JPS63134461A - Plate body housing mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make a restriction on a vessel structure and housing sequence eliminable, by mounting a plate body on a roller train with a relay board downed after being once mounted on this relay board in uppedness, while feeding it on the roller train with a forced member, and making this plate so as to be thrust in the vessel. CONSTITUTION:A mast substrate is mounted on a relay board 24 of a housing mechanism 2, and this relay board 24 is in a state of going up, while each edge part of front and rear ends of this mask substrate comes into contact with a step surface corresponding to substrate size of a step surface of the relay board 24, but other parts will not contact at all. Therefore, contamination and damage to the surface are prevented from occurring. Next, the relay board 24 is made to go down to a lower position than a roller 16, and the mask substrate is mounted on the roller 16 in symmetrical roller trains. And, a forced metal fitting 28 is advanced forward, whereby the mask substrate is pressed of its rear end, fed on the roller train, and during this feeding, the mask substrate is positioned in both directions by a guide, and the tilt is compensated, and when the metal fitting 28 goes forward up to the specified position, the mask substrate is thrust in along a groove corresponding to one slot of a housing vessel 40, thus it is housed thereinto.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a plate storage mechanism for storing any plate such as a mask substrate in a container.

[Prior Art] Related to the present invention, there is a mask substrate surface inspection machine for detecting defects such as pinholes and adhered foreign matter on a mask substrate (mask blank) used in the photolithography process of semiconductor integrated circuits. There is.

In this mask substrate surface inspection machine, the mask substrate that has been inspected on the inspection stage is transferred to a mask substrate storage mechanism (unloader mechanism) by a transfer mechanism.

The mask substrate storage mechanism stores the mask substrate in a container (cassette) having a large number of storage slots.

A conventional mask substrate storage mechanism has a flat mask substrate pushing table that can be moved back and forth and lowered by >-1', and the mask substrate is placed on this mask substrate pushing table by a transport mechanism.

This mask substrate pushing stand is provided with a stopper pin for engaging the rear end of the mask substrate.

The mask substrate pushing table that has received the mask substrate moves forward toward the container, enters the container, and pushes the mask substrate into the slot of the container.

[Problems to be Solved] As described above, in such a conventional mask substrate storage mechanism, when storing a mask substrate, a part of the mask substrate pusher enters into the container. Therefore, it is necessary to use a container with a structure that allows the mask substrate pushing stage to enter, and there are significant restrictions regarding the container structure.

Specifically, containers with partition plates between slots cannot be used.

Even in a container without such a partition plate, if the slot interval is not wider than the thickness of the mask substrate pushing stage, it is necessary to store mask substrates in order from the topmost slot. This is because if the mask substrates are stored in order from the bottom slot, the mask substrate pushing base will hit the mask substrate that was stored first.

Furthermore, even for containers with wide slot spacing, it is necessary to provide a space between the lowest slot and the bottom wall of the container to allow the mask substrate pusher to enter, or to cut out the bottom wall. There must be.

As described above, the conventional mask substrate storage mechanism has problems that need to be solved, such as the structure of the container being limited and the order in which the mask substrates are stored being limited.

[Object of the Invention] Therefore, an object of the present invention is to solve the problems of the conventional mask substrate storage mechanism and to provide a plate storage mechanism suitable for similar uses.

[Means for Solving the Problem] In order to achieve this object, the plate storage mechanism according to the present invention includes two parallel rows of rollers and a liftable relay disposed between the two roller rows. It has a base and a pushing member that can move back and forth between the roller rows, and the plate body is 1-yI
', after being placed on the relay table in the state of It is configured such that the rollers are fed and pushed into a container arranged at one end of the roller row.

[Operation] As described above, the plate storage mechanism according to the present invention relays a plate (for example, a mask substrate) using a relay stand, places it on the roller row, and pushes the mask substrate with the plate pushing member to move it over the roller row. It is configured to be fed and pushed into a container.
No components other than the mask substrate enter the container.

Therefore, restrictions regarding the container structure and storage order as in the conventional mechanism can be eliminated.

[Example 1] An example of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention. Although this embodiment is used as a mask substrate storage mechanism in the mask substrate surface inspection machine, it is of course applicable to other similar uses.

In FIG. 1, 1 is an elevator mechanism, and 2 is a mask substrate storage mechanism.

IO is the base of the entire mechanism. To this base 10~γ
A plurality of rollers 16 are arranged in two rows and rotatably mounted inside one end of the provided side plates 12,14. Each roller 16 has a conical shape, with the diameter being the smallest at the tip (inner end in the figure) and gradually increasing in diameter toward the base end (outer end).

In addition, in the following explanation, these left and right rollers 1
The row No. 6 is sometimes referred to as a roller row.

The mask substrate is fed and stored on the left and right roller rows, and guides (not shown) are provided facing each roller row to guide the edges of both sides of the mask substrate during feeding. .

