JPS5940770Y2 - wafer carrier - Google Patents

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] This invention relates to a wafer carrier that accommodates and holds a plurality of semiconductor urchins in parallel.

Semiconductor wafers, especially semiconductor wafers for KLSI, have recently become more and more popular in order to improve productivity by reducing the number of times they are handled during manufacturing and increasing production volume relative to the manufacturing scale.
There is a trend towards larger diameters, for example reaching diameters of 4 to 5 inches or more.

Further, in general, indispensable steps in the manufacture of semiconductor devices include thermal acid (Is impurity diffusion) and heat treatment after forming a metal thin film on the wafer.

Conventional means for handling semiconductor wafers and their heat treatment will now be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2.

FIG. 1 shows a wafer carrier for handling semiconductor wafers, and the wafer carrier 1 consists of a pair of aluminum die-cast supports each having a comb-like support groove 1b. Board 1a.

1a, and each support plate 1a is connected to each support groove ib.
, ib to face each other, spacers lc, 1cK
It is possible to insert and hold a plurality of semiconductor wafers 2 in parallel across the support grooves 1b and 1b, and in this state, the semiconductor wafers can be inserted and held in parallel. I set it to 5 to flow it to each manufacturing process.

Particularly in the heat treatment process such as impurity diffusion, each semiconductor wafer 2 carried by the wafer carrier 1 is reloaded onto a quartz tube 3, for example, as shown in FIG. It is inserted into the heat treatment tube 4 consisting of the following.

However, in such a case, the wafer carrier 1 is held on an extension of the semiconductor wafer 2 without the grip force of the support plates 1a, 1a by the operator, and each support plate 1a, The thickness of 1a is also >S breast 10mm
Therefore, if the diameter of the sea urchin harrow is about 4 inches, the distance between the gripping surfaces of the wafer carrier 1 will be close to 120 + o + g, and if the diameter of the sea urchin harrow is about 5 inches, it will be close to 150 m5, and each work Depending on the person's hands 5, it is difficult to carry the wafer with one hand, and therefore a mechanical device is required to carry it at the time of handling, and if carried forcibly, there is a risk of it falling and damaging the wafer. There were some inconveniences.

Also, during the heat treatment shown in Figure 2 □,
It is important to make the loading direction of the semiconductor wafers 2 in the heat treatment tube 3 parallel to the flow direction 6 of the gas introduced into the heat treatment tube 4 in order to improve the contact with the gas and improve the processing efficiency. However, since the holding direction of the semiconductor wafers 2 held on the wafer carrier 1 and the loading direction of the semiconductor wafers 2 on the boat 3 are contradictory, it is difficult to transfer them. There was also a drawback.

In order to improve the above-mentioned conventional drawbacks, this invention makes the holding direction of the semiconductor wafer inserted and held in the wafer carrier parallel to the gripping surface of the wafer carrier by the operator's hand, and The number of sheets that can be accommodated is kept within a range that does not cause any problems.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the sea urchin carrier according to this invention will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 3 to 6.

FIG. 3 shows a wafer carrier according to one embodiment;
The wafer carrier T according to this embodiment has two support plates each having a plurality of support grooves rb, rb on one side, and having gripping surfaces 7c, 7c at both ends of the extension of the row of support grooves Ib. 7a, 7a, and a plurality of support grooves re, 7e on both sides, and similarly gripping surfaces 7f, 7 on both ends of the extension thereof.
One support plate 1d is provided, and each support plate 7a, ?f is provided in each support groove 7e, 7e of the support plate 7d. Each support groove 7b of a
, 7b are connected to each other by spacers 7g so as to face each other at a predetermined interval.

In the figure, reference numeral 7h indicates a groove stopper provided in a direction across each of the support grooves 7b and 7e.

Therefore, in the configuration of this embodiment in FIG. 3, for example, the support groove 7b
, the number of grooves in 7e is 10, and the groove pitch is 4.8 mm.
In this case, the distance 71 between the gripping surfaces 7c, 7c and 7f, 7f can be approximately 70 mm, while the distance 7 between the groove bottoms of the support grooves 7b, 7e can be approximately 70 mm.
For example, since the wafer carrier I can be arbitrarily set according to the diameter of the semiconductor wafer 2 to be held, the wafer carrier I can be used easily and easily by operators regardless of the diameter of the semiconductor wafer 2. You can carry it to the next day.
However, the number of semiconductor wafers 2 that can be held in one wafer carrier l is also limited. Even though the number of semiconductor wafers 2 that can be held between one set of support grooves rb and 7e is limited, by arranging multiple sets of these in parallel, it is possible to It can hold the same number or more.

