JPH0582623A - Mechanical interface device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To increase the shielding between a pod and a main body of the device by a simple structure without installing a lock mechanism, etc., around a port of a main body case by using an electromagnetic attracting force as a means to biase a flange of the pod towards a port plate. CONSTITUTION:After a pod POD 10 is moved onto a port plate 3 of a main body case 1 from outside the device, all the electromagnets 53 are magnetized. Then, an electromagnetic attracting force works on a magnetic member 54 and a flange 12 of the pod POD 10 displaces to the port plate 3 against the elasticity of shielding material 51 and presses the shielding materials 51a, 51b with the port plate 3. By changing an ampere-turn of the electromagnets 53, an electromagnetic attracting force of any magnitude can be obtained. Therefore, shielding material 13, not to mention the shielding material 15, can also be pressed by the whole surface strongly and accurately and then a good shielding property can be secured. In addition, there is no necessity of installing a member around the port of the main body case and so the device can be simply structured.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a mechanical interface device used in a semiconductor manufacturing process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, semiconductor processing has been carried out in a specially designed clean room in order to prevent particle contamination of the semiconductor, but there is a problem that it is too expensive including maintenance. Since there is a limit to the reduction of the contamination level of particle contamination, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No.
A standardized mechanical interface device (SMIF device) has been developed as disclosed in the publication 0-143623.

This SMIF device, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, contains a wafer processing device (not shown), is filled with clean air, and has a main body case 1 and a portable type box (hereinafter It includes a pod POD) 10 and a carrier device 30. Body case 1 of the device body
Ports (loading / unloading port of the wafer cassette 20) 4 are formed on the top plate 2 by the port plate 3, and the pod POD 10 having the grip portion 10A is placed on the port plate 3. The pod POD 10 has a shape having a flange 12 having an annular portion 12 a around the opening 11. The transfer device 30 in this example is an elevating device, and the wafer cassette 20 is placed on an elevating table 31 supported by an elevating shaft 32 to elevate and lower. , The port plate 3 is abutted or fitted from below to seal the port 4 to the outside of the main body case 1, and the base 21 of the wafer cassette 20 on the port door 31 is the opening 1 of the pod POD 10.
The opening 11 is sealed by abutting on the peripheral portion of 1. This stand 2
Hereinafter, 1 is referred to as a pod door. A seal material 13 seals between the opening of the pod POD 10 and the pod door 21, and a seal material 14 seals between the flange 12 of the pod POD 10 and the port plate 3.
5 seals between the port plate 3 and the port door 31. A lock mechanism 40 has a lock lever 41 driven by a geared motor (not shown), and serves to push down the flange 12 of the pod POD 10 onto the port plate 3.

In this example, after the unprocessed wafer W is transferred onto the port door 31 from another location (not shown), the pod POD 10 is mounted on the port plate 3 and
Fix with the lock lever 41. After fixing with the lock lever 41, the port door 31 is lowered to the transfer position. When the port door 31 descends to the transfer position, a transfer device (not shown) transfers the wafer cassette 20 on the port door 31 to the processing machine.

[0005]

By the way, conventionally, the particle contamination of the wafer W has been a problem, but as the density of the semiconductor integrated circuit is increased, a natural oxide film on the wafer surface due to oxygen in the air is generated. The influence begins to become a problem, and in order to prevent the growth of this natural oxide film, the movement of the wafer W,
It is necessary to carry the carrier in an inert gas (N ₂ gas) atmosphere, and at present, an N ₂ gas atmosphere in which the concentrations of O ₂ and H ₂ O are 10 ppm or less is required.

When using the above-mentioned SMIF device,
And N ₂ gas atmosphere of air in the main body case 1 is replaced with N ₂ gas, pod POD10 is the pod POD10
There each time is set on the top plate 2 of the casing 1, so that the N ₂ gas atmosphere to replace the interior with N ₂ gas.

In this case, between the pod POD 10 and the port plate 3, between the pod POD 10 and the pod door 21,
Sealing property between the port door 21 and the port plate 3,
In particular, it is required to improve the sealing property between the pod POD 10 and the port plate 3, but the sealing material (O-ring) has variations in manufacturing, and when viewed macroscopically, it undulates against a clean flat surface. Since some of them are shaped, the sealing material (O
It is difficult to obtain sufficient sealing performance by the method of pressing the ring), and in order to improve the sealing performance by this mechanical means, it is necessary to dispose a large number of lock levers 41 in the circumferential direction of the port plate 3. In addition, since the required pressing force increases as the pod POD 10 becomes larger, each lock mechanism becomes larger and the cost required for this becomes larger, and the area around the port of the main body case becomes complicated, and Therefore, there is a problem that it takes a large space.

