JPS624142A - Shifter for thin plate material - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To ensure receipts and delivery of wafers to aim at preventing the wafers from being broken, by providing a cassette positioning means which is adapted to be associated with the elevation of an elevating rod having its upper end provided with a wafer support member. CONSTITUTION:Cassette 21 are set on both loading frames 4, and when an elevating frame 5 is raised, both support members 10 enter into the cassettes 21 which are simultaneously positioned by means of a positioning means 20. Furthers, wafers 23 in the left cassette 21 is positioned in a receiving groove 11 formed in the left support member 10 at a predetermined position. Then the wafers 23 are fitted into the receiving groove 11, and then pushed up to come out from the cassette 21. Therefore, the wafers are shifted into a holding member 27. When the support members 10 descend, the holding member 27 is moved to a position right above the right cassette 21, and the elevating frame 5 ascends to shift the wafers 23 into the holding member 10. Then the wafers are rotated and is vertically directed. When the elevating frame 5 is lowered, the wafers 23 in the support members 10 are precisely stored in the positioned right cassette 21 without being made in contact with the cassette.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a thin plate material (hereinafter referred to as a wafer) of semiconductor, ceramic, glass, etc. housed in a cassette.

This relates to a device that transfers cassettes from other cassettes.

(Prior art) For example, semiconductor devices are manufactured by metal vapor deposition and
Manufactured through a number of processing steps such as photoresist coating, pattern baking, development, etching, cleaning, peeling and impurity diffusion. In some cases, this may be done at the same time while the cells are still contained.

When processing the wafer while it is still in the cassette, it is necessary to transfer the wafer to another cassette during the processing process. The wafer was transferred by holding it with tweezers or the like, but since the wafer was easily damaged, the wafer required skill and was extremely troublesome.

Therefore, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 54-49673, the wafers housed in a cassette are once held in a buffer case, and then another cassette or a quartz boat is placed in a position facing the buffer case. A device that moves the wafers to another cassette or the like, or as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 161653/1980, uses a device to push up wafers in a cassette located at a predetermined number of wafer intervals. A wafer transfer device, etc. that repeats the process of pushing up a plurality of wafers from a cassette, holding these pushed up wafers in a wafer holding part, horizontally moving them, and transferring them to another cassette a predetermined number of times. , mechanical transfer devices are known.

(Problem to be Solved by the Invention) When wafers housed in a cassette are mechanically transferred to a power set, the wafers are likely to be damaged. It is necessary to precisely match the relative positions of the grooves in the axial direction.

Therefore, conventional devices require high precision in manufacturing and require a separate positioning mechanism for the two-force set at the start of transfer, making the devices complicated and expensive.

(Means for Solving the Problems) The present invention provides at least one cassette mounting position below at least one cassette mounting position on the base plate, which is provided with a wafer support at the upper end.
In the wafer transfer device, the wafer transfer device is provided with two lifting rods and a wafer holder that moves horizontally above the cassette relative to the base plate, and is provided with cassette positioning means that interlocks with the lifting and lowering of the lifting rod. It is characterized by this.

According to the present invention, for example, by positioning the holding tool directly above the cassette containing the wafer and raising the elevator rod, one positioning device positions one cassette at a predetermined position, and the wafer is After transferring the wafer to the support at the upper end of the lifting rod and stopping at the upper limit, the wafer on the support is transferred to the holding device.

After lowering the elevating rod and moving the holder directly above the new empty cassette relative to the base plate, raising the elevating rod again and transferring the wafer to the support, By lowering the elevator rod to its lower limit, the wafer can be transferred to a new cassette, and the above-mentioned problem can be solved.

(Function) As described above, in the device of the present invention, the positioning of the cassette, which is important in this type of device, is automatically performed in conjunction with the lifting rod without using a separate drive source.

(Embodiment) FIGS. 1 and 2 schematically show the main parts of an embodiment of a wafer transfer device according to the present invention, and FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of the device, and FIG. FIG. 2 shows a sectional view taken along the line A--A in FIG. 1.

