KR20060058086A - Advanced low cost high throughput processing platform - Google Patents

Abstract

A wafer processing system and method in which a wafer, having a diameter, is movable between a loadlock and a processing chamber. A transfer chamber is arranged for selective pressure communication with the loadlock and the processing chamber. The transfer chamber having a configuration of lateral extents such that the wafer is movable through the transfer chamber between the loadlock and processing chamber along a wafer transfer path and the configuration of lateral extents causes the wafer, having the wafer diameter and moving along the wafer transfer path, to interfere with at least one of the loadlock and the processing chamber for any position along the wafer transfer path. The wafer includes a center and the wafer transfer path can be defined by movement of the center through the transfer chamber. Swing arms are described that can independently move by different angles in opposing directions from a home position.

Description

ADVANCED LOW COST HIGH THROUGHPUT PROCESSING PLATFORM}

This application is a partial continuing application of US patent application Ser. No. 10 / 919,582, filed August 17, 2004, entitled “Low Cost and High Throughput Processing Platform,” which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

Processing systems that expose a workpiece, such as a semiconductor wafer or other suitable substrate, to the overall processing procedure for forming a particular device typically employ a plurality of processing steps. In order to perform these steps sequentially, each workpiece is typically moved a different number of times for the system, for example between the various process stations. Based on this, it should be noted that the prior art includes a number of alternative approaches for carrying out such workpiece transport and related functions, some of which are of interest here as described in more detail below.

One prior art workpiece transport approach is disclosed in US Pat. No. 6,429,139 (hereinafter '139 patent). Specifically, the '139 patent illustrates the use of an articulated robot arm for workpiece transport in FIGS. 5, 6 and 7A-7D. While the use of a single wafer paddle is shown, it should be understood that multiple paddles have been provided using this articulated robotic arm. In addition, it should be understood that this particular robot is slightly simplified to the extent that the prior art provides such a configuration that the vertical movement of the workpiece is also achieved by the robot. These articulated robotic arm configurations provide essentially unlimited capacity for moving workpieces, but unfortunately, they are relatively complex and therefore expensive to manufacture and repair.

A simple swing arm includes an arm member that generally extends from the pivot point to the wafer paddle as disclosed by the prior art. Thus, this swing arm provides a rotational movement of the workpiece. Swing arm configurations represent a dramatic simplification to the use of articulated robotic arms that are at least generally thought to be accompanied by improved reliability and lower cost, but also show more limited capabilities for wafer positioning. In particular, the swing arm can move only one wafer along its single radial planar circular path in its basic configuration. One early swing arm approach is shown in US Pat. No. 4,927,484 (hereafter '484 patent). 1 and 2 of this patent disclose a typical prior art approach in which a plurality of simple swing arms cooperate to provide greater workpiece movement flexibility. However, again, these swing arms appear to be limited to the rotation of the workpiece in a single plane.

As an alternative approach to articulated robot arms and improvements to simple swing arms, the '139 patent also discloses the use of dual-end swing arm arrangements. Swing arm capability is enhanced by providing an elongated swing arm member with wafer paddles positioned at each of their opposite ends with pivot points centered therebetween as shown in FIG. 8A of the '139 patent. Furthermore, the '139 patent describes a wafer paddle rotatable at the end of the swing member to at least slightly improve the swing arm's positioning capability and flexibility as compared to the earlier prior art configurations as shown in FIGS. 9A-9D. have. Unfortunately, however, the swing arm positioning capability remains limited with respect to the ability to move the wafer, especially in only one plane of rotation, despite these improvements.

A more recent approach to the use of swing arms is shown in US Pat. No. 6,610,150 to Savage et al. (Savage). Savage shows a swing arm with an end actuator configured to support a pair of workpieces in FIG. 8 of this patent. As with the remaining prior art, only simple rotary motions are described in which typical prior art means such as lift pins are used to remove the workpiece from the end actuator.

Another area of interest for prior art workpiece processing systems is the door arrangement used to seal various parts of the system from each other. Many systems utilize, for example, load lock chambers (ie, chambers that facilitate both workpiece loading and unloading functions), transfer chambers and one or more process chambers. The workpiece is typically transferred between the load lock chamber and the process chamber through a transfer chamber. In this configuration, it is necessary to selectively seal the load lock chamber from the transfer chamber. For workpiece transport, slots or slits are generally defined between the two chambers. Often, the sealing is performed using a slit door arrangement in which the plate-shaped door member is used to seal the long slit. Interests in the slit door arrangement of the prior art include contamination occurrence, the need for precise alignment and sealing mechanisms.

One prior art slit door configuration having a blade member hinged to its actuating arm for pivotal movement about a horizontal axis is described in US Pat. No. 6,095,741 (hereafter '741 patent). Such an arrangement is believed to be unacceptable, in particular for the precise alignment of the long horizontal dimension of the sealing blades and the potential occurrence of contamination in the absence of such an accurate alignment, as will be understood in light of the following description.

For the sealing mechanism, the '741 patent uses bellows 704 as part of its slit door arrangement shown in Figure 6a of this patent. This bellows mechanism may be effective for the purposes of the '741 patent, but it is believed to be problematic for reasons including cost and reliability concerns. As will be further described, the prior art has adopted another approach as an alternative to the bellows mechanism.

One such alternative to the bellows mechanism is shown in Figure 29, which is a partial cutaway view of a prior art slit door configuration 1700. This prior art configuration includes a pivot shaft 1702 connected at its upper end to a sealing blade (not shown) for pivoting movement as indicated by double arrow 1704 relative to pivot axis 1706. Pivot shaft 1702 is received in housing 1710. Sealing between the housing 1710 and the pivot shaft 1702 is achieved using a sealing flange 1712 that is received on the housing 1710 and sealed against it using an O-ring 1714. Sealing hat 1716 is supported on pivot shaft 1702 and sealed against it using an O-ring 1718. Sealing hat 1716 seals against sealing surface 1722 defined by sealing flange 1712 such that lateral movement of O-ring 1720 relative to sealing surface 1722 is received. Support. Unfortunately, however, the pivoting movement of the pivot shaft 1702 also imparts a tilt of the sealing hat 1716 to compress a portion of the O-ring 1720 while releasing the opposite portion of the O-ring. This behavior is considered disadvantageous to limit the range of pivot motion of pivot shaft 1702.

The present invention addresses the above limitations and concerns while providing additional advantages.

A related apparatus and method as well as a system for processing an arina workpiece are described. The plurality of workpieces are movable relative to the process chamber arrangement in the system. The process chamber arrangement uses at least two parallel first and second process stations, which are located at each of the first and second process stations so that the two workpieces can be exposed to the processing process simultaneously. Each of them is configured to execute a treatment process. In one aspect of the invention, a workpiece support arrangement separate from the process chamber arrangement is used to support at least two of the workpieces at least in a substantially stacked relationship to form a workpiece column. The workpiece transfer arrangement, which is also separate from the process chamber arrangement, simultaneously moves the workpiece column and the process by simultaneously moving two workpieces along at least generally the first and second transfer paths defined between the workpiece column and the first and second process stations. It is used to transport at least two of the workpieces between the chamber arrangements.

In another aspect of the invention, the workpiece is movable relative to the process chamber arrangement, wherein the process chamber arrangement uses at least two parallel process stations, which process at least two workpieces to be processed simultaneously. It is configured to process individual ones of the workpieces located at each processing station. A workpiece support arrangement separate from the process chamber arrangement supports at least two of the workpieces at least generally in a stacked relationship to form a workpiece column. The workpiece transfer arrangement separate from the process chamber arrangement is configured to at least simultaneously move the two pre-processed workpieces of the workpieces from the workpiece column to each parallel process station.

In another aspect of the invention, the workpiece is movable relative to the process chamber arrangement configured to execute the processing process on at least one of the workpieces. A workpiece support arrangement separate from the process chamber arrangement supports at least one of the workpieces for movement relative to the process chamber arrangement. The swing arm arrangement, separate from the process chamber arrangement, is part of the workpiece transport between the workpiece support arrangement and the process chamber arrangement to provide pivotal rotation of at least one workpiece about the axis of rotation and the workpiece to be transported to pivotal rotation. In addition, it comprises at least a first swing arm moving in at least a direction generally along the axis of rotation as another part of carrying the workpiece to change the height of the swing arm so that it can be moved between different separation height planes.

In another aspect of the invention, the workpiece is movable relative to the process chamber arrangement configured to execute the processing process on at least one of the workpieces. The swing arm arrangement provides a pivotal rotation of at least one workpiece about the axis of rotation as part of carrying the workpiece at least in relation to the process chamber arrangement and the workpiece to be transported moves between different separation height planes in addition to the pivotal rotation. And at least a first swing arm moving at least generally in a direction along the axis of rotation as another part of carrying the workpiece to vary the height of the swing arm.

In another aspect of the invention, the workpiece is movable relative to the process chamber arrangement in the system, wherein the process chamber arrangement uses at least one process station configured to execute a processing process on at least one of the workpieces. . The workpiece support arrangement is arranged in one spaced apart relationship from the process chamber arrangement to support at least one of the workpieces. The swing arm arrangement further includes, from the process chamber arrangement comprising at least a first swing arm and a second swing arm configured for coaxial rotation about a common axis of rotation for transporting the workpiece between the workpiece support arrangement and the process chamber arrangement. Are located in different spacing relationships.

In another aspect of the invention, the workpiece is movable relative to the process chamber arrangement in the system. The process chamber arrangement uses at least one process station configured to execute a processing process on at least one of the workpieces. The swing arm arrangement forming part of the system includes at least a first swing arm and a second swing arm configured for coaxial rotation about a common axis of rotation for carrying a workpiece in relation to the process chamber arrangement.

In another aspect of the invention for processing a workpiece using a processing process, the system configuration includes a pair of parallel first and second processing stations, each processing station performing a processing process on one of the workpieces. Configured to apply. The workpiece support arrangement is configured to support one or more of the workpieces. The workpiece support arrangement is located at a first distance at least approximately equally from each process station. The first and second swing arm arrangements have a first process with a first distance by a second distance such that the first process station, the second process station, the first axis, the second axis, and the wafer column cooperate to define a pentagonal shape. The first axis and the first axis such that each of the first and second axes is located at least approximately a second distance from the workpiece support arrangement with the second axis at least approximately spaced apart from the station and at least approximately spaced apart from the second process station by a second distance. Each arranged to pivot about two axes.

In another aspect of the present invention, a workpiece processing system for processing a workpiece using a processing process includes a pair of parallels defining a line segment extending through a first center of a first processing station and a second center of a second processing station. A configuration having an equation first and second process stations, each process station configured to apply a processing process to at least one of the workpieces. The workpiece support arrangement is configured to support at least one of the workpieces laterally offset from the line segment. The first and second swing arm arrangements pivoting about the first axis and the second axis, respectively, are arranged in the first swing arm position and the second swing arm position, respectively, the first swing arm position and the second swing arm position, respectively. Is offset from the line segment on the common side but not beyond the workpiece support arrangement such that the first process station, the second process station, the first axis, the second axis, and the wafer column cooperate to define a pentagonal shape.

In another aspect of the invention, when using the first drive shaft to rotationally drive the second shaft, the configuration includes first and second toothed flexible closed loop members. The first and second tooth flexible members in a parallel relationship such that at least a particular pulley arrangement of the pulley arrangements includes a first pulley that engages with the first tooth flexible member and a second pulley that engages with the second tooth flexible member. To receive the first pulley arrangement is mounted on the first shaft and the second pulley arrangement is mounted on the second shaft, each of the first and second pulleys and the first and second toothed belt member respectively. It has a tooth receiving configuration that cooperates with the first and second tooth flexible members to provide a given backlash gap when engaged. The first and second pulley teeth of the first pulley based on the backlash gap given in such a way as to limit the working backlash of the particular pulley arrangement to the movement of the first and second toothed flexible members to a value less than the given backlash gap. The mold receiving configuration is mounted in a rotationally offset state therebetween so as to be rotationally offset with respect to the tooth receiving configuration of the second pulley.

In another aspect of the invention, a valve arrangement and method is described for a workpiece processing system for machining a workpiece. The system includes at least two adjacent chambers in which a workpiece transportable slot is defined therebetween and at least a generally planar chamber sealing surface that supports the sealing arrangement surrounding the slot and surrounding the slot. The valve device is configured to selectively open and close the slot using a sealing blade member comprising a blade surface configured to seal seal with the sealing arrangement. The actuator arrangement has a secondary position in which the open position away from the slot and the sealing blade member are in sealing contact with at least the sealing arrangement to align the sealing surface with the sealing surface and thus the sealing surface and the blade surface to provide passage of the workpiece therethrough. The sealing blade member is moved between closed positions for supporting the sealing blade member in a manner that provides movement of the blade surface upon engagement with at least the sealing arrangement characterized by the degree of freedom.

In a further aspect of the invention, a configuration for a workpiece processing system for machining a workpiece is described. The system has at least two adjacent chambers susceptible to contamination from contaminants generated from inside and outside. The configuration includes a chamber body arrangement that serves to define a slot between adjacent chambers and adjacent chambers the workpiece can carry, and at least a generally planar chamber sealing surface surrounding the slot. The chamber body arrangement is adjacent to the slot to form part of a particular chamber of adjacent chambers to establish the bottom region of the chamber body arrangement that serves as a collection area for contaminants when the chamber trough is at least under the influence of the earth's gravity. And further below define a chamber trough, the chamber body arrangement further defining a pumping port for at least a vacuum of a particular chamber. The valve arrangement is supported in a specific chamber for selective movement between a closed position in which the sealing blades seal against the slots to isolate adjacent chambers from each other and an open position in which the sealing blades retract into the trough. The pumping arrangement is connected to a pumping port for at least a particular chamber's vacuum by pumping from the trough in a manner that serves to remove at least some of the contaminants collected in the trough.

In a further aspect of the invention, a wafer processing system and associated method is described in which at least one wafer is movable between a load lock and a process chamber. The wafer includes a wafer diameter portion. The transfer chamber is arranged for selective pressure communication with the load lock and the process chamber. The transfer chamber allows the wafer to move through the transfer chamber between the load lock and the process chamber along the wafer transfer path such that a wafer having a wafer diameter and moving along the wafer transfer path for any given position along the wafer transfer path. And has a configuration of lateral size that interferes with at least one of the loadlock and process chamber. In one feature, the wafer includes a wafer center and the wafer transfer path is defined by the movement of the wafer center through the transfer chamber.