The present invention has been made to solve this problem, and reliably improves the sealing property between the pod and the main body of the apparatus by a simple means without providing a lock mechanism around the port of the main body case. It is an object of the present invention to provide a mechanical interface device that can be used.

[0009]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, the present invention, in claim 1, is mounted on a port plate which is provided in a main body case and forms a port for loading / unloading an object to be processed. Pod with an opening flange to cover the port,
A pod door that can close the opening of the pod, a port door that is supported in the main body case so as to be able to move up and down, and that engages with the port plate to close the port at the time of the highest rise, and a flange of the pod that faces the port plate. In a mechanical interface device for transporting the pod door from the inside of the pod to the main body case and vice versa, the biasing means includes the port plate and the flange of the pod. The structure is a means for exerting an electromagnetic attraction force between the surfaces facing each other.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, the biasing means comprises a plurality of electromagnets provided on the port plate and arranged in the circumferential direction,
The flange of the pod is made of a magnetic material or has a magnetic material member extending in the circumferential direction so as to face the electromagnet row.

According to another aspect of the present invention, the flange of the pod has an annular portion serving as a fitting portion and an extension flange extending outward from the annular portion. The annular portion can be fitted into the port plate and the pod door. The means for externally fitting and urging the pod is provided on the side of the extension flange of the pod flange and the port plate.

[0012]

According to the present invention, when the pod is placed on the port plate and the urging means is operated, the electromagnetic attraction force acts on the flange of the pod and presses both sealing materials around the entire circumference.

[0013]

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

In FIG. 1, the pod POD 10 is a non-magnetic material, and its flange 12 is the annular portion 1 shown in FIG.
It is a wide flange in which an extension flange 12A that extends further outward from 2a is formed. The annular portion (hereinafter referred to as reference numeral 12b) of the present embodiment is a fitting cylinder portion (a fitting cylinder portion for positioning), and the pod POD10 has the annular portion 12b fitted inside the port plate 2. The pod door 21 is mounted on the port plate 2 and the pod door 21
Fit in 2b. The tip of the fitting tubular portion 12b has a rounded shape. A seal groove 3a is formed near the annular portion 12b on the surface of the port plate 3 facing the extension flange 12A, and a seal material (O) is formed in the seal groove 3a.
Ring 51 is fitted. The port plate 3 also has a gas supply port 3A and a gas exhaust port 3B.

Reference numeral 53 denotes an electromagnet, which is a port plate 3
As shown in FIG. 2, the electromagnets 53 are embedded in a portion of the surface of the plate facing the extension flange 12A, and are arranged in the circumferential direction of the port plate 3 at regular intervals. The coil 53A is connected to a common excitation power source (not shown), and each electromagnet 53 is excited / demagnetized simultaneously. Reference numeral 54 denotes an annular magnetic member, which is coated with resin 55, and as shown in FIG.
10 is attached to the upper surface of the extension flange 12A and extends so as to face the row of electromagnets 53.

The port door 31 of this embodiment has a flange portion 31A at the bottom thereof, and a sealing material 15 for sealing the gap with the port plate 3 is fitted to the flange portion 31A.

The gas inlet 3A and the gas outlet 3B are used for replacing the inside of the pod POD10 with N ₂ gas, and the gas inlet 3A is connected to an N ₂ gas cylinder (not shown) through a pipe. It 3C is a solenoid valve.
In addition, the inside of the main body case 1 is in an N ₂ gas atmosphere, and
It is pressurized by N ₂ gas injection of 20 liters / minute.

In this embodiment, after the pod POD 10 is transferred from the outside of the device onto the port plate 3 of the main body case 1, all electromagnets 53 are excited at the same time. Electromagnet 5
When 3 is excited, an electromagnetic attraction force acts on the magnetic member 54, so that the flange 12 of the pod POD 10 is displaced toward the port plate 3 side against the elastic force of the sealing material 51.
The sealing materials 51a and 51b are sandwiched between the port plate 3 and the port plate 3. The electromagnetic attraction force can be obtained by changing the ampere-turn of the electromagnet 53, so that the electromagnetic attraction force of an arbitrary size can be obtained. If the pod POD10 has a wavy shape on a clean plane,
Is transferred from the outside of the apparatus to the port plate 3 of the main body case 1, a part of the sealing material 51 is partially extended.
Even when the sealing material 15 is not in contact with the surface A, the sealing material 1 is pressed until it comes into pressure contact with the surface of the extension flange 12A over the entire length.
It is possible to easily obtain a sufficient electromagnetic attraction force for flattening 5.

