KR20090007900A - Auto packing machine and method thereof - Google Patents

Abstract

An automatic packing device and a method thereof are provided to draw out a wafer from a cassette to be inspected and automate the whole procedure of successively loading the wafer in a carrying jar box together with a slip sheet, thereby stabilizing quality of products and improving productivity. A cassette accommodating a wafer is loaded in a cassette stage(10) positioned at one side of a mainframe(1). The wafer is drawn out. The wafer is settled within an aligner unit(20) positioned to be adjacent to the cassette stage. An ID of the wafer is read. A location of the settled wafer is arranged. The wafer is drawn out from the aligner unit. The up and down sides are inverted. An outcome is loaded in a jar box stage(40) positioned at the other side of the mainframe. A slip sheet is picked up from a slip sheet box positioned to be adjacent to the jar box. The slip sheets are laminated in the jar box stage. The above stages are repeatedly performed so as to successively laminate the wafer as interposing the slip sheets.

Description

Automatic packing machine and method

The present invention relates to a packing apparatus, and more particularly to an automatic packing apparatus and method.

A wafer is a disc in which a plurality of chips in which the same electric circuit is printed on one sheet is combined. These wafers are manufactured by a manufacturer and then supplied with various decorative stacks in cassettes, which are sequentially loaded together with slip sheets in a jar box and then supplied to a subsequent process.

The wafers loaded in the cassette are taken out one by one, read the IDs, align the positions, and load them again in the transport box), with interstitial papers between each wafer.

In the related art, a process of taking a wafer out of a cassette and stacking the wafer in a magnetic box has been performed by an operator. That is, the cassette on which the wafer is loaded is placed on the cassette stage, taken out one by one, passed through an aligner for ID reading and alignment, and then the wafer is loaded in the existing cassette in the ID alignment order. The work was done by manually packing the finished cassette into a jar and then transporting it to the post process.

However, such a wafer packing process according to the prior art has a problem that the position is not properly aligned in the process of placing the cassette on the cassette stage, the quality is not stable in the subsequent process, the loading and transport process of the cassette and the box There is a possibility that a safety accident may occur, and as a result, the quality of the product may be degraded.

In addition, since a wafer or chip is usually formed on a top surface with a circuit or chip formed, the wafer is loaded upside down in a jar box, and when it is used again, there is a problem of using the jar upside down so that the bottom side of the wafer can be absorbed and used. In order to interpose interlayer paper in the process of loading a wafer, the wafer stacking robot unit must repeat the stacking process of the wafer and the interlayer paper in order to reduce productivity.

The present invention provides an automatic packing apparatus and method that can stabilize the quality of the product and improve the productivity by automating the extraction, inspection, and loading operations of the wafer during the packing of the wafer.

According to an aspect of the present invention, a main frame, a cassette stage for loading a cassette containing a wafer, located on one side of the main frame, and an aligner unit adjacent to the cassette stage, for recognizing and aligning a wafer A jar box stage for loading jar boxes stacked on the other side of the main frame and sequentially stacked with wafers; And a robot unit for picking up the interleaver from the interleaver box and stacking the interlayer into the child box, and a robot unit for taking out the wafer from the cassette and stacking the wafer in the child box via the aligner unit. There is provided an automatic packing device in which the top and bottom surfaces are inverted and stacked on a magnetic box.

The robot unit is located at the center of the main frame, the cassette stage is located at both sides of the aligner unit, the jar box stage is located at both sides of the Kanji box stage opposite the cassette stage, and the Kanji pick-up unit is the Kanji box stage and the ruler box stage. It is preferably located at the top of the.

The cassette stage may include a protrusion detection sensor for detecting whether the wafer is separated from a predetermined position while the cassette is loaded and transmitting a signal, and an alignment mechanism for moving the wafer in response to the signal transmitted from the protrusion detection sensor. have. The alignment mechanism may have a cylindrical shape having a length corresponding to the height of the cassette, and may include a roller shaft installed in the vertical direction and movable in the horizontal direction.

The cassette stage includes a guide for guiding the lateral movement of the cassette corresponding to both sides of the cassette, a stopper for restricting the lateral movement of the cassette to allow the cassette to be seated at a predetermined position, and a signal corresponding to the seating of the cassette. It is preferable to include a seat detection sensor for transmitting and a clamp inserted into the groove formed on the lower surface of the cassette in response to the signal received from the seat detection sensor. The seat detection sensor is a cushion type sensor coupled to the guide, and the clamp is preferably driven by a piston.

