JPH0775830B2 - Work loading / unloading device for policy - Google Patents

Description

Description: TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a work loading / unloading device for loading and unloading a work such as a silicon wafer onto a polisher for double-side polishing.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

A double-sided polisher for polishing both sides of a work such as the wafer is provided with a carrier that meshes with a sun gear and an internal gear between upper and lower surface plates that can be opened and closed, and a plurality of work holding portions formed on the carrier, respectively. The workpieces are loaded and held one by one, and in that state, the upper and lower surface plates are closed (the upper surface plate is lowered) and the carrier is revolved while rotating the carrier by the rotational drive of the sun gear and the internal gear, The upper and lower surfaces of the work held by each work holding portion of the carrier are polished by the upper and lower surface plates.

As a work unloading device for a polisher having such a structure, as shown in JP-A-58-215031, JP-A-59-156665 and JP-A-59-156666, a work is held in a work holding portion of a carrier. There is a system in which the carrier together with the carrier is slid sideways on the mounting base to carry it out between the upper and lower surface plates, and the carrying-in device is the one described in JP-A-59-15.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 6665 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 59-156666, there is a method of adsorbing and lifting a work together with each work holding part of a carrier and carrying the work between upper and lower surface plates. .

However, in the case of the method of carrying out the work by sliding the work sideways with the carrier, there is an inconvenience that the work that has been polished is scratched, and the work is removed from the work holding parts of the carrier taken out of the machine one by one. It needs to be removed. Further, if this carry-out method is applied to carry-in, it takes time and effort to load the work to be processed next into each work holding portion of the carrier outside the machine, and the carrier loaded with the work is returned between the upper and lower surface plates and re-loaded. When setting, it is difficult to mesh the carrier smoothly with the sun gear and the internal gear, resulting in inefficient work loading and unloading work, and thus there is a problem that productivity cannot be improved in polisher.

Also, in the case of the method of adsorbing and lifting the work together with the carrier, it takes time and effort to load each work holding part of the carrier outside the machine, and the carrier loaded with the work is set between the upper and lower surface plates. In doing so, the sun gear and the internal gear cannot be smoothly meshed with each other, and similarly, the efficiency of the work loading and unloading work is poor and the productivity cannot be improved.

[Object of the Invention] The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and in a state where the carrier between the upper and lower surface plates is not removed and is still engaged with the sun gear and the internal gear, each work holding portion of the carrier is On the other hand, workpieces can be loaded and unloaded automatically quickly and reliably and without damage, simplifying work loading and unloading work and greatly improving efficiency.
An object of the present invention is to provide a work loading / unloading device in a policy which can be greatly useful for improving productivity.

[Outline of Invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the work loading / unloading device in the policy of the present invention is provided with a carrier that rotates between the upper and lower surface plates and revolves while meshing with the sun gear and the internal gear. In a work loading / unloading device for a polisher that polishes the works respectively loaded in the work holding units by the upper and lower surface plates, the work storage unit that can store a plurality of works and the same number and the same number as the plurality of work holding units of the carrier. An index table that has a work support portion in an arrangement relationship and is intermittently rotatable at an angle corresponding to the arrangement angle of the work support portion, and one work between the work storage portion and the case work support portion of the index table. And a plurality of work carrying-in / carrying-out means for carrying one by one and all of the work supporting parts of the index table. Work loading and unloading means for simultaneously loading all the work pieces of the carrier and loading them on the work holding portion of the carrier, or conversely unloading all or part of the work holding portions of the carrier and carrying them to the respective work supporting portions of the index table. It is configured to include and.

Example of Invention

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. First, in FIGS. 1 and 2, reference numeral 1 denotes a double-side processing polisher, and 2 denotes a work loading / unloading device for the polisher 1.

