JPH0710212A - Wafer cassette delivery/receipt device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve a throughput in a semiconductor manufacturing device by dissolving latency time at the time of carrying a wafer, and reducing dead time during a carrying action to shorten a wafer carrying time. CONSTITUTION:In a cassette delivering/receiving device 20 to deliver/receive a wafer cassette 6 to/from a cassette stocker 2, the device has an ascendable traversing beam 22, which is provided with at least one set of cassette pedestals 5 which can receive and move the wafer cassette, and at least one set of cassette pedestals is made traversable. The wafer cassette can be freely delivered and received to/from all the shelves of a cassete stocker and changed, and n addition, the wafer cassette can be delivered and received in parallel with another equipment as interference is avoided even in the course of the action of the another equipment to/from the cassette stocker.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wafer cassette transfer device in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional wafer transfer apparatus in a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus will be described with reference to FIG.

In the figure, 1 is a cassette transfer device, 2 is a cassette stocker, 3 is a wafer transfer machine, and 4 is a boat elevator.

The cassette transfer device 1 has two sets of cassette receiving bases 5L and 5R which can be moved up and down.
, 5R can receive two wafer cassettes 6 in parallel, and can advance and retract with respect to the cassette stocker 2.

The cassette stocker 2 has two rows (7L, 7
R) has a multi-stage (four stages are shown in the figure) cassette shelf 7,
The cassette shelf 7 is provided on the slide stage 16 so as to be traversable, and the wafer transfer machine 3
The row of shelves facing each other is changed. A buffer cassette stocker (not shown) is provided above the cassette stocker 2 if necessary.

The wafer transfer machine 3 has an elevating stage 8 capable of ascending and descending, and a rotating seat 9 is rotatably provided on the elevating stage 8 and a chuck having a plurality of wafer chucks 10 on the rotating seat 9. The king head 11 is provided so as to be movable in the horizontal direction.

The boat elevator 4 has a boat arm 12 which can be moved up and down. A boat seat 13 is provided on the boat arm 12 and a boat 14 can be mounted on the boat seat 13. Wafers 15 in the boat 14
Is held in a horizontal position in multiple stages.

The wafer 15 is transferred between the outside and the inside of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus while the wafer 15 is loaded in the wafer cassette 6.

The wafer cassette 6 loaded with the wafers 15 is placed on the two sets of the cassette receiving trays 5. The cassette transfer device 1 elevates and lowers the cassette receiving trays 5L and 5R so that the cassette receiving trays 5L and 5R face an empty shelf of the cassette shelf 7, and two sets of wafer cassettes 6 are simultaneously inserted and mounted on the cassette shelf 7. Place.

When the wafer cassette 6 in the cassette shelf 7 to which the wafers 15 are transferred is determined, the cassette stocker 2 traverses the cassette shelf 7, and the target wafer cassette 6 is moved to the chucking head 11. Confront.

The wafer transfer device 3 transfers the wafer 15 to the boat 14 by a combination of the operations of raising and lowering the elevating stage 8, rotating the rotary seat 9, and horizontally moving the chucking head 11. When the target wafer cassette 6 is changed, as shown in FIG. 4, wafers are transferred by changing the row of wafer cassettes of the same height on the cassette shelf 7 and then moving to the upper stage or the lower stage. To go. During the traversing operation of the cassette shelf 7, wafer transfer is stopped.

When the transfer of the wafer 15 to the boat 14 is completed, the boat elevator 4 raises the boat arm 12 and loads the boat 14 into a reaction furnace (not shown) to process the wafer 15.

After the processing is completed, the boat arm 12 is lowered, and the procedure for transferring the wafer 15 to the boat 14 is performed in reverse, and the wafer 15 is transferred to the wafer cassette 6 of the wafer cassette transfer device.

As described above, since the transfer operation of the wafer transfer machine 3 is accompanied by the traverse operation of the cassette shelf 7, while the wafer transfer machine 3 is transferring the wafer, the wafer of the cassette transfer device 1 is transferred. The transfer operation of the cassette 6 is stopped, and the transfer operation of the wafer transfer machine 3 is stopped during the transfer operation of the wafer cassette 6 of the cassette transfer apparatus 1.

[0015]

As described above, during the traversing operation of the cassette shelf 7, the transfer operation of the wafer transfer machine 3 is stopped, and the cassette shelf 7 is transferred every time the wafers of each stage are transferred. Of the cassette transfer device 1 and the wafer transfer device 3 while the other of them is in operation, the other of them is in an idle state, and the rest time increases the wafer transfer time. Is occurring, which also affects production efficiency.

Further, the cassette rack 5R serves as a cassette shelf 7.
It is possible to replace the R wafer cassette 6 with the cassette shelf 7L, but the cassette shelf 5L allows the cassette shelf 7L to be replaced.
There was a restriction that the wafer cassette 6 of 1 could not be replaced with the cassette shelf 7R. This is because it is necessary to store a wafer cassette loaded with a monitor wafer, a wafer cassette loaded with a dummy wafer, etc. in each of the cassette shelves 7 at a specific place according to the type of the wafer cassette, which is not suitable for use. It's inconvenient. In addition, there are many demands for replacement of wafer cassettes, and it has not been possible to meet such demands in the related art, resulting in a great limitation in the operation of the apparatus.

