JPS61117063A - Carrier in polishing apparatus and loading apparatus for workpiece - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To improve the working efficiency by installing a workpiece holding means which holds a workpiece on a feeding means onto an arm which can be transferred to a polishing apparatus so as to correspond to the workpiece holding hole on a carrier. CONSTITUTION:When a carrier 7 and a wafer 8 are mounted onto a polishing apparatus, a purality of carriers 7 are set onto a stand 11, and a cassette 13 into which the wafers 8 are accommodated is set onto a raising and lowering apparatus 14. Then, a transportion belt 15 is driven to lower the raising and lowering apparatus 14, and then the wafer 8 is transported to contact with a stopper 16, and stops under the wafer holding hole on the carrier 7. Then, an arm 11 is lowered to chuck the carrier 7 and the wafer 8 at the same time by the vacuum chucks 4 and 5. Then, the arm 1 is raised and turned, and then stops at the upper-part position for mounting the carrier 7 and the wafer 8 onto the polishing apparatus, and then loading is performed by cutting-off a vacuum source. Afterwards, the processing is repeated by the times equal to the number of pieces of the carriers 7 to be mounted.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to a loading device for automatically coding carriers and workpieces onto a polishing device.

[Technical background of the invention and its problems]

Generally, a polishing device is equipped with upper and lower surface plates that can be freely moved toward and away from each other, and a polishing cloth is applied to the opposing surfaces of these upper and lower surface plates, respectively.
A wafer held by a carrier having a gear on the outer periphery is held between the polishing cloths under pressure, and from this state, the upper and lower surface plates are rotated, and a sun gear and an internal gear that mesh with the carrier are rotated. The carrier is rotated and revolved to polish the surface of the wafer with an abrasive.

After this polishing is completed, the upper surface plate is raised, the carrier and wafer are removed, and the next carrier and wafer are set and processed again.

However, in the past, when loading carriers and wafers, the upper surface plate was separated from the lower surface plate, and the carrier was manually meshed with the sun gear and internal gear on the polishing cloth on the lower surface plate. The wafers were placed on the carrier evenly and then loaded onto the carrier. For this reason, experience is required to accurately mount the wafer on the carrier, which is disadvantageous in that full automation of washing and polishing is hindered.

[Purpose of the invention]

The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and an object thereof is to provide a loading device for carriers and workpieces in a polishing apparatus, which allows carriers and wafers to be loaded accurately without manual intervention. It is more important.

[Summary of the invention]

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a stand that supports a carrier at a predetermined position with a predetermined phase.

A workpiece supplying means for supplying a workpiece to a position corresponding to a workpiece holding hole of a carrier placed on the stand, and a workpiece supply means for holding the carrier placed on the stand and transferring it to the polishing device. a carrier holding means attached to an arm movable for loading; and a workpiece attached to the arm and placed at a position corresponding to a workpiece holding hole of the carrier and placed on the workpiece supply means. It is equipped with a workpiece holding means for holding object 1.

[Embodiments of the invention]

Hereinafter, one embodiment of the present invention will be described based on the drawings.

The arm 1 shown in FIG. 1 moves up and down from a driving source (not shown) as shown in the operational diagram shown in FIG. The arm 1 is connected to a vacuum source VC (not shown) via a vacuum hose 3, and is equipped with a vacuum chuck 4 as a carrier holding means and a vacuum chuck 5 as a workpiece holding means. It is attached in such a way that it is restrained and can freely slide upwards and downwards (descends by its own weight). Further, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the vacuum chuck 4 is arranged at the center of the carrier 7, and the vacuum chuck 5 is arranged at the center of the wafer holding hole 18 of the carrier 7, which serves as a workpiece holding hole. ing. In order to attach the carrier 7 and the wafer 8 as a workpiece to the polishing device, the arm 1 is moved to the position shown in FIG.
when turning.

