JPH10129837A - Cassett chamber - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To rotate a cassette by 90 degrees in a chamber having a small space by rotating the cassette from horizontal direction to vertical direction or from vertical direction to horizontal direction in the chamber by using ascent and descent driving force of an ascent and descent pedestal. SOLUTION: A cassette C is put on a back face support part 40 of a cassett support base 36 in a chamber by facing a carry-in-and-out port thereof upward. When an ascent and descent pedestal 26 is raised, a pinion gear 48 which is meshed with a fixed rack 60 and oscillates the support base is rotated, and the cassette support base 36 oscillates and rotates by 90 degrees by an oscillation arm member 50 consisting of a first arm 52 which is fixed on the pinion gear 48 in the interlocking relationship with the pinion gear 48 and a second arm 54 of which one end is connected with the first arm 52 rotatably and the other end is connected with the cassette support base 36 rotatably so that the carry-in-and-out port of the cassette C faces the horizontal direction. By turning the cassette support base 36 by a predetermined angle, the carry-in-and-out port of the cassette C faces right front for the direction of advance and retraction of a conveyance arm 6.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a cassette chamber for accommodating a cassette for accommodating an object to be processed such as a semiconductor wafer.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In general, a large number of wafers, for example, 25 wafers are accommodated at a time in a front stage of a process chamber for performing various processes on a semiconductor wafer, for example, a film forming process, an etching process and a thermal oxidation process. A cassette chamber is provided for accommodating cassettes that can be used. Wafers are transferred between the cassette chamber and the process chamber via a transfer chamber.
For example, when loading a cassette containing wafers into the cassette chamber, the operator places the cassette on the stage side of the cassette chamber with the loading / unloading port of the cassette facing upward, and the drawbridge built into the cassette chamber. The cassette is rotated by approximately 90 degrees while being taken into the cassette chamber by a drive mechanism of the type, so that the cassette loading / unloading port is directed horizontally from above.

[0003] Usually, since a plurality of, for example, two cassette chambers are connected to one transfer chamber, a transfer arm provided in the transfer chamber accesses each cassette in the two cassette chambers. In order to enable this, the cassettes are oriented so that the loading / unloading port of each cassette faces directly in front of the direction in which the transfer arm moves.

This state will be described with reference to FIGS. FIG. 6 shows a perspective view of the cluster tool device, and FIG. 7 shows a plan sectional view thereof. This cluster tool device
It is mainly constituted by one process chamber 2, 4, one transfer chamber 6 connected thereto, and two cassette chambers 8, 10 connected thereto. The communication between the chambers can be shut off via a gate valve G which can be opened and closed in an airtight manner. The transfer chamber 6 is provided with, for example, an articulated transfer arm 12 which is capable of bending, stretching, and rotating.
The loading / unloading of the semiconductor wafers W stored in the cassettes C in the respective cassette chambers 8 and 10 is performed by 2.
Therefore, the loading / unloading port 14 of each cassette C needs to be directly in front of the advancing / retreating direction 16 of the transfer arm 12, so that each loading / unloading port 14 has a predetermined angle θ with respect to the vertical direction in FIG. It is installed with only an angle.

On the other hand, the operator operates the stage on the outside of the gate door G1 of each of the cassette chambers 8 and 10 with the loading / unloading port facing upward and in parallel with the horizontal direction in FIG. Since the cassette C is set in such a manner that the cassette C is placed in the cassette chamber, the cassette C is rotated by 90 degrees and is also rotated by an angle θ in the horizontal direction when the cassette C is taken into the cassette chamber, so that the loading / unloading port 14 is moved. It must be directed toward the center of the transfer arm 12. FIG. 8 shows the state at this time. In the figure, the cassette C indicated by a broken line is a state in which the cassette C located outside the cassette chamber is inverted by 90 degrees in a drawbridge manner and taken into the cassette chamber. Show.

For example, US Pat. No. 5,186,594 and US Pat.
No. 614 is known. In the former, the cassette C is turned 90 degrees by a so-called drawbridge type driving mechanism and is taken in the cassette chamber so that the loading / unloading port facing upward is directed in the horizontal direction. The arm is rotated horizontally and directed toward the center of the arm. In the latter case, the cassette is immediately positioned at a predetermined position by rotating a rotation shaft provided obliquely to the direction of gravity.

