JPS6396907A - Automatic punching machine for protective film at semiconductor wafer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To easily punch a protective film along the contour of a wafer by a method wherein the surface of the wafer is set at the level which is slightly higher than that of a protruding cutter and the protective film is attached to the surface of the wafer while the surface of the wafer is set at the level which is slightly lower than that of the cutter. CONSTITUTION:At the position of a shifting plate 1 as shown by a solid line, a semiconductor wafer is dropped into the limited space of a protruding cutter 2 at the shifting plate. Then, by supplying the air to a cylinder 7 in such a way that the shifting plate 1 is shifted to the position directly under guide rolls 12, 13 at a going-up-and-down stage 5 which is at the lifted position, its rod is pulled into the cylinder 7. At this moment, the air is supplied to a cylinder 17, and a piston 18 is lowered so that a wafer W can be lowered to the level where the surface of the wafer W is slightly lower than that of the cutter 2. Then, the air is supplied to a cylinder 8; a piston 9 is lowered; a protective film 16 is pressed to the cutter 2. After the protective film 16 has been punched along the periphery of the wafer W, the stage 5 is raised. Then, the air is blown to the cylinder 7 so that the rod can be shifted from the cylinder 7 to the stop end of the shifting plate 1. At the same time, a rack 14 is shifted in the direction which is opposite to the rod, and the punched part of the film is wound by a collection roller.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION The present invention relates to an automatic punching device for forming a protective film onto a semiconductor wafer.

A blue semiconductor wafer (0.2 to 0.25n+m thick) is fragile as it is, so a mount is attached to the bottom of the semiconductor wafer and a protective film such as vinyl is attached to the top to prevent damage during handling. Usually, a protective film larger than the semiconductor wafer is placed on the top surface of the semiconductor wafer, and the protective film is cut out along the periphery of the semiconductor wafer to attach the protective film to the semiconductor wafer. Conventionally, the protective film was cut out along the periphery of the semiconductor wafer by hand using a knife or the like. The reason for the manual operation is that it is difficult to accurately set the protective film on the semiconductor wafer at the cutting position, and the impact on the semiconductor wafer caused by the cutting tool may cause damage to the semiconductor wafer.

An object of the present invention is to avoid the difficulty of accurately setting the protective film of a semiconductor wafer at the cutting position, and at the same time avoid the impact on the semiconductor wafer by the cutting tool, so that the semiconductor wafer is An object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus that automatically punches out a protective film and efficiently covers a semiconductor wafer with the protective film.

According to the present invention, a movable plate having a protruding blade defining a space larger than the wafer and having the same shape as the outline of a semiconductor wafer to which a protective film is to be attached is prepared. The wafer is housed in the space and the upper surface of the wafer is set at a slightly higher level than the protruding blade.If the protective film is covered in this state, the protective film will easily adhere to the upper surface of the wafer. When set at a level slightly below the blade, the protective film is lifted from the periphery of the wafer to the protruding blade.

In this state, if the protective film is pressed from above using a flat surface, the protective film can be cut out along the contour of the wafer without impacting the wafer located at a position lower than the protruding blade.

To achieve this object, an automatic punching device for a protective film of a semiconductor wafer according to the present invention comprises: a moving plate having a protruding blade defining a space larger than the wafer and having the same shape as the outline of the semiconductor wafer to which the protective film is attached; Wafer lifting means for raising and lowering the upper surface between a slightly lower position and a slightly higher position than the protruding blade; a moving plate driving device for intermittently moving the moving plate on the base surface; A protective film drive device that drives a strip-shaped protective film above the upper movable plate; a pressing device that presses the strip-shaped protective film against the protruding blade of the movable plate at the position where the movable plate is temporarily stopped; The above-mentioned moving plate driving device, protective film driving device, pressing device, and wafer lifting device are used to synchronize the feeding and the intermittent movement of the moving plate, and to synchronize the stopping of the moving plate, the pressing of the band-shaped thin film against the protruding blade, and the lowering of the wafer. and a control device for controlling the means.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 special A first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.

