JPH0870033A - Wafer transfer machine of semiconductor manufacturing device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: To reduce the number of steps when transferring a wafer and reduce transfer time in a semiconductor manufacturing device. CONSTITUTION: In a wafer transfer machine 15 for placing a plurality of wafers 4, a plurality of wafer mount hands 7 and 8 for receiving the wafers can be moved up and down independently. Then, when the loading pitch of the wafer at the wafer transmission side differs from the wafer mount space at the reception side, the upper/lower space of the hand for mounting wafers is adjusted when receiving the wafers and a plurality of wafer hands simultaneously receive the wafers, thus transferring a plurality of wafers in a batch.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and more particularly to a wafer transfer machine provided in a single wafer type semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Semiconductor manufacturing apparatuses include a batch type for processing a large number of wafers and a single wafer type for processing one wafer at a time. The batch type has the advantage that many wafers can be processed at the same time and the production efficiency is good, but it is not suitable for the production of a large number of small-quantity semiconductor devices, and the single-wafer type processes many wafers at once. I can't do that,
It has an advantage that it is suitable for manufacturing a large number of semiconductor devices in small quantities.

In recent years, a variety of user demands have progressed, and the need for single-wafer semiconductor manufacturing equipment has also increased. Thus, in the single-wafer type semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, a method for simultaneously processing a plurality of wafers has been embodied as a means for improving the production efficiency.

A conventional wafer transfer machine of a single wafer type semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for processing such a plurality of wafers will be described below.

In FIG. 3, 1 is a wafer transfer machine, 2 is a reaction furnace, 3 is a wafer cassette, and 4 is a wafer.

The wafer transfer machine 1, reaction furnace 2 and wafer cassette 3 are housed in a vacuum container (not shown).

The reaction furnace 2 has a gate (not shown) and has a structure capable of being hermetically sealed. A wafer mounting table 13 on which wafers 4 can be mounted is provided inside the reaction furnace 2 in two stages, and a gate valve (not shown) is closed while the wafer 4 is mounted on the wafer mounting table 13. The furnace 2 is closed, and a reaction gas is introduced with the inside heated to a predetermined temperature to form a thin film on the wafer surface or perform etching.

The wafer cassette 3 holds a required number of wafers 4 and is arranged so as to face the reaction furnace 2. The wafer transfer machine 1 is provided between the reaction furnace 2 and the wafer cassette 3. It is provided.

The wafer transfer machine 1 has two sets of an upper wafer transfer arm 5 and a lower wafer transfer arm 6, each wafer transfer arm having a three-joint link arm structure, and has upper and lower wafer transfer arms. The wafer placement hands 7 and 8 receive the wafer 4. An advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism section 9 is provided in the lower part of the wafer transfer machine 1, and the advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism section 9 individually bends and extends the upper wafer transfer arm 5 and the lower wafer transfer arm 6, respectively. The holding hands 7 and 8 are moved back and forth while maintaining the same posture. Further, the advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism section 9 includes an upper wafer transfer arm 5 and a lower wafer transfer arm 6.
Is designed to rotate integrally around the vertical axis. Further, the wafer transfer machine 1 has an elevating mechanism section 10 inside,
The upper wafer transfer arm 5 is moved by the elevating mechanism section 10,
The lower wafer transfer arm 6 is configured to move up and down together.

The upper wafer mounting hand 7 and the lower wafer mounting hand 8 are vertically fixed in position, and the vertical interval is equal to the vertical interval between the upper and lower two wafer mounting surfaces of the wafer mounting table 13. I am doing it.

The transfer operation of the wafer 4 in the conventional wafer transfer machine 1 will be described with reference to FIG.
The description is for the transfer operation from the wafer cassette 3 to the reaction furnace 2.

The elevating mechanism 10 is driven to adjust the height of the upper wafer placing hand 7 to a position where it can be inserted between the wafers 4 of the wafer cassette 3. The advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism unit 9 is driven to move the upper wafer placing hand 7 forward toward the wafer cassette 3 and insert it into the wafer cassette 3. At this time, the lower wafer mounting hand 8
Is in a retracted state.

The elevating mechanism section 10 is driven, and the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 are lifted together, and the wafer 4 is placed on the upper wafer placing hand 7.
The advancing / retreating / driving mechanism 9 is driven to retract the upper wafer placing hand 7.

The elevating mechanism 10 is driven to adjust the height position of the lower wafer placing hand 8, and the advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism 9 is driven to move the lower wafer placing hand 8 to the wafer cassette 3. The wafer cassette 3 is advanced to be inserted into the wafer cassette 3. At this time, the upper wafer mounting hand 7
Is in a retracted state.

The elevating mechanism section 10 is driven, the lower wafer placing hand 8 and the upper wafer placing hand 7 are lifted together, and the wafer 4 is placed on the lower wafer placing hand 8.
The advance / retreat / rotation drive mechanism unit 9 is driven to retract the lower wafer mounting hand 8.

When the wafer 4 is placed on each of the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8, the advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism 9 causes the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 to be moved. Rotate integrally and face the reaction furnace 2.

The elevating mechanism 10 is driven to adjust the height positions of the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 with respect to the wafer placing table 13. The advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism unit 9 is driven, and the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 are integrally advanced to insert the wafer 4 into the reaction furnace 2. The elevating mechanism unit 10 is driven to lower the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8. As described above, since the height interval between the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 is the same as the height interval between the upper and lower placing surfaces of the wafer placing table 13,
The two wafers 4 are simultaneously placed on the wafer stage 13.

The advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism 9 causes the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 to be simultaneously retracted and further rotated to move the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 to the wafer cassette. Face 3

The above operation is repeated to transfer the wafer 4.

[0020]

In the conventional wafer transfer machine described above, since the height interval of the wafer mounting surface of the wafer mounting table 13 and the wafer storage pitch of the wafer cassette 3 do not match, Since the wafer transfer machine 1 cannot receive two wafers 4 from the wafer cassette 3 at a time, the wafer transfer operation is performed twice. Therefore, there is a problem that the number of transfer steps increases and transfer time is long, which is a cause of hindering the improvement of throughput.

In view of the above situation, the present invention aims to shorten the transfer time by reducing the number of steps when transferring a wafer.

[0022]

According to the present invention, in a wafer transfer machine of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for transferring a plurality of wafers, a plurality of wafer mounting hands for receiving the wafers can be independently lifted and lowered. It is characterized by that.

[0023]

When the wafer loading pitch on the wafer sending side and the wafer loading interval on the receiving side are different, the vertical spacing of the wafer loading hand is adjusted when transferring the wafers, and the wafers are simultaneously loaded on the plurality of wafer loading hands. Transfer and transfer wafers in batches.

[0024]

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 components as those shown in FIG. 3 are designated by the same reference numerals.

The wafer transfer machine 15 has two sets of an upper wafer transfer arm 5 and a lower wafer transfer arm 6, each wafer transfer arm having a three-bar linkage arm structure, and a wafer mounting device provided at the end. The placing hands 7 and 8 receive the wafer 4. An advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism section 9 is provided below the wafer transfer machine 15, and the advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism section 9 individually operates the upper wafer transfer arm 5 and the lower wafer transfer arm 6 respectively.
The wafer mounting hands 7 and 8 are moved back and forth while keeping the same posture. The advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism 9 is adapted to integrally rotate the upper wafer transfer arm 5 and the lower wafer transfer arm 6 about a vertical axis.

The wafer transfer machine 15 has an elevating mechanism section 1 inside.
1 and 12, the elevating mechanism section 11 elevates and lowers the upper wafer transfer arm 5 independently, and the elevating mechanism section 12 elevates and lowers the lower wafer transfer arm 6 independently.

The vertical positions of the upper wafer mounting hand 7 and the lower wafer mounting hand 8 can be freely adjusted by appropriately driving the elevating mechanism section 11 and the elevating mechanism section 12. .

The following operation of this embodiment will be described with reference to FIG. The following description is for the transfer operation from the wafer cassette 3 to the reaction furnace 2.

The elevating mechanism 11 and the elevating mechanism 12 are driven to match the height intervals of the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 with the wafer accommodating pitch of the wafer cassette 3 and the wafer 4 Align it with the position that can be inserted between. The advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism unit 9 is driven to simultaneously advance the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 toward the wafer cassette 3 and insert them into the wafer cassette 3.

The elevating mechanism section 11 and the elevating mechanism section 12 are driven so that the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 are integrally lifted to the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8. Two wafers 4 are loaded at the same time.
The advancing / retreating / driving mechanism 9 is driven to retract the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 integrally.

When the wafer 4 is placed on each of the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8, the advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism 9 causes the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 to be moved. Rotate integrally and face the reaction furnace 2.

The elevation mechanism section 11 and the elevation mechanism section 12 are driven so that the height interval between the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 is the distance between the wafer 4 placing surfaces of the wafer placing table 13. Wafer mounting table 1
The height positions of the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 with respect to 3 are adjusted.

The advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism section 9 is driven,
The upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 advance integrally and insert the wafer 4 into the reaction furnace 2. The elevating mechanism section 11 and the elevating mechanism section 12 are simultaneously driven to lower the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 to place the two wafers 4 on the wafer placing table 13.

The upper / lower wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 are simultaneously retracted by the advancing / retreating / rotating drive mechanism section 9 and further rotated to move the upper wafer placing hand 7 and the lower wafer placing hand 8 to the wafer cassette. Face 3

The above operation is repeated to transfer the wafer 4.

In the above embodiment, since the wafer mounting surface of the wafer mounting table 13 has two stages, the wafer transfer machine provided with two sets of wafer mounting hands has been described. If the wafer mounting hands are provided according to the number of steps of the mounting surface and each of the wafer mounting hands can be raised and lowered independently, the wafer transfer can be performed with the same number of steps.

Further, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where it is applied to the single-wafer type semiconductor manufacturing apparatus has been described, but it goes without saying that it can also be applied to the wafer transfer of the batch type semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

[0039]

As described above, according to the present invention, in a wafer transfer machine for transferring a plurality of wafers, a plurality of wafer mounting hands for receiving the wafers can be independently lifted and lowered. Therefore, even if the wafer loading pitch of the wafer cassette and the wafer loading interval on the receiving side such as the wafer loading interval in the reaction furnace are different, multiple wafers can be transferred at the same time, and the number of wafer transfer steps can be reduced. Can reduce the total wafer processing time,
Throughput can be improved.

[Brief description of drawings]

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

FIG. 2 is a flowchart showing the operation of this embodiment.

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

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the operation of the conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 Reactor 6 Lower wafer transfer arm 5 Upper wafer transfer arm 7 Upper wafer mounting hand 8 Lower wafer mounting hand 9 Forward / backward / rotation drive mechanism 11 Lifting mechanism 12 Lifting mechanism 13 Wafer loading table 15 Wafer loading Machine

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. In a wafer transfer machine of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for transferring a plurality of wafers, a plurality of wafer mounting hands for receiving the wafers can be independently raised and lowered. Wafer transfer machine for manufacturing equipment.