JPH0715934B2 - Orientation flat aligner - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION “Industrial Application Field” The present invention is applied to various wafer manufacturing apparatuses, and aligns orientation flats (notches provided on the outer periphery of a wafer) necessary for positioning a semiconductor wafer in a certain direction. Orifla alignment machine.

“Prior Art” As shown in FIGS. 6 (A), (B) and FIG.
Conventionally, an orientation flat alignment mechanism 3 is provided on the way of transporting a semiconductor wafer 1 by a round belt conveyor 2 or the like, and the orientation flat 11
Are aligned so as to be parallel to the guide rails 4. As a method for this, the wafer 1 sent by the round belts 13 and 14 on the round belt conveyor 2 is transferred to the actuator 17
The wafer 1 is stopped by the wafer stopper 5 that can be lifted up and down and centered, and then the wafer 1 is lifted by 1 to 2 mm from the round belt conveyor 2 by the lift rotation unit 6 provided with the vacuum chuck 8, and the vacuum chuck 8 is moved by the motor 9 to move the gear 7 Rotating through, orientation flat sensor 10
Is used to detect the position of the orientation flat 11. In order to detect the position of the orientation flat 11, two orientation flat sensors 10 are used to detect the orientation flat as shown in FIG.
Detection using the dimensional difference between the notch 11 and the outer periphery of the wafer 1 is performed. After detecting the orientation flat 11, the motor 9
Is stopped, and the lifting and rotating unit 6 and the stopper 5 are lowered by the actuators 17 and 18, and the wafer 1 is moved to the round belt 1
Drop onto 3,14 and transport. As described above, in the past, since the orientation flat alignment is performed by a large number of parts and complicated control,
It was costly and required a lot of space.

"Problems to be Solved by the Invention" The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and provides an orientation flat aligner having a simple structure that can perform orientation flat alignment at low cost and in a small space. The purpose is to provide.

[Means for Solving the Problems] According to the present invention, the semiconductor wafer with the orientation flat having the guide rail on the side surface and conveyed by the belt conveyor using two or more belts is arranged. In the orientation flat aligner, an idle pulley that presses a wafer against the guide rail by lifting one belt to separate the wafer from the other belt and tilting the wafer, and the wafer on the idle pulley. There is provided an orientation flat aligning machine comprising: a guide member having a guide curved surface that guides the belt to rotate so that the idle pulley and one or more actuators that move the guide member up and down.

[Operation] According to the above configuration, since the belt lifted by the idle pulley pushes the lower surface of the wafer in the feeding direction, the wafer rotates along the curved surface of the guide member, and the orientation flat of the wafer contacts the side guide rail. Aligned to touch.

"Embodiment" An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 (A) shows the upper surface of the round belt conveyor 2,
FIG. 1B shows the front, and FIG. 1C shows the side cross section.
The semiconductor wafer 1 is carried on a round belt 13 and a round belt 14 driven by a conveyor motor 12. The idle pulley 15 and the wafer stopper 5 are provided at the orientation flat alignment position and are moved up and down by an actuator 17.
As shown in FIG. 3, the idle pulley 15 is a round belt.
It is located immediately below 13 and is integrally connected to the stopper 5 by a rotating shaft 19 so as to be rotatable. The stopper 5 is connected to a piston 20 of an actuator 17. As shown in FIG. 4, a wafer stopper 5 that forms a guide member.
The radius R of the guide curved surface 51 is larger than the radius r of the wafer 1, and the stopper 5 is made of plastic such as Teflon which has a small friction. Round belt 13,1
4 is made of a material with high friction and high wear resistance, such as urethane rubber. Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the wafer stopper 5 is provided with grooves 5A and 5B so as not to contact the belt 13 and the belt 14. As shown in FIG. 5, the orientation flat sensor 10 includes a light emitting diode 10A.
A photoelectric sensor that includes a phototransistor 10B and a phototransistor 10B and is turned on when the light of the light emitting diode 10A is blocked is used.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. In FIG. 1 to FIG. 5, when the wafer 1 is sent to the round belt conveyor 2 from the previous process, the actuator 17 is activated to operate the piston 20.
And the stopper 5 and the idle pulley 15 are lifted, the wafer 1 hits the stopper 5 and the idle pulley
Round belt 13 is idle pulley 15
Lifted by. Then, as shown in FIG. 2, the round belt lifted by the idle pulley 15
13 contacts the lower surface of the wafer 1, the wafer 1 is inclined toward the guide rail 4, and the other round belt 14 is attached to the wafer 1.
Since it is separated from the lower surface of the wafer 1, the wafer 1 is rotated by the frictional force of the round belt 13 while being pressed against the guide curved surface 51 of the stopper 5, and the orientation flat 11 is aligned with the guide rail 4.
Since the orientation flat sensor 10 is provided on the guide rail 4, when it is confirmed that the orientation flat 11 matches the guide rail 4, the actuator is actuated via a control device (not shown).
17, the idle pulley 15 and the stopper 5 are lowered. The wafer 1 is lowered onto the belt 13 and the belt 14, and the orientation flat 11 is conveyed to the subsequent process by the belts 13 and 14 in a posture in which the orientation flat 11 is aligned in parallel along the guide rail 14. The wafer 1 made of a silicon plate is light,
Since the rotational force by the belt 13 is obtained by the frictional force due to its own weight, no stress that damages the wafer 1 occurs at all.

"Numerical Performance Example" When the orientation flat aligning machine of the present invention was prototyped and the exclusive space and the price were compared with the conventional aligning mechanism, the exclusive space was ½ or less, and the price was ¼ or less.
This result is mainly due to the conventional vacuum chuck 8,
It is considered that the chuck motor 9 and the actuator 18 are no longer needed.

"Other Examples" In addition, although the number of belts of the belt conveyor is two in the above-described embodiments, the present invention can be applied to a belt conveyor having three or more belts. Further, the belt is not limited to a round belt, and a flat belt may be used, for example. Further, two actuators may be used.

"Effects" As described above, the orientation flat aligning machine of the present invention has the above-described configuration, and therefore, the orientation flat alignment can be performed at low cost and in a small space, and there are excellent effects such as a simple structure.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 (A) is a top view showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 1 (B) is a front view, FIG. 1 (C) is a side sectional view, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view showing an operating state. 3 is a perspective view of a main part, FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram used for explaining a wafer stopper, FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing an orientation flat sensor, and FIG. 6 (A) is a top view showing a conventional orientation flat alignment mechanism. 6B is a side sectional view, and FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a conventional mechanism. 1 ... Semiconductor wafer, 2 ... Round belt conveyor 4 ... Guide rail, 5 ... Wafer stopper 51 ... Guide curved surface, 13 ... Round belt 14 ... Round belt, 15 ... Idle pulley 17 ... Actuator

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. An orientation flat aligning machine for aligning semiconductor wafers with orientation flats, which has a guide rail on its side and is conveyed from a belt conveyor using two or more belts, by lifting one belt An idle pulley for pressing the wafer against the guide rail by separating the wafer from the belt and tilting the wafer, and a guide curved surface for guiding the wafer to be rotated by the belt on the idle pulley. An orientation flat aligning machine, comprising: a guide member provided with the idle pulley and one or more actuators for moving the idle pulley and the guide member up and down.