JPH06127684A - Automatic centering mechanism for ic tray - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To provide an automatic centering mechanism which can position an IC tray over a support table in an IC handler. CONSTITUTION:Chuck guides 12 and 22 capable of being moved are disposed at both the sides and at the front and rear sides of a support table 7, and let the respective chuck guides 12 and 22 come close to each other via gear mechanisms by means of cylinders 13 and 23 and the like, so that each tray 6 is thereby positioned so as to be fixed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an automatic centering mechanism for IC supply trays and storage trays used in IC handlers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art An IC handler is a device for automatically measuring mass-produced ICs in high temperature or low temperature, successively measuring data, and classifying non-defective products and defective products according to the data.

This type of handler usually has an I
C supply tray and loader hand, walking beam and preheater in transfer section, sending hand in measurement section, inspection stage, heat block, takeout hand, walking beam in transfer section on return side, unloader hand and storage tray in unloader section Has been done. The supply tray and the storage tray are placed on each support table in a stacked state, and the support table is controlled so that the uppermost tray has a constant height.
Further, the tray is accurately positioned on the support table by a plurality of angle guides so that the corresponding positions of the IC and the hand on the tray are not displaced.

Therefore, when the handler operates, the loader hand first places one or several ICs on the tray on the walking beam, and the walking beam conveys the ICs to the measuring unit at a constant pitch. The IC on the beam is preheated by a preheater on the way. The IC that reaches the end of the walking beam is sent to the inspection stage by a hand, but in the type of handler that measures two or more ICs at the same time, first move it to the alignment stage at the end of the walking beam and then position it. It is sent to the inspection stage.

The inspection stage is provided with a socket below and a heat block above, and the IC is sent to the socket.
When the heat block is pressed, the data is measured by a predetermined tester. The IC after the measurement is placed on the walking beam by the take-out hand and carried, and some defective products are sent to a predetermined box. The IC at the end of the walking beam is re-stored in the tray with the unloader hand,
It is classified as necessary.

[0006]

However, in the conventional handler, since the tray is fixed by the three or four angle guides screwed on the support base, I
Whenever the type of C or tray changes, it is necessary to remove the screw and change the position of the guide each time. If the positions of the guides and trays are misaligned even a little, the operations of the loader hand and the unloader hand will not correspond to the IC. Therefore, it is necessary to accurately position the guides, and this replacement and adjustment work requires considerable labor for workers. Has become.

The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide an automatic centering mechanism capable of accurately positioning an IC tray on a support base.

[0008]

In order to achieve the above object, the automatic centering mechanism according to claim 1 is arranged so as to face each other on both sides of a support table on which a large number of IC trays are placed, and moves in the approaching direction. Possible X direction chuck guide,
Y-direction chuck guides that are arranged to face each other on the front and rear sides of the support base and are movable toward each other, drive means for each chuck guide, and drive transmission means for moving the opposed chuck guides by equal distances. It consists of

In the automatic centering mechanism according to the second aspect of the invention, the drive transmission means is composed of a rack that is connected to the chuck guide and extends inward, and a gear that meshes with both racks.

[0010]

According to the structure of claim 1, when the IC supply tray is placed on the support base, the power from the driving means is first transmitted to the chuck guide in the X direction through the transmitting means, and the pair of chuck guides approach each other. And grip both sides of the tray. Then, the chuck guides in the Y direction approach each other by the driving means to grip the front and rear of the tray, and the centering of the tray is completed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, when one of the chuck guides operates, its power is transmitted to the rack, the gear, and the other rack, and the other chuck guide always operates at the same distance.

[0012]

1 and 2 are a simplified plan view and a front view of an IC handler to which an automatic centering mechanism of the present invention is applied. This handler is for logic IC 2
The parallel measurement type is roughly divided into a loader unit 1, a transport unit 2, a measuring unit 3, a return transport unit 4, and an unloader unit 5.

The loader unit 1 is provided with a support base 7 on which the supply tray 6 is placed, an automatic centering mechanism below, and a tray hand 8 and a loader hand 9 above the support base 7. As shown in FIG. 3, the supply tray 6 has a large number of I
A plurality of them are stacked on the support base 7 while receiving C. The support base 7 faces the four sides and has a notch 10 a and a groove 10.
b is formed and can be moved up and down along the post 11 by a lower pulse motor (not shown).

As shown in FIG. 4, the automatic centering mechanism is divided into an X-direction mechanism for chucking both sides of the tray 6 and a Y-direction mechanism for chucking the front and rear sides of the tray 6, the former being two pairs extending upward. The chuck guide 12 includes a pair of air cylinders 13, a rack 14, a gear 15, and a guide rail 16. Each chuck guide 12
The lower end is fixed to the block 17, and the upper end has a tapered portion 18
Are formed. Further, the upper end of the chuck guide 12 projects above the support base 7 and can move toward the center in the notch 10a. Angles 19 are fixed to both sides of one block 17, and a rod 20 of the air cylinder 13 is connected to each angle 19. The racks 14 having the same number of teeth and the same pitch project inward from the block 17, and the two racks 14 are the gearbox 2
1 and penetrates into the internal gear 15. The block 17 is slidable along the pair of guide rails 16, and the central portion of the guide rail 16 is supported on both sides of the gear box 21. Therefore, when the chuck guide 12 on the side connected to the air cylinder 13 moves in the direction of the arrow, the other chuck guide 12 can always move the same distance through this gear mechanism.

The Y-direction chuck mechanism includes a pair of chuck guides 22, an air cylinder 23, a rack 24, and a gear 25.
The chuck mechanism is the same as the chuck mechanism in the X direction except for the number of chuck guides 22 and the moving direction.