In another aspect of the present invention, a system and method for processing a wafer comprising at least one load lock is described. The transfer chamber is arranged in selective pressure communication with the load lock. The process chamber includes at least one process station such that the process chamber is in selective communication with the transfer chamber and the wafer can be transferred between the load lock and the process chamber through the transfer chamber. The swing arm arrangement is configured to include at least one swing arm pivotally supported within the transfer chamber and having a distal end configured to move the wafer between the load lock and the process chamber. The swing arm can be positioned in a home position in the transfer chamber when the load lock and the transfer chamber are in isolation from each other, the swing arm swinging the distal end by a first angular displacement in one direction from the home position to the load lock and the first angular displacement And swing the distal end by the second angular displacement in the opposite direction from the home position to the process station so that is different from the second angular displacement. In one feature, the first angular displacement is less than the second angular displacement.

In another aspect of the invention, a system and associated method for processing a wafer is described that includes at least a load lock having a wafer station and a process chamber having a process station. The transfer chamber arrangement includes a swing arm arrangement having at least a first swing arm and a second swing arm configured for coaxial rotation about a common axis of rotation for transporting the wafer between the wafer station in the load lock and the process station in the process chamber. It is configured to include. The first and second swing arms are configured such that one of the swing arms can rotate towards the process station while at the same time the other of the swing arms independently rotate towards the wafer station. In one feature, each of the first and second swing arms move through the home position as it rotates between the wafer station and the process station, the wafer station being reached by rotating through a first angular offset from the home position and processing The station is reached by rotating through the second angle offset from the home position such that the first angle offset is different from the second angle offset. In a related feature, the first angular offset is less than the second angular offset. In another feature, the swing arm arrangement is configured to include at least a drive arrangement for selectively rotating the first swing arm and the second swing arm at different angular velocities. In another feature, the swing arm arrangement is configured to include at least a drive arrangement for selectively rotating the first swing arm and the second swing arm in opposite directions by different angular magnitudes. In yet another related feature, the first swing arm and the second swing arm are rotated for a first length of time from the home position so that one of the swing arms reaches the wafer station and the other one of the swing arms reaches the process station. Each at at least approximately the same angular velocity in the opposite direction to rotate for a time of a second length different from the time of the first length from the home position.

In another aspect of the present invention, a system and method for processing a wafer is described that includes at least a load lock having a wafer station and a process chamber having a process station. The transfer arrangement is configured to include a swing arm configured for rotation about an axis of rotation to carry the wafer between the wafer station and the process station. The swing arm is configured to rotate in one direction from the home position to the process station by the first angle value and to rotate in the opposite direction by the second angle value from the home position to reach the wafer station, the first angle value being the second angle value. Is different from In one feature, the load lock and process chamber form part of the entire chamber arrangement that cooperates with the transfer arrangement in a manner that serves to at least partially define the home position of the swing arm. In another feature, the load lock and the process chamber are substantially pressure isolated from each other only when the swing arm is in the home position. In another feature, the entire chamber arrangement includes a transfer chamber in selective communication with each load lock and process chamber and the transfer arrangement is supported in the transfer chamber such that the home position is defined within the transfer chamber. In another feature, the load lock is in direct communication with the process chamber and the transfer arrangement is supported in the load lock such that the home position is defined within the load lock.

The invention can be understood by reference to the following detailed description in connection with the drawings briefly described below.

1A is a schematic perspective view of a workpiece processing system made in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 1B is a schematic plan view of the system of FIG. 1A, shown here to show further details of the structure. FIG.

FIG. 2 is a schematic perspective view of a load lock used in the system of FIG. 1A, shown here to show details of its structure.

FIG. 3 is another schematic perspective view of the load lock of FIG. 2 further showing the appearance of the slot door arrangement as well as additional details of the structure of the load lock.

4 is a schematic perspective view showing a transfer chamber used in the system of FIG. 1A that is also used in the system and connected to the load lock shown in greater detail in FIGS.

FIG. 5A is a schematic perspective isolation view showing details of a dual swing arm arrangement used in the transfer chamber of FIG. 4. FIG.

FIG. 5B is a schematic partial cutaway cross-sectional view showing details of the end actuator height adjustment arrangement, which is shown here to show unobservable features in the view of 5A. FIG.

FIG. 6 is a schematic enlarged cutaway sectional view of the swing arm arrangement of FIG. 5A, shown here to show further details of the structure. FIG.

FIG. 7 is a schematic enlarged cutaway sectional view of the swing arm arrangement of FIG. 6 further enlarged to show details for the inner and outer swing arm shafts as well as the housing therefor;

8 and 9 are schematic plan views of cams used in the swing arm assembly of FIGS. 5A-7 to set the height of each swing arm.

10A is a schematic perspective view of a bridge bracket supporting a cam follower for engagement with the cams of FIGS. 8 and 9.

FIG. 10B is a schematic partial cross-sectional view of a portion of the cam follower and bridge bracket of FIG. 10A, shown here to show further details of the structure of these components. FIG.

FIG. 11 is a schematic perspective view showing additional details of one swing arm arrangement of the dual swing arm arrangement of FIG. 5A.

12 is another schematic enlarged cutaway cross-sectional view of the swing arm arrangement of FIG. 6 further enlarged to show details of a swing arm drive assembly.

Figure 13 is a schematic perspective view showing the opposite direction drive belt and pulley arrangement used to rotate the swing arm of one of the coaxial pair of swing arms in the opposite direction.

14 is a schematic perspective view showing the drive belt and pulley arrangement used to rotate the swing arm of the other of the coaxial pair of swing arms.

Figure 15 is a simplified perspective view of the drive belt and pulley arrangement used to minimize drive belt backlash.

16A and 16B are schematic plan views of the drive belt and pulley arrangement of Fig. 15, shown here to show further detail about the arrangement.

17A is a schematic perspective view of a slot valve arrangement made in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 17B is a schematic side cross-sectional view showing the slot valve arrangement of FIG. 17A to show further details of the structure. FIG.

FIG. 17C is a schematic partial cutaway side cross-sectional view showing an enlarged area of the view of FIG. 17B to show further details of the structure.

FIG. 17D is a schematic perspective view of the slot valve arrangement of FIG. 17A showing additional details about the blade suspension mechanism. FIG.

17E is a schematic cross-sectional view showing details of one feature of the blade suspension mechanism.

18A-18E form a series of schematic plan views showing one process for carrying out workpiece transfer and processing in a very advantageous manner.

19A-19L form a series of schematic side views that cooperate with the top view of FIGS. 18A-18E to show further details of the process.

20 is a schematic plan view showing a process chamber, a transfer chamber and a load lock to illustrate one way in which variations in spacing between process stations can be accommodated.

Figure 21 is a schematic plan view of one embodiment of a system employing the swing arm arrangement of the present invention in connection with a process station housed in a separate process chamber.

Figure 22 is a schematic plan view of another embodiment of a system made in accordance with the present invention using a linear workpiece drive and a transportable workpiece column.

Figure 23 is a schematic plan view of an alternative embodiment of a system made in accordance with the present invention using a linear workpiece drive.

24A-24D are schematic top views of the linear drive and load lock of the system of FIG. 23, shown here to illustrate workpiece movement using a rotatable workpiece carrier.

25-27 are plan views of further alternative embodiments of a system made in accordance with the present invention.

Figure 28 is a schematic plan view of another embodiment of a system using the swing arm arrangement of the present invention in connection with a process station housed in a separate process chamber.

Figure 29 is a schematic partial cutaway side cross-sectional view of one embodiment of a slit door arrangement of the prior art, shown here to show details of its sealing arrangement.

30 is a schematic perspective view of another embodiment of a swing arm arrangement made in accordance with the present invention.

FIG. 31 is a schematic perspective view of one of the swing arm actuation mechanisms of FIG. 30, shown here to show further details of the structure.

FIG. 32 is an enlarged perspective view of a portion of the swing arm mechanism of FIG. 31, shown here to more clearly show details of the dual motor drive arrangement.

Figure 33 is a schematic plan view of a system made in accordance with the present invention and using the swing arm arrangement of Figures 30-32, shown here to show details of the structure of the system and its associated advantages.

FIG. 34 is another schematic plan view of the system of FIG. 33 showing a swing arm arrangement and associated details in a rotational orientation. FIG.

Figure 35 is a schematic plan view of the load lock and transfer chamber used in the systems of Figures 33 and 34, shown here to show the arrangement of the detector supported by the transfer chamber and load lock lid.

36A and 36B are schematic plan views of the system of FIGS. 33-35, shown here to show operation and further details for the wafer sensing arrangement.

Figure 37 is a schematic plan view of another system made in accordance with the present invention and using the swing arm arrangement of Figures 30-32, to illustrate details of the structure of the system without a transfer chamber and its associated advantages. Is shown here.

The following description is presented to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to practice the invention and is provided in connection with the patent application and its requirements. Various modifications to the described embodiments will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles herein may be applied to other embodiments. As such, the invention is not limited to the embodiments shown as defined within the scope of the appended claims, but is consistent with the broadest scope consistent with the principles and features described herein, including alternatives, modifications, and equivalents. It is intended to be. It is to be noted that the drawings are not to scale and are in fact outlined in a manner that is believed to best illustrate important features. Furthermore, the same reference numerals apply to the same components whenever practical throughout the present disclosure. Descriptive terms such as top / bottom, right / left, front / rear, and the like have been adopted for the purpose of improving the reader's understanding of the various aspects provided in the drawings and are not intended to be limiting.

1A and 1B, FIG. 1A is a schematic side view of a machining system 10 in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. 1B is a schematic plan view of the system 10. The machining system generally consists of the front end 12, the load lock section 14, the wafer handling section 15 and the machining section 16. Such systems include, for example, etching (plasma etching, photochemical etching, chemical vapor etching, heat driven etching, ion etching, etc.), planarization (combination of etching and deposition), various implementations of cleaning and residue removal, and chemical, physical and ion deposition ( And various executions of PECVD, ALD, MOCVD, sputtering, evaporation, etc.). Suitable workpiece forms include, but are not limited to, semiconductors, optoelectronic products, memory media, and flat panel displays. Suitable workpiece materials include, but are not limited to, silicon, silicon germanium, glass, and plastic. Suitable plasma based processing sources include, for example, inductively coupled plasma (ICP) sources, microwave sources, surface wave plasma sources, ECR plasma sources, and capacitively coupled (parallel) plasma sources. Any suitable process-limiting pressure can be used.

Referring again to FIGS. 1A and 1B, the front end 12 is generally at atmospheric pressure and includes a plurality of cassettes or FOUPs (Front Opening Unified Pods shown in FIG. 1A) or 25 in this example. It defines a "small-environment" configured to engage with other suitable workpiece transfer locations, each configured to support a semiconductor wafer. Opposite the mating surface for the FOUP, the front end 12 is a pair of first and second load locks 20a, 20b (collectively only the first load lock), collectively or individually referred to as the load lock 20. Only 20a is observable in the figure of FIG. 1A. FIG. 1B shows an intermediate station 21, which may comprise a cooling station, for example, located between the load locks 20a, 20b. The first and second load locks are generally identical with respect to each other and engage with the first and second transfer chambers 22a, 22b collectively or individually referred to as transfer chamber (s) 22. The transfer chamber now engages first and second process chambers 24a and 24b, which may be collectively or individually referred to as process chamber (s) 24. Each process chamber employs a parallel workpiece arrangement or parallel process station, in which each process chamber can simultaneously expose a pair of workpieces to the same process, as shown below. It should be understood that process chambers 24a and 24b may be used to perform the same process or to perform different processes.

1A and 1B, in this example, four plasma sources 26a-26d are used corresponding to four process stations collectively provided by the process chamber for convenience purposes. Reference numerals 26a through 26d may be used to refer to the relevant process station of the process stations. One suitable process chamber configuration useful in connection with the present invention is described in co-pending U.S. Patent Application No. 10 / 828,614 (Lawyer Document No. MA-17), co-owned and incorporated herein by reference. It should be noted that there is. Since machining is usually accomplished through a stepped vacuum sequence starting from the front end 12, suitable valves are provided between the various chambers as further described. In this processing procedure, the load lock 20 may be pumped low pressure from atmospheric pressure to process or intermediate pressure before transferring the workpiece to the process chamber 24 through the transfer chamber 22. The system 10 can only be one process chamber 24, one transfer chamber 22 and one load lock, for example if one process chamber can achieve the desired level of throughput or if sequential processing is not required. It should be understood that it can be easily configured as (20). An operator station 30 including a display 32 and an input device 34 is provided in connection with the computer 40 to control the system. It is believed that one skilled in the art can appropriately program the computer 40 to achieve the functionality described herein in light of the overall disclosure of the present invention.

It should be noted that the piping and pumping facilities are not shown in FIG. 1A for clarity of explanation. Conventional facility inputs may be used for the distribution of compressed air, purge gas, process gas (s) and cooling water in one or two module configurations. Similarly, a single vacuum pump can be incorporated for single or dual module load lock pumping receptacles. Separate gas panels could be used to distribute the process gas to each module and each process module was configured with its own vacuum pump and pressure control device, allowing parallel processing capability. Pressure transducers attached to the load lock (s), transfer chamber (s) and process chamber (s) are used to communicate pressures associated with processing functionality. In addition, various vacuum and pressure switches attached to vacuum roughing lines are used for interlocking purposes. In light of this general disclosure, it is believed that one of ordinary skill in the art would be able to use such a facility.

Attention is now directed to FIG. 2, which shows one of the loadlocks 20 in isolation from the rest of the system. It should be noted that the top plate of the load lock is not shown to facilitate viewing of the internal details of the structure. The load lock 20 includes a body defining a slit hole 50 in communication with one of the transfer chambers 22. The O-ring 52 is received in the surface of the load lock or in the chamber sealing surface 54 to seal against the associated transfer chamber. The trough 56 includes a load lock chamber to receive a valve arrangement (not shown) having a blade member that is used to seal against the surface of the wall opposite the surface 54 as described in further detail below. It is formed by the body. First, it is appropriate to note that the blade member advantageously retracts into the trough 56 when the valve arrangement is in the open position. On the opposite portion of the transfer chamber body, the front end slit 60 is defined in which the workpiece is conveyed with respect to the front end 12 of FIG. 1A, basically opposite the slit hole 50. Any suitable slit door arrangement may be used for the purpose of sealing the front end slit aperture 60, including, for example, the arrangement used on the slit aperture 50 to be described. Other suitable door arrangements, including magnetic doors and pneumatic doors, are described in US Pat. No. 6,315,512, co-owned herein and incorporated herein by reference.