Shutters are coupled to one side of the main frame to shield the cassette stage, and a shutter may be coupled to a first safety sensor that transmits a signal by detecting a door and a door opening / closing in response to the position of the cassette stage.

The aligner unit may include a readout that reads the ID of the wafer, and an alignment part that senses the center of the wafer and aligns the center to a predetermined position.

The separator sheet stage may include an ionizer installed opposite the separator sheet, and an air blower for injecting air toward the separator. The air blower is installed in the direction of injecting air toward the sheet of paper in the outer peripheral portion of the sheet of paper, the plurality of first air blow holes formed up to a predetermined height at the bottom, and the second air blow hole formed corresponding to the maximum stacking height of the sheet It may include.

A vacuum pad is coupled to the end of the slip sheet pick-up unit to pick up the slip sheet by vacuum suction, and after picking up the slip sheet, it is preferably paused at a height corresponding to the position of the second air blow hole.

The vacuum pad includes a first pad and a second pad coupled to extend from the end of the pick-up unit in the direction in which the interleaver is loaded, and the first pad preferably extends separately from the extension of the second pad.

The other side of the main frame is coupled with a second safety sensor for transmitting a signal by detecting whether the operator intrudes into the position of the jacquard stage or the kanji box stage, the kanji pickup unit or robot unit is a signal transmitted from the second safety sensor In response to this, the operation is preferably stopped.

The robot unit includes a moving part coupled to the main frame and moving in the horizontal direction, a pillar part coupled to the moving part and expanded in the vertical direction and rotatable about the vertical axis, and an arm part coupled to the pillar part and extending in the horizontal direction; It may include a hand portion coupled to the end of the arm portion, and a vacuum suction portion coupled to the hand portion.

The vacuum adsorption portion is coupled to the upper surface of the hand portion, and the hand portion is preferably moved to the lower surface of the wafer and then absorbs and pulls out the lower surface of the wafer on the upper surface of the hand portion.

The hand part or the arm part is coupled to the column part to be rotatable about the horizontal axis, and the hand part is preferably rotated about the horizontal axis in the process of moving from the aligner unit to the jar box.

In addition, (a) loading the cassette containing the wafer in the cassette stage located on one side of the main frame, (b) taking out the wafer and seated in the aligner unit located adjacent to the cassette stage, (c) Reading the ID of the wafer, aligning the position of the seated wafer, (d) taking out the wafer from the aligner unit, inverting the upper and lower surfaces, and loading it in a jar box located on the other side of the main frame; e) picking up the kanji from the kanji box located adjacent to the porcelain box and laminating it on the porcelain box, and (f) repeating steps (a) to (e) so that the wafers are sequentially laminated via the interleaver There is provided an automatic packing method comprising the steps of:

According to the present invention as described above, the entire process of taking out the wafer from the cassette, inspecting, and sequentially loading the wafer together with the interleaver in the transport box is automated, thereby improving product quality and improving productivity.

In addition, by installing a safety sensor in the stacking unit and the take-out box of the cassette stage, thereby preventing the operation of the movable device such as a robot unit to prevent accidents of the operator, the product quality is stable.

In addition, the wafer taken out from the cassette is placed in the child box by inverting the upper and lower surfaces thereof, thereby providing convenience in a later step of taking out the wafer from the child box and using it.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the automatic packing apparatus and method according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings, in the description with reference to the accompanying drawings, the same or corresponding components are given the same reference numerals and Duplicate explanations will be omitted.

1 is a plan view showing an automatic packing device according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the main frame 1, the cassette stage 10, the aligner unit 20, the robot unit 30, the moving part 32, the hand part 38, the vacuum suction part 39, The child box stage 40 and the kanji box stage 50 are shown.

The present invention is to automate the process of taking out each wafer from a cassette loaded with a wafer such as a semiconductor wafer and loading the wafer into a jar box. The unit where each detailed process is performed is installed in the main frame 1. .

The automatic packing apparatus of the present invention inputs a cassette on which wafers are loaded, moves each wafer by the robot unit 30 to work, and sequentially stacks the wafers in a jar box and outputs them. Accordingly, the one stage of the main frame 1 is provided with a cassette stage 10 for loading an input, i.e., a cassette, and the magnetic box stage 40 on which the processed wafer is stacked on the other side of the main frame 1. ) Is installed.

In order to reduce unnecessary motion in the movement of the robot unit 30 and to make the work more efficient, it is preferable to provide two cassette stages 10 and two jar stages 40, respectively. That is, the cassette stage 10 is disposed left and right on one side of the main frame 1, and the jar box stage 40 is disposed on the other side of the main frame 1 opposite to the cassette stage 10.

An aligner unit is disposed between the cassette stages 10 so that the copper wire inputted to the aligner unit 20 is shortened by taking out the wafer, and the interlayer box stage ( 50) is arranged so that the process of picking up and stacking interlayer papers between the stacks of wafers can be performed quickly and efficiently.

The aligner unit 20 receives a semiconductor wafer or the like, reads IDs such as unique numbers formed on the wafer, stores corresponding data, and senses the position of the center of the wafer, which is generally circular, by using a line sensor or the like. The center of the wafer is aligned to a predetermined position by correcting the difference between the detected value and the preset value.

The aligner unit 20 usually chucks an input wafer into a vacuum, rotates it, aligns the position of the wafer by a stepping motor, moves a vacuum chuck up and down, and vision. And a portion for reading the ID of the wafer through the wafer), and thus the semiconductor wafer aligner unit 20 including the wafer reader and the position alignment unit is obvious to those skilled in the art, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

An interlining box stage 50 is positioned between the carrying porcelain boxes for laminating wafers, and the interlining pickup unit 60 is installed on the interlining box stage 50 and the upper box box 40. The slip paper pick-up unit 60 picks up the slip paper from the slip paper box and stacks it so that the slip paper is interposed between the wafers stacked on the ruler box. A vacuum pad is coupled to the end of the interlayer pick-up unit 60, and by using the vacuum unit, the robot unit 30 picks up the interlayer paper by vacuum adsorption and stacks the wafer on the magnetic box. In this way, by using a separate pick-up unit dedicated for slip sheets, the productivity is improved and the quality is stabilized as compared with the prior art in which wafer stacking and slip sheet stacking are performed by the robot unit 30.

The robot unit is provided with a vacuum suction unit 39 on the upper surface of the hand portion 38, thereby attracting and moving the wafer from the lower surface of the wafer. The hand part 38 is manufactured to be rotated 180 degrees about an axis in the longitudinal direction, and thus, the wafer adsorbed to the upper surface of the hand part 38 has its top face downward by the rotation of the hand part 38. Can be reversed.

By forming the hand portion 38 so that the upper and lower surfaces of the wafer are inverted, the upper and lower surfaces of the wafer are inverted, unlike the state in which the wafer is stacked in the cassette in the process of stacking the wafers out of the cassette via the aligner unit 20. In this case, the upper surface of the wafer is stacked downward in the magnetic box, as opposed to being stacked in the cassette.

Thus, by inverting the upper and lower surfaces of the wafer and stacking them on the ruler box, the work can be conveniently performed without the hassle of inverting the ruler box in the process after picking up and processing the lower face of the wafer. The detailed structure of the robot unit 30 for inverting the upper and lower surfaces of the wafer will be described later.

Figure 1 shows an embodiment of the automatic packing device according to the present invention, the robot unit 30 is located in the center of the main frame 1 is coupled to the main frame 1 via a rail so as to be movable in one direction Two cassette stages 10 and two box stages 40 are disposed on both sides of the robot unit 30 and the rail which is the movement trajectory of the robot unit 30. As a result, the cassette stage 10 and the jar box 40 are respectively provided at four corners of the rectangular parallelepiped main frame 1.

The aligner unit 20 is positioned between the two cassette stages 10, and the interlayer box stage 50 is positioned between the two ruler box stages 40. That is, the aligner unit 20 and the separator box stage 50 are installed to be symmetrical to both sides with respect to the robot unit 30. On the other hand, the upper part of the interliner box stage 50 and the upper box box 40 is provided with an interliner pick-up unit 60 so that the process of picking up the interliner and laminating it to the ruler box can be efficiently performed.

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing the front of the cassette stage according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 2, a cassette stage 10, a guide 12, a stopper 14, a seat detection sensor 16, a clamp 18, and an alignment mechanism 19 are shown.

