KR101574202B1 - Substrates detecting apparatus and substrate processing apparatus uing it - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to an apparatus for confirming whether a substrate is properly placed on a blade coupled to a robot arm for transferring the substrate, and a substrate processing apparatus using the same. The substrate sensing apparatus includes a transfer robot for transferring a substrate into and out of a transfer chamber while a plurality of blades are supported on the substrate in a state of vertically spaced apart from each other and a plurality of Sensing unit. The substrate processing apparatus includes a plurality of sensing units of the above-described substrate sensing apparatus at a substrate entry / exit port between the transfer chamber and another apparatus. Accordingly, even if a plurality of blades are provided in one robot arm, the substrate transfer efficiency can be improved as the substrate is stably sensed.

Description

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention [0001] The present invention relates to a substrate detection apparatus,

The present invention relates to an apparatus for confirming whether a substrate is properly placed on a blade coupled to a robot arm for transferring the substrate in the substrate transfer chamber, and a substrate processing apparatus using the same.

In general, an apparatus for processing semiconductor substrates to which the present invention can be applied includes an FOUP (Front Open Unified Pod) 10, an EFEM (Equipment Front End Module) 20, a Load Lock Chamber 30, a transfer chamber 40, and a process chamber 50.

A transfer robot 41 for transferring the substrate W between the load lock chamber 30 and the process chamber 50 is provided in the transfer chamber 40. The transfer robot 41 includes at least one robot arm 42 and a blade 43 at the front end of the transfer arm 42 on which the substrate W is seated.

When transferring the substrate W to the process chamber 50 while maintaining the vacuum state, the conventional transfer chamber 40 has one blade 43 for each robot arm 42, W only in the case of the first embodiment. 2, the apparatus for detecting the substrate W includes a pair of sensing portions 45 (see FIG. 2) including a light emitting portion 45a and a light receiving portion 45b on a substrate entrance 44 of a transfer chamber, To confirm whether or not the substrate W was properly placed on the blade 43. [

However, the sensing unit 45 constructed as above can sense only one substrate W, so that the processing capacity is low. In order to increase the processing capacity, a plurality of robot arms can be configured. However, in order to increase the number of robot arms, There was a limit to the installation cost. Further, as the sensing portion 45 senses the central portion of the substrate W, even if the substrate W is seated obliquely on the blade 43, it can not be detected.

Although a plurality of substrates need to be simultaneously transported in order to improve the substrate transfer efficiency in recent years, there has not been proposed a device capable of sensing the transfer of a plurality of substrates up to now.

There is provided a substrate sensing apparatus having a plurality of blades for simultaneously supporting a plurality of substrates on a transfer robot and capable of individually sensing each substrate and a substrate processing apparatus using the same, It has its purpose.

According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a substrate sensing apparatus for sensing an abnormality of a substrate in a process of transferring a substrate, wherein a plurality of blades are vertically spaced apart from each other in a transfer chamber A transfer robot for loading and unloading the substrate in a supported state; At least one of at least one of the plurality of transfer devices being connected to the transfer chamber and at least one of the plurality of transfer devices being connected to the transfer chamber, A sensing portion of the sensor; And a sensor block coupled to an outer surface of the substrate entrance port; And the plurality of sensing units are embedded in the sensor block.

Preferably, in the transfer robot, the plurality of blades are coupled to at least one robot arm.

Preferably, each of the plurality of sensing units comprises a pair of a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit, and senses different substrates.

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The substrate processing apparatus for processing a semiconductor substrate according to another aspect of the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus for processing a semiconductor substrate. The substrate processing apparatus includes a plurality of sensing units, a substrate entrance between the transfer chamber and the load lock chamber, And a substrate entrance between the process chambers for processing the semiconductor substrate.

Preferably, the transfer chamber maintains a vacuum during the transfer of the substrate.

The substrate processing apparatus for processing a display substrate according to another aspect of the present invention is a substrate processing apparatus for processing a display substrate, comprising: a plurality of sensing units according to claim 1; As shown in FIG.

According to the substrate sensing apparatus of the present invention, it is possible to individually detect each of the substrates mounted on the plurality of blades and accurately determine whether or not the substrate exists, and also whether or not the substrate is seated in a normal position.

Further, according to the substrate processing apparatus using the substrate sensing device, it is possible to install a plurality of blades on the robot arm of the transfer robot, thereby improving the productivity by improving the substrate transfer rate between the load lock chamber, the transfer chamber, and the process chamber in a vacuum state. .

1 is a schematic structural view of a semiconductor substrate processing apparatus.
2 is a configuration diagram showing a conventional substrate sensing apparatus.
3 is a block diagram showing a state in which two substrates are detected using a conventional substrate sensing apparatus.
4 is a configuration diagram illustrating a substrate sensing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;
5 is a perspective view showing a sensor block constituting the present invention.
6 is a configuration diagram illustrating a substrate sensing apparatus according to another embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

The present invention basically comprises a plurality of blades (43a, 43b) on a robot arm in order to increase the substrate transfer efficiency. 3, it is assumed that the conventional sensing unit 45 is disposed on the lower side of the substrate entrance 44. When any one of the plurality of substrates W1 and W2 is mounted on the blades 43a and 43b There is a problem in that it can not be detected even though it is in an abnormal state that is not seated in the body.