24 is a relay stand, and an air cylinder 26 allows h'
It is possible to descend. The L surface of the relay stand 24 has its center portion being the lowest surface, and the front and rear end portions are stepped surfaces facing I-.

Reference numeral 28 denotes a push-in fitting, which is fixed to the slide fitting 30. This slide fitting 30 can be slid back and forth along a guide rail 32 fixed to the base 10, and is slid back and forth by an air cylinder 34.

Reference numeral 36 denotes an elevator stand of the elevator mechanism 1, and a mechanism for raising and lowering the elevator stand is separated from the mask substrate storage mechanism 2 by a partition plate 38.

A mask substrate storage container (cassette) 40 with an open front is fixed to the elevator stand 36 as shown.

This mask substrate storage container 40 is provided with a large number of grooves 42 on the inner surface of its side wall, and mask substrates are inserted and held along the opposing left and right grooves 42.

Next, the mask substrate storage operation will be explained. A transport mechanism (not shown) transports the mask substrate that has been inspected from the inspection stage and places it on the relay stand 24 of the mask substrate storage mechanism 2 as shown by a chain line 50. At this time, relay stand 24
is pushed upward to a position higher than the roller 16.

The relay stand 24 is in the 1-up state, and its H side has the shape described above, so the edge portions of the front and rear ends of the mask substrate are aligned with the step corresponding to the board size on the step surface of the relay stand 24. The other parts do not come into contact with each other. In this way, contamination and damage to the surface of the mask substrate are prevented.

Next, the relay table 24 is lowered to a position lower than the roller 1B. By this descent, the mask substrate placed on the relay table 24 is placed on the rollers 16 of the left and right roller rows.

Since the roller 16 is shaped so that its diameter gradually decreases toward the tip as described above, only the left and right edges of the mask substrate contact the roller 16. As such, the shape of roller 16 is such that the possibility of contamination and damage to the mask substrate is minimized.

If a roller with a uniform diameter is installed in a horizontal position,
Similarly, in order to make contact only with the edge portion of the mask substrate, there are seven shells in which the distance between the left and right rollers is changed depending on the size of the mask substrate. In contrast, in this embodiment, there is no need to make such a change.

Note that even if the rollers have a uniform diameter, if they are mounted obliquely so that their tips are lowered, they can be brought into contact with only the edge portions of various mask substrates, and there is no need to adjust the spacing between the rollers. However, in this case, if the height of the rollers is fixed, there is a problem that the height of the mask substrate placed on the roller row changes depending on the size of the mask substrate. According to this embodiment, there is no such inconvenience.

Now, when the mask substrate is placed on the left and right roller rows as described above, the pusher fitting 28, which had been moved backward, is moved forward. The rear end of the mask substrate is pushed by the pusher fitting 28 and sent through the roller row 1.
During feeding, the mask substrate is positioned in the left-right direction by a guide (not shown) and its inclination is corrected.

When the push-in fitting 28 advances to a predetermined position, the mask substrate is pushed in and stored along the groove 42 corresponding to one slot of the mask substrate storage container 40.

In this way, only the mask substrate is pushed into the mask substrate storage container Z40, and other members do not enter as in the conventional case.

Therefore, there are no restrictions on the structure of the mask substrate storage container 40, such as slot spacing, or restrictions on the order in which the mask substrates are stored, as in conventional mechanisms.

When such a storage operation is completed, the push-in fitting 28 is moved back, and then the relay stand 24 is raised. Further, the elevator platform 36 is raised or lowered so that the slot to be stored next in the mask substrate storage container vS140 matches the mask substrate feeding height.

Although the embodiments have been described above, the present invention is not limited thereto, and can be implemented with various modifications without departing from the spirit thereof.

Further, the present invention can be similarly applied to storage mechanisms for plates other than mask substrates.

[Effects of the Invention] 1] As explained above, according to the present invention, a pushing member that can move forward and backward between the rows, and after the plate is placed on the relay table in the L-up state, it is placed on the roller row by lowering the relay table, and is placed on one end of the roller row. The container is sent over the roller row while being pushed by the pushing member moving toward the roller row, and is pushed into a container disposed at one end of the roller row, eliminating restrictions on the structure and storage order of the container. A board storage mechanism can be realized.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a schematic perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention. 18...Roller, 24...Relay stand, 28...Pushing shell, 40...Mask substrate storage container.

Claims (2)

[Claims] (1) It has two parallel rows of rollers, a relay table that can be raised and lowered between the two rows of rollers, and a pushing member that can move back and forth between the rows of rollers, and the plate is in an elevated state. is placed on the relay table, and is placed on the roller row by lowering the relay table, and is sent over the roller row while being pushed by the pushing member that moves toward one end of the roller row, A plate storage mechanism that is pushed into a container disposed at one end of the roller row. (2) The plate according to claim 1, wherein each roller row is formed by arranging a plurality of rotatable rollers whose diameter gradually decreases toward the tips, with the tips facing inward. Body storage mechanism.