JPH06271068A - Thin plate material soaking device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent a thin plate material from springing out from a thin plate material housing part by arranging a housing part moving means to move a thin plate material housing part vertically in a liquid tank and a liquid flow forming means to form a liquid flow to the inmost side from an opening of the thin plate material housing part at least in the vicinity of a liquid level in the liquid tank. CONSTITUTION:When a cassette C housing vertically a large number of wafers W is positioned and loaded on a cassette stand 32 of a submerged loader 1 by a positioning member 33, a raising and lowering frame 19 is lowered, and soaks the cassette C in a water tank. At this time, pure water supplied from a pure water supply port 15 overflows from a dam 14. As a result, a water flow running toward the inmost side from an opening 13 of the cassette C is formed in the vicinity of a liquid level of the water tank. Thereby, when the raising and lowering frame 19 is lowered, the respective wafers W receive energizing force by the water flow, so that the wafers W do not slide out from the cassette C. Even when the wafers W are supplied to the reverse cleaning device 2 side, a pure water flow running toward the inmost side from the opening is formed in the vicinity of the liquid level.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a thin plate material immersing device, and more particularly to a thin plate material immersing device for immersing a thin plate material storing part for storing a large number of thin plate materials in a vertical manner in a liquid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A wafer (an example of a thin plate material) is automatically transported and processed in a clean clean room so as not to be contaminated. When a wafer of this type is exposed to air during transportation, a small amount of dust floating in the air may be attached or the surface may be oxidized, resulting in a defective product. Also,
When cleaning the wafer after polishing, it becomes very difficult to clean and remove the polishing agent if the polishing agent remaining on the wafer surface is dried. For this reason, a thin plate material immersing device is used in which the wafers housed in the cassette are immersed in a liquid such as pure water until the wafers are supplied to the processing device (Jpn.

This type of thin plate material immersing device has a liquid tank for immersing a cassette capable of accommodating a large number of wafers vertically and in multiple stages in a liquid, and a loader for vertically moving the cassette in the liquid tank. I have it. An opening is formed on one side surface of the cassette, and wafers are taken out one by one from this opening. In this thin plate material immersing device, the cassette is immersed in the liquid tank with the cassette attached to the loader to prevent contact between the wafer and air and drying of the wafer surface. Also,
Each time the wafer is taken out, the loader is moved up and down to take out the wafers one by one from the opening side.

[0004]

In this type of apparatus, when the wafer is taken out of the liquid by the loader or immersed in the liquid, the wafer slides out from the opening of the cassette due to the influence of the liquid flow or bubbles. There is a possibility that it will end up. When the wafer jumps out of the cassette, the wafer collides with the wall surface of the liquid tank and is damaged.

An object of the present invention is to prevent the thin plate material from protruding from the thin plate material storage portion.

[0006]

A thin plate material immersing device according to the present invention has a thin plate material storage section for storing a large number of thin plate materials in a multi-tiered manner and having a side surface with an opening for inserting and removing the thin plate material. It is a device to be immersed in. This device includes a liquid tank, a storage unit moving unit, and a liquid flow forming unit. The liquid tank is for storing a liquid inside and immersing the thin plate material storage portion in the liquid. The storage unit moving means is for moving the thin plate storage unit up and down in the liquid tank. The liquid flow forming means is
A liquid flow is formed at least in the vicinity of the liquid surface in the liquid tank from the opening of the thin plate material storage portion to the inner side.

[0007]

In the thin plate material immersing device according to the present invention, the thin plate material housing part, which houses a large number of thin plate materials vertically and in multiple stages, is immersed in the liquid tank by the housing part moving means. When the container moving means moves up and down, the liquid flow forming means forms a liquid flow from the opening to the inner side at least near the liquid surface in the liquid tank. As a result, the thin plate material stored in the thin plate material storage portion is biased to the back side by the liquid flow formed from the opening to the back side, and is prevented from jumping out of the thin plate material storage portion.