[0007]

By the way, in the former example of the apparatus, when performing the draw bridge operation by using the draw bridge mechanism, the cassette is moved from the inside of the chamber to the outside or vice versa. Is moved from side to side and vice versa while moving, so that the drawbridge mechanism jumps out to the front side and the front end of the device becomes large. Further, in the latter example of the device, because of the structure in which the rotating shaft in the oblique direction is rotationally driven in a vacuum, there is more uneven contact in the rotating mechanism part as compared with the rotational driving in the horizontal direction. However, the amount of generated particles increases accordingly. In addition, since the cassette is rotated obliquely, the space required for the rotation is correspondingly increased, and the size of the chamber is increased. The present invention has been devised in view of the above problems and effectively solving them. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a cassette chamber in which a cassette can be rotated 90 degrees in a chamber without taking up much space.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, the present invention provides a cassette chamber which accommodates a cassette capable of accommodating a plurality of objects to be processed and which can carry in and out the objects. A cassette support having a bottom support that receives the bottom surface of the cassette and a back support that receives the back, a lift base that swingably supports the cassette support, and is made to be able to move up and down; A rotatable support table rocking pinion gear, a rocking arm member connected between the pinion gear and the cassette support table to rock the cassette support table according to the rotation of the pinion gear; A fixed rack meshed with a pinion gear and rotates the pinion gear as the lifting pedestal moves up and down. According to this, the operator places the cassette on the back support of the cassette support in the chamber with the carry-in / out opening of the cassette facing upward. Then, when the ascending and descending pedestal starts to be lifted, the pinion gear for swinging the supporting base meshed with the fixed rack rotates, and the swinging arm member interlocking with this rotates the cassette supporting base by 90 degrees so as to rotate the cassette supporting base. The loading / unloading entrance is now oriented horizontally. And
By turning the cassette support base by a predetermined angle, the loading / unloading port of the cassette is directed directly in front of the moving direction of the transfer arm. The arm member has a first arm fixed to a pinion gear and a second arm rotatably connected at one end to the first arm and rotatably connected at the other end to the cassette support. The cassette support is rotated 90 degrees by the operation of these arms. When the cassette is to be carried out of the cassette chamber, the reverse operation may be performed. Further, when the engagement between the pinion gear and the fixed rack is disconnected, the rotation of the pinion gear is stopped by the stopper member.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the cassette chamber according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG.
FIG. 2 is a side view showing the cassette chamber of the present invention, and FIG.
, FIG. 3 is a side view showing a stopper member, FIG. 4 is a view showing the operation of the main part of the cassette chamber of the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing the cassette. Note that the same parts as those of the cassette chamber shown in FIGS. The cassette chamber 18 of the present invention is connected to the transfer chamber 6 similarly to the cassette chambers 8 and 10 of the cluster tool device shown in FIGS. Cassette chamber 18
1 is exactly the same as that shown in FIG. 1 except that it is upside down when it is provided at the position of the chamber 8 and when it is provided at the position of the chamber 10.

[0010] As shown in FIG.
Numeral 8 has a chamber container 20 made of, for example, aluminum which is entirely formed in a rectangular shape, and has a front side (front side).
Cassette entrance 22 large enough to accommodate cassette C
, And a gate door G1 which can be opened and closed in an airtight manner is installed therein. Above the side wall surface opposite to the cassette carry-in port 22, a wafer carry-out port 24 connected to the transfer chamber 6 is provided.
Is installed so that it can be opened and closed. Here, the cassette loading port 22
Is set to θ1 (see FIG. 7), and the transfer arm 12 in FIG.
Is inclined by a predetermined angle θ. Here, the angles θ1 and θ are both set to 22.5 degrees, for example.