Referring again to FIG. 2, a shelf arrangement 64 is provided that supports the workpiece within the load lock 20 when the workpiece is delivered to the front end and process chamber of FIGS. 1A and 1B. The shelf arrangement consists of two sets of spaced blade members that alternate between the long blade 66 and the short blade 68 in a totally stacked relationship. Thus, each set of blade members includes two long blades 66 and two short blades 68. It should be noted that one long blade member in combination with one short blade member serves to construct a shelf for the individual workpiece such that each shelf includes an asymmetrical configuration. Long blades and short blades can be formed using any suitable material, such as aluminum, for example. Further details on the use of this asymmetrical configuration will be provided below. Each shelf arrangement is supported using a pair of fasteners 70, which may be of any suitable form, such as stainless steel, for example. Spacers are used to achieve proper spacing between the shelf blade members. The spacer can be formed using, for example, the same material from which the shelf blade is formed. The shelf arrangement is configured to support four workpieces in four vertically spaced support stations. As described in further detail below, two top workpiece support lathes are used to support a pair of workpieces before machining and two bottom workpiece support lathes support a pair of workpieces after machining. Used to do As such, the workpiece before machining is always moved from the front end 12 of FIG. 1A to the workpiece support shelf before machining and then onto the relevant one of the process stations 26. Conversely, the lower pair of workpiece support stations are always moved from the relevant process station of the process stations 26 to the workpiece lathe after machining. The workpiece is stacked in a lathe to form a workpiece column as described further below. First, it is appropriate to note that the pair of workpieces can be moved simultaneously with respect to this workpiece column.

Referring now to FIG. 3 in conjunction with FIG. 2, FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the load lock 20 with the shelf arrangement 64 removed to show further details of its configuration. It should be noted again that the top plate of the load lock is not shown to facilitate viewing of the internal details of the structure. Specifically, the front end slit hole 60 is shown surrounded by an O-ring seal 74. Furthermore, the slit door valve arrangement 80 is shown as being installed to seal the slit aperture 50. The slit valve arrangement includes a sealing blade 82 which is shown to be retracted into the trough 56 of the load lock body. The load lock 20 is shown like the other chambers in the various figures with the cover or lid removed for clarity of explanation. However, Figure 1A shows as if these covers appear to be installed. Appropriate seals, such as o-ring seals 84, may be used to seal the lid against the chamber body. The slit valve arrangement 80 is operated using a pneumatic linear actuator 86 in this example. The load lock 20 defines a pair of pumping ports 87 where only one can be observed. It is important to note that these pumping ports are arranged to pump from the trough 56. This arrangement is considered advantageous because it includes low points within the overall load lock. Thus, the trough serves as a collection area for particles and other contaminants that enter the load lock during normal operation of the system. By pumping from the trough as a low point, it is intended to remove particles and contaminants as a normal result of operating the system. The load lock 20 also includes a bottom 88 over the trough 50 that defines a pair of purge ports, with only one purge port 89 of the purge ports observable within the bottom. Do. Purge port 89 may be used in cooperation with pumping port 87 to provide cross flow during pumping of the load lock. That is, as pumping takes place from pump port 87, appropriate gas may be introduced through purge port 89. In this way, contaminants can be advantageously flowed into the trough 56 for removal therefrom by pumping, as further described. In Fig. 2, it should be noted that the illustrated purge port houses a diffuser 90 that can be formed, for example, from sintered metal, or from a porous ceramic or composite material (stainless steel, aluminum oxide, carburized fibers, etc.).

Attention is now directed to FIG. 4, which shows a load lock 20 connected to a transfer chamber 22. It should also be noted that various features that are the subject of this discussion may be observed in previous drawings, such as in FIGS. 1A and 1B and the like. Furthermore, the top plate of both the load lock and the transfer chamber is not shown to facilitate the observation of the internal details of the features. The two chambers can be attached to each other in any suitable manner using, for example, screw fasteners inserted through the mounting holes 92 shown in FIGS. The transfer chamber 22 defines a process chamber slit door 100 configured to connect with one of the process chambers 24 shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B. In this example, the slit door valve arrangement 80 is also used for the purpose of opening and closing the process chamber slit door 100. The process chamber 22 is configured to support the swing arm arrangement 120, which is composed of four individual swing arms arranged in opposite pairs, described immediately below.

Referring now to FIG. 5A in conjunction with FIG. 4, FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the swing arm arrangement 120 removed from the transfer chamber 22 for purposes of clarity of explanation. FIG. 1B schematically shows the swing arm arrangement 120 with respect to the opposite direction of rotation, but it should be noted that its full symmetry capability is shown in the figure to be described. The entire base plate 122 supports the first and second swing arm pairs 124a and 124b, respectively. It should be noted that the same reference numerals will be used to refer to the first and second swing arm pairs having components associated with the particular pair identified by using "a" and "b" appended to the appropriate reference numerals. As such, the same components in each swing arm pair may be referred to individually or collectively without being labeled "a" or "b". For example, the swing arm pair collectively includes upper blades 128a and 128b, which may be collectively or individually referred to as upper blade (s) 128 for convenience. The swing arm pair further includes lower swing arm blade (s) 130. Each upper swing arm blade extends to a distal end 140 that is configured for attachment of the end actuator 142, best shown as attached to swing arm blade 130b in FIG. 5A. A group of threaded fasteners 144 is used to adjustably attach the end actuator 142 to each swing arm blade. In this way, alignment adjustments can be provided so that the end actuator is properly engaged with the shelves of the shelf arrangement 64 of FIGS. Can be. It should be noted that the swing arm is shown in a convenient " home " position above base plate 122 as will be further described. Further, reference to swing arm (s) may refer to the combination of an associated end actuator and one or more swing arm blades. As such, swing arm 130b refers to swing arm blade 130b in combination with the attached end actuator of the end actuators 142.

Referring to FIG. 5B in conjunction with FIG. 5A, FIG. 5B is a cross-sectional view in an adjustable manner in which the end actuator 142 is attached to the distal end 140 of each swing arm blade, such as, for example, swing arm blade 130b. In particular, fastener group 144 includes a pair of locking flat head fasteners 146a, 146b, although any suitable fastener may be used. Dowel pin 147 is press-fitted into a hole defined by swing arm blade 130b with a free end projecting through another hole defined by end actuator 142. A helical coil spring 148 surrounds the dowel pin 147 and resiliently and locally biases the end actuator away from the swing arm blade. Hexagonal screws 149 or other suitable threading device are threaded by the swing arm blade 130b to adjust the end actuator height in combination with fasteners 146a and 146b. It should be noted that the surface of the swing arm blade 130b facing the end actuator 142 and surrounding the fastener 146b is arched so as to accommodate height variations in the angle of the end actuator 142 relative thereto. . End actuator height adjustment may be achieved, for example, by initially tightening the fastener 146b “fit” and fastening 146a that is at least slightly drawn out of the mounting position. Next, the fastener 146a is adjusted to set the end actuator 142 at the desired angle. Hexagonal screws 149 are tightened to lock the desired end actuator orientation.

Referring to FIG. 5A, bracket 150 extends downwardly from base plate 122 supporting lift motor 152 that rotates lift motor pulley 154 that engages lift belt 156. Lift belt 156 is received around lift pulley 158 supported on shaft 160 which is rotatably supported by itself by bracket 150. It should be noted that the lift belt 156 may be tensioned in any suitable manner available in the prior art. As one example, one or more fasteners used to mount the lift motor 152 may be received in a slotted hole to allow the motor to pivot to tension the lift belt 156. When tension is achieved, the fasteners are tightened. Any suitable motor can be used as the lift motor 152, such as, for example, a servo or stepper series motor. As shown, one complete rotation of the pulley is required. It should be noted that such a motor includes an encoder that reads the position of the output shaft and identifies the position of the lift pulley 158 with appropriate accuracy. Opposite ends of the shaft 160 are then received in couplers 162 respectively engaging the cam drive shaft 164. Cams 166a and 166b will be described in more detail below. First, it is appropriate to note that these cams facilitate custom vertical movement of each swing arm pair as the lift motor 152 rotates. The arrangement described herein is advantageous for simultaneously providing vertical movement in spaced swing arm configuration positions using a single drive motor. In the alternative, however, separate drive motors can be used to generate the vertical motion of each swing arm pair. In this case, each motor may comprise an encoder, or a separate encoder may be provided for reading the vertical position of each swing arm.

Referring to Fig. 6 in conjunction with Fig. 5A, attention will be paid to details of the swing arm mechanism. To this end, FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged side cross-sectional view of swing arm pair 124. It should be understood that the swing arm pair 124a is basically identical except for any exceptions to be noted. The first and second swing arm pairs are supported using brackets 170a and 170b that are appropriately attached to base plate 122 to extend downward therefrom. Linear stage 172 is used to engage swing arm housing 176 to provide a vertical linear motion of swing arm housing relative to bracket 170. One suitable linear stage 172 is commercially available from NKS of Japan, but any number of alternative configurations may be provided to achieve the desired linear motion. Pneumatic cylinders 178 are provided to engage and be captured between the base plate 122 and the housing 176 of each swing arm arrangement. Cylinder 178 may be provided for counterweight purposes and provide downward and upward biasing force for swing arm arrangement relative to base plate 122. For example, the cylinder can provide a force that reacts with atmospheric pressure when the transfer chamber is under vacuum. As another example, when the transfer chamber is operating at atmospheric pressure, a force may be provided to counter the weight of the robot under gravity. In this respect, pressure adjustment is provided to the cylinder in a manner that generates and changes the biased force. Moreover, one or more additional cylinders may be provided depending on the load requirements or a single cylinder may be used.

With reference to FIGS. 5A-7, additional details regarding the construction of swing arm arrangement 120 will be noted. FIG. 7 is a further enlarged view showing details in the dashed circle 180 shown in FIG. The housing 176, which is supported for vertical movement, is sealed relative to the transfer chamber bottom using a sealing arrangement 182. The sealing arrangement includes an annular L-bracket 184 (see FIG. 7) having one end captured between the annular sealing ring 186 and the bottom wall 188 of the transfer chamber 20 (see FIG. 4). The sealing ring 186 may be held in place using, for example, screw fasteners 189. O-ring 190 is captured in an annular O-ring groove to seal L-bracket 184 against peripheral step 191 (see FIGS. 6 and 7) defined by transfer chamber bottom 188. . The opposite end of the L-bracket 184 is an annular sealing arrangement consisting of quad seals 200 which are held in position using a pair of grease retainers 202 and 204 located above and below the quad seals, respectively. It includes. Such quad seals, like all other seals described herein, should be lubricated using a suitable lubricant such as, for example, fluorinated grease, carried by grease retainers 202 and 204. Moving inward relative to the housing 176, the outer swing arm shaft 210 supports the bottom swing arm 130 of each pair of swing arms. The outer swing arm shaft 210 is supported for at least partial rotation within the through passage 212 defined by the housing 176 using the upper bearing and sealing assembly 214 (see FIG. 7). The upper bearing and seal assembly is another quad seal 200 and grease retainer captured in an annular groove configuration surrounding the top opening leading into the through passage 216 defined by the outer swing arm shaft 210. 202, 204. Under the sealing arrangement, in FIG. 7, the bearing 220 is received to rotationally support the upper end of the outer swing arm shaft 210. A similar bearing 220 (see FIG. 6) supports the bottom end of the outer swing arm shaft 210. The inner swing arm shaft 226 is received for rotation within the through passage 216 of the outer swing arm shaft 210.

7 shows a bearing / seal assembly 228 which is essentially identical in terms of sealing arrangement and functionality where the upper end of the inner swing arm shaft 226 is used between the housing 176 and the top end of the outer swing arm shaft 210. It is shown how it is supported for rotation by using. It should be noted that any suitable type of bearing can be used to rotationally support both the inner and outer swing arm shafts. Suitable bearing forms include, but are not limited to, angular contact and radial contact ball bearings. The bearing arrangement 228 is attached to the outer swing arm shaft 210 using a plurality of screw fasteners 230 (only one of which is shown) distributed around the axis of symmetry 232 of the swing arm arrangement. It is retained between the inner and outer swing arm shafts by attachment of the lower swing arm 130 to it. Thus, the lower swing arm serves as a seal and bearing retainer. In addition, the bearing 220 (see FIG. 6) may be used between the lower ends of the inner and outer swing arm shafts, and thus will not be described for the purpose of simplicity. The upper swing arm 128 has a clamp sheath that engages the clamping end of the upper swing arm 128 via threaded fasteners received within the clamp hole 238 so that the rotational position of the upper swing arm can be adjusted relative to the lower swing arm. It should be noted that the clamping arrangement with 234 (see FIG. 5A) is used to attach to the inner swing arm shaft 226. Any number of alternatives may be employed for the purpose of ensuring that the swing arms are properly attached. As one example (not shown), the outer swing arm shaft 210 and the inner swing arm shaft 226 of the swing arm assembly 124a may be suitably longer than the corresponding components used in the swing arm assembly 124b. have. As another example, an extension spacer 239 arrangement may be added as described in detail below.

With reference to FIGS. 5A-10A, the configuration of the dual swing arm assembly for the manner in which vertical movement is achieved using the cam 166 will be noted. Each of these cams includes a cam mounting plate 240 (see Figure 6) that is firmly attached to the cam plate 242 to rotate with the cam drive shafts 164a and 164b. 8 and 9 show the appearance of the cam surfaces 243a and 243b of the cam plates 242a and 242b, respectively, as described in detail below.

8, 9, 10A, and 10B, each cam plate defines a cam groove 246 that receives a cam follower 248. As shown in FIG. 8 and 9 show that the cam grooves 246a and 246b are mirror symmetric with each other. Rotation of each cam moves the associated swing arm between height 1 and height 4 as identified around each cam groove via engagement by cam follower 248. In Figures 8 and 9, each cam follower is received at a lower point (shown in phantom lines in Figures 8 and 9) in each cam groove, so that the cam and hence the swing arm are at height 1, but An alternative configuration of may be provided. The swing arm height associated with each cam height will be described with reference to the subsequent of the figures. It is to be understood that the cam plates 242a, 242b are interchangeable as long as such interchange is not accompanied by reversal in the direction of rotation. In this example, the cam plate 242a rotates in the indicated counterclockwise direction CCW, and the cam plate 242b rotates in the indicated clockwise direction CW. Holes 247 are provided for attaching the cam plate to the cam mounting plate. 10B is a partially cutaway sectional view of the cam follower 248 when received within the bridge bracket 256. For example, the cam follower 248 includes a screw mounting shaft 257a that is received in a hole defined by the bridge bracket 256. The nut 257a is screwed with the shaft 257a. The opposite end of the shaft 257a supports the cam roller 257c for rotation. The cam roller is sized to be received in one of the cam grooves 246. Such rotational support can be provided in a number of well known ways, for example by using bearings (not shown). The bridge bracket 256 is connected to the housing 176 (see FIG. 5A) using threaded fasteners received within the hole 258 and the cam follower 248 is a linear stage 172 and a swing arm shaft supported therein. A U-shaped configuration for the purpose of the bridge bracket 170 to provide vertical movement of the housing 176 as defined by.

