JPS63308337A - Spinner - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To reduce the quantity of raising dust and make it possible to transfer a wafer in a short time, by transferring the wafer in the state of being supported from the rear at the time of carrying the wafer on a rotary stage. CONSTITUTION:When a semiconductor wafer 15 before treatment to be carried in a wafer carrying-in part 13 closely contacts a guide 16, the first air cylinder 21 is operated to raise a slider beam 20. Then, the semiconductor wafer 15 is placed and raised in the state of being supported up from the rear by the slider beam 20 so as to stop raising about in the position where the upper surface of the slider beam 20 is slightly lower than the underside of the treated semiconductor wafer 11 placed on the spin chuck 12. Next, while keeping the state of rising operation, the slider beam 20 is moved rightward by a carrier mechanism 18 so as to be set up where the semiconductor wafer 11 comes to be placed. Thereby, application treatment of the wafer can be performed with a small quantity of dust raising in a short time, that is, with high throughput.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial Application Field) The present invention relates to a spinner that wets a wafer with a coating liquid while rotating and applies the coating onto the wafer.

(Prior Art) In semiconductor manufacturing, a spinner is used as a rotary processing machine that performs various processing while rotating a substrate to be processed, such as a semiconductor wafer, for example, by attaching the semiconductor wafer to a rotating spin chuck and performing rotation processing. There is.

As a transfer means for mounting the unprocessed semiconductor wafer on the spin chuck of this spinner and transporting the processed semiconductor wafer from the spin chuck, for example, the means disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-49451, A transfer means called the TRM (TRANSFERARM) method is in practical use.

That is, in the former method, the semiconductor wafer is transferred by means of extrusion. As shown in Fig. 8, the latter is a support TRM equipped with a belt conveying means consisting of a rotary pulley ■, an annular O-ring ■, etc., and a spin chuck ■ which attaches the semiconductor wafer). Arranged on both sides! 14i! (The TRM ■ advances toward the spin chuck ■ and rises to the semiconductor wafer.)
It is used to lift and transport.

(Problems to be Solved by Screaming) However, the method disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 56-49451 does not have a mechanism for raising and lowering the semiconductor wafer, and therefore the Slide the semiconductor wafer onto the spin chuck,
Further, since the processed semiconductor wafer is slid out of the spin chuck, dust is likely to be generated.

On the other hand, in TRM type equipment, T
Since the RM has a mechanism that allows the floor to move backward from side to side, its width dimension increases, making the entire device larger and increasing equipment costs.

In addition, since the belt is conveyed, this belt is likely to cause dust generation.

The present invention has been made in response to the above-mentioned conventional circumstances.
It generates extremely little dust and is compact.

The objective is to provide a spinner that can transfer wafers in a short time.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) - In other words, the present invention provides a spinner that wets a wafer with a coating liquid while rotating and applies the coating liquid onto the wafer. The feature is that the wafer is transferred while being supported from the back side.

(Function) Since the spinner of the present invention is configured to transport the wafer while supporting it, the wafer is not subjected to friction.

Therefore, the amount of dust generated is extremely small, and the wafer can be transferred in a short time.

(Example) Hereinafter, an example of the spinner of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

A wafer loading section (13) has a belt conveyance structure and is driven by a driving means (not shown) such as a motor, on which a wafer, for example, a semiconductor wafer (11) is placed and held by suction.

On the other side, a wafer unloading section (14) having the same configuration as described above is disposed facing each other. Further, a guide (16) for positioning the semiconductor wafer (15) is provided on the spin chuck (12) side of the wafer loading section (13). ) is configured so that the semiconductor wafer (15) is set in a predetermined position by contacting the semiconductor wafer (15).

Next, the wafer loading section (13) and the wafer unloading section (14)
A conveying section (, ■) for conveying the semiconductor wafer (11) (t5) is provided at the lower part of the wafer.

The transport mechanism (18) of this transport unit (beans) has a base (19).
is attached and configured to be movable by a transport mechanism (18).

Further, above the transport mechanism (18), a wafer loading section (1
3), spin chuck (12), wafer unloading section (14)
A pair of conveying members (hereinafter referred to as slider beams) (20) on both sides are arranged so as to be movable up and down on the outside thereof, and have a length that allows at least two semiconductor wafers (15) to be placed side by side. And this slider beam (20)
is configured to be able to be raised and lowered in two stages by means of two lifting means 1, such as a first air cylinder (zl) and a second air cylinder (22), which are attached to a base (19).