The structure of the polisher 1 will be briefly described below. The vertical movement mechanism 4b is attached to the arm 4a of the support column 4 standing above the machine base 3.
A disk-shaped upper surface plate 5 is provided in a state of being vertically movably suspended by, and a disk-shaped lower surface plate 6 is also provided on the upper surface of the machine base 3 directly below this. The upper and lower surface plates 5 and 6 have polishing surfaces 5a and 6a that face each other vertically, and the upper surface plate 5 is descended by a vertical movement mechanism 4b from a state in which the upper surface plate 5 is largely separated (opened) above the lower surface plate 6. By being driven to rotate in a state of approaching (closing) the lower surface plate 6, the polishing surfaces 5a and 6a of both sides sandwich a work to be described later for polishing.

That is, the lower surface plate 6 is provided so as to be rotationally driven by the rotational drive mechanism 7, and the sun gear 8 which is separately rotationally driven is provided in the center of the lower platen 6, and the sun gear 8 protrudes above the center of the sun gear 8. Further, a joint 9 that is driven separately is provided, and the upper platen 5 is engaged with the joint 9 when the upper platen 5 descends to rotate. A large-diameter internal gear 10 is provided on the upper surface of the machine base 3 so as to surround the outer periphery of the lower platen 6. A thin plate-shaped carrier 11 such as a planetary gear that revolves while rotating on its own by engaging with the sun gear 8 and the internal gear 10 is provided on the lower platen 6, and each of the carriers 11 has a round hole-shaped opening. A plurality of (for example, six) work holding portions 11a are formed at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, and a work 12 such as a silicon wafer is loaded by the loading / unloading device 2 therein.
In the state where one work is held in each of the work holding portions 11a, the carrier 11 revolves while revolving between the upper and lower surface plates 5 and 6 by the rotation of the sun gear 8 by the rotation drive mechanism 7, The upper and lower surfaces of each work 12 are set on the upper and lower surface plates.
The polishing surfaces 5a and 6a of 5 and 6 are used for polishing.

The work loading / unloading device 2 for the policy 1 is
A work loading / unloading platform adjacent to the front side of the policy 1
13 and two index tables 14 and 15 for loading and unloading, one on each of the left and right sides of the top surface.
And a work loading / unloading mechanism 16 and a work loading / unloading mechanism 17 for loading / unloading provided on the machine base 13 as work loading / unloading means for the respective work supporting portions 14a, 15a, which will be described later, formed on the index tables 14, 15. And a work loading / unloading mechanism 18 installed in the middle of the upper part of the machine base 13 as a means for simultaneously carrying and loading / unloading a plurality of works 12 between the index tables 14 and 15 and the carrier 11 in the policyr 1. It consists of and. In addition, a loading-side work storage section 19 and an unload-side work storage section 20 are provided on the right and left sides of the machine base 13 on the side opposite to the anti-polishing side, and cassettes 21 and 22 capable of storing a large number of works 12 in a multi-stage manner are provided in each of them. It can be set and placed.

These will be described in detail. The loading side index table
Reference numeral 14 denotes a disk-shaped member having a diameter smaller than that of the carrier 11, and is provided so as to be capable of intermittent rotation drive like a turntable, and has the same number and the same number as the work holding portion 11a of the carrier 11 on the periphery of the upper surface. The work support portion 14a is formed in a positional relationship. In other words, the loading side index table 14
Has a disc shape as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4, and is mounted and supported on the upper end of the rotary shaft cylinder 24 fitted on the outer periphery of the fixed shaft 23.
Along with the rotary shaft cylinder 24, it is intermittently rotated by a motor 27 via gears 25 and 26 at the lower end. Work supporting portions 14a are formed in a substantially semicircular concave step shape at six positions around the upper surface of the carry-in side index table 14 at equal intervals in the circumferential direction, and one work 12 is provided on each work supporting portion 14a. They are being supported one by one. At this time, work 12
A part of which the area is a little over half fits on the work supporting part 14a, and the remaining part is exposed to the outside. Further, arc-shaped vacuum suction grooves 14b are formed on the inner surface of each work support portion 14a, which are connected to the lower suction tube 28 via suction holes 14c penetrating the index table 14, respectively. 28 is connected to a vacuum suction mechanism (not shown) from a suction hole 24a penetrating the rotary shaft cylinder 24 through an outer peripheral suction groove 23a formed in the fixed shaft 23 and an internal suction hole 23b, and is housed in the work support portion 14a. The works 12 are individually sucked and held.

