JPH0834235B2 - Wafer ceiling transfer robot - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION "Industrial field of application" The present invention relates to a wafer cassette on a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in process in a partial laminar flow type clean room used in the field of manufacturing VLSI, IC, etc. The present invention relates to a ceiling-mounted wafer transfer robot for automatically loading and unloading.

“Prior art” As is well known, when manufacturing circuit devices on semiconductor devices, especially when forming circuit elements on a semiconductor wafer, dust and vibration during circuit element formation in the preceding process are major enemies, and cleaning in a working atmosphere And the fact that the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is not vibrated directly leads to product yield. Here, one row of the partial laminar flow type clean room is shown using FIG.

In the figure, reference numeral K is a partial laminar flow type clean room, 1 is a ceiling slab, and 2 is a floor slab. Ceiling slab 1 and floor slab 2
A ceiling plate 3 is provided in a ceiling portion in a room between and, and an air duct 4 from a main air conditioner (not shown) is arranged above the ceiling plate 3. Further, air supply chambers 5, 5 are formed on both sides of the air supply duct 4, which are U
The air supply chamber 5a is communicated downward with the space (passage area) through the LPA filter (or HEPA filter) 6,6, and also under the ceiling plate 3 on both sides of the air supply chambers 5,5. , 5a are provided, and they are communicated with the space (device area) below through ULPA filters (or HEPA filters) 6a, 6a. On the other hand, a perforated floor (grating, punching metal, etc.) 7, which is a floor having an opening above the floor slab 2, is installed on the floor of the room, and the free access floor 8 is provided between them. Are formed. Further, the room is divided into a working room 10 and a service area 11 by partition plates 9 and 9 standing upright between the air supply chambers 5a and 5a and the effective floor 7, and the air supply chambers 5a and 5a are separated from each other. Air conditioners 12 and 12 with built-in fans are attached to the service area 11 side. Semiconductor manufacturing equipment such as LSI (hereinafter simply referred to as “manufacturing equipment”) 1 is provided near the lower part of the partition plates 9, 9.
3,13 are arranged, rails 14,14 are laid on the floor on the passage area side of both sides of the manufacturing apparatus 13,13,
On the rails 14, 14, floor transfer robots M, M for automatically loading and unloading the wafer cassette 15 are arranged at predetermined positions on the manufacturing apparatuses 13, 13.

In the partial laminar flow type clean room K, first, the clean air sent through the air supply duct 4 is
Air supply chambers 5, 5, 5a, 5a installed on the ceiling to work room 10
Is blown out to. The washing air supplied to the working room 10 flows from the ceiling portion toward the perforated floor 7 in a substantially laminar state in one direction, and then from the free access floor 8 to the service area.
It reaches the air conditioner 12 via 11, is further sent from the air conditioner 12 into the supply chamber 5a, passes through the ULPA filter 6, and is again supplied to the company business room 10.

Also used in this partial laminar flow type clean room,
The on-floor wafer transfer robot M is provided with an arm portion for supporting the wafer cassette, a main body portion for supporting the wafer cassette, and a driving means by means of wheels having a motor attached to a lower portion of the main body portion as a drive source. The wafer cassette 15 is transferred from a stocker (not shown) to a predetermined manufacturing apparatus 13 while moving along rails 14 laid on the effective floor 7 along the manufacturing apparatus 13 to a predetermined manufacturing apparatus 13. Then, the cassette 15 in which the wafers finished in the manufacturing process of the manufacturing apparatus 13 are stored is picked up from the manufacturing apparatus 13 and conveyed again to a predetermined position of the stocker.