In the automatic packing apparatus according to the present invention, the cassette stage 10 is a portion for carrying out a packing process by loading a cassette in which a plurality of wafers are accommodated. In the related art, an operator places a cassette on the cassette stage 10. There was a problem that a safety accident occurs or the quality of the product is degraded because the stacking position of the cassette is not properly aligned.

Since the cassette stage 10 functions to transfer the cassette seated on the stage to a height necessary for work, a driving mechanism such as a piston is coupled to move the stage surface up and down as shown in FIG. 2.

In the cassette stage 10 according to the present embodiment, a guide 12 having a shape corresponding to both sides of the lower surface of the cassette is provided on the cassette stacking surface of the stage so that the cassette can be loaded by pushing in the transverse direction without lifting the cassette as in the prior art. Are combined. In addition, a stopper 14 is coupled to the end of the stage to limit the movement of the cassette so that the cassette rests on the stage.

Thereby, the cassette can be easily seated on the cassette stage 10 by moving the cassette along the guide 12 on the stage, by pushing it transversely until the movement is restricted by the stopper 14.

On the other hand, a sensor may be installed on the guide 12 or the upper surface of the stage, which is a movement path of the cassette, so that the cassette may be transmitted to the corresponding signal when the cassette is seated on the cassette stage 10. By installing the cassette seating detection sensor 16 in this way, it is easy to determine whether the cassette is seated in its original position or loaded in a lifted state from the stage surface. The deterioration due to the cassette can be prevented.

In the case where the cassette is pushed in the lateral direction as in the present embodiment, the seat detection sensor 16 can be easily sensed whether or not the cassette is mounted by using the cushion type sensor composed of a pin and a spring. However, the seating detection sensor 16 according to the present invention is not necessarily limited to a cushion type sensor, and other sensors may be used within a range apparent to those skilled in the art.

The cassette stage 10 according to the present embodiment is coupled to the clamp 18 for fixing the position when the cassette is seated. The clamp 18 is composed of a protrusion that is rotated by a clamp driving piston (not shown) as shown in FIG. 2, and when the cassette 18 is determined to be seated by the seat detection sensor 16 or the like, the clamp 18 is moved to the cassette. Fix the position.

That is, the clamp 18 according to the present embodiment is fixed so as not to protrude on the upper surface of the stage, but when receiving a signal from the seat detection sensor 16 to drive the clamp driving piston, the clamp 18 may protrude on the upper surface of the stage. 18) rotates. The protruding clamp 18 is inserted into a groove formed in the lower surface of the cassette to fix the cassette to the cassette stage 10.

However, the clamp 18 according to the present invention is not necessarily limited to the rotatable protrusion as shown in FIG. 2, and other clamping cassettes can be fixed to correspond to the shape of the cassette within a range apparent to those skilled in the art. Of course, including the structure.

When the cassette is seated by pushing the cassette from the front surface of the cassette stage 10, the wafer stacked in the cassette may partially protrude toward the rear surface of the cassette stage 10 due to the inertial force different from the stacking of the cassette. In this case, the wafer may not be properly drawn out by the robot unit 30, or the bonded state of the extracted wafer and the robot unit 30 may be poor, or the wafer may be damaged due to the robot unit 30 colliding with the protruding wafer. It will result in deterioration of quality.

In the cassette stage 10 of the automatic packing apparatus according to the present invention, in order to complete the automated process by detecting and aligning the wafer protruding in the cassette loading process, the wafer is placed from a predetermined position in a state where the cassette is loaded. Protrusion detection sensor for detecting whether the deviation, and the alignment mechanism 19 is driven in accordance with the signal transmitted from the protrusion detection sensor.

The alignment mechanism 19 is driven in response to the signal received from the protrusion detection sensor, and is aligned with the original position by moving the wafer protruding outward from the position aligned in the cassette by the driving of the alignment mechanism 19.

As shown in FIG. 2, the alignment mechanism 19 according to the present embodiment is a cylindrical roller having a length corresponding to the height of the cassette. The roller is moved in the horizontal direction by the rotation of the shaft to which the roller is coupled. Move the protruded wafer out of. Therefore, the position of the alignment mechanism 19 and the degree of rotation according to its driving are determined in consideration of the seating position of the cassette and the alignment position of the wafer so as to press the protruding wafer to move to the original position.

Further, the rollers included in the alignment mechanism 19 are preferably installed in the vertical direction so that the positions of the entire wafers accommodated in the cassette can be aligned by the driving thereof, that is, the surfaces of the installed rollers are substantially vertical.