The tray hand 8 transfers the empty tray 6 to the unloader 5 side as shown in FIG. 2. In this embodiment, the tray hand 8 is opened / closed by an air cylinder (not shown) and laterally moved by a motor. The loader hand 9 adsorbs two pieces of each 1C in the supply tray 6 and places them on the walking beam 27 of the transport unit 3, and also vacuum-checks the presence or absence of an IC on the tray 6. Therefore, I of tray 6
A small hole (not shown) is formed in each of the C storage locations so that the loader hand 9 can detect this when there is no IC.

A walking beam 27 and a preheater 28 are installed in the transport section 2. The walking beam 27 sends the mounted ICs one pitch at a time to the measuring unit 3 side. In this embodiment, a pulse motor is used as a drive source to change the conveyance pitch by pulse control. The preheater 28 preheats the IC on the walking beam 27 during the high temperature test.

In the measuring section 3, a two-head type contact block 29, an inspection stage 30 and a hand 31 are arranged. The contact block 29 is formed by integrating a conventional suction hand and a heat block, and has a vacuum type suction hole at the lower end and an IC heating heater inside. Two sockets 32 are arranged side by side on the inspection stage 30, and a tester (not shown) for measuring IC data is installed below the sockets 32. The hand 31 is also of a suction type, and transfers the measured IC to the walking beam 33 on the return side and operates integrally with the contact block 29.

A walking beam 33 for returning is installed in the carrying section 4 toward the unloader side, which is an IC.
It is structurally almost the same as the walking beam 27 except that the feeding direction is reversed.

The unloader unit 5 includes an unloader hand 3
4, a support base 7 ', an automatic centering mechanism, and a sorting stocker 35 are installed. The unloader hand 34 is of a suction type and is similar to the loader hand 9, and sorts the ICs from the walking beam 33 into the trays 6 ′ and 6 ″ according to the data. The support base 7 ′ and the automatic centering mechanism are
It is exactly the same as the one on the loader side. The tray 6 ″ on the sorting stocker 35 accommodates some defective products and non-defective products with different data, and is fixed at a predetermined position by one fixed guide 36 and one magnet guide 37. The guide 37 is movable so that even if the size of the tray 6 ″ is changed, it can be handled with one touch.

Next, focusing on the automatic centering mechanism,
The operation of the C handler will be described. First, when an operator stacks the trays 6 containing the ICs on the support base 7 and starts the handler, the air cylinders 1 shown in FIG.
3 moves in the direction of the arrow. As a result, the chuck guides 12 facing each other move in the notch 10a of the support base 7 in the approaching direction and grip both sides of the tray 6, whereby the X direction position of the tray 6 is accurately determined. Then, by the operation of the air cylinder 23, the pair of chuck guides 22 grip the front and rear sides of the tray 6 through the grooves 10b of the support base 7, and the position of the tray 6 in the Y direction is determined. The chuck guides 12 and 22 are designed to be hit once on both sides and the front and rear sides of the tray 6 by a predetermined control signal to correct the deviation and then to be gripped.

When the tray 6 is positioned and fixed on the support base 7, the lower pulse motor operates to raise the support base 7 along the post 11, and the uppermost tray 6 reaches the IC supply position. Stop at that point.

Next, the loader hand 9 is actuated to place two ICs from the tray 6 on the walking beam 27,
The walking beam 27 conveys the IC to the measuring unit 3 side at each set pitch. The empty tray 6 on the support base 7
The tray hand 8 transfers the tray 7 to the unloader-side support base 7 ′, and the loader-side support base 7 is raised by one tray.

I reaching the end of the walking beam 27
C is sent to the socket 32 of the inspection stage 30 by twos by the contact block 29 and pressed from above. Each IC contacts the contact of the socket 32 while being heated by the internal heater of the contact block 29, and the data is measured by the tester on the lower surface. Since one contact block 29 acts as a conventional suction hand or heat block, the number of parts can be reduced and the temperature of the IC can be prevented from dropping during the transfer. The IC after the measurement is placed on the walking beam 33 by the hand 31, but since the hand 31 and the contact block 29 are integrated, the IC feeding to the socket 32 and the IC feeding to the walking beam 33 are performed at the same time.

I reaching the end of the walking beam 33
The Cs are sorted and stored in the trays 6 ', 6 "etc. by data by the unloader hand 34. When the ICs of the trays 6', 6" are full, the support base 7'and the sorting stocker 35 are lowered by a predetermined distance or To rise.

[0026]

As described in detail above, according to the automatic centering mechanism of the first aspect, the chuck guides in the X and Y directions fix the trays to the proper positions even if any kind of trays is placed on the support base. Therefore, the conventional alignment work becomes unnecessary. Further, by using the drive transmission mechanism according to claim 2, the drive source such as the air cylinder is simply connected to one chuck guide, and the other chuck guide also moves by the same distance, so that the tray can be accurately centered. There is.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a simplified plan view of an IC handler.

FIG. 2 is a simplified front view of an IC handler.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a tray support base.

FIG. 4 is a partially exploded perspective view of the automatic centering mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 6,6 ', 6 "tray 7,7' support base 12,22 chuck guide 13,23 air cylinder 14,24 rack 15,25 gear

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. An X, which is arranged on both sides of a support table on which a large number of IC trays are placed so as to face each other, and which can move in the approaching direction.
Direction chuck guides, the chuck guides in the Y direction, which are arranged so as to face each other on the front and rear sides of the support base and are movable toward each other, the driving means of each chuck guide, and the chuck guides that face each other are moved by equal distances. An automatic centering mechanism for an IC tray, which includes a drive transmission means for controlling the IC tray. 2. The automatic centering mechanism for an IC tray according to claim 1, wherein the drive transmission means comprises a rack that is connected to the chuck guide and extends inwardly of each other, and a gear that meshes with both racks.