Further, as shown in FIG. 5, the carry-out side index table 15 has the same structure as the carry-in side index table 14 and has a disk shape having a plurality of work supporting portions 15a around the upper surface thereof and has a rotary shaft cylinder. Supported on 29, gears 30,3
It is provided so as to be intermittently rotated by a motor 32 via 1.

Next, a work loading mechanism 16 as the wow loading / unloading means.
4 is a kind of belt conveyor type, as shown in FIG. 4, which is provided with a guide roller 33 adjacent to the carry-in side index table 14 and a guide provided at the tip of an arm 34 protruding toward the carry-in side work storage section 19. A roller 35, an intermediate guide roller 36, a pair of left and right endless conveyor belts 37 wound around them, and a motor 39 for rotating the guide roller 33 via a drive belt 38. Then, by rotating the conveyor belt 37 by driving the motor, the work 1 on the shelf 21a in the cassette 21 of the carry-in side work storage unit 19 is
2 is scooped out from the lower side and carried into the work supporting portion 14a of the carry-in side index table 14. The guide roller 33 and the motor 39 therebelow are supported by a vertical movement mechanism such as a cylinder (not shown), and when the carry-in side index table 14 is rotated, the work belt 12 is supported on the work 12 supported by the work support portion 14a.
When the index table 14 is stopped, the index table 14 is lowered so as not to touch, and the index table 14 is raised to allow the workpiece 12 to be conveyed to the workpiece support portion 14a by the conveyor belt 37. Here, 39a and 39b are limit switches for detecting the vertical movement position of the motor 39 and the guide roller 33.

In addition, the cassette 21 of the loading-side work storage unit 19 has the internal shelves 21a cut out leaving the periphery, and the conveyor belt 37
Is adapted to scoop the work 12 from the lower side, and the entire cassette 21 is first lifted up by an elevating mechanism (not shown), and is lowered step by step each time the work is taken out by the conveyor belt 37. The conveyor belt 37 can take out the work on the upper shelf 21a step by step from the work 12 on the lowermost shelf 21a.

In addition, a work unloading mechanism 17 as the work unloading means.
As shown in FIG. 5, this is also a kind of belt conveyor type, and can be driven back and forth toward the carry-out side work storage section 20 by the guide roller 40 and the cylinder 41 which are adjacent to the carry-out side index table 15. A guide roller 43 provided at the tip of the arm 42 protruding in the direction, an intermediate guide roller 44, a pair of detouring rollers 45 arranged below the guide roller 43, and further arranged outside thereof through a guide 46 so as to be vertically movable. Tension roller
47, a pair of left and right endless conveyor belts 48 hung on them, a motor 50 for rotatably driving the guide roller 40 via the belt 49, and a weight for constantly pulling the tension roller 47 downward. It is composed of 51 and. Then, the cylinder 42 causes the arm 42 to advance toward the unloading side work storage section 20 and the motor drives the conveyor belt 38 to scoop the work 12 of the work supporting section 15a of the unloading side index table 15 from the outside. In this way, and the shelf 22a in the cassette 22 of the work storage part 20 on the unloading side is carried out.
It is supposed to send it to the top. Also, the guide roller
40 and its lower motor 50 are supported by a vertically moving mechanism such as a cylinder (not shown), and the conveyor belt 48 does not touch the work 12 supported by the work supporting portion 15a when the carry-out side index table 15 is rotated. As described above, when the index table 15 is stopped, the work table 12 is raised so that the work 12 can be carried out from the work supporting portion 15a by the carrying belt 48. Here, 52a and 52b are limit switches for advancing and retracting position detection, and 52c and 52d are limit switches for vertical movement position detection.