By automating the alignment mechanism 19 for aligning the position of the protruding wafer in this way, when the wafer accommodated in the cassette is protruded, an operator manually aligns the wafer, extracts the cassette from the cassette stage 10, and then reloads the wafer. The hassle of is eliminated.

3 is a front view showing a shutter according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 3, a shutter 70, a door 72, and a first safety sensor 76 are shown.

The present invention is an automatic packing device to stabilize the quality and improve the productivity by automating the conventional manual wafer packing process, the operation is automatically performed without an operator in the device other than the operation of loading the cassette and extracting the jar box Proceed. Therefore, when an operator or a part thereof enters into the apparatus during the cassette loading process, the extraction process of the jar box, and the wafer packing process, a safety accident may occur to the worker, and the quality of the product may be degraded.

In order to prevent a safety accident in the process of stacking the cassette on the cassette stage 10, the present invention, the automatic packing device is further provided with a shutter 70 on one side of the main frame 1, the cassette stage 10 is installed The stage 10 is shielded. As a result, arbitrary access to the cassette stage 10 is blocked, thereby preventing accidental safety accidents.

On the other hand, the shutter 70 is formed with a door 72 that can be opened and closed corresponding to the position of the cassette stage 10. The operator opens the door 72 and pushes the cassette laterally in order to load the cassette. As described above, the cassette moved in the lateral direction is restrained by the stopper 14, and the clamp 18 is rotated by receiving a signal from the seat detection sensor 16 that detects the cassette. It is fixed to the cassette stage 10.

The shutter 70 is provided with a first safety sensor that detects whether the door 72 is opened or closed or intrudes through the door 72. The first safety sensor 76 may be a non-contact sensor such as an infrared sensor as shown in FIG. 3, or may be a contact sensor coupled to the door 72.

The signal transmitted from the first safety sensor 76 is transmitted to the control unit for controlling the overall operation of the automatic packing apparatus according to the present invention, so that the door 72 is opened after intrusion through the shutter 70 or the cassette is loaded. If not closed, the whole device can be disabled. This can prevent safety accidents of workers and stabilize the quality of the product.

Therefore, the operator opens the door 72 to load the cassette to the cassette stage 10, closes the door 72, and then operates an operation panel (not shown) so that the automatic packing device of the present invention can be safely operated.

The control panel (not shown) is electrically connected to the driving unit or the control unit of each unit to control the overall operation of the automatic packing apparatus according to the present invention, the display unit is provided so that the operator can grasp the working state. Since the configuration of the control panel for controlling the mechanical device is obvious to those skilled in the art, a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Figure 4a is a plan view showing a kanji box stage and a ruler box stage according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 4b is an elevation view showing a kanji box stage and a ruler box stage according to an embodiment of the present invention. 4A to 4B, the magnetic box stage 40, the kanji box stage 50, the air blower 54, the first air blow hole 541, and the second air blow hole 543 are illustrated. .

Interleaf paper interposed between wafers for wafer packing is usually supplied in a state in which a large amount of paper is stacked in a paper box and picked up one by one. During this process, the paper is picked up due to static electricity or long press. Two or more sheets can be picked up at the same time. This is a detrimental factor in the stabilization of product quality, and if two or more pieces of slip sheets are dropped during transportation, it may cause product defects or malfunction of the device.

Therefore, the ionizer box stage 50 used in the automatic pick-up apparatus according to the present invention is provided with an ionizer in a direction opposite to the selvage so as to remove the static electricity so that no more than two sheets of sewage are picked up, and are pressed for a long time. An air blower 54 for injecting air toward the kanji is provided to separate the kanji. The air blower 54 serves to open the space between the slippers by injecting air toward the slippers around the slippers, so that the air blower 54 is installed in the direction of jetting air toward the slippers from the outer periphery of the slip sheet.

Meanwhile, as illustrated in FIG. 4B, a plurality of first air blow holes 541 are formed in the air blower 54 from a bottom to a predetermined height to inject air toward the interlayer as described above. Furthermore, by forming the second air blow hole 543 at a position above the height at which the sheet of paper is stacked at the maximum, and injecting air more strongly, the two or more sheets of paper that are picked up and raised by the sheet of paper is finally raised. Separate.

