JPS5932368B2 - Alignment device for plate-shaped members - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a method of aligning plate-like members, particularly rollable disk-like members such as silicon wafers and glass wafers, between narrow grooves formed at predetermined pitches in an alignment jig. The present invention relates to an alignment device for supporting.

5 For example, semiconductor devices such as ICs, transistors, and thyristors are formed by repeatedly performing processes such as diffusion and photolithography on circular wafers, as is well known. .

Particularly regarding diffusion processing, batch processing is often carried out, and for this patch processing, a large number of l sets of narrow grooves are formed at a predetermined pitch, each of which supports each of the wafers upright. A so-called diffusion boat, which is an alignment jig made of quartz, SiC, polysilicon, etc., is used. 15 Conventionally, however, loading and unloading of wafers into the diffusion boat was performed as shown in FIG.

That is, in this FIG. 1, 1 is a diffusion boat, 2a is
, 2b are l sets of thin grooves formed in large numbers at predetermined pitches in this diffusion boat 1, 1 is a cassette used for transporting wafers between processes, and 4a and 4b are grooves formed in this cassette at predetermined pitches. 1 set of narrow grooves formed in large numbers on the wafer, 6 is a vacuum tweezers with a vacuum suction point on one side of the tip, and the force from the diffusion boat 1 to the force 25 set l, and from the cassette 1 to The wafers 5 are transferred to the diffusion boat L by suction with vacuum tweezers 6 or by clamping with other ordinary tweezers. In particular, when transferring the air 5 from the cassette 1 to the diffusion boat 1, in order to increase the number of wafers per process and to achieve uniform diffusion, a wafer is used as shown in Fig. 2.・There are cases where the back sides of wafers 35 and 5 are loaded close to each other to the narrow gap A, but in such cases, the wafers 35-5 in the cassette are generally aligned in advance with their front and back sides aligned in a certain direction. Because the paper is stored in a container, care must be taken to alternately turn the front and back sides each time a sheet is transferred, and repeating this for each process requires a huge amount of effort and is extremely complicated. This is a tedious process, and the wafer surfaces are often damaged by suctioning or pinching them one by one during transfer, and the wafers and surfaces are often contaminated due to manual intervention.
There was a drawback that the manufacturing yield v decreased.

In view of the above-mentioned conventional circumstances, the present invention has been developed to expand a rollable disc-shaped member such as a way, which is housed in a cassette with the front and back aligned in a certain direction, and to expand the narrow groove on an alignment jig such as a scattering boat. It is an object of the present invention to provide a device for automatically aligning and supporting the members upright, with the front and back sides alternated, and without any other object coming into contact with each member surface.

Embodiments of the apparatus of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6.

In these FIGS. 3 to 6, the same reference numerals as in FIG. Each represents a device.

In one embodiment of the flange device of FIGS. 3 to 5, the cassette 3. The cassette moving mechanism L that holds the diffusion boat 1 in a fixed position, the diffusion boat moving device 8 that holds the diffusion boat 1 in a fixed position on the cassette receiver 8a, and the narrow grooves 4a,
Between these two mechanisms L and J, there is a cassette J held in each and a narrow groove 4a, 4b of the diffusion boat 1. 2b, facing the 2b position, vertically rising from the cassette side 9, and extending downward from the rising position D toward the diffusion boat side, facing inwardly, and wa... a v-shaped groove 10a that guides the peripheral edge;
Guide member 9 formed with 10b. has been installed.

Further, at the bottom of the cassette cap, the wafers accommodated in the internal narrow grooves 4a, 4b for each pitch feed.5. The elevating plate 12 and its elevating mechanism 11 are arranged in order to push up the guide member to the rising position, and the guide member has the same cross-sectional shape and a longer way/diameter in the middle of the inclined side of the guide member. A reversing member 13 is interposed so that the reversing mechanism 14 can reverse the left and right direction at the same position, and this reversing member 1
Stopper pins 15 and 16 are provided in the left and right direction of 3, that is, on the population side and the exit side, respectively, and are movable in and out by cylinders 17 and 18. A guide roll 19 with a ■-shaped groove 20 formed around the periphery to support and guide the rolling motion of the roller 1 is supported by an arm 21 and protrudes from a long hole 22 toward the guide member court. It is connected to the reciprocating mechanism 24 via 23.

Therefore, in the embodiments of FIGS. 3 to 5 described above, the cassette and diffusion boat moving mechanisms 1, 8. As shown in FIG.
, 10b, the guide roll 19 is set close to the reversing member 13, the stopper pin 15 is protruded, and the stopper pin 16 is retracted.

Next, from this initial set state, when the elevating mechanism 11 is activated to raise the elevating plate 12, the first wafer in the cassette can be lifted up with its peripheral edge aligned with the V-shaped grooves 10a and 10b. Then, when it reaches the top of the rising position, the guide member J starts rolling down along the slope, reaches the position of the reversing member 13, and is temporarily stopped by the stopper pin 15, and in this state, the stopper pin 16 is also It also stands out. However, when the wafer j that is rolled down in this way reaches the reversing member 13 and is supported by the stopper pins 15 and 16 that protrude toward the population side and the exit side, the reversing mechanism 14 is activated and the population The side and the exit side are reversed to opposite sides, that is, the wafer...δ is switched from front to back to the opposite side.