A cassette C for accommodating a semiconductor wafer W as an object to be processed is constituted, for example, as shown in FIG. 5, and can accommodate, for example, 25 wafers W therein. And the opposite side to the back 25
And The surface provided with the handle 27 is referred to as an upper surface 29, and the opposite surface is referred to as a bottom surface 31. Now, returning to FIG.
The cassette C is set in the chamber by an operator with the loading / unloading port 14 facing upward.
An elevating pedestal 26 is provided in the chamber container 20, and an elevating rod 28 is connected to a lower surface of the elevating pedestal 26. The lifting rod 28 is connected to the bottom 2 of the chamber container 20.
0A is airtightly penetrated through a seal 30 such as an O-ring or the like, and the lifting rod 28 can be raised and lowered by a lifting mechanism 32.

As shown in FIG. 2, two holding arms 34, 34 are fixedly provided upright from the side of the lifting pedestal 32.
The upper end of 34 is slightly bent into an L shape, and the cassette support 36 is swingably supported here via bearings 35, 35. Specifically, the cassette support 3
6 is formed in an L-shape.
6 includes a bottom support 38 for receiving and holding the bottom 31 of the cassette C (see FIG. 5) and a back support 40 for receiving and holding the back 25 of the cassette C (see FIG. 5). , 40 are joined at right angles. Two side plates 42 are joined to the side portions of the support portions 38 and 40. The tip of the holding arm 34 is connected to the side plate 42 via a bearing 35. Further, the bottom support portion 38 has an auxiliary plate 38A joined so that the horizontal level can be adjusted by a plurality of height adjustment screws (not shown). Similarly, the bottom rear portion 40 also has a plurality of height adjustment screws ( (Not shown), and has an auxiliary plate 40A joined so that the horizontal level can be adjusted. And these auxiliary plates 38
By adjusting the horizontal levels of A and 40A, the horizontal position of the cassette C placed in direct contact therewith is adjusted.

On the other hand, a single fixed shaft 44 is fixedly provided on the lift pedestal 26 on the side of the cassette loading port 22 of the lift pedestal 26 with respect to the lift pedestal 26. Gear 4 for rocking the support
8, 48 are provided rotatably. Two rocking arm members 50, 50 are connected between the pinion gears 48, 48 and the side plates 42, 42 of the cassette support base 36, and the arm members 50, 50 are bent to extend the cassette. As will be described later,
It is capable of swinging and rotating by 0 degrees. Specifically, each of the arm members 50 includes a first arm 52 having a short length.
And a second arm 54 longer than this. The first arm 52 is fixed integrally to a side portion of the pinion gear 48 so as to rotate integrally with the pinion gear 48. One end of the second arm 54 is rotatably connected to the tip of the first arm 52 via a bearing 56. The other end of the second arm 54 is connected to a bar 43 fixed to the side plate 42 of the cassette support 36 by a bearing 5.
8 so as to be rotatable. At this time, the attachment position of the second arm 54 to the side plate 42 is provided slightly away from the attachment position of the holding arm 34 by a distance L1. This distance L1 is set to the same length as the length L2 of the fulcrum at both ends of the first arm 52. Therefore, the first arm 52 is connected to the pinion gear 48.
The cassette support 36 can also rotate 90 degrees about the fulcrum S1 of the holding arm 34 when the cassette support 36 rotates 90 degrees about the center.

On the other hand, from the bottom portion 20A of the chamber container 20, two fixed racks 60 are provided so as to stand up and down in the direction of movement of the lifting rod 28, that is, in the vertical direction. This 2
The fixed rack 60 is located at a place where the two pinion gears 48 mesh with each other when the two pinion gears 48 descend, and the pinion gear 48 meshes with the fixed rack 60 as the elevating pedestal 26 descends. Let's make this pinion gear 4
8 can be rotated by at least 90 degrees. As shown in FIG. 4, the pinion gear 48 rotates clockwise when the elevating pedestal 26 descends, and rotates counterclockwise when it rises.

