KR100760992B1 - A position change apparatus of substrate - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a substrate position switching device for switching the position of substrates to a vertical or horizontal state when they are sent to each treatment tank for wet cleaning and wet etching. The position switching device of the present invention is characterized in that the position switching device comprises a first storage part for storing substrates constituting a first group at the same pitch interval and a second storage part for storing the substrates of the first group stored in the first storage part, An inert gas is applied to the surfaces of the substrates to minimize the atmospheric exposure of the cassette having the second receiving portion in which the two groups of the substrates are accommodated, the rotating member for rotating the cassette, and the substrates accommodated in the first and second receiving portions And a purge member for spraying.

Cleaning, position switching, purge, contamination

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a position-

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a schematic view showing a substrate alignment system to which a position switching device of the present invention is applied; FIG.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the position switching device shown in FIG. 1; FIG.

3 is a front view of the position switching device shown in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a plan view of the cassette viewed from the direction of the line 4-4 shown in Fig. 3; Fig.

5 is a side view of the cassette viewed from the direction of the line 5-5 shown in Fig. 3;

DESCRIPTION OF THE REFERENCE NUMERALS

110:

120: position switching device

122: Bracket

124: frame

126: Rotary motor

130: Cassette

190: purge member

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and more particularly, to a substrate position switching apparatus for switching the positions of substrates to a vertical or horizontal state when they are sent to respective processing tanks for wet cleaning and wet etching.

The manufacturing process of a semiconductor device is a process of implementing a specific circuit by repeatedly performing each unit process such as forming a material film on a wafer, ion implantation, photo and etching processes. In the process of forming the semiconductor device by the semiconductor device, contamination sources such as polymer and various particles generated by the process gas, the chemical process or the process remain on the surface of each wafer during each process. These contaminants cause process defects in the next process, and also cause problems such as lowering the quality of the produced semiconductor devices. Therefore, the wafer needs a cleaning process to remove contaminants remaining on the surface after performing each process.

In the cleaning step, a semiconductor wafer (hereinafter, referred to as a "substrate") as a substrate is cleaned by a cleaning liquid such as a predetermined chemical liquid or pure water, and a cleaning liquid such as a contaminant (wet type) cleaning apparatus capable of effectively removing contamination and cleaning by batch processing has been widely popularized.

This wet cleaning apparatus is composed of a carry-in / carry-out section and a cleaning processing section, and collects two substrates (50 sheets) of carriers at one time. However, during the process of unloading 50 cleaned substrates into each carrier 25 times for 25 times, 25 substrates are exposed to the atmosphere for a long time, causing various problems (natural oxide film generation, particle contamination, etc.) do. Particularly, when the substrate is exposed to the atmosphere in the cleaning process for a predetermined time (230 seconds or more) before WSi deposition, a large amount of particles are generated after WSi deposition.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new type of substrate position switching device capable of minimizing the exposure of cleaned substrates to the atmosphere.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a new type of substrate position switching device capable of minimizing the contamination of cleaned substrates by particles.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate position switching device including a first storage part for storing substrates of a first group at the same pitch intervals, and a second storage part for overlapping the first group of substrates stored in the first storage part A cassette having a second receiving portion arranged so as to be spaced apart from the first receiving portion and in which the substrates constituting the second group in the pitch interval are received; A rotary member for rotating the cassette; And a purge member for spraying an inert gas onto the surfaces of the substrates to minimize air exposure of the substrates received in the first and second compartments.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the cassette includes a body having openings for carrying in / out substrates and left and right side surfaces, the first receiving part being provided respectively on left and right sides of the body, And a second retention block having first slots for supporting the substrates of the group, the second retention portion having second slots for supporting the second group of substrates, respectively, mounted on the left and right sides of the body And a second holding block.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the purge member includes nozzles which are disposed on the left and right sides of the body so as to correspond to each other and inject inert gas onto the surfaces of the substrates.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the purge member includes nozzles for forming an air curtain in the opening to prevent external air from entering through the opening of the body.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the nozzle includes a plurality of injection ports formed at the pitch interval.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. However, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described herein but may be embodied in other forms. Rather, the embodiments disclosed herein are being provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the concept of the invention to those skilled in the art. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout the specification.

