JPH0533127A - Disk handling mechanism for sputtering system - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To accurately and rapidly load a disk in the loading hole of a disk holder in a sputtering system. CONSTITUTION:A plate 9 moving vertically along the rear face of a disk holder 1 is provided, a contact linear displacement gage 8 is disposed on the plate 9, the tip of the sensor part 8a of each gage is abutted on the vicinity of a loading groove 2a at the lower end of the loading hole 2 in which each disk of the holder 1 is loaded, the displacement from the reference position of the groove 2a is detected at every row of the holes 2, and the hands 23 and 24 of a robot 22 for loading the disk in the groove 2a are controlled based on the data of the displacements in the disk handling mechanism for a sputtering system.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an in-line type sputtering apparatus for forming a magnetic film or the like on a disk substrate by using a sputtering technique, and a plurality of mounting holes provided in a disk holder during the process of forming the magnetic film. The present invention relates to a disc handling mechanism for mounting a large number of disc substrates.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art FIG. 8 schematically shows a conventional sputtering apparatus for manufacturing a magnetic disk, (A) is a plan view thereof, (B) is a front view thereof, and 51 is an unload / load position of the disk. Here, a plurality of magnetic disks having magnetic coatings attached to the disk holder 53 fixed on the carrier 52 temporarily removed from the in-line flow of the sputtering apparatus are removed from the disk holder 53 by a robot hand (not shown). Remove and remove the uncoated disc from the disc holder 5
The carrier 52 attached to 3 is put on the in-line flow.

The carrier 52 placed on this in-line flow enters a low-vacuum first buffer chamber 54 for preventing the vacuum degree from being affected when it enters the heating chamber, which will be described later. Into the heating chamber 55 heated by a high vacuum, where the disc holder 53 on the carrier 52
Heat the disc attached to the.

Next, the carrier 52 and the disk holder 53 enter a sputtering chamber 56 for forming a film on the disk by sequentially sputtering chromium (Cr) and tantalum (Ta), and then chromium (Cr) and tantalum (T).
The coating of a) is sequentially formed on both sides of the disc. Further, after passing through the slit 57, the carbon (C) is introduced into a carbon sputtering chamber 58 for forming a film on the disk by sputtering, and here, carbon (C) is formed on both surfaces of the disk. The slit 57 is provided in order to make the conditions of carbon sputtering different from the conditions of other sputtering.

Further, the carrier 52 and the disk holder 53 enter the low-vacuum second buffer chamber 59 for preventing the vacuum degree of the sputtering chamber from being affected when the carrier 52 and the disk holder 53 go out of the sputtering chamber. Get out,
As shown in FIG. 8 (B), the disk moves to the left side and returns to the unload / load position 51 again, the magnetic disk having the magnetic coating formed thereon is taken out from the disk holder 53, and the uncoated disk is replaced with the disk holder. Attach to 53.

In such a conventional sputtering apparatus, for example, there are 24 carriers 52, and it took 48 minutes for one carrier 52 to go around the sputtering apparatus. Therefore, the tact time for manufacturing the magnetic disk is 2 minutes. That is, in the sputtering step, the time during which the carrier 52 is stopped is 1.5 minutes,
The travel time is 0.5 minutes.

FIG. 9A is a perspective view of the carrier 52 and the disk holder 53 mounted on the carrier 52, and FIG. 9B is a detailed view of a part of the disk holder 53. In order to attach a large number of uncoated discs 60 to the disc holder 53 mounted on the carrier 52, a plurality of disc mounting holes 61 slightly larger than the discs 60 are aligned and formed in the disc holder 53. , The disk mounting groove 6 is formed in the lower half of the inner wall of the mounting hole 61 in a substantially semicircular portion.
1a is formed, and the disc 6 is inserted in the disc mounting groove 61a.
The disk 60 is attached to the attachment hole 61 by fitting the lower semicircular portion 60a of 0. Mounting hole 61 for this disc 60
The robot hand (not shown) has been used to mount the magnetic disk on which the magnetic coating is formed and remove the magnetic disk from the mounting hole 61.