The wafer carrier 7 according to the embodiment in FIG. 3 can be used to automatically take the semiconductor wafer 2 into and out of each of the support grooves 7b and 7eK.

This state is shown in FIG.

That is, in FIG. 4, the main wafer carrier is mounted horizontally on the wafer dispenser device 8 so that it can move up and down, corresponding to the pitch of its support grooves, and the wafer carrier By operating the air bearings 8a and 8a, the wafer carrier 1 can be used in exactly the same way as the conventional wafer carrier 1 described above.

FIG. 5 also shows a wafer carrier according to another embodiment.

This wafer carrier 9 has a plurality of support grooves 9b, 9b on both sides, and gripping surfaces 9c at both ends of the extension of the support grooves rb.

In this embodiment, the supporting grooves 9b of each supporting plate 9a are arranged so as to face each other at a predetermined interval, as in the previous example. The semiconductor sea urchins . . . 2 in groups of
Within each group, the grip surfaces 9cVC are held parallel to each other, and a plurality of groups are arranged in parallel to each other.

The advantage of the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 is that the number of support plates 9a can be easily increased or decreased compared to the embodiment shown in FIG. The point is that the batch amount of wafers can be changed,
It has the advantage of making it easy to rearrange the manufacturing process.

The wafer carrier according to the embodiment shown in FIG. 5 can be effectively used especially when transferring the semiconductor wafer 2 held by the wafer carrier during the heat treatment described above.

This state is shown in FIG.

That is, at the four corners of the upper surface of the wafer carrier A on the loading/unloading side, a positioning projection 9f and a perforation 9g are provided at each corner.
The entire structure is made of a wear-resistant material such as Teflon, and after holding the semiconductor wafer 2, the surface of the wafer 2 is treated with chemicals such as nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid. As shown in FIG. 6, for the carrier 9, a boat 1 is provided with an arcuate support groove 10a corresponding to the support groove 9b and a perforation 10b corresponding to the protrusion 9fK.
0, and the protrusion 9f and the perforation 10b so that each opening coincides.
By fitting them together and reversing them, all the semiconductor wafers 2 held on the wafer carrier 9 can be transferred to the arcuate support groove 10aK of the boat 10 at once.

The perforations 9g formed in the residual wafer carrier 9rC are used for positioning when transferring to another wafer carrier of the same shape.

As detailed above, when using this invention, the surfaces of the plurality of semiconductor wafers included within the gripping surface interval are made parallel to the gripping surface, so even if a large diameter semiconductor wafer is held, Even if the wafer carrier is held in one hand, it will not be a problem for a worker to hold and carry the wafer carrier with one hand, and therefore no special mechanical device is required for carrying it. Since the holding direction of the semiconductor wafer toward the boat is the same, it is easy to transfer the semiconductor wafer to the boat after heat treatment, and the overall structure is simple and can be provided at low cost.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a conventional wafer carrier, FIG. 2 is an explanatory view showing a mode in which a semiconductor wafer is heat-treated, and FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of a wafer carrier according to this invention. Fig. 4 is a perspective view showing an example of use of the same wafer carrier, Fig. 5 is a perspective view showing a wafer carrier according to another embodiment of the invention, and Fig. 6 is a perspective view showing another example of use of the same urchin carrier. It is a diagram. 2-...Semiconductor wafer, 7,9-...Wafer carrier, 7a, 7d, 9a=support plate,
7b, 7e. 9b...Support groove, 7c, 7f, 9c...
...Gripping surface, 7g, 9d...Spacer, 7h
y 9 e・・・Groove stopper.

Claims (1)

[Scope of utility model registration request] At least two pieces, each having a plurality of support grooves, and both ends of the extension of these support groove rows being used as gripping surfaces, and the distance between the gripping surfaces being large enough to be gripped and held by an operator's hand. A support plate is provided, and this support plate is detachably connected with each support groove facing each other, and semiconductor sea urchins are held between each support groove in parallel to the gripping surface. A wafer carrier characterized by: