JPS62169437A - Holder of semiconductor wafer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To steadily hold semiconductor wafers by forming a holding part into arc and making contact planes of the holding part with semiconductor wafers flat and forming plural air inlets and further providing step-form positioning parts in predetermine intervals from the air inlets. CONSTITUTION:The whole shape of a holding part 13 is almost arc and attraction parts 14 are flat. Furthermore, plural air inlets 15 are formed in predetermined intervals along the arc. In the holding parts 13, positioning parts 16 comprising steps are formed into one body with the attraction parts 14. At operation, the positioning parts 16 are brought in contact with a circumferential part 22 of a semiconductor wafer 21 without operating a control button 17. Under these conditions, if the control button 17 is pressed down, the air is introduced from the air inlets 15 simultaneously to attract the semiconductor wafers 21 by the attraction parts 14 in the circumferential part.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a holder suitable for use in holding a plate-like object such as a semiconductor wafer.

[Conventional technology]

A semiconductor wafer is a semiconductor integrated circuit (hereinafter referred to as an IC).
It is a thin disk-shaped substrate. In order to improve the yield of semiconductor wafers, the diameter tends to increase from 76 φ (mm 2 ) to 150 φ, and 125 φ is the mainstream for memory ICs and the like.

On the other hand, manufacturing semiconductor integrated circuits requires complicated work processes, and necessary processing is performed for each semiconductor wafer. At this time, when moving from the first step to the second step, the semiconductor wafers may be transferred one by one. In such cases, a bottle set as shown in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 53-48591 has been used.

However, tweezers tend to scratch the surface of semiconductor wafers, which contributes to product defects.

Therefore, the present inventors investigated vacuum tweezers as shown in FIGS. 6 and 7.

That is, on the side surface 3 of the holding part 2 of the vacuum pincer) 1,
An air suction hole 4 is formed so that air can be sucked in by a compressor (not shown).

Then, when the semiconductor wafer 5 comes into contact with the side surface 3 shown by the imaginary line, the semiconductor wafer 5 touches the side surface 3, in other words, the holding portion 1
In this state, the semiconductor wafer 5 can be held and transferred, and the transfer operation can be performed.

However, studies by the inventors have revealed that the vacuum tweezers 1 have the following problems.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention] The above tweezers and vacuum tweezers 1 do not have a positioning structure for determining the position where the side surface 3 contacts the semiconductor wafer 5. Therefore, taking the vacuum bottle set 1 as an example, the contact position between the two may move as shown by the dotted line in FIG. 6, and the semiconductor wafer 5 may be attracted to the center of the wafer 5 or the like.

The circuit formed on the semiconductor wafer 5 has a substantially rectangular shape, and an unnecessary portion is created at the outer edge of the semiconductor wafer 5.

With the above structure, it is not possible to use unnecessary parts to securely hold the device, and when performing the above-mentioned holding operation, the most important central portion may be damaged.

On the other hand, as described above, the semiconductor wafer 5 tends to gradually become thicker in diameter, and as a result, the weight also increases.

However, since the tweezers and the vacuum tweezers 1 are both capable of suction at a single point, the suction force is weak, and unforeseen accidents such as the semiconductor wafer 5 slipping down during the transfer operation are unlikely to occur.

The occurrence of scratches on the semiconductor wafer 5 as described above, as well as cracking and chipping due to dropping, lowers the yield of semiconductor wafers and undesirably increases product costs, so an immediate improvement has been desired.

An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor wafer holder that can securely hold a plate-shaped object such as a semiconductor wafer without damaging it.

The above and other objects and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the description of this specification and the accompanying drawings.

[Means for solving problems]

A brief summary of typical inventions disclosed in this application is as follows.

That is, the holding part is formed in a substantially arc shape along the outer periphery of the semiconductor wafer, the contact surface of the holding part with the semiconductor wafer is made into a flat structure, and a plurality of air suction holes are formed. A step-shaped positioning portion is provided at a predetermined distance from the air intake hole.

[For production]

According to the above-mentioned means, since the arc-shaped positioning part is formed on the semicircular-arc-shaped holding part, the semiconductor wafer and the air suction hole can be positioned, and moreover, a plurality of air suction holes are formed. As a result, the adsorption force is increased, thereby achieving the object of the present invention, which is to securely hold the semiconductor wafer without damaging it.

[Embodiment 1] Hereinafter, a first embodiment of a semiconductor wafer holder to which the present invention is applied will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. In addition, FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 show the structure of the above-mentioned holder,
FIG. 3 shows the usage situation.

The feature of this embodiment is that the structure of the holding portion is configured to match the shape of the semiconductor wafer and to reliably hold the semiconductor wafer.

The holder will be explained with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2 at the same time.

The holder 11 includes a handle 12 and a holder 13.

The overall shape of the holding portion 13 is approximately arc-shaped as shown in the figure. The suction portion 14 is formed in a flat plate shape, and further has a plurality of air suction holes 15 formed in an arc shape at predetermined intervals.

Further, a positioning part 15 having a step with respect to the suction part 14 is integrally formed in the holding part 13 .

Each of the air suction holes 15 is connected to the handle 2, and is further connected to a third
As shown in the figure, it is connected to an air compressor (not shown) via a pipe 17.