[0008]

1 and 2 show a substrate processing apparatus adopting an embodiment of the present invention. This substrate processing apparatus performs cleaning and drying processing on a semiconductor wafer. In these figures, the substrate processing apparatus includes an underwater loader 1 for immersing a large number of wafers W stored in a cassette C in pure water, and a back surface for brush cleaning the back surface (lower surface) of the wafer W taken out from the cassette C. Cleaning device 2, surface cleaning device 3 for brush-cleaning the surface (upper surface) of wafer W, rinsing / drying device 4 for rinsing and drying wafer W, and treated wafer W stored in cassette C and discharged. The unloader 5 for doing so is arranged in this order.

An articulated robot 7 is provided between the devices 1 to 5.
The carrier device 6 having the is arranged. This transport device 6
And each of the devices 1 to 5 can be blocked by a shutter (not shown). It should be noted that the three transfer devices 6 on the upstream side are provided with pure water spray nozzles 34 above the articulated robot 7 for preventing the wafer W from drying. Pure water is supplied to each of the devices 1 to 6 from a pure water supply device 8 through a control valve 9. Wastewater from each of the devices 1 to 6 is collected by the drainage recovery device 10.

As shown in FIG. 3, the submersible loader 1 stores therein pure water and a water tank 11 for immersing the cassette C in the pure water, and a vertically moving cassette C in the water tank 11. It has a cassette lifting device 12. The cassette lifting device 12 has at least a position where the uppermost wafer W stored in the cassette C is completely immersed in pure water and a lowermost wafer W stored in the cassette C. It is moved up and down between the position where it floats above pure water. The cassette C has a hollow shape, and an opening 13 for loading and unloading the stored wafer W is provided on the right front side in FIG.
Are formed.

The water tank 11 is made of synthetic resin, and as shown in FIG. 4, a weir 14 whose vertical position can be adjusted is provided on the side surface opposite to the side surface on which the opening 13 of the cassette C faces. ing. The height of the liquid surface in the water tank 11 is determined by the weir 14. Further, a pure water supply port 15 is formed on the bottom surface of the water tank 11 near the opening 13 of the cassette C, and pure water is supplied to the water tank 11 from the supply port 15. Further, the supplied pure water overflows from the weir 14 and is discharged. Therefore, during the supply of pure water, a water flow from the opening 13 of the cassette C to the inner side is formed at least near the liquid surface in the water tank 11. A liquid level gauge 17 using a capacitance sensor 18 is arranged on one side surface of the water tank 11.

The cassette lifting device 12 is equipped with a lifting frame 19 shown in FIGS. The elevating frame 19 is supported by two guide shafts 20 arranged vertically so as to be vertically movable. A ball nut 21 is arranged at the center of the elevating frame 19. The ball nut 21 is screwed onto a ball screw 22 extending vertically. The ball screw 22 is rotatably supported by a guide frame 23 that supports the guide shaft 20. The ball screw 22 is rotationally driven by a motor 26 via a toothed pulley 24 and a toothed belt 25 arranged at the lower end. As a result, the lifting frame 19 is driven up and down.

At both ends of the elevating frame 19, a pair of elevating members 27 made of thin stainless steel plates and a vertical member 31 connected to the elevating members 27 are provided. Each vertical member 31
At the lower end of the cassette is a cassette stand 32 made of a synthetic resin flat plate member.
Is attached. Positioning members 33 for positioning the four corners of the cassette C are mounted on the cassette table 32.

The upper end of each elevating member 27 is connected by a connecting member 30, and the central portion of the connecting member 30 prevents the cassette C from rising when the cassette C is immersed in the water tank 11. Lifting prevention member 4 for
4 are provided. The lifting prevention member 44 is
The bearing portion 45 is fixed to the connecting member 30, and the stopper 47 is rotatably connected to the bearing portion 45 via a shaft 46.

As shown in FIG. 3, the articulated robot 7 has
Vertical column 41 fixed to a device frame (not shown)
And a base 42 that horizontally swings at the tip of the vertical column 41.
And a transfer arm 43 that horizontally swings at the tip of the base 42.
And have. The articulated robot 7 is arranged at a position where the wafers W in the cassette C of the underwater loader 1 can be sucked and transferred by the transfer arm 43 one by one. The articulated robot 7 has water resistance and is configured to perform a transport function even if the cassette C wet with pure water is adsorbed.