"Problems to be Solved by the Invention" However, the conventional wafer floor transfer robot is
Since the rails are laid on the floor in front of the manufacturing equipment and the wheels using the motor as the drive source are used as the drive means, when the floor transfer robot moves, vibration is likely to occur and occurred. The vibration is directly transmitted to the manufacturing equipment, and dust is easily generated near the wheels,
This causes the product yield to decrease due to the diffusion into the clean room, etc., and there is a problem that the rail interferes when the worker stands on the entire surface of the manufacturing equipment and works. It was

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and prevents the generation and diffusion of dust when moving, eliminates the influence of vibration to the manufacturing apparatus, it is possible to increase the yield of products, work It is an object of the present invention to provide a ceiling-mounted wafer transfer robot that does not require a rail or the like that interferes when a worker works in front of a manufacturing apparatus.

"Means for Solving the Problems" In order to solve the above problems, the present invention installs a linear guide along the vicinity of the environmental line between the air supply unit and the ceiling exhaust unit provided on the ceiling. While attaching the upper part of the ceiling-mounted transfer robot to the linear guide via the connecting member,
The connecting member is inserted through a transfer driving shaft provided in parallel with the linear guide, and the ceiling driving transfer robot is moved along the linear guide by rotating the transfer driving shaft. It has a feature.

[Examples] Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1 to 3 show an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a partial laminar flow type clean room equipped with a wafer ceiling transfer robot of the present invention, FIG. 2, FIG. The figure is a detailed view of a ceiling-mounted wafer transfer robot of the present invention. In these figures, the same components as those shown in the prior art of FIG. 4 are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

In the partial laminar flow type clean room (hereinafter, simply referred to as “clean room”) K shown in FIG. 1, air chambers 5a and 5b, which are air supply units, are linearly arranged in a direction orthogonal to the plane of the drawing on the ceiling of the apparatus area. And a ceiling exhaust unit 15 is installed linearly on the ceiling of the passage area adjacent to the air supply chambers 5a, 5a. Further, ULPA filters (or HEPA filters) 6,6 for cleaning air are attached below the air supply chambers 5a, 5a, and the ULPA filters 6,6 are adjacent to the ceiling exhaust unit 15. The side portions 6a, 6a are formed with inclined surfaces so as to be smoothly connected to the louver 17 mounted below the ceiling exhaust portion 15. On the other hand, in the floor part, the device part area and the aisle part area are concrete fixed floors 7a, 7a, 7b. Between the device part floor 7a and the aisle part floor 7b, there is a free access floor 8 under the floor. The groove portions 16, 16 communicating with the groove portions 16, 16 are formed.
A perforated floor 7,7 such as a grating is attached to the. At the same time, semiconductor manufacturing devices (hereinafter, referred to as “manufacturing devices”) 13 and 13 are linearly arranged on the device floors 7a and 7a in holes orthogonal to the paper surface.

An air supply chamber is provided below the ceiling exhaust unit 15.
Support members 18 and 18 are provided in the direction orthogonal to the plane of the drawing along the vicinity of the boundary line between 5a and 5a and the ceiling exhaust unit 15, and along the support members 18 and 18, as shown in FIG. A groove duct 19 is attached. Further, two linear guides 20, 20 are fixed in parallel inside the groove-type duct 19, and a power supply duct 19a is provided side by side. And, in this linear guide 20, 20, the groove type duct 1
The upper end Mt of the ceiling-mounted transfer robots for wafers (hereinafter, simply referred to as “transfer robots”) M and M installed in two directions extending in the direction of 9, that is, on the same line, is attached via a connecting member 21. In addition, the connecting member 21 has a linear guide.
A drive shaft 22a for transfer, which is a screw rod provided in parallel with 20,
22b is installed.

The transfer robot M has a holding unit M1 for holding the wafer cassette 15 (see FIG. 3), and the holding unit M1 for manufacturing the manufacturing apparatus 13
An arm part M2 that horizontally expands and contracts to the upper part of the robot body, a robot body M3 that vertically expands and contracts and horizontally rotates the arm part M2, and a connecting member 21 provided at the upper end Mt of the robot body M3. It is the main component and the connecting member 21
Is a sliding portion 21a, 21a that slides with the linear guides 20, 20, and a driving portion 21b that is integrated with the sliding portion 21a, 21a and has the transfer driving shafts 22a, 22a inserted therethrough, and the driving portion 21b that is connected to the upper end portion Mt. It is composed of a connecting portion 21c for fixing.