In the cassette 22 of the carry-out side work storage section 20, each of the internal shelves 22a is cut away leaving the periphery, and the conveyor belt 48
And the work 12 can be fed onto the shelf 22a, and the entire cassette 22 is moved up and down by the cassette lifting mechanism 53.
Is initially located at the lower side, and is raised by one step each time the work is fed by the conveyor belt 48, so that the conveyor belt 48 can gradually feed the work from the uppermost shelf 22a to the lower shelf 22a. There is. Further, the unloading side work storage section 20 is composed of a tank 54 having a size capable of accommodating a plurality of the cassettes 22 vertically stacked, and an anti-drying liquid 55 such as pure water is supplied to the tank 54 in a state of always overflowing. Thus, the polished work 12 carried into the cassette 22 can be stored together with the cassette 22 while preventing the drying, and can be stored. The cassette lifting mechanism 53 is provided at the bottom of the tank 54. That is, the tank
There is a female screw 58 for feeding a ball screw, which is rotatably driven by a motor 56 fixed to the lower side of 54 through a gear 57, and there is a long feeding screw 59 that is screwed into the female screw 58. A plurality of guide rods 60 to be arranged penetrate the bottom of the tank 54 upward and are connected to the cassette receiving base 61, and the feed screw 59 is rotated by the rotation of the female screw 58 by the drive of the motor 56. The cassette 22 is moved up and down together with the table 51 to raise and lower the cassette 22. Reference numeral 62 is a bellows-like waterproof cover that can expand and contract in the vertical direction.

Next, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the work loading / unloading mechanism 18 is a kind of industrial robot, and is provided at the intermediate portion between the index tables 14 and 15 on the machine base 13 and is provided with a driving unit 63. Arm 64 that moves up and down and swings
And an expandable and retractable ram 64a and a chuck head 65 rotatably held downward at the tip of the ram 64a. The chuck head 65 has a diameter substantially the same as that of the index tables 14 and 15 as a whole. Although not shown on the lower surface, each work support portion 14a of the index table 14
A plurality of work chuck portions are provided in an arrangement corresponding to. And the vertical movement of the arm 64 and the swing and ram 64a
The chuck head 65 moves between the index tables 14 and 15 and the carrier 11 in the policyr 1 due to the expansion and contraction of the workpieces, and the workpiece chucks on the lower surface of the chuck heads 65 support the workpieces of the workpiece support portions 14a of the loading side index tables 14. At the same time, all or a part such as a half is chucked and conveyed and loaded into the work holding portion 11a of the carrier 11, or conversely all the polished works 12 of each work holding portion 11a of the carrier 11 are simultaneously fed. Alternatively, depending on the case, a part such as a half is chucked and taken out to be conveyed to each work supporting portion 15a of the carry-out side index table 15.

Therefore, in the work loading / unloading device 2 in the policy having the above-described configuration, the work before being processed is loaded in the loading side work storage unit 19.
If a cassette 21 that stores a large number of 12 is set, the work carry-in mechanism 16 is arranged such that the works 12 on each shelf 21a are lowered one by one while the cassette 21 is gradually lowered. Index on the loading side that takes out and rotates intermittently
The work pieces 12 are successively loaded into the work piece support portions 14a, and the work pieces 12 are vacuum-sucked and held by the work piece support portions 14a.