[0008]

However, in the conventional sputtering apparatus for manufacturing the magnetic disk, recently, for example, a magnetic disk having a diameter of 2.5 inches is often manufactured, and the disk holder 53 is not coated. There are cases where, for example, 35 formed 2.5 inch diameter disks 60 are mounted, and therefore, how quickly a large number of magnetic coatings are formed from the disk holder 53 at the unload / load position 51 of the disk. A major problem is how to remove and quickly attach a large number of uncoated disks 60 to the disk holder 53.

In particular, as described above, when the number of disc mounting holes formed in the disc holder increases, the disc holder is deformed by heat and it becomes difficult to maintain flatness. The displacement of each mounting hole from the reference position tended to increase.

On the other hand, the laser displacement sensor, which is a sensor for the eyes of the robot, may cause an error due to the brightness or scratches on the disk surface. The robot hand inserts the disk 60 into the mounting hole 61, and further the mounting groove 61a. It could take some time to get into.

The present invention has recently made it possible to shorten the tact time for manufacturing a magnetic disk in a sputtering apparatus for manufacturing a magnetic disk, and accordingly remove the magnetic disk manufactured from the disk holder, In order to shorten the time to mount an uncoated disk on the holder and improve the manufacturing efficiency of the magnetic disk, the disk holder is deformed due to heat and the flatness is disturbed. Even if the displacement from the position becomes large, the disk can be accurately and promptly mounted in the mounting groove of the mounting hole of the disk holder, and it is intended to improve the manufacturing efficiency of the magnetic disk.

[0012]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention, as shown in FIG. 1, has a disc handling mechanism of an in-line type sputtering apparatus, which moves up and down along the back surface of the disc holder 1. A moving plate 9 is provided, and a contact type linear displacement meter 8 is arranged on the vertical moving plate 9, and a sensor portion 8a of each contact type linear displacement meter 8 is provided.
The tip of the abutment is brought into contact with the vicinity of the mounting groove 2a at the lower end of the mounting hole 2 for mounting each disk of the disk holder 1, and the displacement of the mounting groove 2a from the reference position is detected for each row of the mounting hole 2. The disk handling mechanism of the sputtering apparatus is characterized in that the hands 23 and 24 of the robot 22 for mounting the disk in the mounting groove 2a are controlled based on the displacement data.

Another invention for achieving the above object is, as shown in FIG. 7, in a disk handling mechanism of an in-line type sputtering apparatus, the back surface of the disk holder 1 is made to approach in parallel with the disk holder 1. A vertical plate 33 is provided, and the same number of contact type linear displacement gauges 8 as the mounting holes 2 of the disk are provided in the vertical plate 33, and the tip of the sensor portion 8a is brought into contact with the vicinity of the mounting groove 2a of the mounting hole 2. Displacement of the mounting groove 2a of each mounting hole 2 from the reference position is detected, and the hands 23 and 24 of the robot 22 for mounting the disk in the mounting groove 2a are controlled based on the displacement data. This is a disk handling mechanism of a sputtering device.

[0014]

According to the disk handling mechanism of the sputtering apparatus of the present invention, the tip of the sensor portion 8a of the contact type linear displacement meter 8 provided on the vertical moving plate 9 which moves up and down along the back surface of the disk holder 1 has the vertical moving plate. Along with the lowering of 9, the displacement of the mounting hole 2a of the disc provided in the disc holder 1 from the reference position of the mounting groove 2a is detected, and based on the displacement data, the hand 23 of the robot 22,
24 is controlled to mount the disk in the mounting groove 2a.

When the processing capacity of the displacement data from the reference position of the mounting groove 2a of the mounting hole 2 of the disc provided in the disc holder 1 is large, the mounting hole provided in the disc holder 1 as shown in FIG. The same number of contact type linear displacement gauges 8 as 2 are provided on the vertical plate 33, and the tip of the sensor portion 8a of the contact type linear displacement gauge 8 is brought into contact with the vicinity of the attachment groove 2a of each attachment hole 2 at the same time to make a disc. The displacement of the mounting groove 2a of the mounting hole 2 from the reference position is detected, and the hands 23 and 24 of the robot 22 are controlled based on the displacement data to mount the disc in the mounting groove 2a.