Then, the drive portion 21b of the transfer robot M on the front side with respect to the paper surface is provided with a female screw portion which is screwed with one of the transfer drive shafts 22a.
23 is formed and the other transfer drive shaft 22b
Is formed in the drive unit 21b of the transfer robot (not shown) M on the opposite side of the paper surface, and a through hole is formed in which the one transfer drive shaft 22a penetrates. At the same time, a female screw portion that is screwed into the other transfer drive shaft 22b is formed.

In this clean room K, most of the clean air supplied from the air supply chambers 5a, 5a passes through the ULPA filters 6, 6 and then flows in the room so as to wrap around the upper parts of the manufacturing apparatuses 13, 13. Is discarded from the perforated floor 7, and a part of it passes through the side parts 6a, 6a of the ULPA filter, and then the upper part of the transfer robot M is wrapped and exhausted to the ceiling exhaust part 15. .

Next, the operation of the transfer robot M of the present invention will be described. First, the transfer drive shaft 22a screwed with the female screw portion 23 of the connecting member 21 is rotated in a predetermined direction to feed the transfer robot M. The wafer cassette 15 is transferred from the stocker (not shown) to the front of the predetermined manufacturing apparatus 13 by sliding on the linear guides 20 and 20 laid along the boundary between the air chamber 5a and the ceiling exhaust unit 15. To do. Next, the arm part
By driving M2 and the robot main body M3 in the horizontal and vertical directions, the holding part M1 is moved to a predetermined position on the manufacturing apparatus 13 and the wafer cassette 15 is placed. When the wafer whose manufacturing process has been completed in the manufacturing apparatus 13 is accommodated in the cassette 15, the wafer is clamped by the clamping unit M1 and then the arm unit M2 and the robot main body M3 are driven to drive the cassette 15 to the manufacturing apparatus 13. Picked up from above, again the transfer drive shaft 22
By rotating a from a predetermined direction, it is conveyed to a predetermined place on the stocker.

The other transfer robot M is moved by rotating the transfer drive shaft 22b in a predetermined direction. A power feeding device (not shown) that supplies power for driving the transfer robot M is provided at a place (station) where the transfer robot M places the wafer cassette on the manufacturing apparatus 13. By automatically connecting the device and the contact of the stopped transfer robot M, the transfer robot M performs a predetermined operation. Further, the station is provided with a dust collecting device for sucking dust generated from the driving portion of the transfer robot M from the inside of the transfer robot M.
Is automatically connected when it stops at the station to remove dust generated from the driving portion of the transfer robot M.

Therefore, in the transfer robot M of this embodiment,
The upper end Mt of the robot body M3 is suspended from the linear guide 20 provided on the ceiling along the boundary between the air supply chamber 5a and the ceiling exhaust unit 15, and the transfer drive shaft 22
Since it is configured to slide on the linear guide 20 by rotating a and 22b, it is not necessary to load a drive source such as a motor for traveling on the robot body M3, and it is possible to reduce the weight. Therefore, it is possible to fundamentally eliminate the vibration generated from the drive source, and as a result of the weight reduction, it is possible to reduce the generation of the vibration accompanying the traveling of the transfer robot M, and further, the generated vibration is transmitted through the floor. Direct manufacturing equipment
It can be prevented from being transmitted to 13. Since it is not necessary to collect electricity to the drive source for traveling during traveling, the transfer robot M does not need a sliding portion for collecting electricity as in the conventional case, and dust from that portion can be eliminated. it can. Also,
Since the driving portion 21b and the sliding portion 21a of the upper end portion Mt of the transfer robot M are provided in the groove duct 19, it is possible to prevent the dust from diffusing into the room and to supply the dust diffusing into the room. It is possible to prevent the clean air supplied from the air chamber 5a through the side part 6a of the ULPA filter from flowing into the ceiling exhaust part 19 so that the clean air is not diffused onto the manufacturing apparatus 13.