Mainly, with reference to FIGS. 6, 11 and 12, the rotation drive arrangement 300 shown in FIG. 11 will be described in detail for rotating the upper and lower swing arms of each pair of swing arms in opposite directions. . FIG. 11 provides a general perspective view of such an arrangement for a swing arm pair 124a with the swing arm blades removed, and FIG. 12 provides an enlarged view in the dashed line 301 shown in FIG. The drive arrangement 300 includes a drive base plate 302 mounted to the bottom end of the housing 176. U-bracket 304 includes a bottom surface to which gear drive 306 is mounted and driven by motor 310 (see FIGS. 5A, 6, and 11). Motor 310 may include any suitable type of motor, such as, for example, a servo or stepper motor. The gear drive 306 drives the toothed pulley 306 (see Fig. 6). This toothed pulley will be described in detail below. First, however, it is appropriate to note that the pulley must be long enough to simultaneously drive four spaced timing belts along its entire length. With the upper swing arm spacer 311a and the lower swing arm spacer 311b to properly raise the swing arm arrangement 124a relative to the swing arm arrangement 124b to provide the swing arm engagement shown in FIG. 5A. A spacer arrangement 239 that is constructed is shown in FIG.

Mainly referring to FIG. 12, the first pulley assembly 312 consists of parallel first and second pulleys 314, 316 of the outer swing arm shaft 210. Such pulley arrangements may be referred to as separate pulley arrangements. Similarly, the second pulley arrangement 320 consists of first and second pulleys 322, 324 received by the bottom end of the inner swing arm shaft 226. Briefly, referring to FIG. 11, it should be noted that the arrangement of long holes is defined by pulley 324 for pulley offset purposes. The clamp 325 holds the flag plate 326 at a location on the reduced diameter distal end of the lowermost end of the inner swing arm shaft. The flag plate is generated by an optical sensor 330 (see FIG. 11) mounted to the base plate 302 over an angular displacement equal to the total angular shift of the upper swing arm 128a between the workpiece column and its corresponding process station. Is configured to block the light beam. The third idler pulley arrangement 350 is a belt that is self-rotatingly supported by an idler pulley mount 356 that adjustably engages the base plate 302 so that the pulley 352 rotates on the idler pulley shaft 358 ( Pulleys 352 configured to receive 366 and 368. In this regard, both the gear drive 306 and the pulley mount 356 are generally described above for the lift motor 152 of FIG. 5A using fasteners that pass through slotted holes, for example in a manner known in the art. In a manner that provides some degree of pivot rotation. This pivot rotation is useful for the purpose of adjusting the belt tension as described immediately below.

Referring again to FIG. 12, four belts are rotated by drive pulley 308. The first pair of lower swing arm timing belts include a lower arm leading belt 360 and a lower arm delay belt 362 that engage pulleys 314 and 316, respectively. The second pair of upper swing arm timing belts includes an upper arm leading belt 366 and an upper arm retardation belt 368. The reasons for the use of "delay" and "priority" applied to naming these belts will be apparent below. Suitable belts for this application, including the lift belt 156 of FIG. 5A, should be formed from a tolerant material such as polyurethane and / or Kevlar reinforced neoprene, for example. A pair of bolts 369 (see FIG. 12) are shown holding pulleys 322, 324 with a fixed rotational offset.

Referring now to FIGS. 13 and 14 in conjunction with FIG. 12, attention will be paid to the arrangement of the belt drive shown in FIG. 12 when viewed in a schematic perspective view taken from below for the purpose of generally showing the path taken by the belt. . To this end, FIG. 13 shows pulley arrangements 320 and 350 associated with drive pulley 308 when coupled by belts 366 and 368. It should be noted that the teeth are shown only a portion of the pulley for the purpose of simplicity, but it should be understood that each pulley includes essentially the same tooth configuration that is matched by all the belts in use. Each pulley arrangement 320, 312 includes a pattern of long slots that receive threaded fasteners (see bolt 369 in FIG. 12) to fixedly offset the tooth pattern of each pair of pulleys. The reason will be clear.

It should be understood that belts 366 and 368 are configured to have teeth on both opposing major surfaces of the belt. Thus, the "front side" of each belt engages pulley arrangements 320 and 350 and the "rear side" of each belt engages drive pulley 308. Thus, if the drive pulley 308 rotates clockwise as indicated by arrow 380, pulley arrangement 320, 350 will rotate counterclockwise as indicated by arrow 382. .

14 shows a pulley arrangement 312 associated with drive pulley 308 when engaged by belts 360 and 362. In this case, clockwise rotation of the drive pulley 308 causes clockwise rotation of the pulley arrangement 312. Thus, all pulley arrangements are driven by a common drive pulley 308 so that pulley arrangements 312 and 320 rotate coaxially with respect to each other in opposite directions. Thus, since the pulley arrangement 312 is supported by the outer swing arm shaft 210 and the pulley arrangement 320 is supported by the inner swing arm shaft 226, the inner and outer swing arm shafts are likewise driven by the pulley. Rotate in opposite directions with respect to each other according to any rotation of 308.

Briefly, referring to FIGS. 5A and 6, the reader will notice that the outer swing arm shaft 210 supports one of the lower swing arms 130 and the inner swing arm shaft 226 is one of the outer swing arms 128. Will come up with support for one. Thus, the upper and lower swing arms of each swing arm pair 124 rotate in opposite directions with respect to each other by the same angle for any given rotation of the pulley 308. In this regard, it should be noted that the flag plate 326 (see FIG. 11) rotates in coordination with the inner swing arm shaft 226. As a result of the opposite rotational configuration used, after initial alignment, identification of the position of the inner swing arm shaft causes the position of the outer swing arm shaft to be known. As is apparent with respect to this field of driving a swing arm, less than one complete rotation of each swing arm is required and is generally required to be significantly less than one rotation. In this example, each swing arm rotates approximately ± 60 ° from the center or groove position, representing approximately twice the total rotation of that value. The swing arm arrangement of the present invention advantageously provides for the adjustment of the overall angular displacement in light of the particular installation, as further described in detail at appropriate points below.

Referring now to FIG. 15, a simplified example will be provided for the purpose of illustrating the backlash compensation concept of the present invention using a schematic perspective view of a pulley arrangement 400. The pulley arrangement consists of pulley A, pulley B and pulley C. Pulley A, for example, operates in a similar manner as described above for pulley 308 of FIG. All these pulleys contain the same tooth receiving pattern.

Referring to FIGS. 16A and 16B in conjunction with FIG. 15, pulleys B and C have a tooth receptacle of pulley C where the tooth receiving pattern of pulley B can be achieved using, for example, a long slot hole configuration as described above. It is mounted on a common shaft, not shown, for the purpose of clarity of description so as to be offset relative to the pattern. This offset may be the degree of backlash value present between one of the pulleys and its engagement belt. It should be noted that the backlash figures are exaggerated in the figures for purposes of explanation. Such numerical values can be specified by the manufacturer, for example. In this example, a backlash value of approximately 0.508 mm (0.02 inch) is observed. Thus, the offset between the pulleys can be set to this value or slightly smaller. Depending on the rotation in a particular direction, either the belt or the pulley can be described as preceding or delayed as mentioned above. Of course, the relative leading / delay phase of each belt can be reversed by simply rotationally offset the pulleys in opposite directions with respect to each other.

Referring again to Figures 15, 16A and 16B, in this example, belt 402 engages pulley A and pulley B, and belt 404 is coupled to pulley A and pulley C. To combine. Pulley A is rotating counterclockwise as indicated by arrow 406. For the purpose of simplicity, only a limited number of teeth 410 are shown on the belts 402, 404. It should be noted that the figure shows the pulley arrangement at a given point such that the pulley A is in the same rotational position in all figures. It is to be understood that the pulleys B and C are mounted coaxially in a manner that provides for adjustment of the angular offset therebetween. It is contemplated that one of ordinary skill in the art could employ such an offset arrangement in light of this entire disclosure. The angular offset is indicated by the offset angle α shown in FIG. In this example, pulley C precedes pulley B by an angle α. The backlash value is shown by the angle β in FIG. In this example, the offset angle is shown as approximately twice the backlash value to compensate for the backlash introduced by the belts 402, 404.

Considering the pulley arrangement 400, the teeth 410a, 410b of the belt 402 are engaged by the pulley A (see FIG. 16A) so that the belt 402 is in the direction indicated by the arrow 414. Let it move As the belt 402 moves, the teeth 410c and 410d engage the pulley B to rotate in the counterclockwise direction 406. Pulley C (see FIG. 16B) rotates jointly with pulley B to engage belt teeth 410e and 410f. This action now allows the teeth 410g and 410h of the belt 404 to engage the pulley A such that the leading edge of each belt tooth rotates the pulley A. FIG. In this way, the backlash angle β trails the belt teeth 410g and 410h as shown in FIG. 16B relative to the belt teeth 410g. Subsequently, when pulley A is reversed clockwise, belt teeth 410g and 410h will be directly engaged by pulley teeth 414a and 414b of pulley A respectively. Accordingly, the belt teeth 410e, 410f will engage directly with the pulley teeth 414c, 414d of the pulley C in a clockwise direction so that the backlash is removed, at least from a practical point of view. At the same time, tension is transmitted from the belt 402 to the belt 404. This very advantageous configuration described in connection with driving a swinging arm that rotates in the opposite direction is not limited to the field described herein and indeed any desired to eliminate backlash resulting from the use of tooth pulleys and flexible drive members. It should be understood that a wide range of applicability can be enjoyed in this context.

With reference to Figures 17A-17D, attention will be made in detail to the slit door valve arrangement 80 previously shown in Figures 3 and 4. Figure 17 provides a perspective view of the slit door arrangement 80, and Figure 17b is a schematic cross sectional view taken along the lines 17b-17b shown in Figure 17a. FIG. 17C is a further enlarged view of a portion of the slit door valve arrangement in the area 500 indicated by dashed lines in FIG. 17B. 17D is a perspective view of the angle downwards on the upper portion of the arrangement 80.

Referring to Figures 17A and 17B, the slit door valve arrangement 80 includes a linear actuator 502, such as a pneumatic linear actuator, for example. This actuator includes a drive shaft 504 that is vertically movable in these figures. The shaft 504 is connected to a linkage arrangement 506 consisting of a first link 508 and a second link 510. One end of the first link 508 is pivotally attached to the slide bracket 512 and its opposite end is pivotally attached to the shaft 504. The link 510 includes one end pivotally attached to the blade lever 514 and an opposite end pivotally attached to the shaft 504. The blade lever 514 is at an axis 516 in the pivot shaft 518 such that it can be rotated relative to the pivot shaft 518 as the lower end of the lever generated by the linkage arrangement 506 as described. Supported. The pivot shaft 518 is supported by a linear slide 512 that slides into the securing bracket 520. Bracket 520 also supports actuator 502 in a suitable manner, such as through the use of a suitable fastener 522 such that the actuator is positioned securely to apply a moving force to blade lever 514 via linkage 506. I support it. Thus, the lever 514 can be moved up and down in accordance with the actuator 502. Next, the moving force is transmitted to the pivot axis 516 through the length of the blade lever causing the pivot shaft 518 to move relative to the blade lever. The top end of the pivot shaft 518 seals the ball flange 530. Sealing may be accomplished, for example, using an O-ring housed in an annular groove 532. The ball flange 530 may be firmly attached to the pivot shaft 518 in any suitable manner, for example by screwing. The seal and guide arrangement 540 includes an annular bushing 542 that serves to limit the non-vertical movement of the pivot shaft 518. The seal arrangement 546 bushes to seal against the pivot shaft 518. 542. Any suitable sealing arrangement may be used, including the quad sealing arrangement described above with respect to Figure 7. During operation, upward movement may initially be performed by a peripheral lid hard stop 548a ( 17b) causes the blade lever to move upwards without rotation until it meets pivot shaft stop step 548b to limit any further vertical rise. Clock in the drawing of 17b In the direction of rotation of the lower end of the blade lever 514. Thus, the sealing blade 549 is advanced to contact the opposing chamber sealing surface (see Figure 3). The combined chamber body may be formed from the particular material from which it is formed and any suitable material, such as aluminum, etc. Of course, the downward motion of the pivot shaft 518 results in the opposite behavior of the instrument.

Referring again to FIGS. 17A-17D, the seal and guide arrangement 540 (see FIG. 17B) is received in a top opening defined by the upper end 550 (see FIG. 17A) of the bracket 520. In this regard, it should be noted that the bracket 520 includes a generally inverted L-shape. The upper end 550 of the bracket 520 is attached to the adapter plate 552 in any suitable manner using, for example, screw fasteners (not shown). It should be understood that the top end 560 of the lever 514 can move laterally in the figure by pivoting the lever with respect to the ball flange 530. Thus, a suitable sealing arrangement must be provided between the top lever end 560 and the ball flange 530. To this end, a socket cap 562 is received around the upper lever end 560 with respect to the annular step 564 defined thereby. The socket cap 562 is sealed against the top lever end 560 using, for example, an O-ring received in the annular groove 566. The outermost annular perimeter of the socket cap 562 is sealed against the ball flange 530 using an O-ring 570 (see FIG. 17C) received in the annular groove 572. Jam nut 574 or other suitable mechanical means is used to hold socket cap 562 relative to ball flange 530 while capturing alignment yoke 576 therebetween. Jam nut 574 may be threadedly received on enlarged diameter threaded portion 578 of top end 560 of lever 514. In this embodiment, jam nut 574 is tightened until a hard stop is reached. This ensures that the position of the socket cap 562 remains acceptable close to the ball flange 530. Ideally, the spherical surface represented by both the socket cap and the ball flange share a common center point. The ball and socket seal configuration provided by this configuration is believed to be advantageous for the accommodation of significant lateral movement while maintaining a seal between the ball flange 530 and the socket cap 560.

Compared with the prior art implemented by the slit door 1500 of FIG. 29 or the like, the slit door arrangement 80 is pivoted to allow increased movement away from the sealing surface, which reduces the possibility of frictional contact during the vertical movement phase. To accept. An additional advantage is provided with twice the exercise capacity to avoid the need for accurate installation adjustments.