In FIG. 1, soil is a moving plate, 2 is a protruding blade, and 3 is a space defined by this protruding blade that has the same shape as the outline of a semiconductor wafer and is larger than the wafer. FIG. 2 shows a cross section of the movable plate shown in FIG. 1, where W is a semiconductor wafer accommodated in the limited space of the protruding blade 2, 17 is a cylinder, and 18 is a piston, which constitutes means for lifting and lowering the wafer. 16 indicates a belt-shaped protective film. The reason why the tip of the protruding blade 2 has blades on both sides is that if the protective film is repeatedly punched, it will not be long if the blade is single-edged (the blade will bend inward and the protective film will be punched out or the wafer will be cut out). This is because it will cause problems in loading and unloading.

See Figure 3. i is a lifting platform, 6 is a base, and 7 is a movable plate drive device that moves the movable plate intermittently on the base surface, which includes a cylinder and a piston rod extending from the cylinder and fixed to the edge surface of the movable plate. It consists of 8 is a cylinder, and 9 is a piston extending from the cylinder, which constitutes a pressing device that presses the band-shaped protective film 16 against the protruding blade 2 of the movable plate at the position where the movable plate is temporarily stopped. 10
．． 11 is a roller wrapped with a band-shaped protective film; roller 10;
is a supply roll that sends out the protective film, and roller 15 is a collection roller that takes in the protective film after being punched out. 12.1
3 is a guide roller that presses the wafer protective film 16.0 The collection roller 11 has a pinion 15, which engages with a rack 14 at the raised position of the lifting table 5, and this rack 14 is connected to the movable plate driving bag W7. The collecting roller is rotated in synchronization with the operation to collect the punched out portion of the band-shaped protective film 16, and a new protective film is placed between the guide rollers 12, 13.

Explain the operation. The semiconductor wafer is dropped into the limited space of the protruding blade 2 of the moving plate at the position indicated by the solid line on the moving plate in FIG.
At this time, the upper surface of the semiconductor wafer W is slightly lower than the protruding blade 2.Next, air is supplied to the cylinder 7 to move the movable plate 1 directly below the guide rolls 12 and 13 of the lifting metalwork in the raised position. and pull the rondo into cylinder 7.

At this time, the moving plate 1 is located directly above the wafer lifting means 17, 18. Air is sent to the cylinder 17 and the piston 18 pushes up the wafer W slightly higher than the protruding blade. The elevating table is lowered to cover the protruding blade 2 and the wafer W therein with the protective film 16 (FIG. 2A).

Next, air is sent to the cylinder 17 and the piston 18 is lowered to lower the wafer W to a level where the upper surface of the wafer W is slightly lower than the protruding blade 2 (FIG. 2B).

Air is sent to the cylinder 8, the piston is lowered, the protective film 16 is pressed against the protruding blade 2, the protective film is cut along the periphery of the wafer, and the wafer is raised on the lifting table. In this state, the rack 14 and pinion 15 are engaged. Air is sent to the cylinder 7 to let out the rondo from the cylinder 7 and push it out on the movable plate to the forward resting end. At the same time, the rack 14 also moves in the opposite direction to the cylinder 7, rotates the collecting roll 11 clockwise, and the punched film portion is transferred to the collecting roller 11.
Wind it up. The wafer to which the protective film is attached is removed, and then the wafer to which the protective film is to be attached is dropped into the protruding blade. Thereafter, repeat the above process.

FIG. 4 shows a second embodiment. Components common to those in the first embodiment are given the same reference numerals, and their explanations will be omitted.

