JPH09172051A - Method for transferring wafer cassette in vertical processing apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To prevent the production of particles, contamination and damage by rotating a wafer cassette in the vertical position to bring it in the horizontal position, and transferring the rotated wafer cassette to a housing position in the vertical direction. SOLUTION: A wafer cassette(WC) 6 is supplied to a cassette receiver (receiver) 2 by means of a cassette transferring means with wafers 7 kept vertically WC 6 is then positioned in the back and forth direction and in the left and right direction. The receiver 2 is rotated and shifted from the vertical position to the horizontal position. WC 6 is transfered to a specified position by means of the receiver 2, a cassette rotating means 3, and a cassette horizontal feed means (feed means, 4 together with an elevator 5. Thereafter, WC 6 is horizontally fed to a cassette housing area by the feed means 4. It is judged whether WC 6 is properly housed in the cassette housing area. If WC is not properly housed, an alarm is given. If WC is properly housed, the feed means 4, the elevator 5 and the like are returned to their original positions, and a series of operations is completed.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method of transporting a wafer cassette in a vertical processing apparatus such as a vertical diffusion / CVD apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in order to load and unload a wafer cassette in the apparatus, it was necessary for a person to store the wafer cassette in the wafer storage section and take it out of the wafer cassette. However, with the high integration of semiconductor devices, human beings, which are the largest dust source, are no longer allowed to intervene, and automation has been desired. Moreover, it has become necessary to support not only the automation of the device itself but also the automation of the entire production line.

At present, there is a cassette loader capable of carrying one piece, but it takes a long time to carry the piece, the throughput is not improved, and there is a problem in the full automation. The object of the present invention is to achieve vertical diffusion /
In a vertical processing apparatus such as a CVD apparatus, the maximum dust source is obtained by automatically loading and unloading the wafer cassette between the delivery position where the wafer cassette in a vertical state is supplied and the storage position of the wafer cassette. It is an object of the present invention to provide a transfer method capable of handling a wafer in a short time without human intervention and capable of supporting full automation of a semiconductor manufacturing line.

[0004]

In order to solve the above-mentioned problems and to achieve the above-mentioned object, the method of the present invention provides a wafer cassette and a delivery position to which a wafer cassette in a vertical state is supplied. In the wafer cassette transfer method in the vertical processing apparatus for transferring the wafer cassette between the wafer cassette and the storage position of Is conveyed up and down to the storage position.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the wafer cassette transport method in the vertical processing apparatus according to the first aspect, the vertical processing apparatus includes a cassette pedestal on which the wafer cassette is mounted, It has a wafer cassette transfer device equipped with a rotating means for rotating the cassette receiving table and an up-and-down transfer means for moving the cassette receiving table up and down, and the rotating means is supplied to the delivery position of the wafer cassette and is in a vertical state. Then, the cassette placed on the cassette receiving stand is horizontally rotated, and the vertical transfer means vertically transfers the rotated wafer cassette to the storage position.

[0006]

When loading the wafer cassette, the vertical wafer cassette supplied to the delivery position is rotated horizontally, and then the rotated wafer cassette is conveyed vertically to the storage position. Further, when unloading the wafer cassette, the unloading is performed through the reverse process.

Therefore, the wafers stored in the wafer cassette are moved in the vertical direction in the horizontal state and transferred to the storage position. Normally, the groove in the wafer cassette has a certain width, so if the wafer is conveyed vertically in the vertical direction, the wafer will rattle, rubbing against the groove in the cassette, generating particles and contaminating the wafer. Or, scratches on the wafer, chipping, etc. occur, which becomes a factor of yield reduction, but in the present invention, since the wafer is automatically conveyed in the vertical direction in the horizontal state, the wafer in the wafer cassette No rattling. Therefore, it is possible to automate loading and unloading without causing particles and a decrease in yield, and it is possible to cope with full automation of the semiconductor manufacturing line.

Further, since there is no need for humans to intervene, it is possible to reduce particles caused by humans.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the construction of one embodiment of the method of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a perspective explanatory view of this embodiment. First, the configuration of this embodiment will be described.

In this embodiment, the vertical diffusion / CVD apparatus has a function of detecting the delivery of the wafer cassette 6, a horizontal positioning function, and a front-back direction positioning function. 7, the cassette pedestal 2 which is performed in the vertical state, and the cassette pedestal 2
The cassette transfer means 1 for transferring the wafer cassette 6 in the vertical state of the wafer 7, and the cassette receiving table 2 for rotating the wafer cassette 6 from the vertical state to the horizontal state, and vice versa. Means 3,
A cassette for horizontally feeding the wafer cassette 6 in the horizontal direction, a cassette receiving stand 2, a cassette rotating means 3, and a horizontal cassette feeding means 4 for vertically conveying between a delivery position and a cassette storage position in the apparatus. It is carried out by a wafer cassette transfer device including a vertical transfer means (elevator) 5.

Next, the operation of this embodiment will be described. FIG. 3 is a flow chart for explaining the operation of this embodiment. When the wafer cassette 6 is supplied to the cassette pedestal 2 by the cassette delivery means 1 in the vertical state of the wafer 7, the placement of the wafer cassette 6 is detected, and the wafer cassette 6 is laterally positioned. When the left-right positioning is completed, the wafer cassette 6 is front-back positioned, and when the front-back positioning is completed, the wafer cassette 6 is rotated from the vertical state to the horizontal state by rotating the cassette support 2.

When the rotation to bring the wafer into the horizontal state is completed, the wafer cassette 6 is placed in the cassette receiving table 2 and the cassette rotating means 3.
Also, the wafer cassette 6 is moved upward or downward from the delivery position to a predetermined storage position by the elevator 5 together with the cassette horizontal feed means 4, and when the predetermined storage position is reached, the wafer cassette 6 is horizontally fed to the cassette storage portion by the cassette horizontal feed means 4.

When the horizontal feeding is completed, the left and right positioning of the cassette is released, and when released, the wafer cassette 6 is slightly lowered by the elevator 5 in the same manner as described above. It is judged whether or not. If it is not stored correctly, an alarm will be issued to inform that effect. If it is correctly stored, the cassette horizontal feed will return to its original position, and if it returns to its original position, the elevator 5 will return to the cassette delivery position. When released, the series of operations is completed.

In this embodiment, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, two wafer cassettes 6 are provided by arranging two cassette delivering means 1, one cassette receiving stand 2, two cassette rotating means 3 and two horizontal cassette feeding means 4. One wafer cassette 6 can be processed simultaneously, and one wafer cassette 6 is of course possible.

[0015]

As described above, according to the present invention, the wafer cassette transfer method in the vertical processing apparatus for transferring the wafer cassette between the delivery position where the wafer cassette in the vertical state is supplied and the storage position of the wafer cassette. In (1), the wafer cassette in the vertical state supplied to the delivery position of the wafer cassette is rotated to the horizontal state, and then the rotated wafer cassette is conveyed vertically to the storage position. The wafer does not rattle in the wafer cassette when the wafer cassette is vertically transferred between the position and the storage position. Therefore, it is possible to automate loading and unloading without causing particles and a decrease in yield, and it is possible to cope with full automation of the semiconductor manufacturing line. Since it is performed automatically without human intervention, loading and unloading of the wafer cassette can be performed in a short time, the throughput can be improved, and the semiconductor manufacturing line can be fully automated. (2) Particles can be reduced (up to 10 particles / wafer, 0.28μ) because there is no human intervention of the largest dust source. (3) Since a plurality of wafer cassettes can be simultaneously transferred, the throughput can be further improved and the load on the cassette transfer device such as AGV in the semiconductor factory can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an embodiment of a method of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective explanatory view of the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of this embodiment.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 cassette delivery means 2 cassette receiving stand 3 cassette rotation means 4 cassette horizontal feeding means 5 cassette vertical transport means (elevator) 6 wafer cassette 7 wafer

Front page continuation (72) Inventor Toru Yoshida 2-1-1 Shinmeidai, Hamura-cho, Nishitama-gun, Tokyo Kokusai Electric Co., Ltd. Hamura Factory

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A wafer cassette transfer method in a vertical processing apparatus for transferring a wafer cassette between a delivery position where a wafer cassette in a vertical state is supplied and a storage position of the wafer cassette, wherein the wafer cassette is supplied at a delivery position of the wafer cassette. After vertically rotating the wafer cassette in the vertical state, the rotated wafer cassette is conveyed vertically to the storage position.
A wafer cassette transfer method in a vertical processing apparatus, comprising: 2. The wafer cassette transfer method in the vertical processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the vertical processing apparatus has a cassette pedestal on which the wafer cassette is placed, and a rotation unit that rotates the cassette pedestal. And a wafer cassette transfer device including an up-and-down transfer means for moving the cassette pedestal up and down, and the rotation means is supplied to the delivery position of the wafer cassette and placed on the cassette pedestal in a vertical state. A wafer cassette transfer method in a vertical processing apparatus, wherein the wafer cassette is rotated horizontally and the vertical transfer means transfers the rotated wafer cassette up and down to a storage position.