Therefore, when the air compressor is in operation and the control button 7 provided on the handle 11 is pressed, the air suction path is opened and air is suctioned from the plurality of air suction holes 15 at the same time.

When using the holder 11, the positioning part 16 is brought into contact with the outer edge 22 of the semiconductor wafer 21 without operating the control button 17.

What should be noted here is that in this state, the adsorption section 14 is positioned on the outer periphery of the back surface of the semiconductor wafer 21. At this point, there may be a gap between the adsorption section 14 and the semiconductor wafer 21.

The part of the semiconductor wafer 21 that is actually used as a product is the part shown by the two-dot chain line in FIG. 1, and the outer peripheral part is not used. By performing the above positioning, the suction portion 14 is placed at a position corresponding to the outer circumferential portion.

When the control button 17 is pressed in this state, air is sucked into each air suction hole 15 at the same time. Therefore, the semiconductor wafer 21 is attracted to the attraction section 14 at the outer peripheral portion. At this time, since the number of air suction holes 15 is large, the suction force is also large.

As shown in FIG. 3, 51 semiconductor wafers 21 can be taken out or inserted into the wafer car (IJ) 23 made of Teflon.

While this work is being performed, the strong suction by the plurality of air suction holes 15 continues unless the control button 17 is released.

(1) By providing a plurality of air suction holes in the suction portion that comes into contact with the semiconductor wafer, the suction force is increased, thereby reducing the fall of the semiconductor wafer 21.

(2) By providing a positioning part and bringing it into contact with the outer edge of the semiconductor wafer, the semiconductor wafer and the suction part are positioned, which reduces damage to the semiconductor wafers used as products. This has the effect of

(3) The above (1) and (2) provide the effect of improving the yield of products.

(4) Since the positioning of the holder is performed by abutting the positioning portion against the outer edge of the semiconductor wafer, the positioning work is facilitated and work efficiency is significantly improved.

[Embodiment 2] Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5.

Note that the same parts as in the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals to avoid duplication of explanation.

The feature of this embodiment is that the length of the positioning part 18 is small and the bend of the suction part 14 is large, so that it can be used in the same manner as described above regardless of the diameter of the semiconductor wafer 21. There is a particular thing.

In other words, the sizes of the semiconductor wafers 21 vary widely as shown in FIG. 4 and as described above. Considering this background, it would be more convenient if the holder 11 could also be used regardless of the size of the semiconductor wafer 21.

From the above viewpoint, the length of the positioning part 18 is formed small,
The contact with the outer circumferential portion 22 of the semiconductor wafer 21 is made in such a small area that it can almost be called a point contact.

However, since the suction part 14 is positioned at the time when the positioning part 18 comes into contact with the outer peripheral part 22, the purpose of positioning is achieved.

Furthermore, since the suction portion 14 is formed in a shape that remains approximately on the outer periphery, the contact area with the usage section can be made small regardless of the size of the semiconductor wafer 21. Since a plurality of air suction holes 15 are formed in the same manner as described above, the suction force for the semiconductor wafer 21 is not reduced.

As a result, even with the structure of the holder 11 shown in this embodiment, it is possible to obtain the same effects as in the first embodiment, and also to be able to use it regardless of the size of the semiconductor wafer 21. .

Above, the invention made by the present inventor has been specifically explained based on examples, but the invention is not limited to the above examples, and it is understood that various modifications can be made without departing from the gist of the invention. Needless to say.

For example, the positioning portions 16.18 may be formed in the form of grooves, as shown in phantom in FIGS. 2 and 5.

Furthermore, the number of air suction holes (150) can be adjusted freely.

In the above explanation, the invention made by the present inventors was mainly applied to a semiconductor wafer holder, which is the background field of application, but the invention is not limited to this, and for example, It can be used to handle floppy disks.

〔Effect of the invention〕

A brief description of the effects obtained by typical inventions disclosed in this application is as follows.

That is, it is possible to hold flat objects such as semiconductor wafers without damaging them.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is an explanatory diagram showing the first embodiment of the holder to which the present invention is applied, Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line A-A' in Fig. 1, and Fig. 3 shows the usage status of the holder. The perspective view shown in Fig. 4 is the second uninvented
An explanatory diagram of a holder showing an embodiment; FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the line B-B'i in FIG. 4; FIG. 6 is a front view of a vacuum bottle set studied prior to the present invention; The figure shows a side view of the vacuum bottle set. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 11... Holder, 13... Holding part, 14... Adsorption part, 15... Air suction hole, 16.18... Positioning part, 21... Semiconductor wafer, 22... Outer edge Department. Agent: Patent Attorney Katsuo Ogawa Figure 1 A-]

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. (1) A holding part whose overall shape is approximately arcuate; (2) A contact surface between one side of the holding part and one side of the semiconductor wafer is formed into a flat plate. (3) a plurality of air suction holes formed in the suction portion for sucking the semiconductor wafer to the suction portion by sucking air; a positioning part formed in a stepped shape on the outer peripheral part of the holding part and abutting against the outer peripheral edge of the semiconductor wafer to position the semiconductor wafer and the holding part; A semiconductor wafer holder characterized by positioning the semiconductor wafer during suction and increasing suction force by the plurality of air suction holes.