KR20060094145A - Semiconductor production device having wafer transfer unit - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing facility in which the width of the transfer arm is larger than the wafer chuck when the wafer is transferred to the wafer stage when the overlay mark is measured in the semiconductor manufacturing facility having the wafer transfer device.

When transferring wafers to the wafer chuck using the transfer arm of the robot, the semiconductor manufacturing equipment that does not generate Aquisition Fail or Flying Data during overlay mark measurement due to the poor seating state of the wafer chuck is transferred and loaded on the equipment. It is provided with a wafer transfer unit for loading, a wafer holder which is installed at a predetermined distance from the wafer transfer unit, and a wafer holder for temporarily waiting a wafer for loading and unloading, and a wafer chuck for seating and fixing a wafer for processing. ,

The fork portion of the transfer arm formed in the transfer unit is variable in width (d), the maximum length of the width (d) is formed smaller than the size of the wafer (W),

The wafer chuck is manufactured with a size smaller than the maximum length of the width d of the fork portion, and a plurality of vacuum holes are formed at predetermined intervals to adsorb the wafer W.

Wafer moving, wafer transfer arm, robot arm, arm tip

Description

Semiconductor Manufacturing Equipment with Wafer Transfer Device {SEMICONDUCTOR PRODUCTION DEVICE HAVING WAFER TRANSFER UNIT}

1 is a configuration diagram of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for baking a conventional wafer

2 is an illustration of a state in which the transfer unit 10 of FIG. 1 is seated on a wafer chuck.

3 is a configuration diagram of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus in a state in which a transfer arm seats a wafer on a wafer chuck according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 is a view illustrating a process in which the wafer W is placed on the transfer arm 56 of FIG. 3 and transferred to the wafer chuck 70.

          Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

10, 50: transfer unit 11, 52: support body

12, 54: axis of rotation 13, 56: feed arm

15: fork vacuum hole 17, 58: fork part

20: Bake Unit 21: Process Chamber

22: Bake Plate 23: Lift Pin

24: door 25: fork groove

26: multiple vacuum holes 27: wafer chuck

60: holder

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing facility having a wafer transfer device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor manufacturing facility in which a transfer arm has a width larger than that of a wafer chuck when transferring a wafer to a wafer stage when measuring an overlay mark in a measurement facility. .

1 is a configuration diagram of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus for baking a conventional wafer.

Consisting of the transfer unit 10 and the baking unit 20.

The transfer unit 10 includes a support body 11 supported on the bottom surface, a rotary shaft 12 connected to the support body 11, and a transfer arm 13 connected to the rotary shaft 12 to transfer wafers. )

The baking unit 20 includes a process chamber 21 forming a closed space, a baking plate 22 installed inside the process chamber 21 to bake the wafer W by heating to a predetermined temperature, and A lift pin 23 for elevating the wafer W placed on the bake plate 22 and a sidewall of the process chamber 21 to load or unload the wafer W by the transfer arm 13. The door 24 is opened at the time and closed at the time of baking of the wafer.

 Referring to FIG. 1, the wafer 24 of the process chamber 21 is opened and the wafer W, which has been completed by the transfer arm 13, is unloaded on the lift pin 23 in order to proceed with the baking process. do. At this time, the lift pin 23 is lowered and placed on the baking plate 22. After the door 24 of the process chamber 21 is closed, the baking plate 22 is heated to bake the wafer W.

The wafer transfer unit 10, which transfers wafers in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment, loads and unloads the equipment, adheres the wafer transfer arm to the back of the wafer to form a vacuum pressure, and then moves the adsorbed wafer by a robot. When the position is reached, the wafer is transported by releasing the vacuum and separating the wafer from the transfer arm.

2 is an exemplary view of a state in which the transfer unit 10 of FIG. 1 is seated on a wafer chuck.

Among them, the thin rod-shaped transfer arm 13 is widely used in a wafer transfer device for sequentially loading and unloading wafers stored in a cassette at intervals of slots using vacuum pressure. The transfer arm 13 prealigns the wafer loaded from the cassette in the overlay metrology facility, and then transfers the wafer to the wafer stage to measure the overlay alignment mark.