Mainly referring to FIGS. 17A, 17C, and 17D, the top lever end 560 includes a distal end 580 (see FIG. 17C) that supports a blade suspension member 582 supporting the sealing blade 549. . The blade suspension member 582 is pivotally supported by itself on the distal end 580 using the first and second bearings 588a and 588b, respectively. These bearings are configured to provide rotational movement of the suspension stage. The first bearing 588a is a ball bearing in this example, and the second bearing 588b is a needle bearing. It is contemplated that any number of alternate bearing arrangements can be used to support the blade suspension member 582 as long as proper pivoting motion is achieved in relation to the ability to transmit sufficient radial force. Suspension member and bearing 588 are retained at distal end 580 by, for example, using shoulder screws 590 that screw into distal end and retain bearings 588a and 588b. Suspension member 582 includes a pair of suspension arms extending in the lateral direction (see FIGS. 17A and 17D). The distal end of the arm 592 is secured to the rear surface of the sealing blade 549 using, for example, threaded fasteners (not shown) that are received within the pair of openings 596 and extend into the sealing blade 549 in a similar manner. Pivotally within pivot block 594 to which it is attached. Pitch bias spring 596 is attached at one end using fastener 600 to blade 549. Next, the pitch piece spring is wrapped around the suspension member 582 for attachment to its surface, which is the opposing sealing blade 549, using another pair of fasteners 600 as best shown in FIG. 17D. All. Cutout area 602 of the biasing spring (see FIG. 17D) provides an access margin for shoulder screw 590. The spring 598 is shown as attached to the rear surface of the blade member 549 in FIGS. 17A-17C and 17E, but this is shown in FIG. 17D according to the sealing blade geometry and gap requirements in certain applications. It can be designed for attachment to the top surface of the blade member. Pitch bias spring 598 causes blade 549 to rotate relative to rotation about axis 599 (indicated by the dashed line in FIG. 17A) of blade suspension member 582 when valve arrangement 80 is in its open position. It should be noted that it maintains the desired rotational position. In other words, this desired rotational position occurs when the blade member 549 does not contact or withdraw from the chamber wall sealing surface surrounding the slit opening (see FIG. 3). On the other hand, when the blade member 549 is in contact with this chamber wall sealing surface, the pitch biasing spring 598 has a blade member between the blade member and the chamber wall to provide an acceptable seal without the need for precise tolerance adjustment. Allows pivot rotation about the axis 599 of the suspension member 582 to allow it to rotate to accommodate the vertical tolerance of.

Referring to FIGS. 17A and 17D, yoke 576 includes opposing arms (see FIG. 17D) having vertically extending distal ends 610, which distal ends are threaded with arms 592 of suspension member 582. Each defining a through opening for receiving a screw fastener 612 to engage.

As shown in Fig. 17E, a cross-sectional view taken along lines 17e-17e in Fig. 17D, the biasing spring 614 elastically biases each distal end 610 away from its associated suspension arm 592. And is fastened by fasteners 612 between each distal end 610 of yoke 576 and each arm of the suspension arm. Thus, the spring 614 centers the blade member 549 against rotation about the axis 616 of the lever 514 (indicated using the dashed line in FIG. 17A) when the blade member is not in contact with the chamber sealing surface. Act in an advantageous manner. However, when the chamber sealing surface is not contacted by the blade member, the spring 614 rotates about the axis 616 to compensate for the lateral or horizontal tolerance between the blade member 549 and the chamber sealing surface. Accepts limited rotation of the blade member relative to 514. As such, a significant range of tolerances can be compensated for the vertical and horizontal axes of rotation, so that the arrangement of the valve arrangement 80 is combined with the chamber sealing surface to avoid the need for high accuracy alignment. Provides advantageously a second degree of freedom for 549. For example, assembly variations of approximately 2.54 mm (0.100 inch) are acceptable. Moreover, it should be understood that the "ball and socket" configuration provided by the ball flange 530 and the socket cap 562 accommodates significant lateral movement of the blade member 549 relative to the chamber sealing surface. In this way, significant lateral movements prior to vertical movement of the sealing blades may result in increased rotational tolerances and / or provided by a significantly larger gap between the chamber wall and the sealing blades during vertical movement to avoid frictional contact that may generate particles. Allows for relatively large sealing blades.

Since various components of the system 10 have been described in detail above, attention will be paid to the operation of the system, in particular the use of the swing arm arrangement of the present invention. 18A to 18E are schematic plan views of a system 10 sequentially illustrating the transfer of a workpiece associated with a machining. This primary series of drawings are supplemented by FIGS. 19A-19L of the secondary series, which are schematic side views of the system showing the sequential movement of the workpiece with respect to machining. For purposes of simplicity, the present description may refer to a workpiece as a wafer. Most of the main figures are limited to showing a combination of one load lock 20 connected to one transfer chamber 22 connected to one process chamber 24 having dual process stations 26a and 26b. . The components of the front end 12 will be shown as needed. The workpiece or wafer column 700 is located in the load lock 20 as defined by the shelf arrangement 64 of FIGS. 2 and 4. As shown in FIG. 19A, the workpiece column 700 includes a pair of workpiece lathes 702 before processing and a pair of workpiece lathes 704 after processing. In this regard, it should be understood that the wafer before processing is always moved from the front end to the wafer shelf 702 before processing and the wafer after processing is always moved back to the front end from the wafer shelf 704 after processing. The slit door is marked as closed between the various chambers as needed using the rectangles of the FIG. 18 series and the cross-hatching of FIG. For example, the slit doors 706 and 708 are shown open in FIGS. 18A-18D and FIGS. 19A-19G and 19L and closed in FIGS. 18E and 19H-19K. Figures 19C, 19D and 19G-19L as well as Figures 18B, 18D and 18E further illustrate the swing arm arrangement in the home or rest position at some point during operation of the system as further described have.

Referring to FIG. 18A in conjunction with FIG. 19A, FIG. 19A is a system 10 having a workpiece column 700 shown on the left side of the figure and a process station 26 shown on the right side of the figure as in all figures of the FIG. 19 series. ) Is a side view. The upper swing arm pair previously described with respect to FIG. 5A includes swing arms 128a and 128b for moving the wafer before processing and the lower swing arm pair includes swing arms 130a and 130b for moving the wafer after processing. Include. The upper swing arm 128 is rotated to the workpiece column 700 and the lower swing arm 130 is rotated to the process station 26. In FIG. 19A, the upper swing arm 128 is held to raise the pair of pre-processed wafers 710 from the wafer shelf 702 before processing and the swing arm 130 is paired at the process stations 26a and 26b. It is held at the same time to raise the wafer 712 after the processing. It should be noted that the height 4 of FIGS. 8 and 9 generates this swing arm height. The wafer 712 after processing is respectively above the process station by the first and second sets of lift pins 716 and 718 to keep the lower swing arm 130 picking up the wafer 712 from the lift pins. Supported at differently spaced heights h1, h2.

Referring to FIG. 18A, it is noted that the wafer before and after processing is moved along the first and second arcuate and semicircular transfer paths 720, 722 indicated by the dotted lines between the workpiece column 700 and the processing station 26. It must be understood. The paths 720 are staggered in the work column 700 but it is important to intersect each other and stagger again near the process station. Angle γ represents the rotation of each swing arm from the home position corresponding to the position of dashed line 724 along paths 720 and 722. As such, the total movement of each swing arm between the workpiece column 700 and its associated process chamber 26 is 2γ. It is more important that the wafer column, the pivot axis of the two swing arm arrangements and the two process chambers cooperate to define the pentagonal shape. The top shelf of the shelf arrangement 64 comprising one long blade 66 and one short blade 68 (see FIG. 2) is partially observable. These blades are arranged in such a way as to accommodate a particular entry angle by the swing arm in charge of a particular shelf in order to avoid interference therebetween. In this example, the upper swing arm 128a approaches the top shelf. Thus, the short blade 68 is located on the left side of the shelf arrangement in the figure to prevent interference with the end actuator 142a of the upper swing arm 128a. Since the upper swing arm 128a swings in the opposite direction with respect to the upper swing arm 128b, the shelf blades are reversed relative to their associated shelves, as best seen in FIG. As such, the shelf blade configuration is made in light of the approach angle of each approaching swing arm.

In FIG. 19B, swing arm pairs 124a and 124b use the lower swing arm 130 to lift off the wafer 712 after processing from the lift pins 716 and 718 and from the wafer shelf 702 before processing. An upward vertical motion was performed using the lift motor 152 of FIG. 5A to use the upper swing arm 128 to separate and raise the wafer 710 before processing. It should be noted that each rotation of the cam plates 242a, 242b in FIGS. 8 and 9 from the height 4 to the height 1 causes this upward vertical movement.

18B and 19C, the swing arms 128a, 128b, 130a, and 130b are all home positions such that the wafer 710 before processing and the wafer 712 after processing are in a spaced apart vertical relationship (see FIG. 19C). At the same time, only the wafer before processing can be observed in Fig. 18B. Cam plates 242a and 242b in FIG. 8 remain at height 1, respectively.

Referring to Fig. 19D in conjunction with Fig. 18B, the swing arm remains in the rest position, but downward vertical movement in the direction indicated by arrow 730 is performed according to the lift motor 152 of Fig. 5A. It should be noted that lift pins 716 and 718 can remain in the " rising " position as shown in FIG. It should be noted that each rotation of the cam plates 242a, 242b in FIGS. 8 and 9 from the height 1 to the height 2 causes this downward vertical movement.

18C and 19E show a wafer column (not shown) to distribute the wafer 712 after processing while the upper swing arms 128a and 128b respectively dispense one preprocessing wafer 710 to one of the process stations 26a and 26b. The result of the rotation of the lower swing arms 130a, 130b to 700 is shown cooperatively. The lift pins 716 and 718 may remain in their raised positions, and the cam plates 242a and 242b of FIGS. 8 and 9 remain oriented at height 2.

In FIG. 19F, the swing arm arrangement is placed on the arrow 740 to place the wafer 710 before processing on the lift pins 716, 718 while the wafer 712 after processing is placed on the wafer shelf 704 after processing. Is moved downwards in the direction indicated. It should be noted that each rotation of the cam plates 242a, 242b in FIGS. 8 and 9 from the height 2 to the height 3 causes this downward vertical movement. Further, the return of the workpiece after machining involves reverse rotation of the cam plates 242a and 242b as will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the above disclosure.

18D and 19G show swing arms 128a, 128b, 130a and 130b being rotated to the home position. At this point, the swing arm does not hold the wafer and the lift pins 716 and 718 remain raised to support the wafer 710 before processing.

18E and 19H, FIG. 18E is a front end robot 750 arranged to move the wafer between the load lock 20, the FOUP 18 and the intermediate station 21 (see FIG. 1B) at the front end. It is to be noted that It should be noted that the intermediate station 21 can be used for different functions, including cooling station, wafer alignment station, measuring station before and after processing, or two or more functions can be incorporated in this space. The front end robot uses the upper / lower pair of paddles to support the pair of wafers and is configured to be placed on the wafer shelf 702 before processing and picked up from the wafer shelf 704 after processing. Of course, the front end robot arm can be picked up and placed from any pair of adjacent positions or from individual positions within any FOUP or from any position within the cooling station 21 (see FIG. 1B). In this example, the front end robot 750 is maintained to dispense a new pair of preprocessed wafers 710 '(see FIG. 8E) under atmospheric pressure to the wafer shelf 702 before processing. In this regard, a suitable door configuration is used between the front end 12 and the load lock 20, which is not shown since such door configurations are known. Of course, such doors must be in the open position before the front end robot enters the load lock 20. 19H shows that lift pins 716 and 718 have been lowered to place the wafer 710 prior to processing on their respective process stations. 18E and 19H both show slit doors 706 and 708 as closed for the processing mode. It is to be understood that the relationship between these various events as well as the actual processing initiation can be varied in a number of appropriate ways in the time relationship to each other. Next, processing proceeds to convert the wafer before processing into the wafer 712 after processing at the process stations 26a and 26b.

Briefly, referring to Figures 1A and 1B, for the front end robot 750, two wafers may be transferred simultaneously but the robot alone uses 25 independent wafers by using independent movement of its upper and lower paddles. It should be noted that the 25th wafer transfer in the FOUP can be easily accommodated. Moreover, since one or two wafers are selectively transported at one time, such a robot is uniquely suited for easily accommodating various wafers in the FOUP and cooling station 21, for example when all the FOUPs are not fully loaded. . That is, the robot 750 can easily pick up one wafer from one FOUP and another wafer from another FOUP as needed using independent paddle movement to improve system throughput. The same is true for placing a wafer in a FOUP.

Referring to FIG. 19I, during processing, the front end robot 750 places a new pair of preprocessed wafers 710 onto the wafer shelf 702 before processing. At this time, both the wafer shelf after the processing of the wafer column 700 and the wafer shelf before the processing are filled.

Referring to Fig. 19J, immediately after placing the wafer before the new processing, the front end robot 750 picks up the processed wafer 712 from the wafer shelf 704 after processing. It should be understood that once governed by a relatively short process time, this movement of placing the wafer before the new processing and picking up the wafer after processing can be called very quickly as it can be carried out very quickly.

In FIG. 19K, the system prepares for termination of processing with the wafer shelf 705 after processing empty and the new pair of wafers before processing 710 ′ waiting on the wafer shelf 702 before processing. The wafer at the processing station is shown to be converted as a wafer after processing.

19L shows the end of processing with the slit door open and the newly processed wafer 712 raised by the lift pins 716, 718. The following steps are basically the same as in Fig. 19A described above so that the machining cycle can be repeated as necessary.

A detailed description of the system 10 as well as its operation is appropriate to discuss some of the advantages it provides for system throughput, particularly for relatively short machining times. When the machining time is short, it is important to carry out the workpiece transfer in such a way that it does not add overhead time to the overall time required to machine the workpiece. In other words, the overhead time is the time at which the workpiece is being transported without simultaneous exposure of the workpiece to the treatment process. In this regard, it should be understood that the system 10 transfers the workpiece from the process chamber at the same time as the workpiece is transferred to the process chamber before the new machining. When the machined workpiece arrives at the load lock, the workpiece before machining arrives at the process chamber simultaneously. Moreover, this transfer is achieved in a fast manner. For example, a transfer separation of about less than about 8 seconds is expected. At the same time, it should be understood that the use of a workpiece column in a loadlock provides what can be referred to as a small loadlock. That is, the load lock volume is limited to provide rapid low pressure pumping from atmospheric pressure to medium pressure or to its processing pressure. For example, a load lock volume of approximately 20 liters is expected. A load lock low pressure pumping time of about 10 seconds or less is expected.

Referring again to FIG. 3, as mentioned previously, low pressure pumping of the load lock is achieved through port 87, only one of which is shown in FIG. 3. This rapid low pressure pumping is facilitated at least in part due to the small volume of the load lock, so it is recommended to use dry ambient air whenever possible when the load lock is in communication with the front end. In this way, sudden condensation of water vapor can be avoided. Moreover, only one observable purge port 89 presents a constant cutoff of gas flow when the load lock is in communication with the front end to prevent mixing of these gases present in the load lock with the surrounding front end gas. Can be used. As such, the pump and purge routines are used to avoid such gas mixing each time the door is opened between the load lock and the front end, so that gas entering the trough purge port 89 flows through the load lock and the pump port ( Through 87). This entails the further advantage described briefly above, where contaminants flow into the trough 87 and are emptied as a result of pumping from this lower lying region of the load lock.

20 is a schematic top view of a system 10 without the front end 12 for the purpose of illustrating advantageous features for process station spacing. In other words, the distance refers between the center of one process station and the center of another process station. For purposes of clarity, only swing arm pair 124b is shown, but it should be understood that this discussion is equally applicable to other swing arm pairs. FIG. 20 schematically shows the swing arm arrangement 120 with respect to the opposite direction rotation, but it should be noted that its full symmetry capability is shown, for example, in FIGS. 18A-18E. In this example, the process stations 26a, 26b are shown spaced apart by the distance S1. However, it may be desirable to change this spacing, for example, by increasing the spacing so that the spacing distance between the process stations 26a ', 26b' is increased to a distance S2. This change is readily accommodated by the system 10 as described below.

Referring to Fig. 5A in conjunction with Fig. 20, as described above, the upper swing arm 128a is clamped to the inner swing arm drive shaft and the lower swing arm 130a is pinned or firmly fixed to the outer swing arm drive shaft. It should be noted that it is attached. In order to accommodate the spacing or change between any given process stations, the lower swing arm 130a is initially fully rotated in the direction of the process station using the motor 310. The housing 176 shown in FIG. 5A can then be rotated in a manner that allows positioning the lowest swing arm 130a at the associated process station 26a 'of the process stations. Next, the housing 176 is fixed in position. With this positioning achieved and the upper swing arm 128a not clamped from the inner swing arm drive shaft, the upper swing arm 128a is freely rotated to the desired position in the wafer column 700. Next, the upper swing arm is clamped to the inner swing arm shaft. As a result of the opposite rotation of the upper and lower swing arms, the home position will be angularly displaced by an amount equal to one half of the further rotation introduced in the swing arm path between the wafer column and each process station. In FIG. 20, given the increased rotation as an angle δ, the home position of the workpiece column 700 will be rotationally displaced by 1/2 δ towards the process station. Of course, if the swing arm length is changed, the wafer column position will change accordingly. The shelf arrangement 64 can accept small changes in swing arm length as it is. However, a larger change would require moving the lathe position within the load lock 20 along a line segment 802 perpendicular to and bisecting between process stations 804.

As another advantage of the system 10, dual wafer dispensing capabilities are provided using only a single wafer load / load lock style structure. This provides a significantly reduced transfer chamber size and simplifies the dynamics associated with wafer exchange. The load lock design allows for quick exchange of wafers under atmospheric pressure, which is facilitated through the described independent upper / lower robot paddles of the front end robot. Now, this is inherently suitable for small lots that are often encountered in FOUP based machining. Small volume load locks allow for quick evacuation and pumping; This is essential for high system throughput capacity. Vacuum-based transfer couples both the load lock and the wafer exchange of the processing module in a common motion; Eliminates the need for additional delays due to sequencing and minimizes wafer changes. "Small-batch" processing techniques may be employed while reducing the physical size and cost associated with wafer handling techniques (parallel wafer processing). In this respect, the transfer chamber is also relatively small in size. As a further advantage, during load lock exchange under atmospheric pressure, two new wafers are placed simultaneously by the front end robot, which then removes the previously processed wafer. This wafer exchange occurs very quickly and allows for almost invisible handling overhead when combined with the rapid evacuation and pumping times associated with reduced load lock volume. Indeed, the main purpose of the platform for high throughput capability is to mask all time associated with wafer replenishment entirely within the time required to process other wafers. The result is believed to be a system capable of true continuous machining. As an additional advantage, the opposing array of dual swing arms efficiently accommodates parallel wafer processing geometry with a single wafer form load / load lock configuration with a significantly smaller footprint than that achieved by conventional designs. Provides a trajectory for letting

As will be apparent from reference to a number of specific examples, which will be described immediately below, the concepts disclosed herein may be embodied by a wide variety of alternative system configurations and arrangements, all of which are considered to be within the scope of the present invention.

Attention is drawn to FIG. 21, which schematically illustrates a processing arrangement 800. FIG. 21 schematically shows the swing arm arrangement 120 with respect to the opposite direction rotation, but it should be noted that its full symmetry capability is shown, for example, in FIGS. 18A-18E. The processing arrangement 800 includes first and second process chambers 802, 804, respectively. This system further includes a swing arm arrangement 120 having dual swing arm assemblies 124a and 124b. A load lock 810 is provided to receive the wafer column 700. The process chambers 802, 804 are housed within the entire chamber 812 along with the load lock 810. Any number of valve arrangements can be used to connect with the various chambers used by the processing arrangement 800, including, for example, those described in Figures 3 and 4 of US Pat. No. 6,429,139 used in connection with the arcuate chamber walls. It should be noted that there is. Therefore, this description will not be repeated here for the purpose of brevity.

Referring again to FIG. 21, it is to be understood that while the process chambers 802, 804 are both in use, the swing arm arrangements 124a, 124b can move simultaneously as described above. As an alternative, however, one swing arm arrangement is incapable of its rotational movement, for example by stopping its rotation drive motor such that the swing arm assembly remains in its home position while the other swing arm assembly remains fully operational. Can be. The released swing arm assembly will continue to move vertically as is normal with a swing arm assembly that operates without any interference between the two swing arm assemblies. The particular process chamber associated with the released swing arm assembly may be configured (ie, stopped) so that its use can be isolated from the rest of the system so that it can be operated while the other process chamber remains fully operational. This feature is considered very advantageous in and of itself.

Referring to Figure 22, there is shown another embodiment of a system 1000 made in accordance with the present invention. System 1000 shares the advantages of system 10 while providing additional advantages. Such a system uses a wafer handling section 15 and a processing section 16 in connection with the front end 1002. The machining section includes an elongate conveying chamber 1004 that houses the conveying mechanism 1006 in the form of a linear drive for moving the workpiece as indicated by arrow 1007. One suitable form of linear drive includes a magnetically levitated linear drive although any suitable form may be employed. A load lock 1010 is positioned at one end of the transport chamber 1004 to communicate with the interior of the transport chamber through the door 1111. In this regard, it should be understood that the transfer chamber 1004 may operate at process pressure. The load lock 1010 is now configured to communicate with the atmospheric small scale environment 1012 through the door 1114. Since the general details of the configuration will be apparent to those skilled in the art in light of the above discussion, the small-scale environment 1012 is not shown in detail, but may include a front end robot and port for any suitable number of FOUPs. Door 1111 and door 1114 include any suitable, but not limited to, slot valves of the type previously described for the FIG. 17 series, in accordance with the configuration provided for carrying the workpiece therethrough as further described. It may be in the form.

Referring again to FIG. 22, in one embodiment, the delivery mechanism 1006 is configured to move a workpiece carrier 1118 that supports one or more workpiece columns. The carrier 1118, indicated as the workpiece column 700a supported by the conveying portion 1006 and represented by a virtual line as the workpiece column 700b, is shown as being positioned for access by the swing arm arrangement 120b. have. Each of these workpiece columns has a difference that each workpiece column is transportable, as further described, but is similar to the workpiece column 700 described above. It should be understood that the carrier 1118 supports the shelf arrangement 64 described above for access by the swing arm arrangement 120a, 120b.

Referring again to FIG. 22, when using a transportable workpiece carrier, the door 1111 may include any suitable door arrangement. The front end robot (which may be the same as the front end robot 750 in FIG. 18E), which forms part of the front end 1012, is the same as that described for the system 10 by moving the workpiece carrier to position 700b ′. Basically the same way it is possible to access the work carrier which is transportable at 700b 'through the door 1114. In particular, the front end robot can have independent upper / lower paddles that can be used for the workpiece column in four positions. This position may also include a rotatable shelf arrangement facing one of the doors 1114 for front end access or one of the doors 1114 for access of the linear transport mechanism 1006. In the alternative, the door 1114 may be configured to move the entire workpiece column or workpiece carrier therethrough with the use of a suitable front end robot. In this way, a new pre-working workpiece column can enter through the loadlock 1010 and another loadlock (not shown but at the opposite end of the carrier 1006) to recover the workpiece column after processing. It can be used by the front end. Workpiece columns 700a and 700b are shown as being selectively aligned with transfer chambers 22b and 22a, respectively. With the workpiece columns 700a and 700b positioned as shown, more than one transportable workpiece carrier may be used at a time so that the transfer of workpieces to these columns can proceed as described above for the system 10. It should be understood that it can. For illustrative purposes, one transfer chamber in combination with one process chamber may be referred to as a processing platform. Thus, in this example, machining platforms 1120 and 1122 are provided. The workpiece column 700a 'includes a position where the transportable workpiece carrier can be moved, which serves for example as a cooling and / or buffer station. The buffer / cooling station may be configured to rotate by 180 ° as required for access from the linear carrier 1006 and the wafer carrier 1118. This is further described in connection with the appropriate valve and as mentioned above, so that the reduced system overhead time combined with the machining time requirement ensures this feature to appear essentially the same as the load lock 1010 to increase system throughput. It should be noted that the load lock position may be included. Thus, the advantages resulting from the use of a stationary workpiece column in a loadlock are also provided by the system 1000, and further advantages are provided through making such a workpiece column transportable. Moreover, when process chamber 24a is used to perform a different process than process chamber 24b, the configuration of system 1000 provides the additional advantage of allowing sequential processing without the need to break vacuum.

Referring now to FIG. 23, there is shown another embodiment system 1200 made in accordance with the present invention. While the swing arm arrangement 120 is shown for the opposite rotation throughout the appropriate view of the remaining figures, its full symmetry capability is described in detail above and can be observed, for example, in FIGS. 18A-18E. It should be noted. System 1200 includes a modified front end 1012 ′ having a load lock access door 1114 centered on one side thereof. Deformed transport chamber 1004 'has a deformed load lock 1010' having doors 1114, 1111 arranged on opposite sides thereof to face the front end 1012 'and the transport chamber 1004', respectively. Include. The workpiece column 700a is shown in the load lock 1010 'such that it can be accessed from the front end using a front end robot or moved into the transport chamber 1004'. Workpiece column 700b and carrier 1118 are shown in alignment with processing platforms 1120 and 1122. In this configuration, both machining platforms can use the swing arm arrangement 120a, 120b to move the workpiece relative to this workpiece column. Cooling and / or buffer stations (see FIG. 22) may be readily provided. In one embodiment, an appropriate arrangement may be provided to elevate the workpiece column from, for example, a load lock 1010 'or from a cooling / buffer station so that multiple workpiece columns can be arranged in a stacked relationship. In this regard, a "second layer" may be added to the transfer chamber 1004 'and the load lock 1010' to provide a high degree of flexibility for movement of the workpiece column carrier in such a system. It should be noted that system 1200 is also advantageous for providing the ability to perform sequential processing procedures without the need to break vacuum. That is, as in the case of system 1000 and other systems to be described, platform 1120 may be used to perform a first machining step. After being exposed to this first machining step, the workpiece can be transported to platform 1122 for exposure to the second machining step.

Referring now to FIGS. 24A-24D in conjunction with FIG. 23, further details are now provided for the linear carrier 1006 as shown in FIG. 23, although these concepts are provided with any linear carrier and / or excitation. It should be understood that it is applicable to rotatable wafer columns used in the art. FIG. 24A shows the workpiece carrier 1118 supported by a linear carrier 1006 rotated to face the platform 1122 to receive / take the workpiece with such a platform, which workpiece itself is rotated and It may be a robot having an extension ability.

FIG. 24B shows the workpiece carrier 1118 rotated to the "neutral" position in preparation for exchanging the workpiece with the load lock 1010 '.

In FIG. 24C, the workpiece carrier 1118 moves the wafer column 700b into the loadlock 1010 ′ for access by the front end 1012 ′ of FIG. 23 with the door 1111 in the open position. have. It should be noted that linear movement is facilitated as indicated by arrow 1123.

FIG. 24D shows the workpiece carrier 1118 rotated to face the platform 1120 (see FIG. 23) to receive / take the workpiece with this platform.

Referring now to FIG. 25, another alternative system configuration 1300 is shown. It should be understood that most of the foregoing discussion of alternative embodiments is equally applicable to system 1300. For this reason, any details will not be repeated for the purpose of brevity. The system 1300 lays the processing platforms 1120, 1122 in a parallel relationship for access using the transfer chamber 1004 ″ in a manner similar to the system 100 described above. However, in this case, the front end 1012 'Is rotated by 90 ° and arranged to communicate with the load lock 1010' through the door 1114. As shown, work columns 700a-700d can be used in the system. ) Is positioned within the load lock 1010 ′, the workpiece column 700b is positioned for access by the platform 1120, and the workpiece column 700c is positioned for access by the platform 1122, and the workpiece column 700d is positioned outward of the workpiece column 700c, which may be a cooling and / or buffer station. It is shown as an imaginary line. , A sequential processing can be performed without the need to destroy the vacuum.

Referring to Figure 26, another alternative system configuration 1400 is shown. System 1400 represents a combination of the systems 1200, 1300 described above. In particular, the transport chamber 1004 ″ in FIG. 25 was used with the platforms 1120, 1122 located in parallel on one side of the transport chamber, and on the other side of the transport chamber, the platforms 1120 ′, 1122 ′ transported. Located parallel to the platform on opposite sides of the chamber, the system 1400 thus shares all the advantages of the systems 1200 and 1300 to provide powerful workpiece machining capabilities.

Referring to Figure 27, a further alternative system 1500 is shown. System 1500 shares many aspects of its configuration with system 1400 of FIG. 26, with the exception to be noted. In this example, the transport chamber 1502 houses the linear drive 1504 in the form of a small robot. The linear drive includes a paddle assembly 1506, which can be configured as an upper / lower paddle as described above for the purpose of carrying one or two workpieces at a time. The paddle assembly of the linear drive 1504 is shown in the lower position in this figure such that the paddle blade is positioned within the load lock 1010 '. The buffer station 1510 is located at the top end of the linear drive in this example. The buffer station may, for example, comprise 1 to 30 workpiece positions. Some of the workpiece buffer locations can be used to store test workpieces for process setup and / or calibration. It is important to note that the pivot axis of the swing arm arrangement 120a-120d is now located in the transport chamber 1502. Furthermore, the delivery chamber can be maintained at process pressure if desired. A slit door 1512 (only one of which is identified) is provided that can utilize any suitable valve arrangement, such as, for example, valve arrangement 80 as described above. Thus, as in the case of the other systems described above, sequential or parallel processing can be achieved using such a system.

Referring again to FIG. 27, in one embodiment of the system 1500, no load lock 1010 ′ is required. That is, door 1111 can be removed so that the illustrated load lock volume is part of the transport chamber. As such, this lower depicted position of the miniature robot 1506 can serve as a buffer station or for other suitable purposes. It should be understood that the present invention contemplates a system configuration driven by process parameters. In particular, small volume load locks are very advantageous in the case of rapid machining times, where the rapid machining times will be less than or similar to a given overhead time required to carry one or more workpieces including the number of pumps. On the other hand, a slow processing time may serve to eliminate the need for load lock, so a configuration such as that shown in FIG. 27 may be useful. That is, slow processing time is generally longer than the period required for wafer transport. In this sense, if the period required for wafer transport is observed as the time entered for wafer transport while the process station is inactive, there is no overhead time.

Referring to Figure 28, another embodiment system 1600 is constructed in accordance with the present invention. It should be noted that the system 1600 includes an overall configuration similar to the system 1200 of FIG. 23 described above. Thus, this discussion will be limited to any differences between these two systems. In particular, the parallel common processing environment portion of FIG. 23 has been replaced by a pair of separate process chambers 1602 and 1604, indicated by " a " and " b " Each of these chambers can perform processing that is isolated from other chambers. As such, this is not a requirement but the first machining may be performed in chamber 1602 while the second machining is performed in chamber 1604 in a sequential processing environment. Thus, each process chamber is located within the transfer chamber and is separable therefrom using a vertically movable process chamber slit door 1606 as described, for example, in US Pat. No. 6,429,139, listed above. It should be noted that this embodiment shares the advantages with the embodiment of FIG. In particular, one process chamber and associated swing arm arrangement may continue to operate while another process chamber experiences use or maintenance.

30 is a perspective view of a swing arm arrangement 1800 manufactured according to another embodiment of the present invention. It should be noted that the swing arm arrangement 1800 can be used, for example, with the aforementioned chamber arrangement, in which the aforementioned transfer chamber 22 is installed, or with alternative chamber embodiments described below. Further, swing arm arrangement 1800 shares a number of components with swing arm arrangement 120 described above. Therefore, the description of these components will not be repeated for the purpose of brevity. It should be noted that the term "wafer" should be interpreted broadly to include any suitable substrate as well as a semiconductor wafer.

Referring to Fig. 31 in conjunction with Fig. 30, since the entire base plate 122 (see Fig. 5A) is not necessary, the swing arm arrangement 1800 is different from the swing arm arrangement 120 described above. Figure 30 shows two swing arm arrangements including a swing arm, but Figure 31 shows one swing arm operating arrangement with no swing arm attached for the purpose of exposing further details about the structure. Doing. As such, in FIG. 30, the first swing arm pair 1802a and the second swing arm pair 1802b each include a mounting plate 1804 such that each swing arm pair is individually mountable. Like the swing arm arrangement 120 described above, the upper and lower swing arms constituting each pair of swing arms within the swing arm arrangement 1800 are adapted for rotational movement in a plane spaced apart from each other by a fixed distance. It is mounted coaxially. 30, upper and lower swing arms 1806-1 and 1806-2 of swing arm pair 1802a are shown, and upper and lower swing arms 1808-1 and 1808-2 of swing arm pair 1802b. ) Is shown. Each swing arm includes a distal end that supports the wafer paddle 1810 so that the wafer paddle defines the widest point along the entire length of the swing arm. Since rotational alignment considerations are easily accommodated using separate drive motors 310-1 and 310-2, the inner swing arm shaft 1812 and the outer swing arm shaft 1814 supporting the upper and lower swing arms, respectively. May include the same mounting features to receive the swing arm. It should be noted that the swing arm 1810 includes a wafer guide 1816 that assists in holding the wafer on the swing arm. In this relationship, it should be noted that the configuration of the wafer guide is the result of the fact that each swing arm moves the wafer in one direction between the load lock and the process chamber as described above.

30 and 31, the swing arm arrangement 1800 is also different from the swing arm arrangement 120 with respect to the position of the vertical movement stage as well as any details of the construction of the vertical movement stage. Do. In particular, bracket 1820 is attached to bracket 170b to support lift motor 152. The lift motor is attached to bracket 1820 via gear box 1822. Pulley 158 is directly attached to cam 166b and is driven by lift motor 152 using belt 156. Shaft arrangement 1824 includes a pair of couplers 1825 that couple pulley 158 to cam 166a. The rotation of the shaft arrangement 1824, which determines the vertical height of the swing arm in accordance with the lift motor 152, is for example on a flange that includes a transmitter / detector pair 1827a but which indicates the vertical groove position, as described in more detail below. It is sensed using a sensor arrangement 1826 arranged on the opposite side of the flange 1827b for the purpose of detecting the through-hole defined by it. Of course, the offset from this fixed vertical groove position can be easily displayed through proper control of the lift motor 152.

30-32, the aforementioned pulley arrangements 312 and 320 are configured for the purpose of rotating the outer swing arm shaft 1814 and the inner swing arm shaft 1812, respectively. In this case, however, in order to provide a separate drive motor for each pulley arrangement and accordingly for each swing arm, the first motor 310-1 has a belt 360-1, 362-1. And the second motor 310-2 uses the belts 360-2 and 362-2. The motor is supported using gear drives 306-1, 306-2 supported by brackets 304-1, 304-2. It is contemplated that one skilled in the art can program the computer 40 of FIG. 1A to achieve the required functionality in light of this entire disclosure. The swing arm arrangement 1800 does not employ reverse rotation unlike the swing arm arrangement 120 described above, so separate position sensor arrangements are used for the upper and lower swing arms of each pair of swing arms, as described below. need.

Mainly referring to FIGS. 30 and 32, the upper swing arm position sensor plate 1830 is firmly positioned between the offset pulleys constituting the second pulley arrangement 320 and the lower swing arm position plate 1832 is It is firmly positioned between the pulleys that make up the first pulley arrangement 312. The first and second pulley arrangements are described in detail above with respect to FIG. In one embodiment, the upper and lower swing arm position plates are identical to each other except that they are offset in angle as best shown in FIG. Each position plate is one of those skilled in the art in the figures of FIGS. 12 and 32 for the purpose of capturing the position sensor plate between the entire disc shaped component (not shown) and the pulleys constituting each separate pulley pair. As will be apparent to the invention, a slotted hole arrangement (not shown) may be included that cooperates with the long slot defined by the pulley of each separate pulley arrangement. Alternatively, a sensor stop flange may be attached to the side margins of both pulleys of the separate pulley pair to function in an equivalent manner. The low sensor arrangement bracket 1834 is a low pulley position sensor arrangement 1836a having a positionably interchangeable transmitter 1838 and a detector 1840 for the purpose of detecting the corners of the upper swing arm positioning plate 1830. ). In one embodiment, one of the transitions indicates the home position of the associated swing arm. If desired, this home position correction can be achieved by rotating the swing arm in the desired direction using precise control of the motor involved in a manner familiar to those skilled in the art in light of this entire disclosure. It should be noted that electrical cables to transmitter 1838 and detector 1840 are not shown for purposes of simplicity of description. The upper pulley position sensor arrangement 1836b (see FIG. 30) is essentially the same as the lower pulley position sensor arrangement except that the upper sensor arrangement bracket 1882 is used to properly position the transmitter / detector pair. same. As such, the upper and lower sensor arrangements are located on opposite sides of the swing arm drive pulley. Further, transmitter 1838 and detector 1840 are useful as transmitter / detector pair 1827 of FIG.

Applicants of the present invention have recognized that a number of advantages relate to the use of separate drive motors for each swing arm. Of course, reverse rotation is readily achieved if desired in a manner that mimics the motion provided by the swing arm arrangement 120 described above. The swing arm arrangement 1800 has surprisingly been found to enable what is considered to be a significant variant and advantage to the chamber arrangement used as further described.

33 is a plan view of a swing arm arrangement 1800 installed in a chamber arrangement 1900 that includes the load lock 20 and process chamber 24 described above. It should be noted that the lid is not shown on the chamber for illustrative purposes. The chamber arrangement 1900 includes a transfer chamber 1920 arranged between the load lock 20 and the process chamber 24 such that the wafer can be moved therebetween. Slit door 706 is used to selectively seal load lock 20 from transfer chamber 1920 and slit door 708 is used to selectively seal process chamber 24 from transfer chamber 1920. Thus, the transfer chamber 1920 is selectively pressure isolated from the process chamber and / or load lock.

Referring again to FIG. 33, the wafers are moved through the transfer chamber 1920 along the first and second wafer transfer paths 1930 and 1932, respectively, each transfer path being shown as a semi-circular dotted line and moving the transfer chamber. Defined by the path taken by the center of the wafer through. In this example, the slit doors 706, 708 are shown in their closed position in the state shown where they may be referred to as home positions without supporting the wafer for the reasons that each of the first and second swing arm pairs will be described. It is. It should be noted that with respect to the shown home position of the swing arm, the upper and lower swing arms of each swing arm pair are aligned vertically and the width of the wafer paddle 1810 is entirely contained within a pressure isolable volume defined by the transfer chamber. do. Stated slightly differently, the transfer chamber defines a configuration of lateral size in which the transfer arrangement is acceptable in pressure isolation from the load lock and process chamber. In this regard, the portion of the paddle 1934 associated with the swing arm arrangement 1802b is shown in phantom using dashed lines as it extends into the slit door opening leading into the load lock 20. As such, these portions of the wafer portion are adjacent to the closed slit door 706. It should be understood that any groove position can be used within the transfer chamber as long as the swing arm does not interfere with the slit door valves arranged on opposite sides thereof. Moreover, the home position may employ a slight rotational offset between the upper and lower swing arms of each swing arm pair, which may facilitate sensing or detecting the presence or absence of the wafer on each wafer paddle individually. have.

For vertical or "Z" motion using the lift motor 152 (shown in Figure 30), this movement is not limited to the home position, and any suitable position such that the vertical movement occurs over the range of rotation of the swing arm. Or during the rotational movement of the swing arm. At least the wafer will experience vertical movement within the limited vertical size of at least one of the slit doors as further described, so the vertical height or width of the slit door should be considered.

The outline of the wafer 1950 is shown using dotted lines in FIG. Based on this, the lateral size of the transfer chamber 1920 with respect to the distance between the slit door 706 and the slit door 708 that can accommodate the width of the paddle 1810 in between is further described. As is smaller than the diameter of the wafer.

Referring to FIG. 34 in conjunction with FIG. 33, FIG. 33 is a schematic plan view of the swing arm arrangement 1802a involved in the transfer operation. It should be noted that the slit doors 706, 708 are not shown for purposes of brevity in the figures but are necessarily open during the transfer operation. The swing arm arrangement 1802b can be used to perform similar tasks simultaneously, but this example serves to illustrate the independent nature of the two swing arm arrangements. Swing arm arrangement 1802a is shown with swing arm 1806-1 positioned at process station 26b and swing arm 1806-2 positioned at wafer column 700. Although the wafer is not shown in the wafer column or the processing station, it should be understood that for picking up and placing the wafer, this embodiment operates in basically the same manner as the embodiment described above. Swing arm arrangement 1802a is also shown in phantom at its home position supporting wafer 1950. Rotation from the home position relative to wafer column 700 requires movement through angle α and rotation to the home position to process station 26a requires movement through angle β. It should be noted that these angle values do not change depending on whether the swing arm is the upper or lower arm of each swing arm pair. Unlike the above-described embodiment of Fig. 20, these two angle values are different from each other as is clearly shown in Fig. 34. Figs. Specifically, the angle α is smaller than the angle β. As mentioned above, the acceptance of the use of different angular offset values is achieved through the use of separate and independently controlled swing arm drive motors.

If the angular offset α from the home position to the wafer column in the load lock is set different from the angular offset β from the home position to the process station, then a number of alternative approaches use separate drive motors for the home position. It should be understood that it can be used for rotational movement of the upper and lower swing arms of a particular swing arm pair. For example, the swing arm can be rotated at different angular velocities to reach its destination at approximately the same time. In the alternative, the swing arm can be rotated at least at approximately the same angular velocity so that the swing arm moving through angle α reaches its destination ahead of the swing arm moving through angle β. Of course, it is anticipated that a number of bi-directional and counter-rotational movements of the swing arm will occur between the load lock and one of the process stations (ie the angle value of α + β). In this case, since both swing arms will rotate by the same total angle of α + β, both swing arms will arrive at their destination at approximately the same time as when rotated at approximately the same angular velocity.

Referring to Figure 34, it is clearly shown that the wafer 1950, shown as being supported by the swing arm arrangement 1802a in its home position, partially extends into the load lock 20. In this regard, it should be understood that the lateral size of the load lock is insufficient to accommodate the wafer. As such, for the purposes of the illustration of this figure, at least the slit door leading into the load lock should be in its open position when the wafer is supported by the wafer paddle in its home position. Moreover, if the vertical movement is performed in the home position, the wafer 1950 extends into the load lock 20 through the associated slit door such that the vertical size of this slit door should be sufficient to accommodate the vertical movement. According to this embodiment, the wafer is never on the carrying arrangement when both slit doors are closed. That is, the wafer is transferred through the load lock such that the wafer paddle is always empty when the transfer chamber is in vacuum isolation from the load lock and process chamber. For any given position of the wafer along the wafer transfer paths 1930 and 1932, during transportation between the load lock and the process chamber, the wafer does not provide pressure isolation of the transfer chamber from the load lock and transfer chamber. Will interfere with at least one of the loadlock and process chamber. For this reason, a very advantageous sensing arrangement is described below to confirm that the wafer paddle is empty before closing the slit door.

Referring again to Figures 33 and 34, the concept of using different angular offsets from the home position to the process station and wafer station / column provides applicants of the present invention with numerous advantages over the chamber arrangement employed. Was recognized by. For the purposes of this application, this concept is referred to below as the "asymmetric offset configuration". For example, an asymmetric offset configuration causes the transfer chamber 1920 to be significantly smaller than the transfer chamber 22 described above (eg, see FIG. 20). It is clear that the distance between opposing walls of the transfer chamber 1920 that defines the slit doors 706 and 708 (which may be referred to as the transfer chamber distance) is reduced. As another example, because of the reduced transfer chamber length, the swing arm is also reduced in length. In a practical example, the swing arm length was reduced by approximately 28%.

