JPH11162888A - Dicing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a dicing equipment capable of easily performing an interrupt treatment of a work. SOLUTION: An utility cassette for accommodating part 38 accommodating a utility cassette 80 is arranged, beside cassette accommodating parts 34, 36 for accommodating ordinary cassettes. In the utility cassette 80, a mounting surface 85 is formed on the upper surface, in order to able to mount a wafer W from above the utility cassette 80. Concerning the utility cassette 80, a wafer W can be set only by leading out the utility cassette 80 from the utility cassette accommodating part 38, and mounting the wafer W for which an interrupt treatment is required on the mounting surface 85 of a ceiling board 84, so that the interrupt treatment of the work W can be easily performed.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a dicing apparatus, and more particularly to a dicing apparatus for cutting a semiconductor wafer (work) in a grid pattern.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A conventional dicing apparatus has a work cutting section, a cassette accommodating section, and a conveying means in an apparatus main body. A cassette containing a large number of wafers is stored in the cassette storage section. The wafers stored in the cassette are pulled out one by one by the transfer means and transferred to the work cutting section. In this work cutting section, the wafer is positioned at a predetermined cutting position and then cut in a grid pattern by the cutting blade of the work cutting section. Then, the cut wafer is transferred to the cassette storage section by the transfer means and stored in a predetermined shelf of the cassette. The above is the flow of the process of processing one wafer by the conventional dicing apparatus.

[0003]

The cassette applied to the above-mentioned conventional dicing apparatus is a large-sized cassette for accommodating a large number of wafers. Normally, the same type of wafer is stored and handled in this cassette. Therefore, when interrupt processing (single-sheet processing) of wafers of different types is desired, first, the cassette is pulled out from the cassette storage section of the main body, removed, and then removed. In addition, it is necessary to take the procedure of inserting the interrupting wafer in the empty shelf of the cassette in the horizontal direction, storing the cassette, and then mounting the cassette in the cassette storing section, which is extremely troublesome. There are drawbacks.

Further, the conventional dicing apparatus has a drawback that even when processing a small number of wafers, the wafer must be handled by the large cassette. The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances, and provides a dicing apparatus capable of easily performing a work interruption process.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a work cutting section having a cutting blade for cutting a work, and a cassette storage section for storing a cassette containing a large number of works. And a conveying means for conveying a work between the cassette accommodating section and the work cutting section, wherein a special cassette accommodating section is provided in the dicing apparatus main body, and the special cassette accommodating section and the work cutting section are provided. The special cassette accommodated in the special cassette accommodating section has a work mounting portion formed on the upper surface of the special cassette so that the work can be mounted from above the special cassette. It is characterized by having.

According to the first aspect of the present invention, a special cassette storage section for storing a special cassette is provided in addition to a cassette storage section for storing a normal cassette. The special cassette has a work mounting portion formed on an upper surface thereof so that a work can be mounted from above the special cassette. That is,
According to the special cassette, it is possible to set the work by simply pulling out the special cassette from the special cassette storage unit and mounting the work to be interrupted on the mounting unit on the upper surface thereof, and the work is transferred. It is conveyed to the work cutting section by means and processed. Therefore, according to the present invention, the interruption processing of the work can be easily performed.

According to the second aspect of the present invention, a shelf for accommodating a work is formed in the special cassette, and a small number of lots of the work are accommodated in the shelf, so that the special cassette is used as a cassette for handling a small number of lots. It can be shared. Therefore, according to the present invention, the handling of the cassette is greatly simplified as compared with the conventional dicing apparatus which handles a large number of cassettes even in a small number of lots. The number of shelves of the special cassette is preferably set to, for example, about five so as to correspond to a small number of lots.

According to the third aspect of the present invention, since the dressing work of the cutting blade is mounted on the work mounting portion of the special cassette, the setting of the dressing work becomes very simple. According to the fourth aspect of the present invention, since the inspection work for inspecting the cutting condition of the cutting blade is placed on the work placement portion of the special cassette, handling of the inspection work becomes very simple.