At predetermined intervals on all the horizontal base plates (2) of the case (1),
A mounting frame (4) is installed in the pair of left and right window holes (3) that are opened, and a lifting frame (5) as described below is installed below the base plate (2). .

The elevating frame (5) has a pair of left and right elevating rods (6) that are perpendicular to the horizontal base plate (2) and connected in an H-shape with a connecting rod (7) below both mounting frames (4). Tenari.

Each lifting rod (6) is connected to the case (1) via a nut (8).
) is supported in a vertically movable manner by a pair of left and right guide rods (9), and is raised and lowered by a lifting drive means (not shown) as will be described later.

A pair of left and right supports (10) located below the mounting frame (4) are normally attached to the upper end of each elevating rod (6), and a large number of receivers at a predetermined pitch are mounted on the upper surface of the supports (10). The groove (11) is
They are cut out to face each other.

An inclined portion (12) having the same inclination angle is carved in the center of the front surface of both of these lifting rods (6).

The front surface of each lifting rod (6) is bent in an inverted shape as shown in Fig. 1, and the bent portion is connected to one end of a link (13) pivotally connected to the case (1) by a pin (13a). A pivotally mounted roller (14) is pressed by a tension spring (15) which biases the link (13) in a clockwise direction.

A connecting rod (work 6) whose lower end is pivotally connected to the link (13) is interposed at the other end of the link (13), and its upper end is located above the link (13), and its base end is connected to the case (1). The swing plate (17) is pivotally connected to the free end of the swing plate (17).
The base end of a pressing arm (18) is fixed to the base end of the press arm (18).

In a normal state, since the roller (14) is in pressure contact with the upper end of the inclined part (12) of the lifting rod (6), the pressing arm (18)
As shown by the solid line in Figure 1, the free end of the
) is located inside.

Further, a stopper (19) is fixed to the upper surface of the mounting frame (4) facing the pressing arm (18), and a link (13), a roller (14), a spring (15), a connecting rod (16) , a swing plate (17), a pressing arm (18), and a stopper (19) constitute a cassette positioning means (20) as described later.

(21) is a rectangular cylindrical cassette placed on a mounting frame (4) and having both upper and lower surfaces open; 22) is cut out, and the cassette (
21) shows a state in which a large number of wafers (23) are accommodated.

A conveyance device (24) that moves left and right by an appropriate drive means is installed inside the rear upper part of the case (1). A pair of left and right support arms (26) connected to the transport device (24) protrude from the hole (25).

At the front end of this surface support arm (26), a cassette (
A pair of left and right wafer holders (27) whose opposing surfaces are parallel to the diameter of the wafer (23) at equal intervals are fixed directly above the cassette (21).
) A large number of support grooves (28) are cut at a pitch equal to the pitch of the wafer storage grooves (22) of the wafer (23) in the cassette (21).

The holder (27) is tilted in a direction in which its lower end approaches by an appropriate drive means built into the transport device (24),
The distance between adjacent lower ends is determined by the pair of supports (10)
The distance is set to be slightly larger than the distance between the outer edges of the .

Next, the operation of the above-mentioned wafer transfer device will be explained with reference to the 5 drawings.
I will explain.

As shown in Figures 1 and 2, both mounting frames (4) have
When the cassettes (21) are roughly positioned and placed, and the elevating frame (5) is raised, the surface support (lO
) begins to enter the 1-car cassette (21) from below. At the same time, the roller (
14) along the inclined part (12) of each lifting rod (6),
Since it is relatively lowered, the link (13) rotates clockwise due to the bias of the spring (15), and the connecting rod (16)
) rises, and the pressing arm (18) swings together with the rocking plate (17) to the position shown by the imaginary line in Figure 1 until the double force set (21) comes into contact with the stopper (19). It is pushed into position. The left cassette (
The wafer (23) in 21) is positioned at a position corresponding to the receiving groove (11) of the left support (10).

