and the collection-side reversing device 24 is configured to receive the input-side cassette 1 and reverse its direction as necessary. It is constructed so that its direction can be reversed as necessary. In addition, 2
A guide rail 5 is arranged parallel to the moving rail 3 and guides the conveying device 21.

In the cassette transfer device configured as described above, when the cassette 1 on the support stand 23a is held by the holding device 4, the semiconductor silicon wafer 2 is stored on the support stand 23a by the transfer device 21. The next cassette 1 to be loaded is placed. At this time, the semiconductor silicon wafer 2 is transferred from the inside of the cassette 1 to the upper and lower rails 6, 7 of the guide member 5 by the push-up rod 8. When the transfer of the semiconductor silicon wafer 2 is completed, the cassette 1 is placed from the holding device 4 onto the support stand 24a. At this time, if it is necessary to invert the cassette 1 on the supports 23a, 24a, it can be inverted 180 degrees by the input-side inversion device or the recovery-side inversion device 24.

Therefore, when reversing the cassette 1, the input-side reversing device 23 can be used to hold the cassette 1 in the holding device 4, and the retrieval-side reversing device 24 can be used to retrieve the cassette 1. Work can be done continuously.

Note that in this embodiment, one transport device 21
An example of loading and retrieving cassette 1 was shown in .
The present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that two conveyance devices may be used, each for loading and retrieving the materials.

Further, in this embodiment, a semiconductor silicon wafer 2 is used as the disk-shaped member, but the present invention may be applied to a disk-shaped member such as a glass wafer.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the cassette transfer device according to the present invention, there is provided a holding device which is movably provided on the moving rail and which receives and holds the cassettes on the input side and sends out the cassettes on the collection side, and the vicinity thereof. A conveying device is provided to move the cassettes back and forth between the cassette and the holding device, and between the conveying device and the holding device, the cassette on the input side is placed and its orientation can be adjusted as necessary. A reversing device on the input side for reversing the cassettes, and a reversing device on the retrieval side for placing the cassettes and reversing their direction as necessary. An input side inversion device can be used to hold the cassette, and a recovery side inversion device can be used to retrieve the cassette. Therefore, the cassettes can be continuously transferred, and the transfer operation can be carried out efficiently.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a cassette transfer device according to the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a conventional cassette transfer device. 1...Cassette, 1a, 1b...Small groove, 2...
Semiconductor silicon wafer, 3... Moving rail, 4...
...Holding device, 21...Transporting device, 23...Input side reversing device, 24...Recovery side reversing device.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cassette with a large number of narrow grooves formed inside the cassette to support disk-shaped members in a removable manner, and a cassette on the input side that is provided on a moving rail so as to be able to move forward and backward and supports a large number of disk-shaped members. The cassette is transported between a holding device that receives and holds the cassette and sends out the recovery side cassette after the disk-shaped member has been transferred, and a holding device that is disposed in the vicinity of this holding device so as to be movable forward and backward. A transport device is provided, and between the transport device and the holding device, the input side cassette is placed, and an input side reversing device for reversing the direction of the input side cassette as necessary, and the collection side cassette are placed. What is claimed is: 1. A cassette transfer device comprising: a retrieval-side reversing device for reversing the direction of the cassettes as needed.