KR20030008619A - A load/unload station - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A loading/unloading station is provided to unload a wafer on a normal position by using an incline portion of a load lock pin to correct a wrong unloading position of the wafer. CONSTITUTION: A plurality of holes are formed on an upper face of a load lock table. A plurality of load lock pins(1) are fixed on the load lock table through the holes. The load lock pin(1) is formed with the first rectangular block(2), an incline portion(3), the first pin(1a), the second rectangular block(5), a hemisphere(6), and the second pin(1b). The first rectangular block(2) is arranged on an upper face of the load lock table. The incline portion(3) is located on a center of an upper face of the first rectangular block(2). The first pin(1a) includes the first fixing portion(4a) adhered on a center of a lower face of the first rectangular block(2). The second rectangular block(5) is arranged on the upper face of the load lock table. The hemisphere(6) is located on one side of an upper face of the second rectangular block(5). The second pin(1b) includes the second fixing portion(4b) adhered on a center of the second rectangular block(5).

Description

A load / unload station

The present invention relates to a load / unload station comprising a loadlock pin and a loadlock table for loading / unloading a wafer.

Steps have increased due to high density of semiconductor devices, miniaturization, and multilayered wiring structure, and planarization methods such as SOG, Etch Back, and Reflow have been developed and used in the process in order to planarize the surface steps, but many problems have been generated. Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) technology has been developed for planarization. CMP technology is currently one of the most attention-grabbing technologies among VLSI processor technologies.

The CMP Polisher is a load / unload station for unloading wafers loaded from a cassette, a polishing table used for polishing wafers, and a wafer carrier for moving wafers from the load / unload station to the polishing table. Etc.

The polishing process includes the steps of the CMP wafer transfer robot unloading the wafer from the cassette and then unloading it to the load / unload station, using the wafer carrier to move the wafer unloaded to the load / unload station to the polishing table, polishing table And polishing the slurry on the wafer of the phase.

A load lock pin and a load / unload station which are used during the first step of the above-described polishing process, which is loaded from a cassette and then unloaded into a load / unload station, will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 to 6.

As shown in FIG. 4, the conventional load / unload station 200 is composed of three load lock pins 11 and one rectangular block type load lock table 17. Each load lock pin 11 is arranged on the load lock table 17 to form an approximately equilateral triangle and the distance between each other is sufficient to unload the wafer.

Each rod lock pin 11 is a flat first cylindrical block 12 having a circular cross section of a predetermined diameter, as shown in Figure 5, the diameter of the circular cross-section is somewhat smaller than the first cylindrical block 12 is slightly larger in height A first pin 11a composed of two cylindrical blocks 13 and a first fixing portion 15a having a predetermined diameter, and a first cylindrical block 12 having a circular cross section of a diameter smaller than that of the second cylindrical block 13; ) And a second pin 11b consisting of a third cylindrical block 14 having a height somewhat smaller than the sum of the heights of the second cylindrical block 13 and a second fixing part 15b having a predetermined diameter. . That is, when the wafer is unloaded on the upper surface of the third cylindrical block 14 of the second fin 11b, the load lock pin 11 is formed such that the upper surface of the wafer is substantially coincident with the upper surface of the first fin 11a.

6 shows a state in which the wafer 18 is unloaded obliquely to the load lock pin 11, and reference numerals 15a and 15b denote first and second fixing portions for fixing the first and second pins, reference numeral 16a, 16b designates the first and second holes and 17, which correspond to the first and second fixing parts, and indicates a load lock table. First and second holes 16a and 16b corresponding to the first and second fixing parts 15a and 15b are formed at predetermined positions of the load lock table 17 and therein the first and second fixing parts ( 15a, 15b) are inserted to fix each pin. The unloading state shown in the drawing is a slight correction when the wafer 18 in the cassette is shaken when the wafer 18 is unloaded on the upper surface of the third cylindrical block 14 of the load lock pin or when the calibration value of the wafer moving robot is slightly changed. Even if it is wrong, it may appear.

As can be seen in the figure, the tilted unloaded wafer 18 has a structure that cannot be placed in place between the third cylindrical blocks 14 unless an external force is applied, which is another wafer moving robot. A pickup error occurs when picking up the wafer, and a loading error occurs even when the head loads the wafer in a head clean load unload.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a load lock pin and a load lock, in which the wafer loaded by the wafer transfer robot can be unloaded in the correct position of the load lock pin when the position of the wafer in the cassette is shaken or the calibration value of the wafer transfer robot is wrong. It is to provide a load / unload station including a table.