[0009]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A dicing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a semiconductor wafer dicing apparatus 1 to which the present invention is applied, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof. As shown in FIG.
The dicing apparatus 1 mainly includes a cutting section 10, a cleaning section 20, a cassette storage section 30, an elevator section (transporting means).
40, and a transport device (transport unit) 50 and the like.

A process of cutting the wafer W by the dicing apparatus 1 will be described. First, a plurality of unprocessed wafers W stored in the cassette storage unit 30 are sequentially pulled out by the elevator unit 40 and then drawn out. The wafer W is set at the position P4 shown in FIG. Next, the wafer W is transferred to the position P1 by the transfer device 50.
Is placed on the cutting table (position P2) of the cutting unit 10 via the preload stage of (1). Here, the wafer W is held by suction on the cutting table. The wafer W held by suction is subjected to image recognition of the pattern on the wafer W by the alignment units 18 and 19, and is aligned based on the image. Then, in the aligned wafer W, two streets are cut at the same time by the movement in the Y-axis direction indicated by arrows A and B of the cutting unit 10 and the movement in the X-axis direction indicated by arrows C and D on the cutting table. . When the first two streets are cut, the spindle of the cutting section 10 is moved in the Y-axis direction by the pitch of the streets, and the cutting table is moved again in the X-axis direction. As a result, the next two streets are cut. Repeat this cutting operation,
When the cutting of all the streets in one direction (X direction) is completed, the cutting table is rotated by 90 °, and the other direction orthogonal to the cut street (Y direction in FIG. 2).
Cut the streets in sequence. Thereby, the wafer W
Is finally cut in a grid pattern. In the present embodiment, the alignment units 18 and 19 are provided on the upstream side of the cutting unit 10, but the present invention is not limited to this.
May be provided on each of the carriages 72 and 74.

After the cut wafer W is returned to the position P2 by the cutting table, the transfer device 50
Is transported to the spinner table of the cleaning unit 20 at the position P3. Here, the wafer W is dried by the air blow after being washed with the washing water. The dried wafer W is transferred to the position P4 by the transfer device 50 and stored in the cassette unit 10 by the elevator unit 40. The above is the step of cutting one wafer W by the dicing apparatus 1.

As shown in FIG. 2, the cutting section 10 of the dicing apparatus 1 has a pair of cutting apparatuses 14 and 16, and the cutting apparatuses 14 and 16 include motors 60 and 62 and a spindle 6
4, 66, and blades 68, 70 mounted on the tips of the spindles 64, 66. The cutting device 1
4 and 16 are independently moved in the Y-axis direction by a spindle moving mechanism. In the present embodiment, a linear motor is applied as the spindle moving mechanism. The principle and the detailed structure of the linear motor are well known and will not be described here.

On the other hand, as shown in FIG.
Has a four-stage structure.
The inspection cassette storage section (special cassette storage section) 32, the first cassette storage section 34, the second cassette storage section 36, and the utility cassette storage section (special cassette storage section) 38 are arranged in this order from the top. The first and second cassette storage sections 34 and 36 are storage sections for storing normal cassettes. The cassettes stored in these cassette storage sections 34, 36 are provided with respective doors 35, 3
By opening the doors 35, 37 with the handles 35A, 37A provided on the 7, the user can take it out of the dicing apparatus body. The normal cassette is a large cassette that stores a large number of wafers of the same type.

FIG. 3 shows a utility cassette (special cassette) 80 of the present embodiment stored in the utility cassette storage section 38. The utility cassette 80 includes two side plates 82 and 82, a top plate 84, and a back plate 86, and is more compact than a normal cassette that stores a large number of wafers.
The upper portions of the two side plates 82 are connected by a top plate 84, and the lower portions are open. Also, the two side plates 82, 8
The rear part 2 is connected by the back plate 86. Further, shelves 88, 88,... For accommodating the wafer W are formed at predetermined intervals in the horizontal direction on inner wall surfaces of the two side plates 82, 82 facing each other. These shelves 88
In the present embodiment, five wafers W are formed in five stages because it is sufficient to have only the number of stages that accommodate a small number of wafers W. The number of shelves is not limited to five.