[0016]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the disk handling mechanism of the sputtering apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. In FIG. 1, 1 is a disc holder, 2 is a disc mounting hole formed in the disc holder 1, and 2a is a disc mounting groove formed in the lower half of the mounting hole 2. In the case of this embodiment, Disc mounting holes 2 are provided in the disc holder 1 so that a total of 35 discs can be mounted, 7 in the horizontal direction and 5 in the vertical direction.

As shown in FIG. 2, the disc holder 1 is fixed on the upper surface of the carrier 3, and the carrier 3
A wheel 4 is provided below the disk, and the wheel 4 rides on a rail (not shown) so that the disk holder 1 moves in the in-line type sputtering apparatus. In addition, a V-shaped groove 5 is formed in the bottom surface of the carrier 3 in the longitudinal direction, and a V-shaped groove 6 is formed in the longitudinal middle portion of the bottom surface of the carrier 3 in a direction orthogonal to the longitudinal direction. There is.

Reference numeral 7 is a cross-shaped engaging member which engages with both the V-shaped groove 5 and the V-shaped groove 6 at the same time, and when the carrier 3 moves to the unload / load position. , The cross-shaped engaging member 7 rises as shown by the arrow,
This engages with both the V-shaped groove 5 and the groove 6 at the same time to lift and hold the carrier 3 from the rail to a predetermined height. The state at that time is the disc holder 1 shown in FIG. 1, and the illustration of the carrier to which the disc holder 1 is fixed is omitted in this figure.

As described above, after the disc holder 1 is held at the predetermined position in the unload / load position, the mounting hole 2 formed in the disc holder 1 is
The disc is grasped and inserted by a hand of a robot as will be described later, and the disc is fitted into the mounting groove 2a at the lower end of the mounting hole 2. However, as described above, the flatness of the disc holder 1 is deformed due to the heat generated during the sputtering. FIG. 3 is a transverse cross-sectional view of the uppermost row of the mounting holes 2 formed in the disc holder 1 along the line AA in FIG. FIG. 3 is drawn by exaggerating the plane of the disc holder 1 for the sake of explanation.

Due to the deviation of the flatness of the disc holder 1, the displacement of the mounting grooves 2a at the lower end of each mounting hole 2 from the reference position is detected by referring to FIGS. 1, 3 and 4. As shown, the sensor portion 8a is provided at the center of the mounting groove 2a at the lower end of each mounting hole 2 and at a position close to the mounting groove 2a.
The contact-type linear displacement meter 8 is arranged so that the tip of the contact point abuts.

The robot hand is controlled based on the displacement data of the mounting groove 2a of each mounting hole 2 from the reference position, and the disk D gripped by the robot hand is mounted from the opposite side of the sensor portion 8a. It is inserted into the hole 2. The position of the mounting groove 2a with respect to the mounting hole 2 is as shown in FIG.
Since the size of a and b in the thickness direction of the disc holder 1 is accurately known, the disc D grasped by the hand of the robot, which is controlled and moved based on the displacement data from the reference position of the mounting groove 2a. Comes exactly on the mounting groove 2a. Since the width of the mounting groove 2a is sufficiently larger than the thickness of the disk D, the disk D is fitted into the mounting groove 2a even if the mounting groove 2a is slightly inclined in plan view.

As shown in FIG. 1, the contact type linear displacement meter 8 corresponds to the vicinity of the central portion of the mounting groove 2a of each mounting hole 2 formed in the disc holder 1 on the vertically moving plate 9. It is fixed like this. The up-and-down moving plate 9 has a female screw portion 11 which is screwed with a screw rod 10 at the center thereof, the screw rod 10 is connected to a pulse motor 12, and both end portions of the up-and-down moving plate 9 are connected to each other. It has slide holes 14 and 14 through which the guide bars 13 and 13 slidably pass. The pulse motor 1 is provided on the lower side facing the vertical moving plate 9.
2 is fixed, and the guide rods 13 and 13 are fixed,
A bottom plate 15 is provided for allowing the screw rod 10 to freely fit therethrough.