Then, after this reversal operation is completed, the stopper pin 16 on the exit side is retracted, thereby releasing the restraint of the way j that was once stopped, and the guide roll 19 that is waiting on the way j. in contact with each V-shaped groove 1
0a, 10b and 20 with their peripheral edges aligned\
Then, along with the operation of the reciprocating mechanism 24, it starts rolling again supported by the guide roll 19, and is transferred onto the diffusion boat 1, where it is supported upright between the narrow grooves 2a and 2b. When the first way 5 is transferred onto the diffusion boat 1 in this way, the guide roll 19 stops for a while past the diffusion boat 1, and the lifting plate 12 returns to its original position during that time. In this state, both moving mechanisms 7 and 8 are operated to move each cassette J and diffusion boat 1 one pitch 9, and then the guide roll 19 is also returned to its original position. Subsequently, the next similar operation is performed, but since the wafer .delta. has been reversed in the previous operation, reversal is not necessary this time, and both stopper pins 15 and 16 are pulled in together. Leave it in the cassette and place wafer 1 from cassette J as before.
When the way 1 is raised, the way 1 rolls down within the guide member at the position of the reversing member 13 without receiving any action, hits the waiting guide roll 19, is supported, and is temporarily stopped. Later, by the movement of the guide roll 19, this wafer (this time the uninverted wafer...5) is brought closer to and adjacent to the previously inverted wafer (5) in the same manner as before. The wafer S. is placed vertically between the narrow grooves 2a and 2b on the diffusion boat 1, and the same operation is repeated to place the wafer S. can be sequentially and automatically transferred to the diffusion boat 1 with the front and back sides alternated.

FIG. 6 shows another embodiment of the reversing operation, and in this example, a reversing member 25 corresponding to the reversing member 13 is provided without the stopper pins 15 and 16 as in the previous example. The guide cylinder 26 is installed inside the guide cylinder 26 and is made to be inverted by a reversing mechanism 27, and the guide cylinder 26 is provided with slits 28 on the population side and the outlet side in the middle of the guide member J.
A and 28b are interposed so that they coincide with each other, and a stomper pin 29 is provided which can freely protrude and retract from the outlet side slit 28b portion using a cylinder 30. In the embodiment shown in FIG. The coming way δ is temporarily stopped and its restraint is released by operating the stopper pin 29 to protrude and retract, and the coming out of the reversing member 25 is performed on the inner circumferential surface of the guide cylinder 26, similar to the previous example. This is to obtain the effect of

In each of the above embodiments, the circular wafer i is used as a disc-shaped member, but a wafer i having a reference surface in a part may also be used.
Of course, it can be applied to any shape as long as it is a rollable thin plate. As described in detail above, according to the present invention, a disc-shaped member such as a way, which is housed in a cassette with its front and back aligned in a certain direction, is placed between the grooves formed in an alignment jig such as a diffusion boat. It is possible to automatically transfer the front and back sides alternately, and when transferring this rollable disk-shaped member, the movement of the member is performed by rolling on its peripheral surface, and each side of the member Because the work is carried out without touching the disk at all, there is no risk of damage or contamination of the disc-shaped member, and the work can be done cleanly and quickly, increasing production yields such as wafers. It has the advantage of being able to improve performance.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

1 and 2 are a perspective view and a partially enlarged front view illustrating the work of transferring wafers to an alignment jig according to a conventional example, and FIG. 3 is an illustration of a disk-shaped member alignment device according to the present invention. A perspective view showing the embodiment; FIG. 4 is a partial front view of the main parts of the same;
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of the guide and reversing member same as above, and FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing essential parts of another embodiment same as above. 1...Diffusion boat, 2a, 2b...Small groove, l...Cassette, 4a, 4b...
Narrow groove, 5...way 1, 8. ...Moving mechanism, J...--Guiding member, 10a, 10b...
...V-shaped groove, 11...--lifting mechanism, 12.
... Lifting plate, 13, 25... Reversing member, 14, 27... Reversing mechanism, 15, 16,
29... Stopper pin, 17, 18, 30...
... Cylinder, 19 ... Guide roll, 20
...-■-shaped groove, 22...Elongated hole, 24...
... Reciprocating mechanism, 26 ... Guide cylinder, 28a
, 28b...Slit.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A set of alignment jigs in which a large number of narrow grooves are formed, one set at each predetermined pitch, and a moving mechanism that positions each of these alignment jigs at a predetermined position and feeds the alignment jigs at each pitch,
A groove is formed facing each narrow groove position of each of the alignment jigs, sloping downward from one alignment jig side toward the other alignment jig side, and guiding the peripheral edge of the plate-shaped member. a moving mechanism for moving a plate-like member housed in one alignment jig with its front and back aligned in a certain direction in accordance with the groove position of the guide member; and a moving mechanism disposed on the way of the guide member. a reversing mechanism that operates to reverse the plate-shaped member that is rolling down and reverses it as required; 1. A device for aligning plate-shaped members, comprising a guide roll that guides the plate-shaped members and a reciprocating mechanism therefor.