As described above, conventionally, since the replacement of the wafer cassettes 6 on the left and right of the cassette shelf 7 is limited, the row of cassette shelves is fixed as a device. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5, semiconductor manufacturing equipment 101, 102, 1
03 line A, semiconductor manufacturing equipment 104, 10
When equipment is installed so that the line B of 5,106 faces each other,
In the line A and the line B, the left and right of the rows of the cassette shelves 7 are reversed. Therefore, when the external transfer device 107 of the wafer cassette 6 is operated with reference to the line A as shown in FIG. 6, the flow of the external transfer device 107 and the access direction to each shelf are reversed with respect to the line B. However, there is a problem that the transport efficiency is significantly reduced.

In view of the above situation, the present invention is intended to eliminate the waiting time at the time of wafer transfer, reduce the down time of the transfer operation to shorten the wafer transfer time, and improve the throughput.

[0019]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a cassette transfer device for transferring a wafer cassette to a cassette stocker, wherein the cassette transfer device has a traverse beam capable of moving up and down. The present invention is characterized in that at least one set of cassette pedestals for receiving a wafer cassette and for moving the wafer cassette forward and backward is provided, and the at least one set of cassette pedestals can be traversed.

[0020]

[Function] Since the wafer cassettes can be freely transferred to and from all the shelves of the cassette stocker, the wafer cassettes can be freely exchanged, and the cassette stocker can be prevented from interfering with other devices during operation. In parallel, the wafer cassette is exchanged.

[0021]

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 same parts as those shown in FIG. 3 are designated by the same reference numerals, and the description thereof will be omitted.

The cassette transfer device 20 has a traverse beam 22 provided on the elevator unit 21 so as to be able to move up and down.
The cassette pedestal 5 can receive the wafer cassette 6 and can advance and retract the wafer cassette 6 with respect to the cassette shelf 7. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, the traverse distance of the cassette pedestal 5 has a stroke of three rows so that when the cassette shelf 7 does not slide, all the rows of the shelves can be directly faced when they slide. .

Thus, the transfer of the wafer cassette 6 to the cassette shelf 7 by the cassette transfer device 20 can be carried out by the cooperation of the raising and lowering of the traverse beam 22, the traverse of the cassette cradle 5, and the advance / retreat. Further, as shown in FIG. 2, regardless of whether the cassette rack 5 is in the slide state,
Since the wafer cassettes 6 can be transferred to and from all the shelves, even when the wafers 15 are transferred by the wafer transfer machine 3, interference with the transfer operation of the wafer transfer machine 3 is avoided and transfer of the wafer cassettes 6 is performed. It can be performed.

Further, regardless of the cassette shelf 7 being slid, the cassette cradle 5 moves from the cassette shelf 7L to the cassette shelf 7
Wafer cassettes can be exchanged to the R or from the cassette shelf 7R to the cassette shelf 7L without restriction.

In the present embodiment, the cassette pedestal 5 constitutes one set, and one wafer cassette 6 is provided for each cassette shelf 7.
However, as described above, the transfer work by the cassette transfer device 20 can be performed in parallel while the wafer transfer machine 3 is operating, and there is no down time, so the overall transfer efficiency is improved.
Also, since the wafer cassette 6 can be freely replaced,
The shelf for which the wafer transfer machine 3 is to be transferred is set to have the shortest transfer time, and the wafer transfer operation of the wafer cassette 6 by the cassette transfer device 20 is intensively performed on the shelf. Then, the transfer time of the wafer transfer machine 3 can be shortened, and the overall wafer transfer efficiency, that is, the throughput can be improved.

In this embodiment, one set of cassette pedestals 5 can be traversed, but two or more sets of cassette pedestals 5 are provided.
At least one set of the cassette pedestals 5 may be traversable.

[0028]

As described above, according to the present invention, the following excellent effects are exhibited.

The wafer transfer device and the cassette transfer device can be operated in parallel, and the transfer efficiency is improved.

Since the wafer cassettes can be freely exchanged in the cassette shelf, the type of wafer cassette stored in the cassette shelf can be freely selected, and the degree of freedom in using the apparatus is improved.

Regarding cassette shelves, wafer transfer can be shortened because wafer cassettes can be replaced in a concentrated manner on a shelf in which the operation time of the transfer machine is shortened (for example, a shelf in which the lifting operation of the transfer machine can be omitted). The overall wafer transfer time can be shortened.

It is not necessary to set the transfer position of the transfer machine for all the shelves, and it is possible to specify the shelves whose time can be shortened and the maintainability is improved.

Since the wafer cassettes can be exchanged within the cassette shelf, the degree of freedom in the line configuration of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is increased, and the wafer cassette transfer efficiency with external transfer equipment is improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a front perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the operation of the embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a front perspective view showing a conventional example.

FIG. 4 is an operation explanatory view of a conventional example.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a conventional example and an external transfer device.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between a conventional example and an external transfer device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 cassette stocker 3 wafer transfer machine 5 cassette cradle 6 wafer cassette 7 cassette shelf 20 cassette transfer device 21 elevator unit 22 traverse beam

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Riichi Kano 2-3-13 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo Kokusai Electric Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A cassette transfer device for transferring a wafer cassette to and from a cassette stocker, wherein the cassette transfer device has a traverse beam capable of moving up and down, and the wafer cassette is mounted on the traverse beam. At least one set of cassette pedestals capable of advancing and retracting is provided, and the at least one set of cassette pedestals can traverse.