Then, as shown in FIG. 3a, each wafer (23) is
When the rising support (10) is fitted into the receiving groove (11) and held, pushed up and removed from the cassette (21), the lower end of the holding tool (27) is tilted. Wafer (2
3) is transferred from the support tool (10) to the holding tool (27).

Then, as shown in FIG. 3b, when the support (10) is slightly lowered together with the elevator frame (5), the holding tool (27) holding the wafer (23) is moved along with the transport device (24).
Move to right above the cassette (21) on the right.

Then, as shown in FIG. 3C, the lifting frame (5) rises, each wafer (23) is transferred to the support (10), and the lower end of the holding tool (27) is rotated. It becomes vertical.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 3d, when the lifting frame (5) descends to the lower limit, each wafer (23) on the support (10)
is housed in the right cassette (21), which has been positioned in advance by the positioning device (20).

In the above-described embodiment, there are two cassette mounting positions opened on one base plate, and a pair of elevating rods are provided below the base plate so as to be movable up and down, corresponding to the cassette mounting positions. The wafer transfer device consists of a holding tool that moves appropriately between two cassette mounting positions above the base plate and opposite positions.
This is a case where the present invention is applied, but the application of the present invention is not limited to such a case, and even when there is only one cassette mounting position on the base plate and one lifting rod. Also, unlike the above-mentioned embodiment, the holding tool is not movable, but the holding tool is fixed and the plywood itself or the table provided on the base plate is movable, and it can be applied very easily. can do.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the device of the present invention, the cassette is automatically positioned at the correct position simultaneously with the lifting frame by the same driving source, and the cassette is automatically positioned at the correct position while the lifting frame is rising. Since the wafers are fixed, the wafers can be transferred reliably, and when the supporter picks up and receives the wafers in the cassette, the cassette does not shake and the wafers do not come into contact with the cassette and be damaged. Moreover, the device is simplified and inexpensive.

Further, this device is effective when used not only for semiconductor wafers but also for transferring easily damaged thin plate materials between cassettes without touching them by one person.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional side view showing the main parts of the device of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line A-A in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a schematic front view showing the operation of the device of the present invention. Fig. 3a shows a situation in which the wafer that has been pushed up is held by a holding tool, and Fig. 3b shows a situation in which the wafer is transferred directly above the other cassette. FIG. 3c shows a situation in which the transferred wafer is received by a support just above the other cassette. Figure 3d each shows the situation in which the wafers are accommodated in the other cassette. (1) Case (2) Base board (3) Window hole
(4) Loading frame (5) Lifting frame (6
) Lifting rod (7) Connecting rod (8) Support arm (9)
Guide rod (10) Support (11) Receiving groove
(12) Inclined part (13) Link (
13a) Pin (13b) Horizontal piece (14) Roller (15) Tension spring (16) Connecting rod (17)
Rocking plate (18) Pressing arm (19) Stopper
(20) Positioning means (21) Cassette
(22) Accommodating groove (23) Wafer (24
) Conveying device (25) Long hole (26) Support arm (27) Holding device (28) Support groove (Fig. 1) Fig. 2 (Fig. 3a) Fig. 1 (Fig. 3b) Fig. 3d

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) At least one opening corresponding to the cassette placement position
A base plate provided at a location, at least one elevating rod provided vertically movably below the base plate in correspondence with the opening, and at the top of the base plate, the base plate is moved relative to the base plate to appropriately raise the base plate. In a thin plate material transfer device comprising a holding tool that faces a cassette mounting position and receives the thin plate material held by a lifting rod at its highest position, in conjunction with the rise of the lifting rod, A device for transferring thin plate materials, characterized in that the device is equipped with means for positioning a cassette placed on a base plate at a predetermined position. (2) Transfer of the thin plate material according to claim (1), in which two openings are provided on the base plate, a pair of lifting rods are provided, and each lifting rod is raised and lowered integrally. Device.