Such a semiconductor device is provided with a transfer arm 13 and a wafer chuck 27.

The wafer transfer arm 13 is integrally formed with the vacuum hole 15, the thin rod-shaped fork 17 having a vacuum line, and the fork 17 so that the wafer transfer arm 13 is in close contact with the wafer to allow suction by vacuum pressure. The fork part 17 is connected to the fork part 17, and the main body 19 is formed with a vacuum line, and the wafer stage 27 contacts the surface when the fork part 17 is drawn into the wafer stage 27. The fork groove 25 having a fork portion shape and a plurality of vacuum holes 26 for adsorbing the wafer are formed so as not to be.

The wafer transfer arm 13 is in contact with the rear surface of the wafer and has a fork portion 17 having two forks in the shape of a thin plate having a vacuum hole 15 and a vacuum line formed thereon so as to be adsorbed by vacuum pressure. It includes a main body 19 for supporting the portion 17 and a vacuum line formed therein.

The main body 19 and the fork portion 17 are integrally assembled and connected to each other, and the fork portion 17 is formed by using a vacuum hole 15 formed in the fork with two forks having a predetermined fork spacing. The wafer is adsorbed.

The material of the main body 19 and the fork 17 is made of aluminum, and an oxide film is coated on the surface so that aluminum is not corroded.

Therefore, when the fork 17 is inserted between the wafer and the wafer loaded in the cassette (not shown) and closely adheres to the wafer, a vacuum pressure is formed in the vacuum hole 15 formed in the fork 17 to adsorb and fix the wafer. Then, the wafer adsorbed on the fork 17 is transferred to the wafer chuck 27 of the facility, and then exits through the fork groove 25 recessed in the shape of the fork 17.

In the conventional semiconductor manufacturing equipment as described above, the fork groove 25 is formed so that the wafer is seated on the surface of the wafer chuck 27 so as to be ejected, and thus the vacuum hole 26 for adsorbing the wafer is not formed. There was a problem in that the adsorption force was lowered and the wafer was lifted off the surface of the wafer chuck 27 to generate an Aquisition Fail or Flying Data. Here, the Aquisition Fail refers to a phenomenon in which the wafer is not placed in a horizontal state and tilted because the wafer is lifted from the surface of the wafer chuck 27 so that the overlay mark cannot be checked when measuring the overlay mark. In addition, Flying Data represents data in which 100 ns is measured due to poor focusing, for example, when 30 ns should be measured when the overlay mark is measured.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus that does not generate Aquisition Fail or Flying Data during overlay mark measurement due to a poor seating state of a wafer chuck when transferring a wafer to a wafer chuck using a transfer arm of a robot.

The semiconductor manufacturing apparatus of the present invention for achieving the above object is a wafer transfer unit for transferring and loading and unloading the wafer, and the wafer is installed at a predetermined distance away from the wafer transfer unit, the wafer for loading and unloading A wafer holder for temporarily waiting, and a wafer chuck for seating and fixing the wafer to proceed with the process,

The fork portion of the transfer arm formed in the transfer unit is variable in width (d), the maximum length of the width (d) is formed smaller than the size of the wafer (W),

The wafer chuck is manufactured to have a size smaller than the maximum length of the width d of the fork, and a plurality of vacuum holes are formed at predetermined intervals to adsorb the wafer W.

Preferably, the fork portion of the transfer arm is extended so as to extend to the maximum length of the width d when loading the wafer into the wafer chuck and stretched to the minimum length of the width d when the wafer is unloaded into the cassette. Do.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In the following description of the present invention, if it is determined that a detailed description of a related known function or configuration may unnecessarily obscure the subject matter of the present invention, the detailed description thereof will be omitted.

3 is a configuration diagram of a semiconductor manufacturing facility in which a transfer arm is seated on a wafer chuck according to an embodiment of the present invention.

A wafer transfer unit 50 for transferring and loading and unloading wafers into a facility;

A wafer holder 60 installed at a predetermined distance from the wafer transfer unit 50 and temporarily waiting a wafer for loading and unloading;

It consists of the wafer chuck 70 which mounts and fixes a wafer in order to advance a process.