Next, the operation of the substrate processing apparatus will be described. When the cassette C that houses a large number of wafers W in the vertical direction is positioned and placed on the cassette table 32 of the underwater loader 1 by the positioning member 33, the elevating frame 19 descends and the cassette C is immersed in the water tank 11. At this time, pure water is being supplied from the pure water supply port 15. The supplied pure water overflows from the weir 14. As a result, near the liquid surface of the water tank 11, a water flow is formed from the opening 13 of the cassette C toward the inner side. Therefore, when the elevating frame 19 descends, each wafer W receives the urging force of the water flow, and the wafer W does not slip out of the cassette C.

When the wafer W is supplied to the back surface cleaning device 2 side, the cassette C that has been immersed is moved to the cassette lifting device 1.
Increases by 2. Then, the cassette lifting device 12 is stopped in a state in which the wafer W to be carried out is positioned slightly above the take-out position. Also at this time, since the pure water flows from the opening to the inner side near the liquid surface, the wafer W does not slip out of the cassette C.

Next, the transfer arm 4 of the articulated robot 7
3 extends as shown by the chain double-dashed line in FIG. 6 and is located below the back surface of the wafer W to be taken out. Then, the cassette elevating device 12 is slightly lowered to deposit the wafer W on the transfer arm 43 of the articulated robot 7. Then, the articulated robot 7 sucks and holds the wafer W on the transfer arm 43. The transfer arm 43 holding the wafer W by suction contracts to the position shown by the solid line in FIG. 6, and takes out the wafer W from the cassette C.

Then, in the next step, the wafer W is sent to the back surface cleaning device 2 in response to a transfer request from the back surface cleaning device 2.
When the back surface is cleaned by the back surface cleaning device 2, the wafer W is further transferred to the front surface cleaning device 3 and the water cleaning / drying device 4 by the articulated robot 7 in order. Then, the wafer W is finally sent to the unloader 5 after the processes are sequentially performed. Here, the wafer W is stored in another cassette C.

In the transfer process to the water washing / drying device 4, the wafer W on the articulated robot 7 is always wet with pure water supplied from the nozzle 34 for spraying pure water. Therefore, the wafer W is not dried even during the transportation. [Other Embodiments] (a) A nozzle or a slit for ejecting pure water is provided in the vicinity of the liquid surface of the side wall facing the opening 13 of the water tank 11 in addition to the pure water supply port 15, and the water flow from the opening 13 to the back side. May be formed. In addition, the pure water supply port 15 itself is connected to the water tank 1.
It may be provided on the side wall of No. 1 to form a water stream. Further, a water flow may be formed by providing a forced drainage hole instead of the weir 14 on the side surface on the weir 14 side. (B) Instead of pure water, another liquid such as isopropyl alcohol may be stored in the water tank 11.

[0021]

In the thin plate material dipping device according to the present invention, the liquid flow forming means forms a liquid flow from the opening of the thin plate material accommodating portion to the inner side at least in the vicinity of the liquid surface in the liquid tank. It is possible to prevent the thin plate material from jumping out of the storage section.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a substrate processing apparatus adopting an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a vertical cross-sectional schematic diagram thereof.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of an underwater loader.

FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a water tank.

FIG. 5 is a side sectional view of the underwater loader.

FIG. 6 is a plan view of the underwater loader.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Underwater Loader 11 Water Tank 12 Cassette Lifting Device 13 Opening 14 Weir 15 Pure Water Supply Port C Cassette W Wafer

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Masami Sawamura 2426-1, Kuchinogawara, Mikami, Yasu-machi, Yasu-gun, Shiga Prefecture Dainippon Screen Mfg. Co., Ltd. Yasu Plant

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A thin plate material immersing device for immersing a large number of thin plate materials in a multi-tiered manner, and immersing in a liquid a thin plate material storage portion having an opening for taking in and out the thin plate material on a side surface. A liquid tank for storing a liquid and immersing the thin plate material storage portion in the liquid; a storage portion moving means for vertically moving the thin plate material storage portion in the liquid tank; A thin plate material dipping device comprising: a liquid flow forming unit that forms a liquid flow from the opening of the thin plate material storage portion to the inner side at least near the liquid surface.