Many of the advantages come from the use of relatively short swing arms as part of the asymmetric offset configuration. For example, the short swing arm provides a reduction in the width of the transfer chamber 1920. As another example, the tendency for the swing arm to sag is reduced. As another example, the vibration of the distal end of each swing arm is dramatically reduced because this vibration is generally a function of multiple squares of the length of the swing arm. As another example, wafer transfer time is reduced based on at least two factors. As a first factor, the distance between the process station 26 and the wafer column 700 is actually reduced. As a second factor, the use of short radius swing arms reduces the associated rotation related forces applied to the wafer during transfer. Thus, a relatively high speed of rotation can be employed. In addition, these factors work together to provide significantly improved performance.

Referring to Figures 33 and 35, as mentioned above, it is important that the wafer paddles be emptied before closing the swing arm doors 706, 708. Thus, the sensing arrangement is employed such that the presence of the wafer is sensed independently for each swing arm paddle 1810. This is accomplished using the "through beam" sensor configuration shown in the figure under the discussion that the four sensors are arranged in a very advantageous manner. Each sensor includes a load lock proximate a port defined by each chamber and a transmitter mounted at the bottom of the transfer chamber. The transmitters are indicated in FIG. 33 as T1 to T4. Fig. 35 shows the image on which the detectors D1 to D4 are supported in a facing relationship with each of the transmitters T1 to T4 such that the signal path between any transmitter / detector pair is disrupted as the wafer passes through it. A load lock 20 and a transfer chamber 1920 are shown, each containing leads 1960, 1962 installed. Any suitable type of transmitter / detector pair may be used and is readily commercially available for this purpose. It should be noted that the transmitter / detector pair may be referred to below as S1 to S4.

Referring to Figures 36A and 36B, a system 1900 that includes sensors S1 through S4 is schematically illustrated. In Figure 36A, swing arm arrangements 1802a, 1802b are rotationally positioned such that the upper and lower swing arms of each swing arm pair are at least approximately vertically aligned. This location may be a home location but is not a requirement. However, this position is considered very advantageous if it cooperates with the position of the sensor pairs S3 and S4 for the purpose of confirming that the paddles of all swing arms are empty. This check is useful before closing the slit door described above to avoid interference between the door and the unexpected wafer.

In FIG. 36B, all swing arms are shown as carrying wafers 1950-1 through 1950-4, and sensors are shown as if the wafer is transparent for the purposes of this discussion. Upper swing arms 1806-1, 1808-1 rotate downward in the drawing such that these swing arms align with sensors S2, S1, respectively, for the purpose of sensing the presence of wafers 1950-2, 1950-1. It is shown as being. As such, the presence or absence of the wafer for the individual swing arm of the swing arms can be identified, for example, when all paddles are expected to support the wafer. Thus, this sensor arrangement is considered to be very advantageous for verifying the predicted state of each wafer paddle. At any point where the detected wafer state does not match the predicted state, a beep may sound to correct the detected problem.

Another embodiment of a system 2000 made in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIG. System 2000 includes the swing arm arrangement 1800 described above that is installed within loadlock 2002. In this embodiment, no transfer chamber is used to remove the slit door between the transfer chamber and the load lock (shown in Figure 33) as well as to provide a slightly wider range of positions that can be used as the home position. Embodiments without a transfer chamber are useful, for example, when long process times are employed and when the wafer transfer time is a relatively small portion of the process time.

Referring to FIG. 30, it should be noted that all embodiments herein using the lift motor 152 or any equivalent vertical lift stage are advantageous for the ability to adjust the motion profile experienced by the associated swing arm. That is, when the motor 152 is operated to change the height of the swing arm, at any time during the swing arm movement between the process chamber and the load lock, the swing arm is based on its mechanical profile as well as its movement profile. Will react. Concern for the movement profile is its acceleration component, in particular its vertical component of acceleration, induced using a vertical lift stage, which causes the relative motion between the paddle and the wafer supported by it, and / or the fluctuations in which particle generation can be related. Or it may cause vibration. Thus, the motor 152 may be driven according to the movement profile associated with the mechanical characteristics of the swing arm resulting in minimal swing and / or vibration of the swing arm and paddle. It is believed that one skilled in the art can develop an appropriate exercise profile in light of what is found herein.

While each of the foregoing physical embodiments has been described with various components having particular respective orientations, it should be understood that the present invention may take a variety of specific configurations in which various components are positioned in various positions and mutual orientations. Furthermore, the methods described herein can be modified in an infinite manner, for example by rearranging, modifying and recombining the various steps. Accordingly, the arrangements and related methods disclosed herein may be provided in a variety of different configurations and may be modified in an infinitely different manner, and the invention may be practiced in many other specific forms without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. It can be obvious. Accordingly, the present examples and methods are to be considered as illustrative and not restrictive, and the invention is not to be limited to the details given herein.

Claims (39)

At least one wafer comprising a wafer diameter portion is an apparatus of a wafer processing system capable of moving between a load lock and a process chamber, A transfer chamber arranged for selective pressure communication with the load lock and the process chamber, the configuration of a lateral size such that a wafer is movable through the transfer chamber between the load lock and the process chamber along a wafer transfer path A transfer chamber having: By the configuration of the lateral size, the wafer having the wafer diameter and moving along the wafer transfer path interferes with at least one of the load lock and the process chamber for any given location along the wafer transfer path. Device. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the wafer comprises a wafer center and the wafer transfer path is defined by movement of the wafer center through the transfer chamber. The transfer arrangement of claim 1, wherein the transfer arrangement is supported in the transfer chamber to move the wafer between the load lock and the process chamber along the wafer transfer path, wherein the transfer arrangement does not support the wafer in a home position. And a transfer arrangement comprising a transfer arrangement configuration cooperating with the laterally sized configuration of the transfer chamber to be in pressure isolation within the transfer chamber from both the load lock and the process chamber. 4. The system of claim 3, wherein the system includes a first door between the load lock and a transfer chamber and a second door between the process chamber and the transfer chamber, wherein each of the first and second doors is configured to carry the transfer. The chamber is movable between an open position and a closed position to enable selective pressure isolation from each load lock and process chamber, And the transfer arrangement in the home position without supporting the wafer is configured to be received between the first and second doors with both doors in the closed position. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the wafer supported by the transfer arrangement in a home position interferes with at least one of the first and second doors when the doors are in the closed position. 6. The swing arm of claim 5 wherein the transfer arrangement comprises at least one swing arm having an extended length extending to a distal end defining a paddle containing the wafer thereon, wherein the swing arm comprising the paddle comprises: A totally receivable device in a pressure isolable volume defined by the transfer chamber when in the home position. 5. The sensing arrangement of claim 4, further comprising a sensing arrangement for detecting the presence of the wafer on the transfer arrangement for use in stopping the closure of at least one of the first and second doors in accordance with detecting the presence of the wafer. Containing device. At least one load lock, A transfer chamber in selective pressure communication with the load lock; A process chamber comprising at least one process station such that a process chamber is in selective communication with the transfer chamber and a wafer can be transferred between the load lock and the process chamber through the transfer chamber; A swing arm arrangement having a distal end configured to move the wafer between the load lock and a process chamber, the swing arm arrangement including at least one swing arm pivotally supported within the transfer chamber, The swing arm is positionable in a home position in the transfer chamber when the load lock and transfer chamber are in isolation from each other, the swing arm being moved by the first angular displacement in one direction from the home position toward the load lock. And swing the distal end and swing the distal end by a second angular displacement in the opposite direction from the home position toward the process station such that the first angular displacement is different from the second angular displacement. 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the first angular displacement is less than the second angular displacement. A wafer processing system including at least a load lock having a wafer station and a process chamber having a process station, A swing arm arrangement having at least a first swing arm and a second swing arm configured for coaxial rotation about a common axis of rotation for use in transporting wafers between a wafer station in the load lock and a process station in the process chamber Including a conveying arrangement comprising: The first and second swing arms are configured such that one of the swing arms can rotate towards the process station while the other of the swing arms independently rotate towards the wafer station. 11. The method of claim 10, wherein each of the first and second swing arms move through a home position when rotating between the wafer station and the process station, wherein the wafer station is reached by rotating through a first angular offset from the home position. And the process station is reached by rotating through a second angle offset from a home position such that the first angle offset is different from the second angle offset. 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the first angular offset is less than the second angular offset. 12. The first and second swing arms of claim 11, wherein the first and second swing arms respectively detect the presence of at least one of the first and second wafers of the wafers in the home position and the first and second swing arms, respectively. A system for supporting a second wafer. 14. The system of claim 13, further comprising a sensor arrangement that senses the presence of at least one of the first and second wafers when supported in a substantially spaced apart relationship in parallel. The first and second swing arms of claim 10, wherein the first and second swing arms move between the wafer station and the processing station while at the intermediate and angular displacement positions of the first and second swing arms. And support each of the first and second ones of the wafers in a manner that provides for individually sensing the presence of each. The system of claim 10, wherein the swing arm arrangement comprises a drive arrangement for at least selectively rotating the first swing arm and the second swing arm at different angular velocities. 12. The system of claim 10, wherein the swing arm arrangement comprises a drive arrangement for at least selectively rotating the first swing arm and the second swing arm in opposite directions by different angular magnitudes. 18. The method of claim 17, wherein the first swing arm and the second swing arm are rotated for a first length of time from a home position to allow one of the swing arms to reach the wafer station and the other of the swing arms to the process station. And rotate each at an angular velocity given at least approximately equally in said opposite direction to rotate for a time of a second length different from said first length from a home position to reach. The method of claim 16, wherein the drive arrangement comprises a first motor for selectively rotating the first swing arm and a second motor for selectively rotating the second swing arm independently of the rotation of the first swing arm. Including system. A wafer processing system including at least a load lock having a wafer station and a process chamber having a process station, A transfer arrangement comprising a swing arm having a configuration that rotates about an axis of rotation for use in transporting wafers between the wafer station and the process station, The swing arm is configured to rotate in one direction from a home position to a process station by a first angle value, and to rotate in an opposite direction by a second angle value from a home position to reach a wafer station, the first angle value being the first angle value. 2 different angle and system. 21. The system of claim 20, wherein the load lock and process chamber form part of an overall chamber arrangement cooperating with the transfer arrangement in a manner that serves to at least partially define a home position of the swing arm. 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the load lock and process chamber are substantially pressure isolated from each other only when the swing arm is in the home position. The transfer chamber of claim 21, wherein the entire chamber arrangement comprises a transfer chamber in selective communication with each load lock and process chamber, the transfer arrangement configured such that a home position is defined within the transfer chamber. System supported within. 22. The system of claim 21, wherein the load lock is in direct communication with the process chamber and the transfer arrangement is supported in the load lock such that a home position is defined within the load lock. A method of a wafer processing system in which at least one wafer comprising a wafer diameter portion is movable between a load lock and a process chamber, Arranging a transfer chamber for selective pressure communication with the load lock and the process chamber; Configure the transfer chamber to comprise a lateral size configuration such that a wafer is moveable through the transfer chamber between the load lock and the process chamber along a wafer transfer path, and by the lateral size configuration, the wafer And the wafer having a diameter moving along the wafer transfer path interferes with at least one of the load lock and the process chamber for any given location along the wafer transfer path. 27. The method of claim 25, wherein the wafer comprises a wafer center and the wafer transfer path is defined by movement of the wafer center through the transfer chamber. 26. The arrangement and cooperating arrangement of lateral dimensions of claim 25, wherein the transfer arrangement is in pressure isolation within the transfer chamber from both the load lock and the process chamber in a home position without supporting the wafer. Supporting a transfer arrangement in the transfer chamber to move the wafer between the load lock and a process chamber along the wafer transfer path having a operative transfer arrangement configuration. 29. The method of claim 27, providing a first door between the load lock and a transfer chamber as part of the system and a second door between the process chamber and the transfer chamber, each of the first and second doors. Is movable between an open position and a closed position such that the transfer chamber is capable of selectively pressure isolating from each load lock and process chamber, the transfer arrangement in the home position both sides of the door without supporting the wafer. And configured to be received between the first door and the second door in the closed position. The method of claim 28, wherein the wafer supported by the transfer arrangement in a home position interferes with at least one of the first and second doors when the doors are moved to the closed position. How to configure a wafer processing system, Providing at least one load lock, Arranging a transfer chamber in selective pressure communication with the load lock; Configuring the process chamber to include at least one process station such that the process chamber is in selective communication with the transfer chamber and the wafer can be transferred between the load lock and the process chamber through the transfer chamber; Positioning a swing arm arrangement in a transfer chamber pivotally supported and comprising at least one swing arm having a distal end configured to move the wafer between the load lock and the process chamber, The swing arm is at least in a home position in the transfer chamber when the load lock and the transfer chamber are in isolation from each other, the swing arm being moved by a first angular displacement in one direction from the home position towards the load lock. Swing the distal end and swing the distal end by a second angular displacement in the opposite direction from the home position toward the process station such that a first angular displacement is different from a second angular displacement. 31. The method of claim 30, wherein the first angular displacement is less than the second angular displacement. A method of a wafer processing system comprising at least a load lock having a wafer station and a process chamber having a process station, A swing arm arrangement having at least a first swing arm and a second swing arm configured for coaxial rotation about a common axis of rotation for use in transporting wafers between a wafer station in the load lock and a process station in the process chamber And the first and second swing arms are configured to allow one of the swing arms to rotate towards the process station and at the same time the other of the swing arms to rotate independently toward the wafer station. A method comprising the steps configured. 33. The swing arm arrangement of claim 32, wherein the swing arm arrangement moves through a home position as each of the first and second swing arms rotates between the wafer station and the process station, wherein the wafer station is moved from the home position to the first position. Reached by rotating through an angular offset and wherein the process station is configured to be reached by rotating through a second angular offset from a home position such that the first angular offset is different from the second angular offset. 34. The method of claim 33, wherein the first angle offset is less than the second angle offset. 33. The method of claim 32, wherein constructing the swing arm arrangement comprises arranging a drive arrangement to selectively rotate the first swing arm and the second swing arm at least at different angular velocities. A method of a wafer processing system comprising at least a load lock having a wafer station and a process chamber having a process station, Configure a transfer arrangement comprising a swing arm for rotation about an axis of rotation for use in transporting the wafers between the wafer station and the process station, the swing arm being at a first angle from the home position to the process station And rotate in an opposite direction by a second angle value different from the first angle value from a home position to reach the wafer station and to reach a wafer station. 37. The method of claim 36, wherein the load lock and the process chamber form part of an overall chamber arrangement that cooperates with the transfer arrangement in a manner that serves to at least partially define a home position of the swing arm. 37. The transfer chamber of claim 36, wherein the entire chamber arrangement comprises a transfer chamber in selective communication with each load lock and process chamber, the transfer arrangement configured such that a home position is defined within the transfer chamber. Supported within. 37. The method of claim 36, wherein the load lock is in direct communication with the process chamber and the transfer arrangement is supported in the load lock such that the home position is defined within the load lock.

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