1 is a schematic diagram of a load / unload station of the present invention,

2 is a schematic view of the load lock pin of the present invention,

3 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a wafer is unloaded between the load lock pins of the present invention;

4 is a schematic diagram of a conventional load / unload station,

5 is a schematic diagram of a conventional load lock pin, and

6 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a state in which a wafer is unloaded between the conventional load lock pins.

<Brief description of the major symbols in the drawings>

100, 200; Load / unload station

1, 11; Rodlacpins 1a, 1b; First pin, second pin

2; First rectangular block 3; Trapezoidal slope

4a, 4b; 1st, 2nd uneven type fixing part

5; Second rectangular block 6; hemisphere

7, 17; Load lock tables 8, 18; wafer

9; Rubber rings 10a, 10b; 1st, 2nd hole

12; First cylindrical block 13; Second cylindrical block

14; Third cylindrical block 15a, 15b; 1st, 2nd fixed part

16a, 16b; 1st, 2nd hole

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention includes a load lock table having a plurality of holes formed on the upper surface, and a plurality of load lock pins fixed on the load lock table through the plurality of holes, , A first rectangular block having a predetermined size and disposed on an upper surface of the load lock table, a trapezoidal inclined portion having a predetermined angle on one side thereof, and a trapezoidal inclined portion located in the center of the upper surface of the first rectangular block, and the first rectangular block. A first pin attached to the center and having a first concave-convex fixing part formed in a shape in which a plurality of large diameter cylindrical blocks and a plurality of small diameter cylindrical blocks are stacked to cross each other; A second rectangular block having a predetermined size and disposed to abut one side of the first rectangular block on an upper surface of the load lock table, a hemisphere and a second having a predetermined radius and positioned on one side of an upper surface of the second rectangular block; Provided is a load / unload station including a second pin attached to one side of a rectangular block and including a second concave-convex fixing portion having a large diameter cylindrical block and a small diameter cylindrical block stacked to cross each other. do.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 is a schematic diagram of a load / unload station 100 comprising a plurality of load lock pins 1 and a load lock table 7 of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a load lock pin 1 of the present invention, and 3 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the wafer 8 is unloaded between the load lock pins 1 of the present invention.

The load lock pin 1 of the present invention has a predetermined size and has a first rectangular block 2 disposed on an upper surface of the load lock table 7, and an inclined surface is provided on one side of the first rectangular block 2. A first pin 1a comprising a trapezoidal inclined portion 3 located at the center of the upper surface and a first uneven fixing portion 4a attached to the center of the lower surface of the first rectangular block 2, and a predetermined size; A second rectangular block 5 having a predetermined radius and disposed in contact with one side of the first rectangular block 2 on an upper surface of the load lock table 7, the upper surface of the second rectangular block 5 having a predetermined radius; The hemisphere 6 and the second rectangular block 5 located on one side are composed of a combination of a second pin 1b including a second concave-convex fixing part 4b attached to the center of the lower surface. The load lock table 7 has a plurality of first and second holes formed in the upper surface corresponding to the first and second concave-convex fixing portions 4a and 4b of the first pin 1a and the second pin 1b ( 10a, 10b, wherein the plurality of first and second holes 10a, 10b are provided with the wafer 8 when the first pin 1a and the second pin 1b are fixed to the load lock table 7. Is formed in a substantially equilateral triangle with a distance that can be unloaded on the upper surface of the second fin 1b.

As shown in Fig. 1, in the load / unload station 100 of the present invention, the arrangement of the load lock pins 1 has a substantially equilateral triangle composition on the load lock table 7 as in the related art. The distance between the lock pins 1 is preferably such that the wafer can be unloaded between the second pins (1 b in FIG. 2).

As shown in FIG. 2, the load lock pin 1 of the present invention includes a first pin 1a and a second pin 1b.