A photoelectronic reflective sensor 9 and Iθ are located above the thick gear 20 and the internal gear 2, and are used to index the sun gear 20 and the internal gear 2.
is installed, while the stand 11 in Figure 5g1 is
This is a stand on which the carrier 7 is placed before being attached to the ridging device, and positioning pins 12 are provided protruding from two locations. The carrier 7 also has wafer holding holes 1 as shown in FIG.
In addition to 8, a positioning pin hole 19 is drilled, and by inserting the positioning pin hole 19 into the positioning pin 2, the sun gear 20 can be used to rotate the arm 1 and install the carrier 7 in the polishing apparatus as shown in FIG. Also, the direction of the tooth profile of the carrier 7 at the meshing position with the internal gear 21 can be kept constant at all times. Further, in order to mesh the teeth of the sun gear 2θ and the internal gear 2 with the teeth of the positioned carrier 7, the sun gear 20
Reflectors 22 and 23 are attached to the upper circumferential surface of the internal gear 2, and when the reflective sensors 9 and 10 receive reflected light, the sun gear 20 and the internal gear 21 stop rotating. The rotation of the sun gear 20 and the internal gear 2 during indexing is controlled so that they rotate in the same direction and at synchronized speeds. The number of indexing depends on the number of carriers 7 attached to the polishing device, and the same number of reflectors 22 are used.
and 23 are provided equidistantly on the circumferential upper surface of the sun gear 20 and the internal gear 2. In this embodiment, four carriers 7... are mounted.

Further, the wafer 8 is intermittently lowered by a lifting device 14 to a cassette 13 containing the wafer 8, as shown in FIG. 1, to the position of the vacuum chuck 5. By driving the conveyor belt 15 in the direction of the arrow, it is conveyed and supplied to the position of the armpit 16. The stock 41
6 is located below the wafer holding hole 18 of the carrier 7;
The chuck 7 of the wafer 8 has a U-shape as shown in the figure.
This is a strut horn that has been adjusted for positioning purposes.

Thus, the carrier 7 and the wafer 8 are placed in the polishing apparatus.
When mounting the wafers 7, first, a plurality of carriers 7 are placed on the stand 11, and the cassette 3 containing the wafers 8 is set in the lifting device I4. At this time, the arm 1 stands by at point A in FIG. 5, and is raised to a position where it will not interfere when the upper surface plate 25 of the polishing device separates from the lower surface plate 24 and the arm 1 turns. Thereafter, the conveyor belt 5 is driven in the direction of the arrow, and the elevating device 14 is lowered. As a result, the wafer 8 is transported, and the wafer holding hole 18 formed in the carrier 7 is held pressed against the stock A'15.
It stops and stands still below. Next, the arm 1 descends to point B shown in FIG. 5, a vacuum source (not shown) is activated, and the carrier 7, Xl, and wafer 8 are simultaneously chucked by the vacuum chucks 4 and 5. Next, Ah.
The arm 1 is raised to C, a shown in FIG. 5, thereby lifting the splined shafts 6 having a collar 26 at one end and lifting the uppermost carrier 7 out of the mating locating pin 12.12. The wafer 8 is lifted up to the position where it can be removed, and the wafer 8
is lifted above the upper surface of the remaining carrier 7 on stand 11. (The heights are not necessarily the same.) Next, the arm 1 turns to point D in FIG. 5, and stops at the upper position where the carrier 7 and wafer 8 are mounted on the polishing apparatus, as shown in FIG. 3. The sun gear 2o and the internal gear 21 rotate in synchronization in the same direction, and when the reflective sensors 9 and 10 receive the reflected light, they each stop rotating, and the arm 1 descends to point E shown in FIG. Then, by stopping the vacuum source (not shown), the carrier 7 and wafer 8 are simultaneously unchucked to complete the first loading of the carrier 7 and wafer 8, and the arm 1 is raised to point F shown in FIG. , turn at point A 1. Then, the number of carriers 7 to be loaded is repeated.The above cycle is repeated until all loading is completed.

Note that the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiment, and a number of loading devices corresponding to the number of carriers 7 may be arranged at equal intervals around the outer periphery of the I-riding device.

According to this, the sun gear 20 and the internal gear 2
1 can be indexed once.