Therefore, in the present embodiment, not only the sealing material 51 but also the sealing material 13 can be surely pressed firmly around its entire circumference to ensure good sealing performance.

In this way, the SMIF device of the present embodiment uses the gas supply port 3A and the gas exhaust port 3B in a state where the inside of the pod POD10 is reliably shielded from the outside air, and the inside of the pod POD10 is closed. Replace with N ₂ gas. This N
_In order to replace with ₂ gas, for example, a skirt below the port plate 3 that is airtightly engaged with the lower surface of the port plate 3 and defines an internal space in which the port door 31 can move up and down by a predetermined distance is formed. The pod POD 10 which is provided separately from the pod POD 10 is opened so that the port door 31 lowered by a predetermined distance (position where the pod door 21 is lowered below the annular portion 12a) hermetically closes the lower end of the internal space of the skirt. N ₂ gas is fed into the interior through the gas supply port 3D.

In the above embodiment, the hod POD 10 is used.
The magnetic member 54 is attached to the
The pod POD 10 may be made of a magnetic material.

Further, the seal member 51 is attached to the extension flange 12
It may be provided on the A side.

[0023]

As described above, the present invention provides means for urging the flange of the pod toward the port plate.
Since the required sealing material sandwiching pressure can be easily obtained by adopting the configuration that utilizes the electromagnetic attraction force, a good sealing property against gas can be surely obtained, and reliability can be improved.

Further, since it is not necessary to dispose a member around the port of the main body case, there is an advantage that the port periphery can be simplified as compared with the case where the lock mechanism or the like is provided.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a port plate in the above embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the pod in the above embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a diagram showing an outline of a conventional SMIF device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Body Case 3 Port Plate 3A Air Supply Port 3B Exhaust Port 3a Seal Groove 4 Port 10 Pod POD 11 Pod POD Opening 12 Pod POD Flange 12A Extension Flange 12b Annular Portion 13, 15 Sealing Material 20 Wafer Cassette 21 Pod Door 31 Port Door 31A Port Door Collar 32 Lifting Axis 40 Locking Mechanism 51 Sealing Material 52 Piping 53 Electromagnet 54 Magnetic Member 55 Resin Coating

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Mitsuhiro Hayashi, 100 Takegahana-cho, Ise-shi, Mie Shinko Electric Co., Ltd. (ISE) Tetsuhei Yamashita 100, Takegahana-cho, Ise-shi, Mie Shinko Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor, Makoto Murata, 100, Takegahana-cho, Ise-shi, Mie Shinko Electric Co., Ltd., Ise Works (72) Inventor, Miki Tanaka, 100, Takegahana-cho, Ise-shi, Mie Shinko Electric Co., Ltd. (72) Inventor Moriya Hiya 100, Takegahana Town, Ise City, Mie Prefecture Shinko Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A device provided on the main body case for carrying in an object to be processed,
A pod with an opening flange that is placed on a port plate that forms a port for carrying out and covers the port, a pod door that can close the opening of this pod, and a pedestal that is supported in the main body case so as to be able to move up and down A port door for engaging and closing the port, and means for urging the flange of the pod towards the port plate, the port door moving the pod door from within the pod to the body case and vice versa. In the mechanical interface device for transporting to the mechanical interface device, the urging means is a means for exerting an electromagnetic attraction force between the facing surfaces of the port plate and the flange of the pod. 2. The urging means is composed of a plurality of electromagnets provided on the port plate and arranged in the circumferential direction, and the flange of the pod is a magnetic body, or a magnet extending in the circumferential direction so as to face the electromagnet row. The mechanical interface device according to claim 1, further comprising a body member. 3. The flange of the pod has an annular portion which is a fitting portion and an extension flange which extends outward from the annular portion,
The annular portion can be fitted inside the port plate and can be fitted outside the pod door, and the biasing means is provided on the flange side of the pod and the extension flange side of the port plate. The mechanical interface device according to 1 or 2.