A mounting surface (work mounting portion) 85 on which the wafer W is mounted is formed on the upper surface of the top plate 84. The mounting surface 85 holds the mounted wafer W on the top plate 8.
4 is formed in the same size as the shelf 88 so as not to be largely displaced. Therefore, the wafer W set on the mounting surface 85 is set from above the utility cassette 80, then stored in the utility cassette storage section 38 and transported to the cutting section 10. The wafer W
Represents one workpiece in a state where the adhesive tape 92 is attached to the frame 90.

The utility cassette 80 constructed as described above is stored by opening the shelf 39 of the utility cassette storage section 38 shown in FIG. 1 with the handle 39A. Therefore, the wafer W set on the mounting surface 85 in FIG.
Simply by opening the shelf 39, it is set on the utility cassette 80. As described above, the dicing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment is provided with the utility cassette storage 38 for storing the utility cassette 80 shown in FIG. 3 in addition to the cassette storages 34 and 36 for storing normal cassettes. Further, a mounting surface 85 for the wafer W is formed on the top plate 84 of the utility cassette 80. Therefore, the dicing apparatus 1 of the present embodiment pulls out the utility cassette 80 from the utility cassette storage section 38 and mounts the wafer W to be interrupted on the mounting surface 85 of the top plate 84 by simply loading the wafer W. Can be set. Therefore, according to the dicing apparatus 1, interrupt processing of the wafer W can be easily performed.

Also, since the shelves 88, 88 capable of storing a small number of wafers W are formed in the utility cassette 80, the utility cassette 80 can be used also as a cassette for handling a small number of lots. Furthermore,
What is set on the mounting surface 85 of the utility cassette 80 is not limited to the wafer W for cutting processing, but may be a dressing work for the blades 68 and 70, and for inspecting the cutting state of the blades 68 and 70. Inspection work may be used. This greatly simplifies the setting and handling of the dressing work and the inspection work.

On the other hand, an inspection cassette (not shown) for storing wafers W for single-wafer processing is installed in the inspection cassette storage section 32 shown in FIG. The wafer W for single-wafer processing is stored in the inspection cassette simply by opening the shelf 33 of the inspection cassette storage unit 32 with the handle 33A. As the inspection cassette, one having the same configuration as that of the utility cassette 80 shown in FIG. 3 may be applied, or one without a shelf may be used. By using the inspection cassette storage section 32 and the utility cassette storage section 36 in combination, two wafers W of different types can be processed successively, so that handling of interrupt processing is further facilitated.

[0019]

As described above, according to the dicing apparatus of the present invention, a special cassette storage section is provided, and a work mounting section is formed on the upper surface of the special cassette stored in the special cassette storage section. Since the work can be set only by placing the work to be interrupted on the work placement section, the interruption processing of the work can be easily performed.

Further, according to the present invention, a shelf for storing a small number of lots of works is formed in a special cassette, and the special cassette is also used as a cassette for handling a small number of lots. Become.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a dicing apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the dicing apparatus shown in FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a utility cassette stored in the dicing apparatus.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Dicing apparatus 10 ... Cutting part 32 ... Inspection cassette storage part 38 ... Utility cassette storage part 60, 62 ... Motor 68, 70 ... Blade 80 ... Utility cassette 85 ... Wafer mounting surface W ... Wafer

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A work cutting section having a cutting blade for cutting a work, a cassette storage section for storing a cassette in which a large number of works are stored, and a work between the cassette storage section and the work cutting section. A dicing apparatus having a special cassette storage section in the dicing apparatus main body, and capable of transporting a work between the special cassette storage section and the work cutting section. The special cassette stored in
A dicing apparatus, wherein a work mounting portion is formed on an upper surface of the special cassette so that the work can be mounted from above the special cassette. 2. The dicing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the special cassette has a shelf for storing a work. 3. The dicing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the work placed on the work placement portion of the special cassette is a dressing work of the cutting blade. 4. The dicing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the work placed on the work placement portion of the special cassette is an inspection work for inspecting a cutting state by the cutting blade.