Then, when the works 12 are carried in and held one by one on all the work supporting portions 14a of the carry-in side index table 14,
The chuck head 65 of the work loading / unloading mechanism 18 moves right above it and descends, where the vacuum suction force on the carry-in side index table 14 side is released, and instead, the work chuck parts on the lower surface of the chuck head 65 are replaced. Normally, all the works 12 are chucked at the same time, and the carrier 64 is lifted by the arm 64 as it is and stopped in the vicinity of the loading position in advance.
It is conveyed by swinging the arm 64 to right above. At this time, the upper surface plate 5 of the policer 1 is pulled up to a high position and is in an open state. Then, just above the carrier 11, the chuck head 65 descends together with the arm 64, and the arm 64
The center of the chuck head 65 is matched with the center of the carrier 11 by swinging the ram 64a and the ram 64a is expanded and contracted, and the work 12 chucked on the chuck part is matched with the work holding part 11a of the carrier 11 by the rotation of the chuck head 65. The workpieces 12 chucked on the lower surface of the chuck head 65 are loaded into the workpiece holding portions 11a of the carrier 11 at once. After this carrying-in operation is performed on each carrier 11, the arm 64 of the work loading / unloading mechanism 18 is raised and rotated, and the work loading / unloading mechanism 18 retracts together with the chuck head 65 out of the policy 1. Then, the upper surface plate 5 of the policy carrier 1 is lowered, and the carrier 11 is revolved while being rotated between the upper and lower surface plates 5 and 6 while being rotated, and each work holding portion 11 of the carrier 11 is rotated.
The upper and lower surfaces of the work 12 held by a are polished.

When the polishing with the polisher 1 is completed in this way and the upper surface plate 5 is lifted to the open state, the chuck head 65 of the work loading / unloading mechanism 18 is again stopped in the vicinity of the unloading position in the same manner as described above. The position and the rotation angle of the chuck head 65 with respect to the carrier 11 are determined in the same manner as when carrying in and are moved directly above 11 to lower the polished work 12 of each work holding portion 11a of the carrier 11 normally. At the same time, the work is chucked by each work chuck portion on the lower surface of the chuck head 65. Then, as it is lifted up, the chuck head 65 takes out each work 12 and conveys the work 12 directly above the unloading side index table 15, where it descends to move each work.
12 is stored in each work supporting portion 15a of the index table 15.

The carry-out side index table 15 in which the polished work 12 is housed is driven to rotate intermittently, while the work carry-out mechanism 17 causes the work supporting portions 15 of the index table 15 to move.
Take out the works 12 of a one by one, and carry out the work storage part 2 on the unloading side.
The cassettes 22 are sequentially fed from the upper stage onto the respective shelves 22a in the cassette 22 which can be raised in stages of 0 and stored.

This carrying-out operation is performed for each carrier 11, and when one batch of the polished work 12 is stored in the cassette 22, after the guide roller 43 is retracted by the cylinder 4,
The cassette 22 is submerged in the anti-drying liquid 55 in the tank 54 of the unloading side work storage section 20, the work 12 is stored without being dried, and the work 12 is corroded by an abrasive agent, or when the cleaning is performed later. Eliminate inconveniences such as difficulty in removing dirt. In addition,
The operation of submerging the cassette 22 in the tank 54 is performed by each carrier.
It may be done each time 11 works 12 are stored. When the unworked work 12 is carried in after the polished work 12 is carried out, the above-mentioned carry-out and carry-in may be repeated for each carrier 11.

