JPS60242129A - Transporting and accommodating apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the reliability in the accommodation of wafers by permitting the certain and perfect delivery of wafers from a transportation means to an accommodation tool by inclining the accommodation tool by a prescribed angle. CONSTITUTION:The guide part 21 of an accommodating tool 1 and a transporting belt 4 are installed with an inclination angle theta, and said inclination angle theta is set so that mub>tantheta>muc, where eachfrictional coefficient between a wafer 3, belt 4, and the guide part 21 is mub, muc. Though the wafer 3 is transported by the frictional force, held on the belt 4, the wafer 3 generates a slide at the time when being delivered onto the guide part 21, and the wafer 3 slides on the guide part 21 and is perfectly accommodated into the accommodating tool. When the wafer 3 is accommodated, a wafer sensor 22 operates, and an elevator 2 is rising-driven.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Technical Field] The present invention relates to a transport/storage device that transports wafers and the like between various processing steps and stores them in a storage tool during the manufacturing stage of semiconductor devices and the like.

[Prior art]

Conventionally, this type of apparatus had the following drawbacks because the wafer was transported horizontally and stored in a storage device. That is, as shown in FIG. 3, if the guide part 21 of the storage tool I is slightly higher than the belt top surface 20 due to poor setting, the wafer 3 will climb onto the guide part 21 and stop midway through the storage tool. As a result, the wafer detection sensor 22, such as a light reflection type installed at the rear of the storage device, does not detect the wafer, and as a result, a rising signal for the storage device elevator cannot be obtained, and all sequences between various processing steps are stopped. Furthermore, if the wafer detection sensor 22 is installed in front of the storage device in order to avoid the above drawback, the storage device elevator will rise without the wafer being completely stored in the storage device.
The wafer may come into contact with other parts and be damaged.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to overcome these drawbacks and provide a transport/storage device that can reliably and completely transfer wafers to storage tools.

That is, in the embodiments of the present invention described later, in a wafer transport/storage device comprising a wafer storage tool and a wafer transport means, wafers can be transferred from the transport means to the storage tool by tilting the storage tool at least at a predetermined angle. This is a transport and storage device that ensures reliable and complete delivery and improves the reliability of wafer storage.

〔Example〕

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing one embodiment of the invention, and FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing another embodiment of the invention.

In Fig. 1, 1 is a storage device with a conveyor belt l-
a kite section 21 that receives the wafer 3 transported by the wafer 4;
Light reflective wafer detection sensor 2 that detects wafer 3
It is equipped with 2. 2 is an elevator that lowers the storage device l by y1, and motor 5. The gears 6 and 7 are driven via a feed screw 8. Here, the storage device l, the guide section 21, and the conveyor belt 4 are installed with an inclination angle θ, and this inclination angle is 0.
is set to the relationship p, , b>tanO>pc, where pb is the friction coefficient between the wafer 3 and the conveyor belt 4, and gc is the friction coefficient between the wafer 3 and the guide section 21.

In such a configuration, the wafer 3 is transferred to the transfer heald 4.
2 is conveyed while being held on the heald 4 due to frictional force, but when it is delivered onto the guide section 21 of the storage tool 1, it slips, and the storage tool 1 slides on the guide section 21''.
completely stored inside. When the wafer 3 is stored, the wafer detection sensor 22 detects it, and the elevator 2 is driven upward.

In addition, in the description given below, the case where the inclination angle O1 of the storage device 1 and the inclination angle θ2 of the conveyor belt 4 are the same, but if the inclination angles θ1 and 02 are respectively tanθ1
, It is clear that even if there are differences in the range where tanO2<uLb, the same effect can be obtained.

FIG. 2 shows another embodiment. In the figure, a storage tool tilting cam IO is provided on the elevator 2 to tilt the storage tool l via a cam rotation shaft 11. The storage tool 1 is normally held in a horizontal state.

In such a configuration, when the wafer 3 is conveyed by the belt 4- and reaches the kite portion 21''2 of the storage device 1, it is detected by the wafer detection sensor 22 disposed in front of the storage device 1, and this As soon as the elevator 2 ascends, the cam rotation shaft 11 begins to rotate, and the storage tool tilting cam lO tilts the storage tool 1 at an inclination angle θ. As a result,
The wafer 3 slides to the rear of the storage tool 1 and is completely stored in the storage tool 1.

In the explanation so far, the wafer transport/storage device in semiconductor manufacturing equipment has been described, but similar effects can be obtained even when the present invention is applied to a wafer transport/storage device between manufacturing processes of other small products. It is clear that

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, the present invention has the advantage that wafers can be reliably and completely stored in the storage device by a simple method of installing the wafer storage device and the wafer conveyance belt at a predetermined inclination angle. Further, this has the advantage of not only preventing damage to wafers during transportation, but also preventing sequence stoppage between various processing steps due to inability to detect stored wafers.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing one embodiment of the present invention, Fig. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing another embodiment of the invention, and Fig. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a state of transferring a wafer to a storage device in a conventional example. It is. 1, wafer storage device 2, elevator 3, wafer 4, conveyor belt 5, motor 6.7. Gear 8, feed screw 10, cam 11, cam rotation shaft 20, conveyor belt's two-sided part 21, guide part 22 of wafer storage tool l, wafer detection sensor Fig. 1, Fig. 3

Claims (1)

[Scope of Claims] 1. A transport/storage device comprising a wafer storage tool and a wafer transport means, characterized in that the storage tool and the transport means or the storage tool are tilted. 2. The conveyance means is composed of a belt, and its inclination angle θ is p, where the coefficient of friction between the wafer and the conveyor belt is 8Lb, and the coefficient of friction between the wafer and the wafer storage tool is gc.
The conveyance/storage device according to claim 1, characterized in that the relationship is set to b>tanO>ILc.