In order to solve such a structural problem, the substrate detection apparatus of the present invention is composed of a transfer robot having a plurality of blades and a plurality of sensors, and will be described in detail with reference to Figs. 1 and 4 Explain.

First, the transfer robot 41 moves the first and second wafers W1 and W2 up and down in the transfer chamber 40 with the first and second blades 43a and 43b provided in the robot arm 42 And the substrate is moved in and out in a supported state. At this time, although not shown, a plurality of robot arms 42 may be provided to increase the transport efficiency. For example, when two robot arms each have two blades, four substrates can be simultaneously transferred.

Next, the plurality of sensing portions 46 and 47 individually detect the outer portions of the first and second substrates W1 and W2 located on the first and second blades 43a and 43b, respectively, 41 detects abnormality in the course of transferring the first and second substrates W1, W2. Herein, the term " abnormality " means whether the substrate is not seated on the blade, or whether the substrate is seated in an abnormal state on the blade.

Each of the first and second sensing portions 46 and 47 includes a pair of light emitting portions and a pair of light receiving portions 46a and 46b and 47a and 47b, 2 substrates W1 and W2 so as to detect the first and second substrates W1 and W2, respectively. The dotted line in FIG. 4 indicates the path of light emitted or received, and it is detected whether or not the substrate is positioned on the path.

As shown in FIG. 5, the sensing units 46 and 47 may be mounted on the sensor block 60 coupled to the outer surface of the substrate entrance 44 through which the substrate of the transfer chamber 40 enters and exits. When the centers of the first and second substrates W1 and W2 pass through the inside of the sensor block 60, the sensing units 46 and 47 detect the both ends of the substrate, You can see exactly where you are.

The light emitting units 46a and 46b and the light receiving units 47a and 47b constituting the sensing units 46 and 47 may be embedded in the sensor block 60. [ By providing the separate sensor block 60 as described above, electric wires for driving the sensing portions 46 and 47, signal processing components, and the like are not installed in the transfer chamber 40 but are embedded in the sensor block 60 So that it is possible to prevent the generation of foreign matter from the source.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, the pair of sensing portions 46 and 47 may be arranged concentrically on one side of the substrate entrance 44 as required in design, as shown in Fig.

Meanwhile, the transfer chamber having the substrate sensing apparatus of the present invention can be connected to at least one other apparatus, and the plurality of sensors can be installed at the substrate entrance between the transfer chamber and the other apparatus.

The above-described substrate detection apparatus of the present invention can be utilized as an apparatus for processing a display substrate such as an LCD, an OLED, and an LED in addition to a semiconductor substrate processing.

The sensing portions 46 and 47 of the present invention described above can be used for the semiconductor substrate processing by using the substrate entrance 44 or the transfer chamber 40 between the transfer chamber 40 and the load lock chamber 30, And the substrate entrance 44 between the process chambers 50 for processing the substrate W. [ At this time, the vacuum state is maintained in the process of transferring the substrate W.

Although not shown, the sensing unit of the present invention may be installed at a substrate entrance between a transfer chamber provided with the transfer robot and a process chamber for processing the display substrate.

While the present invention has been particularly shown and described with reference to exemplary embodiments thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the invention.

10: FOUP
20: EFEM
30: Load lock chamber
40: Transfer chamber
50: Process chamber
W1, W2: first and second substrates
41: Transfer robot
42: Robot arm
43: the blade
43a, 43b: first and second blades
44: substrate entrance
45: Conventional substrate detection unit
46: a first substrate sensing part
47: second substrate sensing part
60: Sensor block

Claims (8)

A substrate sensing apparatus for sensing an abnormality of a substrate in a process of transferring the substrate,
A transfer robot for transferring a substrate in and out of a transfer chamber while a plurality of blades are supported by a plurality of substrates spaced apart from each other;
At least one of at least one of the plurality of transfer devices being connected to the transfer chamber and at least one of the plurality of transfer devices being connected to the transfer chamber, A sensing portion of the sensor; And
A sensor block coupled to the outside of the substrate entrance port; Further comprising:
Wherein the plurality of sensing units are embedded in the sensor block. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the transfer robot is configured such that the plurality of blades are coupled to at least one robot arm. The method according to claim 1,
Wherein each of the plurality of sensing units comprises a pair of a light emitting unit and a light receiving unit, and detects different substrates. delete delete A substrate processing apparatus for processing a semiconductor substrate,
The substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensing units are provided on at least one of a substrate entry / exit port between the transfer chamber and the load lock chamber or a substrate entry / exit port between the transfer chamber and a process chamber for processing the semiconductor substrate. Device. The method according to claim 6,
Wherein the transfer chamber maintains a vacuum state during transfer of the substrate. A substrate processing apparatus for processing a display substrate,
A substrate processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of sensing units are provided at a substrate entrance between the transfer chamber and a process chamber for processing the display substrate.

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