The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and for example, the work carry-in mechanism 16 is an index table.
Although the work 12 is loaded one by one with respect to 14,
It is also possible to arrange a plurality of workpieces 12 in a radial pattern with respect to the index table 14 of a work loading mechanism similar to the work loading mechanism 16 so that the works 12 can be simultaneously loaded into the plurality of work support portions 14a, respectively. Similarly, the mechanism 17 may be configured to simultaneously carry out the works 12 from the plurality of work supports 15a of the carry-out side index table 15. On the contrary, the work carrying-in mechanism 16 and the work carrying-out mechanism 17 may be integrated into one and the work carrying-in and carrying-out may be performed by the same thing. Further, two index tables are provided, one on the loading side and one on the loading side, as shown by 14,15, but it is also possible to use only one index table for loading and unloading, and vice versa. Two or more units may be provided, and the work loading mechanism 16 and the work unloading mechanism 17 may be increased or decreased accordingly. Further, the work loading / unloading mechanism 18 is not limited to one, but two or more work loading / unloading mechanisms may be provided, one dedicated to loading the work on the carrier and one dedicated to loading the work from the carrier. In addition, the work supporting portions 14a and 15a of the index tables 14 and 15 are connected to the conveyor belt 3
If the work 12 is set lower than 7,48 and the work belts 37, 48 are inclined so that the work 12 is separated from the work belts 37, 48 during vacuum suction, the mechanism for moving the work belts 37, 48 up and down is unnecessary. is there. Other various modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, according to the present invention, the index table having the work support portions in the same number and the same arrangement relationship as the plurality of work holding portions of the carrier provided by meshing the sun gear and the internal gear between the upper and lower surface plates is used. Work loading and unloading means for installing and unloading a plurality of works at the same time between the index table and the carrier, which are installed in an outside neighborhood and the like, and work loading and unloading means for each work supporting portion of the index table. Since it is configured to include and, the carrier between the upper and lower surface plate is not removed and the sun gear and the internal gear are still engaged with each other, and the work is quickly and surely held against each work holding portion of the carrier. Moreover, it can be automatically loaded and unloaded without damaging it, which simplifies work loading and unloading work and greatly improves efficiency.
It becomes a work loading / unloading device in a policy that can be greatly useful for improving productivity.

[Brief description of drawings]

The drawings show an embodiment of the present invention. Fig. 1 is a partially cutaway plan view of the whole, Fig. 2 is a partially cutaway side view of the whole, and Fig. 3 is a plan view of a single index table. FIG. 4 is a partially cross-sectional side view showing a storage unit on the workpiece loading side, a loading mechanism, and an index table, and FIG. 5 is a sectional view showing an index table on the workpiece loading side, a loading mechanism, and a workpiece storage unit. 1 ... Polychrome, 2 ... Work loading / unloading device, 5 ... Upper plate, 6 ... Lower plate, 8 ... Sun gear, 10 ... Internal gear, 11 ... Carrier, 11a ... Work holding part , 12 ... Work, 14,15 ... Index table, 14a, 15a ... Work support, 16,17 ... Work loading / unloading means (16 ... Work loading mechanism, 17 ... Work loading mechanism), 18 ... ... Work loading / unloading means.

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A carrier is provided between upper and lower platens, which meshes with a sun gear and an internal gear to revolve while revolving, and a plurality of work holding portions formed on the carrier are respectively loaded with the works. In a work loading / unloading device for a polisher to be polished by a board, a work storage part capable of storing a plurality of works, and a work support part having the same number and the same arrangement relationship as the plurality of work holding parts of the carrier are provided. An index table that can be intermittently rotated at an angle corresponding to the arrangement angle of, and a work loading and unloading means for transporting the works one by one or a plurality of works between the work storage part and the case work support part of the index table, All or part of the work supporting parts of the index table are simultaneously conveyed and loaded into the work holding part of the carrier. Conversely, the work in the polisher is provided with a work loading / unloading means for simultaneously removing all or a part of the work holding portions of the carrier and transporting them to each work supporting portion of the index table. Loading / unloading device. 2. An index table is provided for each of the carry-in side and the carry-out side, two in total, and the work storage section and the work carry-in / out means are separately provided for carrying-in and carrying-out. Claim 1 characterized by
The work loading / unloading device in the polisher according to the item. 3. The work loading / unloading device for a polisher according to claim 2, wherein one work loading / unloading device is installed between the two index tables. 4. The index table according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that each work support part of the index table is configured to accommodate the work in a state where a part of the back surface thereof is exposed. The work loading / unloading device in the polisher according to.