1 shows a substrate alignment system 100 having a position transducer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention, which includes a substrate alignment system 100 in a wet cleaning system for collectively cleaning 50 substrates, Yes.

1, the carrier C in which the substrates are loaded is placed in the loader section 10 by an automatic conveying device (AGV (Automatic Guided Vehicle) or an RGV (Rail Guided Vehicle) The substrate W is horizontally housed in the carrier C. The carrier C is formed with 25 parallel grooves for preserving the substrate W in a horizontal state (In the case of holding a 300 mm substrate, the same interval of 10 mm, for example). In the present embodiment, the carrier C holds 25 substrates W (The polishing surface) of the substrate W housed in the carrier C are all directed in the same direction, and the surface of the substrate W held on the carrier C faces the same direction,

For example, the carrier C may be a front open unified pod (FOUP) which is a next-generation substrate storage jig for storing, transporting, and storing substrates horizontally.

Referring again to FIG. 1, the substrate alignment system 100 includes a transfer device 110, a position switching device 120, and a reversing device 140. The transport apparatus 110 is freely movable in a three-dimensional space such as the X, Y, and Z axes so as to collectively load 25 substrates from the carrier C and transfer the substrates to the cassette 130 of the position switching device 120 And has a substrate support arm 112 that is operated. The substrate support arm 112 has a "Y" -shaped tip that is supported in point contact with the bottom surface of the substrate at the same number and spacing as the substrates stacked in the carrier C. [

2 to 5, the position switching device 120 includes a cassette 130 for receiving substrates from the substrate support arm 112 of the transfer device 110, a bracket 122, a frame 124, (126) and a purge member (190).

The cassette 130 is fixed to the bracket 122. The bracket 122 is connected to the rotation motor 126, and the rotation motor 126 is fixed to the frame 124. The cassette 130 consists of a body 132 having left and right side surfaces 132a and openings 132b opened front and rear and the body 132 is provided with first and second receiving portions. Twenty-five wafers w1 constituting the first group are accommodated in the first accommodating portion at pitch intervals L. In the second storage portion, the substrates w2, which are arranged so as not to overlap with the first group of substrates housed in the first storage portion and form a second group at a pitch interval, are accommodated.

The first retaining portion comprises a pair of first retaining blocks 134 having first slots s1 for supporting a first group of w1 substrates, As shown in Fig. The second housing has second slots s2 for supporting the second group of w2 and a first group of w1s inserted in the first slot s1 of the first holding block 134 And a pair of second holding blocks 136 having third slots s3 passing therethrough. The second holding block 136 is installed on the right and left side surfaces 132a of the body. Here, the second slot s2 and the third slot s3 are formed at an interval (5 mm) that is 1/2 of the pitch interval. The substrates w1 of the first group must pass through the second holding block 136 in order to be housed in the first slot s1 of the first holding block 134. [ Accordingly, the second holding block 136 is formed with third slots s3, which are passages through which the first group of w1 wafers pass. Here, the first slot s1 and the second slot s2 are alternately formed in the first and second holding blocks 134 and 136, the third slot s3 is formed in the first slot s1, Respectively.

The purge member 190 is for minimizing exposure of the substrates w1 and w2 housed in the first and second compartments of the cassette 130 to the atmosphere. The purge member 190 includes nozzles 192 that are mounted on left and right side surfaces 132a of the cassette 130 in a mutually corresponding relationship. The nozzles 192 are formed of long pipes having injection openings 194 for injecting an inert gas (nitrogen gas) onto the surfaces of the substrates, and a supply line 198 for supplying an inert gas is connected at one end. The ejection openings 194 may be formed at pitch intervals. 4, the nozzles 192 may be installed not only in the front opening 132b of the cassette 130 but also in the rear opening 132b of the cassette 130. [ The nozzles 192 may be arranged to inject an inert gas onto the surfaces of the substrates or may be arranged to form an air curtain such that no external air is introduced through the opening 132b of the cassette 130. [ As described above, the position switching device 120 of the present invention can minimize the contact of the substrates stored in the cassette 130 with the atmosphere by the purge member 190.