In addition, the internal gear 2 and the sun gear 20 are each lowered, and indexing is performed several times on the lower surface plate 24 as in the above embodiment, or when the plurality of loading devices are arranged, After placing all carriers 7 and Ueno 8, internal gear 21
Furthermore, the sun gear 20 may be raised and the teeth of all the carriers 7 may be brought into mesh with the sun gear 20 and the internal gear 2 at the same time.

In the above embodiment, the wafer 8 on the conveyor belt 15 located below the carrier 7 is held by the vacuum chuck 5 which is vertically movable with respect to the arm 1, and then the vacuum chuck 5 is raised to remove the wafer. 8 is almost the same as carrier 7.
Although the example is shown in which the vacuum chucks 4 and 5 are made to move up and down Kj [with respect to the arm 1], the height is not necessarily the same height. Also, the wafer 8 on the conveyor belt 15 is moved to the carrier 7 on the stand I) by a lifting device (not shown).
If this is positioned at the same height as the vacuum chucks 4 and 5 fixed to the arm 1 and held at the same height, there is no need to relatively move the vacuum chucks 4 and 5 up and down.

In addition, it goes without saying that the present invention can be modified in various ways within the scope of its gist.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the present invention, loading of carriers and workpieces can be automated, no experience is required unlike in the past, and work efficiency is significantly improved.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

The drawings show one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a schematic configuration diagram showing a loading device, FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof, and FIG. 3 is an explanation showing a loading state of a carrier and a wafer. 4 is a plan view thereof, FIG. 5 is a graph showing the operation of the arm, FIG. 6 is a plan view showing the carrier, and FIG. 7 is a plan view showing the wafer stopper. 7...Carrier, 1...Stand, 18...Wafer holding hole (workpiece holding hole), 15...Transport belt (workpiece supply means), 1...Arm, 4. ... Vacuum chuck (carrier holding means), 5... Vacuum chuck (workpiece holding means), 8... Way S (workpiece). Applicant's representative Patent attorney Takehiko Suzue, i゛Threshold Figure 5 Procedure Amendment Showa Hayabusa Q, January 24th, Commissioner of the Patent Office Manabu Shiga 1, Indication of Case Patent Application No. 1982-239215 3, Amendment Patent applicant (345) Toshiba Machine Co., Ltd. 4, Agent 6, Specification subject to amendment 7, Contents of amendment (1) “Device” stated on page 6, line 12 of the specification Correct "to wear" as "to wear." (2) "The above-mentioned wafer 8 is moved to the above-mentioned ... position in Figure 1" written in page 7, line 12 to line 133 of the specification.
is corrected to "The above wafer 8 is shown in FIG. 1." (3) "Supply" written on page 7, line 18 of the specification is corrected to "supplied." (4) "Wafer 8's ... stotsunosen" written in the first to second lines of page 8 of the specification was changed to "Wafer 8
"0" is provided so as to be positioned concentrically with the wafer holding hole 18 of the carrier 7.

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) a stand that supports the carrier at a predetermined position in a predetermined phase; a workpiece supply means that supplies the workpiece to a position corresponding to the workpiece holding hole of the carrier placed on the stand; a carrier holding means attached to a movable arm to hold the carrier placed on the stand and transfer it to the polishing device; and a carrier holding means attached to the arm at a position corresponding to the workpiece holding hole of the carrier. A carrier and a workpiece loading device in a polishing apparatus, comprising a workpiece holding means arranged to hold a workpiece placed on the workpiece supply means. (2) Loading of the carrier and workpiece in the polishing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the stand is provided with a positioning pin that fits into a positioning hole provided with reference to the tooth profile of the carrier. Device. (3) A carrier and workpiece loading device in a polishing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the stand supports a plurality of carriers in a stacked manner. (4) The carrier and the workpiece in the polishing apparatus according to claim 1, 2 or 3, wherein the carrier holding means and the holding parts of the workpiece holding means are respectively attached to vertically movable arms so as to be vertically movable. Workpiece loading device.