As a result, it is possible to reduce the dust in the clean room K and the vibration of the manufacturing apparatus, which adversely affect the work of forming circuit elements on the semiconductor wafer which requires fine precision, and it is possible to improve the yield of products. Further, unlike the case of the clean room K using the on-floor transfer robot, it is not necessary to provide rails on the floor, so that the worker can comfortably work in front of the manufacturing apparatus.

It should be noted that the transfer robot M of the above-described embodiment may be installed in a single unit or in a plurality of two or more units on the same line. Further, the driving means of the transfer robot M in the above-described embodiment is based on the transfer drive shafts 22a, 22b by screw rods and the female screw portion 23 of the connecting member 21 screwed thereto, but is not limited thereto. Any mechanism may be used as long as the transfer drive shaft is rotated and the connecting member is moved by the rotating drive shaft. For example, a drive means having a structure in which the transfer connecting member made of round steel is inserted into the connecting member in which the bearing is inclined and fixed. It may be.

[Advantages of the Invention] As described above, the ceiling-mounted wafer transfer robot of the present invention has a linear guide installed along the boundary between the air supply unit and the ceiling exhaust unit provided on the ceiling. The upper part of the ceiling-mounted transfer robot is attached to the ceiling via a connecting member, and the connecting member is inserted into a transfer drive shaft provided in parallel with the linear guide, and the transfer drive shaft is rotated to suspend the ceiling. Since the transfer robot is configured to move along the linear guide, it is possible to prevent the generation and diffusion of dust when the ceiling transfer robot moves, and eliminate the influence of vibration on the manufacturing apparatus. Product yield can be increased. Further, the rail can be removed from the floor, and the worker can comfortably work in front of the manufacturing apparatus.

[Brief description of drawings]

1 to 3 show an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a partial laminar flow type clean room provided with a wafer ceiling transfer robot of the present invention, and FIG. Is the first
FIG. 3 is an enlarged side view showing the details of the ceiling-mounted transfer robot for wafers shown in FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is a plan view of the holding part of the ceiling-mounted transfer robot for wafers shown in FIG. 2, and FIG. It is a figure. K: Partial laminar flow type clean room, M
…… Wafer ceiling transfer robot (transfer robot), 5a…
… Air supply chamber (air supply part), 13 …… Semiconductor manufacturing equipment (manufacturing equipment), 15 …… Wafer cassette, 20 …… Linear guide, 21 …… Coupling member, 21a …… Sliding part, 21b …… Drive Part, 21c ... connecting part, 22a, 22b ... drive shaft for transfer.

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continued Front Page (72) Kenji Okamoto 2-16-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Shimizu Construction Co., Ltd. (72) Shintaro Kobayashi 2-16-1 Kyobashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo Shimizu Construction Co., Ltd.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A room is maintained in a clean state by flowing clean air from an air supply section provided on a ceiling toward a ceiling exhaust section and a floor section provided on the ceiling adjacent to the air supply section. A ceiling-mounted wafer transfer robot for automatically attaching and detaching wafers to and from a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus installed in a partial laminar flow type clean room, the boundary line between an air supply unit and a ceiling exhaust unit provided on the ceiling. A linear guide is installed along the vicinity, and the upper part of the ceiling-mounted transfer robot is attached to this linear guide via a connecting member, and a transfer drive shaft provided in parallel with the linear guide is inserted into the connecting member. A ceiling-mounted transfer robot for wafers, wherein the ceiling-mounted transfer robot is configured to move along a linear guide by rotating the transfer drive shaft.