FIG. 1 shows the mounting groove 2a of the uppermost mounting hole 2 of the disc holder 1 in the direction Y perpendicular to the disc holder surface.
3 is a diagram in which the displacement with respect to the reference position is detected, and the data of the displacement in the Y direction detected by each contact type linear displacement meter 8 is input to the control unit 16. When detecting the displacement in the Y direction of the mounting groove 2a of the mounting hole 2 in the second stage from the uppermost stage, the pulse motor 12 is rotated by a predetermined number of revolutions,
By vertically rotating the screw rod 10, the vertical moving plate 9 stops at a predetermined position.

In the contact type linear displacement meter 8, the sensor portion 8a is retracted and returned to the reference position so that the tip of the sensor portion 8a does not get caught in the mounting hole 2 while the vertical moving plate 9 is moving. . When the vertical moving plate 9 moves down to a position where the displacement of the mounting groove 2a of the second mounting hole 2 in the Y direction can be detected from above, the vertical moving plate 9 stops and the sensor unit 8a of the contact type linear displacement meter 8 is The disk holder 1 extends until it reaches the center of the lower part of the mounting hole 2 of the disk holder 1, detects the displacement of the mounting groove 2a of the mounting hole 2 in the Y direction, and inputs the data to the control unit 16. In the case of this embodiment, the up-and-down moving plate 9 is rotated 5 times to move the Y of the mounting grooves 2a of all the mounting holes 2.
Data of displacement in the direction is input to the control unit 16.

In this embodiment, the displacement of the mounting hole 2 of the disc holder 1 in the Y direction is detected step by step. As a second embodiment, as shown in FIG.
A vertical plate 33 is provided in parallel on the back surface of the disk holder, 35 contact-type linear displacement gauges 8 are provided on the vertical plate 33, and these sensor portions 8a are mounted on the mounting groove 2a of each mounting hole 2 from the rear surface of the disc holder 1. 35 mounting holes 2 at a time by contacting nearby
It is also possible to input the data of the displacement of the mounting groove 2a in the Y direction to the control unit 16 at once.

Reference numeral 18 ₁ is a wiring for inputting data from each contact type linear displacement meter 8 to the control section 16. In the second embodiment, since the data from each contact type linear displacement meter 8 is input to the control section 16 at once, the data processing capacity of the control section 16 must be large.

The data from each contact type linear displacement meter 8 is
First, the control unit 1 including a D / A converter, etc.
6, the data is processed, and further input to the robot controller 17. Reference numeral 19 denotes a CCD camera, which photographs a reference hole 20 formed in a lower side edge portion of the disc holder 1 and image-processes it by an image processing device 21 so that a longitudinal direction X and a vertical direction Z along the surface of the disc holder 1 are taken. Detect the position. The image processing device 21 and the robot controller 17 and the controller 16 and the robot controller 17 are connected by wires 18 ₂ and 18 ₃ , respectively.

Reference numeral 22 is a robot having two hands 23 and 24 at its tip, and each hand is 5 in the case of this embodiment.
I try to grab each disc. Details of this hand are shown in FIGS. In FIG. 5, only the hand 23 is drawn. Since the hand 24 has the same structure as the hand 23, the illustration thereof is omitted.

The hand 23 includes an index finger 23a and a thumb body 2.
3b, the base of the index finger 23a enters the hand support 25 of the robot, and the drive mechanism 26 inside the hand support 25 causes the arrows R and S shown in the figure to be formed.
You can point it in any direction like a barrel like. Therefore, the index finger 23a is replaced by the hand support 25.
A free fitting hole 27 is provided at a place where the index finger 23a can freely move vertically and horizontally.

The base portion of the thumb body 23b is fixed to a block body 28, and a square hole vertically penetrates the center portion of the block body 28. The square hole is formed in the square hole downward from the base end portion of the index finger body 23a. The guide 29, which is fixed to, is slidable. The block body 28 is constantly pulled toward the index finger 23a by a pulling spring (not shown), while the block body 28 is pulled by an air cylinder 30 fixed to the hand support 25.
Is towed against the tow spring.