On the other hand, as shown in Fig. 4, the cassette 130 has a structure in which the center (c1) of the first holding block and the center (c2) of the second holding block are separated from each other. In this structure, after the first group of substrates w1 are accommodated in the first holding block and the second group of substrates w2 are accommodated in the second holding block by the transport device 110, It is possible to prevent interference between the substrates w1 of the transfer device and the support arm 112 of the transfer device. Of course, it is preferable that the distance is set within a range not exceeding the diameter of the substrate.

Referring again to FIG. 2, the rotary motor 126 rotates the cassette 130 by 90 degrees. By the rotation of the cassette 130, the substrates accommodated in the cassette 130 are switched from horizontal to vertical or from vertical to horizontal. The rotary motor 126 is preferably provided with a speed reducer (not shown).

The reversing device 140 has a substrate support 142, a rotary motor 144 and an elevator device 146. The substrate support 142 has fourth slots s4 in which substrates transferred from the cassette 130 to the vertical state are inserted and supported. The fourth slots s4 are formed at an interval of 1/2 the pitch interval. The substrate support 142 is moved up and down by the elevator apparatus 146. The rotation motor 144 is mounted on the shaft 143 of the substrate support 142 to rotate the substrate support 142 by 180 degrees. By the rotation of the substrate support 142, the substrates supported in the fourth slots s4 are inverted by 180 degrees. The elevator apparatus 146 lifts the substrate support 142 using the power of the hydraulic cylinder or the stepping motor.

On the other hand, reference numeral 180 denotes a second transport apparatus for collectively holding 50 substrates arranged at a half pitch and arranged face-to-face and transporting them to the cleaning tank.

Here, the substrate refers to a substrate for a photo reticle, a display panel substrate such as a substrate for a liquid crystal display panel or a substrate for a plasma display panel, a substrate for a hard disk, or a wafer for an electronic device such as a semiconductor device .

In the substrate alignment system 100 having the above-described configuration, the 50 cleaned substrates are placed on the substrate support 142 by the second transfer device 180 and the 50 substrates placed on the substrate support 142 (The first group of substrates and the second group of substrates) are received in the cassette 130. [ Meanwhile, the purge member 190 minimizes the contact with the atmosphere by spraying nitrogen gas onto the surfaces of the substrates housed in the cassette 130, thereby preventing contamination of the substrate. On the other hand, the second group of substrates stored in the cassette 130 are preferentially housed in the carrier C, while the first group of substrates are waiting in the first storage portion of the cassette 130. [ However, since the substrates of the first group stand by in a state where the contact with the outside atmosphere is almost blocked by the purge member 190, contamination due to contact with the outside atmosphere does not occur.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it should be understood that various changes and modifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the appended claims. Of course.

As described above, according to the present invention, exposure of cleaned substrates to the atmosphere can be minimized. In addition, according to the present invention, contamination of cleaned substrates with particles can be minimized.

Claims (5)

delete delete delete An apparatus for converting substrates into a horizontal or vertical state, comprising: A first storage section for storing substrates constituting a first group at the same pitch interval and a second storage section arranged so as not to overlap with the first group of substrates stored in the first storage section, A cassette having a second receiving portion for receiving the first receiving portion; A rotary member for rotating the cassette; And And a purge member for spraying an inert gas onto the surfaces of the substrates to minimize the atmospheric exposure of the substrates received in the first and second compartments; The cassette A body having openings and right and left side surfaces for carrying in / out substrates, Wherein the first receiving portion has a first holding block provided on left and right sides of the body respectively and having first slots for supporting the first group of substrates, Wherein the second receiving portion has a second holding block which is provided respectively on the left and right sides of the body and has second slots for supporting the second group of substrates, Wherein the purge member includes nozzles for forming an air curtain in the opening to prevent external air from flowing through the opening of the body. 5. The method of claim 4, Wherein the nozzles include a plurality of ejection openings formed at the pitch intervals.

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