To this end, the slip sheet pick-up unit descends to the surface where the sheet of paper is stacked on the sheet of paper, picks up the upper sheet of paper by vacuum adsorption, then ascends and pauses at the position where the second air blow hole 543 is formed. The air that is injected through the hole 543 finally separates the pickled sheets picked up in two or more sheets. This improves the reliability of the present invention paper pick-up unit 60 which picks up only one sheet of paper at a time.

In addition, the jar box stage 40 includes a sensor for detecting whether the jar box is mounted or a guide for guiding the jar box when the jar box is loaded in order to sense an operation of loading or removing the jar box when the worker starts or finishes the job. For example, a sensor may be installed to detect whether the wafer is charged inside the jar box.

In addition, the sensory box stage 50 is a sensor for detecting whether or not the slip sheet is seated, so that the operator removes or replenishes the sheet by sensing whether the sheet is overloaded or whether the sheet needs to be replenished. When loading the box, a guide for guiding the kanji box, a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of kanji in the kanji box, a sensor for detecting the presence or absence of kanji may be further installed. As such, various sensors can be used to automate the wafer packing process.

5 is a front view showing the slip sheet pickup unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 5, a slip sheet box 50, an air blower 54, a slip sheet pickup unit 60, a first pad 62, and a second pad 64 are shown.

The sheet pick-up unit 60 according to the present embodiment serves to pick up the sheet of paper and interpose it between the wafers stacked on the magnetic box, thereby resulting in an effect of improving productivity compared to the prior art. As shown in FIG. 5, the slip sheet pick-up unit includes an X-axis moving unit (not shown) for transferring the picked-up slip paper from the slip sheet to the ruler box, a Z-axis moving unit (not shown) for picking up the vacuum-adsorbed slip sheet, It consists of the vacuum pads 62 and 64 for vacuum-absorbing the slip paper.

On the other hand, the present invention is a pick-up unit 60 is improved the reliability of the operation by only picking up one sheet of paper that can be picked up two or more, for this purpose, the ionizer (Ionizer ( And an air blower 54 are installed.

First and second air blow holes are formed in the air blower 54 as described above, and the slip sheet pickup unit 60 picks up one by one by pausing at the position of the second air blow hole 543. The reliability of the slip sheet pickup unit 60 is improved. To this end, a level sensor is installed in the slip sheet pick-up unit 60 or the slip sheet box 50 so as to detect the height of the slip sheet which is absorbed by the slip sheet pick-up unit 60 and rises, in response to a signal transmitted from the level sensor. The interleaver pickup unit is controlled to pause while ascending. The structure and operating principle of the level sensor is obvious to those skilled in the art, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted.

Vacuum pads 62 and 64 are coupled to the ends of the slip sheet pick-up unit 60 to pick up the slip sheets by vacuum suction, and the vacuum pads 62 and 64 are pressed onto the surface of the slip sheet to form a vacuum. 62 and 64 are coupled in a 'cushion structure' which is elastically supported at the end of the slip sheet pickup unit 60.

The vacuum pads 62 and 64 of the slip sheet pick-up unit 60 according to the present embodiment are divided into two vacuum pads as shown in FIG. 5, and are coupled to be individually driven. That is, two vacuum pads driven to expand and contract from the end of the slip sheet pick-up unit 60 to be stacked, that is, downward direction, are combined, respectively, the first pad 62 and the second pad 64. ), The first pad 62 and the second pad 64 are driven to expand and contract separately.

Thus, after picking up the interlayer paper using the vacuum pads 62 and 64, the first pad 62 and the second pad 64 are moved in different directions, that is, the first pad 62 is moved upward and the second pad 64 is moved upward. By controlling the pads 64 to move downward, the slip sheets picked up by two or more sheets are separated from each other, so that only one sheet remains in the picked-up state. Thus, the first pads 62 and the second pads 64 are driven. By repeating this, the reliability of picking up only one piece of paper is greatly improved.

This results in applying a kind of "shake" to the kanji in the state in which the kanji is adsorbed by the vacuum pads 62 and 64, and thus the movement amount of the first pad 62 and the second pad 64 may be very small. The control method of dividing the vacuum pads 62 and 64 into two or more parts and applying a trembling to the adsorbed sheet by moving each of them in different directions is obvious to those skilled in the art, and thus a detailed description thereof will be omitted. .