Accordingly, the thumb cylinder 23b moves vertically along the guide 29 by the action of the air cylinder 30, and the disc D having the center hole fitted between the index finger body 23a and the thumb body 23b is held. . Air cylinder 3
0 is fixed to the hand support 25, while the block body 28 at the base of the thumb body 23b moves vertically and horizontally, so the pulling member 31 is made of a flexible wire.

When the hand 23 holds the disc D,
After the upper side of the center hole of the disk D is fitted into the plurality of grooves 32a formed on the upper surface of the index finger body 23a at a predetermined interval, the air cylinder 30 works to lower the block body 28 at the base of the thumb body 23b. The lower side of the center hole of the disk D fits into a plurality of grooves 32b formed on the lower surface of the thumb body 23b at predetermined intervals. Therefore, the hand 23 can reliably grip the disc D.

When the disc D is mounted in the mounting groove 2a of the mounting hole 2 of the disc holder 1, the hand 23 holding a plurality of discs D as described above holds the data input to the robot controller 17, that is, The disc D is positioned above the mounting groove 2a based on the displacement of the mounting hole 2 formed in the disc holder 1 in the Y direction with respect to the reference position of the mounting groove 2a.

Next, when the hand 23 descends, the lower end of the disk D is fitted into the mounting groove 2a. Since the width of the mounting groove 2a is sufficiently larger than the thickness of the disk D, the disk D fits in the mounting groove 2a even if the disk D is inclined to some extent with respect to the mounting groove 2a. When the lower end of the disk D fits into the mounting groove 2a, the operation of the air cylinder 30 is stopped and the thumb body 23b is lifted by a traction spring (not shown).

Therefore, the lower side of the center hole of the disk D is formed with a plurality of grooves 32 formed on the lower surface of the thumb body 23b at a predetermined interval.
Remove from b. Then, when the hand 23 is retracted from the position of the mounting hole 2, the mounting of the disc D into the mounting groove 2a formed in the mounting hole 2 is completed. By repeating the above operation, a plurality of disks D can be mounted in the mounting grooves 2a of the plurality of mounting holes 2 formed in the disk holder 1 in a short time.

As described above, the mounting grooves 2a of the plurality of mounting holes 2 formed in the disc holder 1 with the plurality of discs D are formed.
When the work of mounting the carrier 3 is completed, the cross-shaped engaging member 7 which is fitted in the V-shaped grooves 5 and 6 formed on the lower surface of the carrier 3 of the disc holder 1 and lifts the carrier 3 shown in FIG. When the wheel is lowered, the wheels 4 provided on the carrier 3
Rides on a rail (not shown) of an in-line type sputtering device and moves to the next step. As described above, the displacements of the mounting grooves 2a of the plurality of mounting holes 2 provided in the disc holder 1 with respect to the reference position are detected, and the plurality of discs D into the mounting grooves 2a of the plurality of mounting holes 2 are detected. The installation takes about 1.5 minutes.

[0037]

