JPS6091640A - Positioning device for wafer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To enable to smoothly revolve a wafer and to position the wafer at the prescribed position by a method wherein the wafer is inclinably supported by three supporting points and the respective disposition of the three supporting points is designed in consideration of a smooth revolution of the wafer. CONSTITUTION:A base stand 11 is constituted in a condition inclined at a prescribed angle from the vertical direction. Supporting points 16-18 from the first to the third, by which a wafer 15 to be guided between guide rails 13 is supported, are protrudedly provided on the upper surface of the base stand 11. The wafer 15 is made to revolve by a revolution driving mechanism 21 provided on the lower side of the wafer 15. The supporting points 16 and 17 are respectively disposed on a virtual circumference S with the rotational center C of the wafer 15 as the central point thereof and across the center C on the more upper side than the center C, while the supporting point 18 is disposed on the more lower side than the center C and a position, where was intentionally avoide from a position on a virtual vertical bisector T of a line to link the supporting points 16 and 17. By disposing the supporting points 15-17 in such a way, the wafer 15 results in being supported in a moderately unstable condition, thereby enabling to smoothly revolve the wafer 15.

Description

[Detailed description of the invention] [Technical field to which the invention pertains] The present invention relates to a wafer positioning method for positioning a wafer (semiconductor J piece) in a predetermined direction before supplying the wafer to a photolithography process, a circuit inspection process, etc. It is related to the device.

[Background technology] Photo-etching wafers in various orientations - In order to supply wafers in the same orientation (orientation) for processing or circuit inspection, a portion of the periphery of the wafer is cut out to provide a straight section (orientation flat). Normally, the wafer is positioned using this straight section as a reference.

By the way, conventional positioning equipment places the wafer on a flat surface coated with Teflon,
In the second method, the wafer was rotated and positioned in a predetermined direction, but even in such a case, the coefficient of friction was still large during rotation, making it impossible to rotate the wafer smoothly. There was also a structure in which the wafer was floated with pressurized air and rotated, but it was extremely difficult to uniformly blow out the air from a nozzle, etc., and accurate positioning was also difficult in this case. Ta. Further, when a nozzle and the like are provided, the entire device becomes extremely large-scale and expensive.

[Objective of the Invention 1 An object of the present invention is to provide a wafer positioning device which has a simple structure and can rotate the wafer in a circle Δ1 and position it in a predetermined posture (orientation) 11V1. be.

[Structure of the Invention] Therefore, the present invention provides for holding a wafer in an inclined manner with three support points.
n; and is provided with a rotational drive mechanism that rotates the wafer within the plane by frictionally contacting the upper peripheral edge of the inclined wafer, and two of the three supporting points are connected to the wafer. Approximately the same virtual circle with the center of rotation as the center point. is the virtual @ 1r of the two support points (arranged on the upper side of the center point avoiding the bisector, and the wafer is supported in a slightly unstable state by the three support points arranged in this way. By rotating the wafer with the rotational drive mechanism, the coefficient of friction between the wafer and each support point is made extremely small, and the wafer and the rotational drive mechanism are made to fit well, thereby realizing smooth rotation of the wafer. [Description of Embodiments] Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

1 and 2 show a wafer positioning device according to the present invention.
Examples are shown, and in these figures, the base 11 is configured to be tiltable from the horizontal direction to a predetermined melon tilted state, with the support section 12 provided on the back side thereof as the center of tilting, for example. . Two guide rails 13 are arranged on the upper surface of the base 11 in parallel with each other at a predetermined interval along the vertical direction in FIG. A wafer 15 in which a linear portion 14 is formed by notching a portion, and the wafer 15 is thin as a whole.
will be guided.

Further, first, second, and third support points 16, 17, and 18 for supporting the wafer 15 guided between the two guide rails 13 are protruded from the upper surface of the base 11. The tops of these support points 16, 17.18 are, for example, spherical and polished with high precision.
The coefficient of friction between the wafer 15 and the wafer 15 is extremely small.

The wafer 15 is rotated by a rotation drive mechanism 21 provided on the upper side of the wafer 15, and the first and second support points 16 and 17 are at the same point with the rotation center C of the wafer 15 as the center point. They are arranged on the imaginary circumference S'2, respectively, and are arranged at predetermined intervals on the upper mountain side from the rotation center C. On the other hand, the third support point 18, which is the remaining one support point, is on the uphill side of the oil temperature rotation center C. It is arranged at a position away from the virtual perpendicular bisector T of the second support point 16,17. More specifically, the first and second support points 16.17 are arranged at an interval of 120 degrees from the circumference, and the vertical bisection of these support points 16.17 is
passes through the center point C and forms a line t with the guide rail 13. Further, the support point 18 of US3 is arranged at a position shifted by X from the perpendicular bisector T.

The rotational drive mechanism 21 has two drive rollers 22,
These drive rollers 22 are connected to a pulley 23 on the upper side of the base 11.
The pulley 23 and the drive pulley 24 are interlocked with each other by a belt 25, and when the drive pulley 24 is rotated by a drive motor 26, the two drive rollers 22
is now rotated. These two drive rollers 22 are arranged on both sides of the virtual perpendicular bisector T at an equal distance apart and along the horizontal direction. It is arranged so that The lower peripheral edge of the inclined wafer 15 comes into frictional contact with these two drive rollers 22, thereby causing the wafer 15 to rotate in a predetermined direction within its plane.

A guide roller 31 is rotatably supported on the outside of the two drive rollers 22, respectively. These guide rollers 31
As shown in FIG. 1, when the arc-shaped periphery of the wafer 15 is being rotated in frictional contact with the two driving rollers 22, a predetermined gap is provided between the wafer 15 and the periphery of the wafer 15. However, as shown in FIG. When the wafer 15 is transferred by a predetermined amount toward the center, the arcuate outer circumference of the wafer 15 comes into contact with the double-force force roller 311- to support the edge of the wafer 15 on the center side. A predetermined gap is provided in between, so that the rotation of the wafer 15 is stopped, that is, the wafer 15 is positioned at this position.

