JPH0781954B2 - Semiconductor wafer visual inspection system - Google Patents

Description

The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer visual inspection apparatus for visually inspecting the surface of a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter referred to as a wafer).

[Conventional technology]

Usually, this type of visual inspection is performed after diffusing impurities on the surface of the wafer or forming an oxide film.
This is done to inspect the surface condition.

Conventionally, there is no special inspection device for this kind of inspection,
The wafer was grasped with tweezers, taken out from the wafer storage box, and visually inspected while holding it with tweezers.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

However, the above-described manual visual inspection has a defect that the surface of the wafer is scratched or dust is attached. In addition, recently, the size of the wafer has become larger and larger, and the diameter thereof has become as large as 250 mm, which is a problem that it is too heavy for tweezers to handle.
If handled by force, the wafer may be dropped and cracked or chipped.

An object of the present invention is to provide a wafer visual inspection apparatus that does not cause scratches, cracks, or dust on the wafer.

[Means for Solving the Problems]

The wafer visual inspection apparatus of the present invention is a wafer storage box having a large number of shelves for storing and storing semiconductor wafers in one direction, and having a hole in the surface on which the wafer storage box is placed and in a direction orthogonal to the semiconductor wafer surface. A movable table, a blade that moves in and out of the wafer storage box by expanding and contracting in one direction through the hole of the table, and rotating or swinging the blade and expanding and contracting in one direction. And a drive mechanism section.

〔Example〕

 Next, the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wafer appearance inspection apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of the blade drive unit of FIG. This wafer visual inspection apparatus has a wafer storage box 4 having a large number of shelves for storing and storing wafers 1 in one direction, and a table 14 having a hole 15 on the surface on which the wafer storage box 4 is placed and which can be moved to an arrow 9. And this table
A blade 2 for inserting and removing the wafer 1 from the wafer storage box 4 by expanding and contracting in the direction of the arrow 10 through the holes 15 of 14
And a drive mechanism section including motors 7 and 8 for rotating or swinging the blade 2 in the direction of arrow 3 and expanding and contracting in the direction of arrow 10.

Next, the operation of the wafer visual inspection device will be described. First, the wafer storage box 4 containing a large number of wafers 1 is placed on the table 14. At this time, the position of the wafer storage box 4 and the position of the hole 15 of the table 14 are aligned. Next, the motor 11 is rotated, the feed screw 6 moves the table 14 in the direction of the arrow 9, and stops at a predetermined position (the blade 2 is located below the hole 15 of the table 14). Next, the motor 8
In the direction of 10, the blade 2 rises from its original position as the ram 16 rises, and one wafer 1 is picked up by the tip of the blade 2 and pushed up onto the wafer storage box 4.

After the wafer 1 is pushed up, the motor 7 is rotated, and the blade 2 is slowly rotated or swung in the direction of the arrow 3 so that the wafer 1 can be directly seen by the eyes 5 for inspection. Here, the sensor 12 controls the rotation or swinging motion of the blade 2, and the belt 13 controls the motor 7.
Is a transmission mechanism that transmits the rotation of the blade to the blade 2.

Next, when the visual inspection is completed, the rotation or swinging motion of the wafer 1 is stopped, and the ram 16 is lowered so that both surfaces of the wafer 1 are parallel to the shelves of the wafer storage box 4, so that the blade 2 is moved. The wafer 1 is lowered and stored in the shelf of the wafer storage box 4. As a result, the blade 2 returns to the above-mentioned original position.

In this way, the visual inspection can be automatically completed without sequentially touching the wafers stored in the wafer storage box 4. Therefore, this wafer visual inspection system is combined with other automated lines and is a so-called cassette-to-
It has the advantage that it can be applied to cassettes online.

〔The invention's effect〕

As described above, the present invention eliminates the need to directly grab a wafer with tweezers for visual inspection, and thus has an effect of providing a wafer visual inspection apparatus that does not cause scratches, cracks, or dust on the wafer.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wafer appearance inspection apparatus showing an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a side view of the blade drive unit of FIG. 1 ... Wafer, 2 ... Blade, 3, 9, 10 ... Arrow, 4 ... Wafer storage box, 5 ... Eye, 6 ... Feed screw, 7, 8, 11 ... Motor, 12 ... Sensor , 13 …… belt, 14 …… table, 15 …… hole, 16 …… ram.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A wafer storage box having a plurality of shelves for storing and storing semiconductor wafers in one direction, and a table having a hole on a surface on which the wafer storage box is placed and movable in a direction orthogonal to the semiconductor wafer surface. A blade for inserting and removing the semiconductor wafer from the wafer storage box by expanding and contracting in one direction through the hole of the table; and a drive mechanism section for rotating or swinging the blade and expanding and contracting in one direction. A semiconductor wafer visual inspection apparatus comprising: