JPS6258654A - Semiconductor manufacturing equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily assure fixing of a sample or reliability of transfer by providing a sample holding means consisting of an electromagnet and a pawl which holds or releases a sample by opening or closing operation by applying elastic force caused by a spring and excitation by a magnet. CONSTITUTION:An electromagnet 67 is operated. Thereby, a plunger 68 is attracted to the side of electromagnet 67 and an arm 64 is rotated around a pin 65 to widen a pawl 66 at the outside. When a support base 61 is pushed up to the position for holding a wafer 80 of a support device 20, a magnetic force of magnet 67 is stopped to stop attraction of plunger 68. The pawl 66 closes with a force of spring 69, holding the wafer 80. A cam 52 is drawn by means of a pulling device 50 in order to stop push of a guide axis 62. The support base 61 is attracted to the side of support arm 44 by the force of spring 70 and the wafer 80 being held by the pawl 25 of holding device 20 is held by the pawl 66 of holding apparatus 60 and is then separated from the pawl 25.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Application of the Invention] The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and particularly to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that requires fixing or transporting a sample under vacuum.

[Background of the invention]

In semiconductor manufacturing equipment, as the ultra-fine size of LSH progresses, preventing dust from adhering to the surface to be processed of a wafer, which is a sample, has become a major factor in improving throughput.

Along with this, the fixed island during processing or the position of the wafer during transport is also changing from being placed horizontally with the surface to be processed facing upwards to being placed horizontally with the surface being processed vertically or facing downwards, especially in sputtering equipment. This tendency is remarkable in semiconductor manufacturing equipment that forms a film on the processing surface of a wafer.

Examples of sample chucking means used in conventional semiconductor manufacturing equipment include Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 56-103442.
As described in the above publication, a structure is known in which a wafer, which is a sample, is held by the spring force of several clips, and the wafer is released by mechanically expanding the clips with a pusher.

In the second chucking means, the wafer is gripped and released in the atmosphere, and the pusher is made movable by using an air cylinder or the like and making the piping flexible.

However, in semiconductor manufacturing equipment, it is necessary to move the sample under vacuum in order to process the specimen with a better degree of vacuum, and to deal with this, semiconductor manufacturing equipment using conventional chucking means has become necessary. However, the structure becomes complicated, making it difficult to secure the reliability of fixing or transporting the sample, and the volume of the vacuum chamber in which the chucking means is provided increases, resulting in an increase in evacuation time.

[Purpose of the invention]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that has a simple structure and can easily ensure reliability in fixing or transporting a sample.

[Summary of the invention]

The present invention includes a sample gripping means that includes a gripping device for gripping a sample, an elastic member that applies a gripping or releasing force to the gripping tool, and an electromagnet that applies a force that opposes the gripping or releasing force of the elastic member. The structure of semiconductor manufacturing equipment can be simplified by fixing or transporting the sample under vacuum using a chucking means that can release and grip the sample without using mechanical force. This was an attempt to easily improve the reliability of sample fixation and transportation.

[Embodiments of the invention]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. In this case, a sputtering apparatus will be explained as an example of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus.

A vacuum chamber 10 is composed of a load lock chamber 13, a transfer chamber 14, and a processing transfer chamber 15, and the internal space is not continuous.

A holding device (9) is provided within the load lock chamber 13. The holding bag Wl includes a bushing 4, a bellows η, a holding stand, a spring, and a claw 5. A holding stand is attached to the inner wall of the load lock chamber 13 via a spring.
The outer wall of the load lock chamber 13 and the bushing 4 are connected by a bellows 2. The other end of the bushing 21 is connected to a drive device (not shown). A plurality of claws 3 are provided in a circular shape on the opposite side of the holder. The load lock chamber 13 is connected to the empty page reserve chamber 11 via a gate valve provided at the bottom.

In the transport chamber 14, in this case, a transport 'JR is provided which includes a rotating device 4o, a pushing device ff50, and a gripping device 6o as a gripping means. The rotating devices include a bearing 41, a rotating shaft 42, a rotating joint, a support arm member, and a rotating drive device (not shown). The rotating shaft 42 is attached via a bearing 41 provided at the lower part of the transfer chamber 14, and a rotating joint provided with two sets of support arms is attached to the upper end of the rotating shaft 42. The rotating part #I device is connected to the end. The extrusion device includes an extrusion shaft 51, a cam 52, and a drive device (not shown). The extrusion shaft 51 is provided to pass through the axis of the rotating shaft 42, and a tapered cam 52 is attached to the upper end of the extrusion shaft 51, and the other end is connected to the drive #1 device. The hook assembly 160 consists of a support base 61, a guide shaft 62, a bracket mortar, an arm 6, a bottle group, a pawl 6, an electromagnet 67, a plunger pin, and a spring target. The guide shaft 62 is movably attached to the upper part of the support arm, the support stand 61 is attached to one end, and the other end is brought into contact with the cam 52 via a roller attached to the guide shaft 62. The support stand 61 and the support arm 4 are connected by a spring 70. Support stand 6
A plurality of bracket dies are attached to the circumference of the surface on the guide shaft 62 side of the bracket 63, and an example of an L-shaped arm is rotatably attached to the bracket 63 via a group of pins. A claw 6 is provided at one end of the arm, and the other end is rotatably connected to the end of a plunger built into an electromagnet 67 attached to a support base 61. A spring device is attached between the claw 6 side of the arm 6 and the support base 61. As shown in FIG. 3, the electromagnet 67 has a coil 67a and a bobbin 67b.
and magnetic pole 67 c and insulating tape 67 d and molding material 67
It consists of a heat transfer material 67f, a heat transfer material 67f, and a case 67g.

The coil 67a is wound around the bobbin 67b, and the coil 67a is wound around the bobbin 67b.
An insulating tape 67d is wrapped around the outer circumference of a. An electrode 67c is attached to one end of the bobbin 67b, and a plunger name is inserted into a hollow portion between the bobbin 67b and the magnetic pole 67c. The case 67g is attached to cover the bobbin 67b and the coil 67a.
A molding material 67e and a heat transfer material 67f are packed between the insulating tape 67d wrapped around the case 67g and the case 67g.

A rotating drum 16 and a holding device are provided within the processing and transporting chamber 15 . The holding device t30 consists of a bushing 31, a bellows β, a holding base, a spring, and a pawl. Inside the processing and transporting chamber 15 (a holding stand is attached to the outer circumferential wall of the drum 16 provided therein via a spring, and through the outer wall of the processing and transporting chamber 15, the head of the bushing 31 holds the retainer to the outside, that is, the atmosphere. The bushing 31 is connected to the outer wall of the processing transfer chamber 15 by a bellows n.The other end of the bushing 31 is connected to a drive device (not shown).

A plurality of pawls are provided in a circular shape on the side opposite to the bushing 31 of the holding platform. The rotating drum 16 is attached to a rotation drive device (not shown). In addition, the rotating drum 16 includes
A through hole is provided through which the bushing 31 passes.

With the above configuration, a sample, for example, a wafer (material) is carried into the vacuum preliminary chamber 11 by a transport device (not shown), and the inside of the vacuum preliminary chamber 11 is evacuated to the same level as the load lock chamber 13 . Thereafter, the gate valve L is opened and the wafer clamp is carried into the load lock chamber 13 by a transport device (not shown), and the wafer clamp is held in the holding bag ft120.

At this time, the bushing 21 is retracted, and the holding stand O is drawn toward the outer wall of the load lock chamber 13 by the spring force. After that, the holding device holding the wafer stopper with the claws 5 is pushed out, and the holding cover is pushed out to take out the wafer stopper to the transfer chamber 14 side.

In the transfer chamber 14, the rotating device is rotated to grab and load! ω
is moved in front of the wafer (material) in the holding device I, the cam 52 is pushed out between the pushing devices, the guide shaft 62 in contact with the cam 52 is pushed, and the support base 61 is moved to the holding bag RY12.
Push out the wafer to the open side of 0. At this time, the electromagnetic Eu is activated to attract the plunger to the electromagnet 67 side, and the arm is rotated around the pin to spread it outward between the claws. When the support stand 61 is pushed out to a position where it can grasp the wafer tweezers added to the support device, the magnetic force of the electromagnet 67 is stopped, and
Stops the attraction of the plunger. As a result, the claw 6 is closed by the force of the spring θ, and the wafer (material) is gripped. Thereafter, the cam 52 is retracted by the pushing device 150 to stop pushing out the guide shaft 62. As a result, the support stand 61 is pulled toward the support arm side by the force of the spring 70, and the wafer (material) held by the claws 5 of the holding device 211 is The wafer (
After transferring the materials, the support stand 61 is rotated toward the processing transfer chamber 15 side by a rotating device, and the guide shaft 62 is pushed out again by the cam 52, and the support stand 61 is pushed out toward the processing transfer chamber side. At this time, on the processing transfer chamber 15 side, the holding blade of the holding device (2) is pushed out toward the transfer chamber 14 side by the pusher 31. The support base 61 of the gripping device ω is connected to the holding device (9
) side, the claw between the gripping devices η
The wafer (material) grabbed by is pushed into the claws of the holding bag 5i30 and held by the claws. After that, grab it! ! At ω, the electromagnetic 5 nails are operated to open the claws, and the support base 61 is retracted and separated from the processing transfer chamber 15.

In the processing transfer chamber 15, the wafer (material) is grabbed by a device (a).
From holding bag fi! 730, the pusher 31 is retracted, the holding table is pulled toward the rotating drum 16 side by the force of the spring, and when the drum 16 is rotated once, the claws of the holding bag 'a30 are on the transfer chamber side. Dress so that it does not hit the wall. At this time, the bushing 31 is also retracted so as not to hit the rotating drum 16. By rotating the rotating drum 16, the holding table holding the wafer (material) is transported to a wafer processing chamber (not shown).

The processed wafer is conveyed out of the apparatus by the reverse operation of the above process. During these steps, the transfer chamber 1
When the electromagnet 67 is activated in the vacuum of 4, the coil 67
It is conceivable that the heat generated in the coil 67a is stored in the coil 67a, causing the magnetic force of the magnet to weaken. Therefore, a heat transfer material 67f having good thermal conductivity is inserted between the molding material 67e covering the insulating tape roller d wound around the outer circumference of the coil 67a and the case 67g.
The efficiency of the electromagnet 67 is increased by diffusing heat to the outside via f. The thermally conductive material 67f may be a copper plate or the like, for example, and may be inserted into the gap or may be wrapped around it.

As described above, according to this embodiment, even when the electromagnet 67 is used in a vacuum, it is possible to prevent the heat generated by the coil 67a from accumulating, and it is possible to suppress a decrease in the attractive force of the electromagnet 67. Further, there is an effect that the reliability of the gripping device using the electromagnet 67 can be improved.

In this embodiment, the claw is opened by the force of the electromagnet 67, and the claw is closed by the spring force of the spring θ, but conversely, the claw is closed by the force of the electromagnet, and the spring The claw may be opened using force.

[Effects of the Invention] According to the present invention, the magnet is composed of an electromagnet having a heat transfer material with good thermal conductivity inside, and a claw that opens and closes by the excitation of the electromagnet and the elastic force of a spring to release and grasp the sample. The provision of the sample gripping means has the advantage that the structure is simple and reliability in fixing or transporting the sample can be easily ensured.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a detailed sectional view of section A in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a detailed sectional view of section B in FIG. ω...Gripping device, 8...Arm, 6
...Claw, 67...Electromagnet, 67 a.
...Coil, 67 b...Bobbin, 67
c... Magnetic pole, 67 f... Repeated thermoelectric strikes, 67 g... Case, θ... Spring agent Patent attorney Masaru Ogawa 1 Figure 10 -m---7 or b dilation

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A sample consisting of a gripping tool for gripping a sample, an elastic member that applies a gripping or releasing force to the gripping tool, and an electromagnet that provides a force that opposes the gripping or releasing force of the elastic member. A semiconductor manufacturing device characterized by comprising a gripping means. 2. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the grip and the elastic member are provided so as to be capable of being opened by excitation of the electromagnet. 3. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the grip and the elastic member are provided so as to be capable of being opened by excitation of the electromagnet. 4. The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in the electromagnet, a heat transfer material that is a good thermal conductor is provided between the case of the electromagnet and the coil of the electromagnet.