On the other hand, when the lift pedestal 26 rises further above the upper end of the fixed rack 60, the rotation of the pinion gear 48 must be stopped and locked. A member 62 is provided. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 3, the stopper member 62 includes a small gear 66 rotatably provided on the elevating pedestal 26 via a column 64, and a circular arc extending from the small gear 66 in the radial direction. And locking teeth 68 having teeth formed on the inside thereof. The pitch of each tooth of the small gear 66 and the locking tooth 68 is set to be the same as the pitch of the pinion gear 48, and the small gear 66 is meshed with the pinion gear 48, and interlocked therewith. And rotate. The arcuate locking teeth 68 are set to be substantially the same as the curvature of the pinion gear 48, and when the small gear 66 rotates to a predetermined position, the locking teeth 68 move as shown in FIG. It meshes with the pinion gear 48 and locks it to prevent further rotation. The locking timing is set such that the position of the locking teeth 68 on the small gear 66 is the same as the timing at which the pinion gear 48 is positioned at the upper end of the fixed rack 60 and the meshing of the two is released.

Next, the operation of the embodiment constructed as described above will be described. First, the cassette C is loaded into the chamber container 20, and the cassette C is externally placed on the cassette support base 36 in the chamber 18 in order to transfer the wafer W to and from the transfer chamber 6.
A description will be given of an example in which this is raised to reach the transfer chamber 6. FIG. 4A shows a state in which the elevating pedestal 26 is positioned at the lowermost end in the chamber container 20, and the cassette support 36 is rotated 90 degrees up and down so that the back support 40 is in a horizontal state. And the bottom support 38 is in a vertical state. In this state, the operator turns the loading / unloading port 14 of the cassette C upward, loads the cassette C into the chamber container 20 through the opened cassette loading port 20, and places the cassette C on the cassette support base 36 in this state. I do. At this time, as shown in FIG. 4A, the back surface 25 of the cassette C faces downward, and this load is received by the back support portion 40 of the cassette support base 36.

Next, when the lifting mechanism 32 (see FIG. 1) is driven to gradually raise the lifting pedestal 26 as shown in FIG. 4B, the pinion gear 46 meshed with the fixed rack 60 is moved. The first arm 52 of the swing arm member 50, which is integrally fixed to the pinion gear 46, rotates counterclockwise as shown by an arrow 70 in FIG. Become. Then, the first arm 52
The second arm 54 rotatably connected to the cassette support 36 is pulled downward, so that the cassette support 36 swingably supported by the tip of the holding arm 34 extending upright from the elevating pedestal 26 includes: It rotates counterclockwise about the rising fulcrum S1 as shown by arrow 72. At the same time, since the small gear 66 (see also FIG. 3) of the stopper 62 provided on the elevating pedestal 26 is meshed with the pinion gear 48, it rotates clockwise as indicated by the arrow 74. FIG. 4C shows a state in which the elevating pedestal 26 further moves up, the rotation of the pinion gear 48 advances, and the cassette supporting base 36 further rotates counterclockwise.

Then, as shown in FIG. 4 (D), when the elevating pedestal 26 further continues to rise, the first arm 52 finally rotates 90 degrees from the start of the ascent, so that the cassette support 36 is also substantially rotated. The cassette C rotates 90 degrees, and at this time, the loading / unloading port 14 of the cassette C is turned from the upward direction shown in FIG. 4A to the horizontal direction, and the bottom surface 32 of the cassette C is placed on the bottom support portion 38 side. In this state, the load of the cassette C is received by the bottom support 38. At the same time, the pinion gear 48 reaches the upper end of the fixed rack 60, and the locking teeth 68 (see FIG. 3) of the stopper member 62 cover the side surfaces of the pinion gear 48 and mesh with each other. The pinion gear 48 is locked so as not to rotate any more. When the lifting pedestal 26 is further raised from this state, the engagement between the pinion gear 48 and the fixed rack 60 is disconnected as shown in FIG.
In addition, the entire pinion gear 48 rises in a state where it is fixed by the stopper member 62 so as not to rotate any more, so that the carry-in / out port 14 of the cassette C faces the wafer carry-out port 24. Note that, as shown in FIG.
It is necessary to direct the loading / unloading port 14 of the cassette C directly in front of the reciprocating direction 16 of the cassette C. Therefore, after the pinion gear 48 and the fixed rack 60 are disengaged, the lifting pedestal 26 is moved by the angle θ toward the transfer arm. Of course. In this way, the wafer W is unloaded or loaded by the transfer arm 12 while adjusting the height of the cassette C.