Next, the operation of the present embodiment will be explained. (With the table 11 in the water) After that, ), (stand 11 is supported by support part 1
A predetermined melon is tilted with 2 as the center of tilting (see FIG. 2). As a result, the wafer 15 is moved between the two drive rollers 22 of the rotational drive mechanism 21, as shown in Figure iA1.
The circumferential surface on the to side is in contact with the . When the drive roller 22 is rotated in a state where the drive roller 22 is in frictional contact with the circumferential surface on the side of the wafer 15 in this way, the wafer 15 is rotated within the same plane around the rotation center C, or So that the rotation advances QJ and becomes No. 31;
When the straight part 14 of the wafer 15 is placed on the drive roller 22, the peripheral edge of the wafer 15 on the far side is supported by the chi F'O-ra 31 instead of the drive roller 22, and the drive roller 22 is placed on the straight part 14. Wafer 1 is separated from #
The rotation by the rotation drive mechanism 21 of No. 5 is stopped, and this stop]
The wafer 15 is positioned on the base 11 in the - state. Thereafter, it is accurately transferred to a photo-etching process, a circuit inspection process, etc. (not shown) using a sophisticated handling mechanism or the like.

According to this embodiment, three support points ■6.17
．． Since the wafer 15 is supported by the support points 16, 17, 18, the frictional resistance between the wafer 15 and the support points 16, 17, 18 is extremely small, and the wafer 15 can be rotated extremely smoothly.

Moreover, the first and second support points 16.17 are connected to the same circumference Sl
The third support point 18 is placed at a virtual +fr Iej of the first and second support points 16 and 17.
2':< By arranging the branch line Tl-, the wafer 15 supported by these three support points 16, 17, 18j- can be stably supported as a whole. , the wafer 15 is rotated smoothly in a moderately unstable state, and by adding the moderate instability in this manner, the wafer 15 can be rotated smoothly. In addition, by supporting the wafer 15 in a slightly stabilized state as described above, the periphery of the wafer 15 on the F side becomes more compatible with the drive roller 22 of the drive mechanism 21. This is caused by slippage and idle rotation between the wafer 15 and the drive roller 22. From this point of view as well, it is effective to rotate the wafer 15 extremely smoothly and position it at a predetermined position (orientation).

Furthermore, the structure of the three supporting points 16, 17, and 18 is extremely simple, as it can be constructed even with a rigid hole. Since smooth rotation of the wafer 15 is attempted to be achieved by carefully arranging the positions of the wafers 17 and 18, the structure is extremely simple, unlike conventional structures that require air blowing devices and the like.

Furthermore, when the wafer 15 is rotated by the rotary drive mechanism 21 and its linear portion 14 comes to the drive roller 22-, the wafer 15 separates from the drive roller 22, so it is automatically stopped and positioned. There is no need for a special position inspection device δ, a stop device, etc. for stopping the rotation of the rotor, and the operation thereof is extremely simple.From this point of view as well, the structure is extremely simple and the positioning operation is easy.

In the implementation, the base 11 does not necessarily have to be tiltable, but may be fixed in a predetermined tilted state. Alternatively, one or more drive rollers 22 may be moved.

However, according to the above embodiment in which the two drive rollers 22 are arranged horizontally at a predetermined interval, smooth rotation can be performed during rotation, and moreover, in combination with the two chi I rollers 31 of 1111, When the 9 notches 74y+4 of l5 come to the drive roller 2211, the automatic stop 1-
It has the effect of being able to Also, 1st. The spacing between the second support points 16 and 17 is not limited to 120 degrees, but may be any other spacing, such as 2'9 minutes! ! They do not have to be placed equally on both sides of the IT. Further, the third support point 8 may or may not be located on the virtual circumference S.

[Effects of the Invention] J., as mentioned above, has developed a wafer which has a simple structure and which can rotate the wafer in a circular direction and position it in a predetermined position 2+ (orientation). A positioning device can be provided.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a hemostasis diagram showing an embodiment of the wafer positioning device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line II-II in FIG. 1, and FIG. Rank K
FIG. 6 is a front view showing the I-determined state. 11..., ノ, (stand, 13... guide rail, 14...
... Straight line part, 15... Wafer, 16, 17.18...
- Support point, 21... Rotation drive mechanism, 22... Drive roller, 31... Kite roller. Agent Patent attorney Sanemasa Kinoshita (1 person) Fig. 1 26124 ■J Fig. 2 1 Fig. 3 11 426 1"J = - Itokan 4 City JE document (1) Acidic indication 1988 patent Application No. 200556 2, Name of the invention: Wafer positioning device 3, Person making the correction] Relationship to 1 Patent applicant Address: 33-7 Shiba Go-cho 1, Minato-ku, Tokyo Name: Mitaka Manufacturing Co., Ltd. J9i Representative Nagisuma 1) Tomohide 4, Agent

Claims (1)

[Claims] (1) Three support points that support the wafer in an inclined state, and Pt'f on the periphery of the inclined wafer on the side.
J! It is equipped with a rotation drive mechanism that rotates the wafer within its plane in contact with the AS, and two of the three support points are arranged around an approximately same virtual circle with the rotation center of the wafer as the center point.
The two supporting points are placed at a predetermined interval on both sides of the center point, and the remaining one support point is located at the center of the center point, avoiding the virtual vertical 2A4 line of the two support points. A wafer positioning device characterized in that it is arranged below a point.