Next, the operation will be explained.

When the unprocessed semiconductor wafer (15) carried in by the wafer carrying part (13) comes into contact with the guide (16), the slider beam (20) is raised by operating, for example, the first air cylinder (21).

The top part of the lidar beam (20) is attached to the spin chuck (
The lift is stopped at a position slightly lower than the lower surface of the processed semiconductor wafer (11) placed on the substrate 12).

This is called the first increase.

Next, while maintaining the state of the above-mentioned upward movement, the transport mechanism (1
8), the slider beam (20
) to the right and set it to a position where the semiconductor wafer (11) can be placed.

Thereafter, the second air cylinder (22) is operated to further raise the slider beam (20), and as shown in FIG.
Place and raise 1y. This is called the second rise.

Next, the slider beam (2
0) further to the right, as shown in Figure 5 (12
) are positioned at predetermined positions, and the processed semiconductor wafer (11) is set so that it is carried out by the wafer carrying out section (14).

Then, the first and second air cylinders (21) (22
) is stopped, the slider beam (20) is lowered, and the unprocessed semiconductor wafer (15) is removed as shown in FIG.
is placed on the spin chuck (12), and the processed semiconductor wafer (11) is placed on the wafer unloading section (14).

Finally, the slider beam (2
0) to the left, one cycle of operation ends, and this is repeated thereafter.

In the above embodiment, an air cylinder is used as the first and second elevating means, but the present invention is not limited to this embodiment, and other means such as a lead screw may be used. It may also be configured with a linear movement mechanism.

The structure of the elevating means is also the same as that of the first and second parts as explained above.
It is not limited to the above two, but as long as the same operation as the first rise and the second rise described above can be obtained,
It may be configured freely.

Further, in the above embodiment, the slider beam (20) is constructed of a single conveying member having a length that allows at least two semiconductor wafers to be juxtaposed at the same time, but as shown in FIG. 7(a), Normally, the size is reduced to the extent that one semiconductor wafer can be placed on it, and when transporting two semiconductor wafers at once, the inner slider beam is moved from the inside of the outer slider beam (20a) as shown in FIG. 7(b). (20b) may be expanded.

In this case, the distance between the wafer loading section (13) and the spin chuck (12) can be shortened by a length equal to the extension distance of the inner slider beam (20b), but the extension and contraction movement of the inner slider beam (zob) Therefore, the structure of the slider beam (20) becomes complicated.

Furthermore, in the above embodiment, the operation of the slider beam (20) was explained as a two-step operation of first and second rising, but in FIG.
It is conceivable that if the spin chuck (12) is extended to the right side of the spin chuck (12), the above operation can be configured in one step of one raising and one conveyance.

However, usually, the area where the spin chuck (12) is located is surrounded by a cup-shaped cover (not shown), for example, to prevent coating liquid, processing liquid, cleaning liquid, etc. from scattering around during one rotation process. Therefore, during processing, it is necessary to evacuate the slider beam (20) outside the cover. If the slider beam (20) is not evacuated, processing liquid or the like will adhere to the portion of the slider beam (20) located inside the cover, which is not preferable.

For the above reasons, it is preferable that the slider beam (20) be constructed as in the above embodiment.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As described above, according to the spinner of the present invention, the amount of dust generated is extremely small, and wafers can be coated in a short time, that is, with high throughput.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

The first part is a configuration diagram showing an embodiment of the spinner of the present invention, FIGS. 2 to 6 are explanatory diagrams of the operation of FIG. 1, FIG. 7 is a modification of the slider beam in FIG. 1, and FIG. The figure is a configuration diagram showing a conventional example. 11, 15...Semiconductor wafer 12...Spin chuck 13...Wafer loading section 14...Wafer unloading section 16...Guide H...Transporting section 18
...Conveyance mechanism 19...Base, Sue D Book...Slider beam 21...First air cylinder 22...Second air cylinder Patent applicant Chill Kyushu Co., Ltd. Figure 3 Figure 4 Figure, 11 Figure 5 Figure 16 Figure 8

Claims (1)

[Claims] A spinner that wets a wafer with a coating liquid while rotating and applies the coating onto the wafer, characterized in that when the wafer is transferred to a rotary table, the wafer is transferred while being supported from the back side.