On the other hand, when the cassette C is carried out of the chamber container 20, the lifting pedestal 26 may be simply lowered as the reverse of the above-described operation. That is, after the lift pedestal 26 is reversely rotated by the angle θ to make it parallel to the front, the lift pedestal 26 is lowered. Then, when the pinion gear 48 meshes with the fixed rack 60, the pinion gear 48 slightly starts rotating in the clockwise direction, contrary to the above, the stopper member 62 is unlocked, and the pinion gear 48 is The cassette support 36 rotates clockwise, and at the same time, the cassette support 36 swings clockwise. Then, when the elevating pedestal 26 is located at the lowermost end, as shown in FIG. 4A, the cassette support base 36 is rotated by approximately 90 degrees, and stops with the carry-in / out entrance 14 facing upward. As described above, in the present embodiment, the power of the elevating pedestal 26 in the Z direction (vertical direction) is used to perform the 90-degree rotation of the cut in the chamber container 20, which has been conventionally required. The so-called drawbridge mechanism can be eliminated. Therefore, not only can the installation area of the chamber container 20 be reduced, but also the front end of the front surface of the cassette chamber can be minimized. Also, there are not so many rotation mechanisms,
To that extent, the amount of generated particles can be reduced,
Further, the structure is not so complicated, so that the cost is not increased.

In this embodiment, the stopper member 62 meshed with the pinion gear 48 is provided, but when the fixed rack 60 and the pinion gear 48 are disengaged from each other, the pinion gear 48 is disengaged.
It is needless to say that the structure is not limited to the above-mentioned structure as long as the structure can stop the rotation. In the above embodiment,
Although a semiconductor wafer has been described as an example of an object to be processed,
It is needless to say that the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to a glass substrate, an LCD substrate, and the like. Further, an apparatus employing the cassette chamber of the present invention is not limited to a so-called cluster tool apparatus.

[0021]

As described above, according to the cassette chamber of the present invention, the following excellent functions and effects can be exhibited. The cassette is rotated from side to side or from side to side in the chamber using the lifting drive force of the lifting pedestal, so the installation space is significantly greater than when using the conventional so-called drawbridge mechanism. At the same time, the cassette does not jump out of the chamber, so that the area of the front end can be reduced. Further, since a small number of rotating mechanisms is required, not only the amount of generated particles can be suppressed, but also the structure can be simplified and the cost can be reduced.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a cassette chamber of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the cassette chamber shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a side view showing a stopper member.

FIG. 4 is a view showing the operation of the main part of the cassette chamber of the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a perspective view showing a cassette.

FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a cluster tool device having a general cassette chamber.

FIG. 7 is a plan sectional view of the cluster tool device shown in FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a diagram showing a state of a cassette accommodated in a cassette chamber.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2, 4 Process chamber 8, 10, 18 Cassette chamber 20 Chamber container 25 Back 26 Lifting pedestal 31 Bottom 34 Holding arm 36 Cassette support 38 Bottom support 40 Back support 44 Fixed shaft 48 Pinion gear 50 for swinging support Arm member 52 First arm 54 Second arm 60 Fixed rack 62 Stopper member C Cassette W Semiconductor wafer (workpiece)

Claims (3)

[Claims] In a cassette chamber accommodating a cassette capable of accommodating a plurality of objects to be processed and capable of loading and unloading the object, a bottom support portion for receiving a bottom surface of the cassette and a back surface support portion for receiving a back surface are provided. A cassette support having
An elevating pedestal that swingably supports and supports the cassette support pedestal, and that is capable of ascending and descending, a pivoting pinion gear rotatably provided on the elevating pedestal, the pinion gear, the cassette support pedestal, A swinging arm member that swings the cassette support base in accordance with the rotation of the pinion gear, and a fixed rack that meshes with the pinion gear and rotates the pinion gear as the lifting pedestal moves up and down. A cassette chamber comprising: 2. The swing arm member has a first arm fixed to the pinion gear and one end rotatably connected to the first arm, and the other end pivotally connected to the cassette support base. The cassette chamber according to claim 1, further comprising a second arm movably connected to the cassette arm. 3. The lifting pedestal is provided with a stopper member for stopping the rotation of the pinion gear when the engagement between the pinion gear and the fixed rack is disconnected. 3. The cassette chamber according to 2.