The transfer unit 50 includes a support body 52 supported on the bottom surface, a rotation shaft 54 connected to the support body 52, and a transfer arm connected to the rotation shaft 56 to transfer the wafer ( 56).

The wafer transfer arm 56 has a bar plate shape and includes a fork portion 58 for supporting the wafer, and is formed to vary the width of the fork portion 58.

4 is a view illustrating a process in which the wafer W is mounted on the transfer arm 56 of FIG. 3 and transferred to the wafer chuck 70.

The fork 58 of the transfer arm 56 has a width d of which the maximum length of the width d is smaller than the size of the wafer W. The wafer W is mounted on the fork 58 when loading or unloading. The wafer chuck 70 is manufactured to have a size smaller than the maximum length of the width d of the fork 58, and a plurality of vacuum holes 72 are formed at predetermined intervals to adsorb the wafer W. .

3 and 4 will be described in detail the operation of the preferred embodiment of the present invention.

First, the operation of loading into the wafer chuck 70 in order to measure the overlay mark in the overlay metrology equipment, the transfer arm 56 is introduced into the cassette (not shown) and the wafer loaded on the cassette is placed on the fork 58. After exiting the cassette, the cassette is placed on the wafer holder 60. At this time, the width (d) of the fork 58 is positioned to the minimum length. Then, the transfer arm driver (not shown) extends the width d of the fork portion 58 of the transfer arm 56 to the maximum length and then lifts the wafer waiting on the wafer holder 60. The transfer arm 56 is transferred to the wafer chuck 70, draws the fork portion 58 around the wafer chuck 70, places the wafer W on the surface of the wafer chuck 70, and then the wafer chuck ( 70) At this time, when the wafer is placed on the surface of the wafer chuck 70, the wafer W is attracted to the surface of the wafer chuck 70 by the suction force of the plurality of vacuum holes 72 formed in the wafer chuck 70. Therefore, when loading the wafer into the wafer chuck 70 to measure the overlay mark, it prevents the occurrence of Acquisition Fail or Flying Data due to the insufficient suction force of the wafer chuck 70.

In addition, in the operation of unloading the wafer into the cassette, the transfer arm 56 is drawn around the wafer chuck 70 so that the wafer placed on the wafer chuck 70 is placed on the fork 58 and then the wafer chuck. It exits from 70 and places on the wafer holder 60. Thereafter, the transfer arm driver (not shown) stretches the width d of the fork portion 58 of the transfer arm 56 to a minimum length and lifts the wafer waiting on the wafer holder 60. Then, the transfer arm 56 is transferred to the cassette and seats the wafer W in the slot of the cassette and then exits the cassette.

As described above, according to the present invention, the width of the fork portion of the transfer arm that transfers the wafer when the wafer is loaded or unloaded in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is larger than the size of the wafer chuck, and the plurality of vacuum holes are evenly disposed on the entire surface of the wafer chuck. When the fork portion is positioned on the surface of the wafer chuck to seat the wafer on the wafer chuck, there is an advantage of preventing occurrence of Acquisiton Fail or Flying Data due to insufficient adsorption force.

Claims (2)

In semiconductor manufacturing equipment, A wafer transfer unit which transfers wafers to load and unload the equipment, A wafer holder installed at a predetermined distance from the wafer transfer unit and temporarily waiting a wafer for loading and unloading; A wafer chuck for seating and fixing the wafer to proceed with the process, The fork portion of the transfer arm formed in the transfer unit is variable in width (d), the maximum length of the width (d) is formed smaller than the size of the wafer (W), The wafer chuck is manufactured to have a size smaller than the maximum length of the width of the fork, and a plurality of vacuum holes are formed at predetermined intervals to adsorb the wafer (W). Semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The method of claim 1, The fork portion of the transfer arm is extended to the maximum length of the width (d) when loading the wafer into the wafer chuck, and stretched and variable to the minimum length of the width (d) when unloading the wafer into the cassette A semiconductor manufacturing facility having a wafer transfer device.

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