As described above, the disk handling mechanism of the sputtering apparatus of the present invention is provided with the vertical moving plate that moves up and down along the back surface of the disk holder, and the vertical moving plate is provided with the contact type linear displacement gauge. Then, bring the tip of the sensor part of each contact type linear displacement gauge into contact with the vicinity of the mounting groove at the lower end of the mounting hole for mounting each disk of the disk holder, and set the reference position of the mounting groove for each row of mounting holes. Is detected, and the robot hand that mounts the disk in the mounting groove is controlled based on the displacement data. In another invention, a vertical plate is provided on the back surface of the disk holder in parallel with the disk holder, and the same number of contact type linear displacement gauges as the disk mounting holes are provided on the vertical plate, and the tip of the sensor part is mounted. It is configured to abut the vicinity of the mounting groove of the hole, detect the displacement of the mounting groove of each mounting hole from the reference position, and control the robot hand that mounts the disk in the mounting hole based on this displacement data. It was done. According to these inventions configured as described above, even if the flatness of the disc holder is changed by the heat generated by the sputtering and the positions of the mounting grooves of the plurality of mounting holes formed in the disc holder are displaced from the reference position, the disc is displaced. The tip of the sensor part of the contact type linear displacement meter arranged on the back surface of the holder is brought into contact with the vicinity of the mounting groove of each mounting hole, and the displacement of the mounting groove from the reference position is accurately detected. By controlling the movement of the robot hand based on the data, the disc grasped by the robot hand can be accurately positioned on the mounting groove of the mounting hole, and the disc can be fitted into the mounting groove. Therefore, even if the flatness of the disc holder is changed due to the heat generated by the sputtering and the positions of the mounting grooves of the plurality of mounting holes formed in the disc holder are displaced from the reference positions, the disc will not fit in the mounting holes of the mounting holes of the disc holder. Can be installed accurately in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a disk handling mechanism of a sputtering device of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing a fixing means of a carrier of a disc holder.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view showing a relationship between a contact type linear displacement meter and a mounting groove of a mounting hole.

FIG. 5 is a detailed perspective view of the robot hand.

6 is a side view taken along the line BB in FIG.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing an outline of a conventional in-line type sputtering apparatus, in which (A) is a plan view and (B) is a front view.

FIG. 9A is a perspective view of a carrier and a disk holder used in a conventional sputtering apparatus, and FIG.
FIG. 4 is an enlarged perspective view of a part of the disc holder.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Disc Holder 2 Mounting Hole 2a Mounting Groove 3 Carrier 4 Wheel 5 V-Shaped Groove 6 V-Shaped Groove 7 Cross-shaped Engaging Member 8 Contact Type Linear Displacement Meter 8a Sensor 9 Vertical Moving Plate 10 Screw Rod 11 Female Screw part 12 Pulse motor 13 Guide rod 14 Sliding hole 16 Control part 17 Robot controller 18 ₁ Wiring 18 ₂ Wiring 18 ₃ Wiring 19 CCD camera 20 Reference hole 21 Image processing device 22 Robot 23 Hand 23a Index finger 23b Thumb body 24 Hand 25 Hand support 26 Drive mechanism 27 Free-fitting hole 28 Block 29 Guide 30 Air cylinder 31 Traction member 32a Groove 32b Groove 33 Vertical plate D disk 51 Unload / load position 52 Carrier 53 Disk holder 54 First buffer chamber 55 Heating chamber 56 sputtering chamber 57 slit 58 carbo Sputtering chamber 59 a second buffer chamber 60 the disk 60a lower semicircular portion 61 the disk mounting holes 61a attachment groove

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A disk handling mechanism of an in-line type sputtering apparatus, wherein a vertical moving plate (9) which moves up and down along a back surface of a disk holder (1) is provided, and the vertical moving plate (9) is provided with a contact type linear displacement meter. (8)
Sensor unit (8a) of each contact type linear displacement meter
The front end of each of the mounting holes (2) for mounting each disc of the disc holder (1) in the vicinity of the mounting groove (2a) at the lower end of the mounting hole (2) to attach the mounting groove (2a ) Is detected from the reference position, and the hands (23, 24) of the robot (22) for mounting the disc in the mounting groove (2a) are controlled based on the displacement data. Disk handling mechanism for sputtering equipment. 2. In a disk handling mechanism of an in-line type sputtering apparatus, a vertical plate (33) is provided on the back surface of the disk holder (1) so as to approach the disk holder (1) in parallel with the vertical plate (33). Contact type linear displacement gauge (8) with the same number as the mounting holes (2) of the disk
Is provided, and the tip of the sensor part (8a) is attached to the mounting hole (2).
Of the mounting groove (2a) is detected by detecting the displacement of the mounting groove (2a) from the reference position of each mounting hole (2), and the disk is mounted on the mounting groove (2a) based on the displacement data. A disk handling mechanism for a sputtering apparatus, characterized in that it is configured to control the hands (23, 24) of a robot (22) attached to the robot.