Here, the 1st pin 1a is comprised by the 1st rectangular block 2, the trapezoidal inclination part 3, and the 1st uneven | corrugated fixing part 4a. The first rectangular block 2 has a predetermined size substantially equal in length and width, and is disposed on an upper surface of the load lock table. The trapezoidal inclined portion 3 is located near the center of the upper surface of the first rectangular block 2, and the length of the trapezoidal inclined portion 3 is substantially the same as the length of the first rectangular block 2, and the width thereof is 1/3 is preferable. The inclined surface of the trapezoidal inclined portion 3 has a predetermined angle at which the wafer can slide the inclined surface by its own weight without applying external force when the wafer is unloaded, and one end of the inclined surface prevents damage when the wafer is slipped and without any impact. It is rounded so that it can be unloaded. A first uneven fixing part 4a is attached to the center of the lower surface of the first rectangular block 2. The first concave-convex fixing part 4a has a shape in which a plurality of flat disc blocks having a large diameter and a plurality of flat disc blocks having a small diameter are alternately stacked with each other, and the thickness of each disc shaped block is almost the same. Do. In the present invention, the first concave-convex fixing part 4a of three large disk-shaped blocks and two small disk-shaped blocks are stacked, but in a smaller range than the thickness of the load lock table (7 in FIG. 3). You can also lengthen it.

In the above-described second fin 1b, the second rectangular block 5 is substantially the same width as the first rectangular block 2 of the first fin 1a and is formed somewhat longer in length, and has a rod. The first rectangular block 2 and one side surface are disposed on the lock table. A hemisphere 6 having a diameter equal to the width of the second rectangular block 5 is formed at one side of the upper surface of the second rectangular block 5. The height of the hemisphere 6 is formed to be lower by the thickness of the wafer than the rounded corner portion of one side of the inclined surfaces of the trapezoidal inclined portion 3 described above. That is, when the wafer is placed on the hemisphere 6, the position of the upper surface of the wafer and the position of the rounded corner portion described above become almost the same. In addition, a second concave-convex fixing part 4b that is substantially the same as the first concave-convex fixing part 4a described above is attached to the center of the lower surface of the second rectangular block 5.

In the above-mentioned first and second uneven fixing portions 4a and 4b, the cylindrical block portion having a small diameter has a larger outer diameter than the diameter of the cylindrical block portion having a large diameter, and the inner diameter is a cylindrical having a small diameter. A rubber ring 9 is fitted, which is substantially the same as the diameter of the block part and can completely wrap the outside of the small cylindrical block.

The first and second pins 1a and 1b thus formed are fixed on the load lock table 7 so that the first and second pins 1a and 1b are paired as shown in FIG. 3. The load lock table 7 has a plurality of first and second holes 10a and 10b corresponding to the first and second concave-convex fixing portions 4a and 4b of the first and second pins 1a and 1b, and are substantially equilateral triangles. It is formed in a composition.

At this time, the first and second concave-convex fixing parts 4a and 4b of the first and second pins 1a and 1b are inserted into respective holes 10a and 10b formed in the load lock table 7 to fix the pins. Since the rubber ring 9 is fitted to each of the uneven type fixing parts 4a and 4b, friction between the uneven type fixing parts 4a and 4b, the rubber ring 9 and the holes 10a and 10b is achieved. After each pin is secured, it locks in place and does not twist or rotate easily. The dotted line in the drawing indicates the state in which the wafer 8 is unloaded at an angle, and the unloaded wafer 8 is slid down the inclined surface of the first pin 1a by its own weight, and thus the second pins at both sides. It is placed in the correct position on the hemisphere 6 of (1b).

Therefore, when the load / unload station of the present invention is used, even if the wafer is unloaded while the position of the wafer in the cassette is shaken or the calibration value of the wafer moving robot is slightly wrong, the inclined surface of the load lock pin is slid down to unlock the proper position. Can be loaded.

Claims (1)

A load / unload station for loading / unloading wafers, A load lock table having a plurality of holes formed in an upper surface thereof, and A plurality of loadlock pins fixed through the plurality of holes on the load lock table; The load lock pin, A first rectangular block having a predetermined size and disposed on an upper surface of the load lock table; A trapezoidal inclined portion having an inclined surface at a predetermined angle on one side thereof and positioned at the center of the upper surface of the first rectangular block; A first pin attached to a center of a lower surface of the first rectangular block and including a first concave-convex fixing part having a shape in which a plurality of large diameter cylindrical blocks and a plurality of small diameter cylindrical blocks are stacked to cross each other; A second rectangular block having a predetermined size and disposed in contact with one side of the first rectangular block on an upper surface of the load lock table; A hemisphere having a predetermined radius and located on one side of an upper surface of the second rectangular block; It includes a second pin including a second concave-convex fixing part attached to one side of the lower surface of the second rectangular block and formed of a shape in which the large diameter cylindrical block and the small diameter cylindrical block are stacked to cross each other. Featured load / unload station.