The difference from the first embodiment is that in the first embodiment, semiconductor wafers are coated one by one, whereas in the second embodiment, semiconductor wafers are coated continuously. . For this purpose, a base 6 is provided that is long enough to arrange the same number of semiconductor wafers to be continuously processed on a moving plate in a straight line, and a cylinder 7 and a piston are placed at one end of this base 6. The stroke of the piston is made equal to the length of the moving plate. - The movable plates arranged in a line push out the movable plate carrying the wafer with the protective film punched and attached to the outside of the guide roller 13 according to the reciprocating motion of the piston, and the movable plate covered with the protective film is placed directly under the piston 9. Set.

In Figure 4, 7b, 8b, and 17b are cylinders 7.8, respectively.
．． 17 is a solenoid valve that controls the air supply, and 19 is a cam mechanism that controls the switching operation of these solenoid valves. Explain the operation. Pressurized air is sent from the lower port of the solenoid valve 7b to the cylinder 7, the piston of which is steered out of the cylinder 7 and moves the moving plate 1 by a distance corresponding to its length. It advances to just below the piston 18 and stops. Next, pressurized air is sent from the lower boat of the solenoid valve 17b to the cylinder 17, and the piston 18 is fed out to bond the upper surface of the wafer W to the protective film 16 (FIG. 2A). Next, the cam 19 is operated by the solenoid valve 17b.
is energized to switch the flow path, pressurized air is applied from the upper port of the solenoid valve 17 to the cylinder 17, retracts the piston 18, and lowers the upper surface of the wafer W slightly below the protruding blade 2 (Fig. 2B). ) Next, the pressurized air is sent from the lower boat of the solenoid valve 8b to the cylinder 8 to advance the piston 9 and punch out the protective film around the protruding blade 2. The cam 19 closes the switch of the solenoid valve 8b to switch the passage, and pressurized air is sent from the upper port of the solenoid valve 8b to the cylinder 8 to move the piston 9 away from the moving plate 1.

The cam 19 closes the switch of the solenoid valve 7b, switches the flow path, sends pressurized air from the upper boat to the cylinder 7, and retracts the piston. Then set up the next moving board in the space created. Repeat this process thereafter.

A cylinder and a piston were used to raise and lower the wafer, but by closing the bottom of the movable plate and providing a small air outlet in the center, pressurized air is sent from below to move the wafer W up and down in the space inside the protruding blade 2. You may also do so.

Effects of the Invention According to the present invention, positioning of a wafer when attaching a protective film to a wafer becomes extremely easy, an automatic punching device can be realized at a practical cost, and a protective film can be efficiently adhered to a wafer.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the moving plate. Fig. 2 is a diagram showing the operational relationship between the moving plate and the wafer lifting means, Fig. 2A shows the wafer being moved to a higher level and a protective film is attached, and Fig. 2B shows the wafer being moved to a lower level. This shows the state in which the protective film is ready to be transferred and punched out. FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram showing a first embodiment of the invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram showing a second embodiment of the invention. In the diagram: 1... Moving plate 2... Protruding blade 3... Space limited by the protruding blade 5... Elevating table 6... Base 7.8.17... Cylinder 9.18. ... Piston 10 ... Supply roller 11 ... Collection roller 12.13 ... Guide roller 14 ... Rack 15 ... Pinion 16 ... Protective film 19 ... Cam

Claims (1)

[Claims] A moving plate having a protruding blade that defines a space larger than the wafer and having the same shape as the outline of a semiconductor wafer to which a protective film is to be attached; a moving plate driving device that moves the moving plate intermittently on the base surface; driving a strip-shaped protective film above the moving plate on the base surface; a protective film drive device; a pressing device that presses the strip-shaped protective film against the protruding blade of the movable plate at the position where the movable plate is temporarily stopped; It is characterized by comprising a control device that controls the moving plate driving device, the protective film driving device, the pressing device, and the wafer lifting means so as to synchronize the stopping, the pressing of the band-shaped thin film against the protruding blade, and the lowering of the wafer. Automatic punching equipment for protective film on semiconductor wafers.