6 is a front view showing that the second safety sensor is installed according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 6, a second safety sensor 56 and an operation button 58 are shown.

The automatic packing device of the present invention is to improve productivity by automating the wafer packing process. Since the entire process is automatically performed by the robot unit 30, a safety accident may occur to the worker when the worker intrudes into the device during the process. As a result, the quality of work may be reduced. To this end, as described above, the cassette stage 10 is provided with a shutter 70, a door 72, and a first safety sensor 76, and the first safety sensor 76 is provided to a control unit for controlling the operation of the entire apparatus. By interlocking, safety accidents in the cassette loading operation are prevented.

On the other hand, in the process of loading and unloading the jar box or the slip sheet into the jar box stage 40 or the slip sheet box 50, the same safety accident as the cassette stage 10 may occur. The second safety sensor 56 is installed on the other side of the main frame 1 in which the box stage 40 and the interlayer box stage 50 are installed to detect an invasion of an operator. Like the first safety sensor 76, the second safety sensor 56 may use a non-contact sensor such as an infrared sensor as shown in FIG. 6, and other types of sensors may be used within a range apparent to those skilled in the art. Of course.

In this way, when the second safety sensor 56 for detecting the intrusion into the magnetic box stage 40 and the kanji box stage 50 is installed, the kanji pick-up unit 60 and the robot unit 30 which are the main driving units of the automation process are provided. ) May be stopped in response to a signal transmitted from the second safety sensor 56. Thus, if a worker intrudes into the main frame 1 in the process of loading a paper box or extracting a child box, even if the packing process is in progress, the operation of the device is stopped and safety accidents can be prevented. Can be kept stable.

Therefore, the operator can load or remove the jacquard box or the slip sheet in the state in which the operation of the entire device is stopped, and then press the operation button 58 to start the work. When the device is stopped, the operation can be resumed by pressing the operation button 58 after leaving the device.

7 is an elevational view showing a robot unit according to an embodiment of the present invention. Referring to FIG. 7, the main frame 1, the cassette stage 10, the robot unit 30, the moving part 32, the pillar part 34, the arm part 36, the hand part 38, and the slip sheet pickup Unit 60 is shown.

The robot unit 30 according to the present embodiment withdraws a wafer from the cassette and inserts it into the aligner unit 20 while moving the cassette stage 10 and the jar box 40 which are disposed on both sides with respect to the center. The wafer is again taken out from the aligner unit 20 and stacked in a ruler box. Therefore, the robot unit 30 of the present invention includes a moving part 32 capable of moving between the cassette stage 10 and the jar box 40, and a pillar part for moving the hand part 38 in the vertical direction. 34), an arm portion 36 which allows the hand portion 38 to extend in the horizontal direction to the inside of the cassette or the inside of the jar box, and a vacuum adsorption portion 39 for adsorbing, drawing, moving and laminating the wafer. It is composed.

As shown in FIG. 1, the moving part 32 of the robot unit 30 according to the present exemplary embodiment is a part moving along the direction of the rail by receiving a driving force from the outside on a rail installed on the lower surface of the main frame 1. . The pillar part 34 is coupled to the moving part 32 and is stretched in the vertical direction by a piston or the like and is rotatable about an axis in the vertical direction. By stretching in the vertical direction as described above, the wafer in which the layer layers are stacked in the cassette in the vertical direction can be stretched out or reduced to the corresponding height, and the hand unit 38 is rotated by rotating the axis about the vertical axis. The wafer can be taken out from the cassette and laminated to the jar box while traveling between the jar boxes and the jar box.

On the other hand, the hand portion 38 rotated by the pillar portion 34 toward the cassette or the jar box extends in the horizontal direction to the inside of the cassette or to the inside of the jar box so that it can be extended in the horizontal direction to take out or stack the wafers. Arm 36 should be coupled to pillar 34.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 7, the arm portion 36 according to the present embodiment has a two-section link structure in which one end portion rotates about the pillar portion 34, thereby rotating the pillar portion 34 and the two-section link. According to this configuration, the hand part 38 is configured to be stretchable in the horizontal direction. However, the arm 36 of the robot unit 30 according to the present invention is not necessarily limited to the two-stage link, and can be moved in one direction in a direction that is obvious to those skilled in the art, such as a piston or telescopic tube structure. Of course, it may include a unit.

The hand portion 38 is coupled to the end of the arm portion 36. The hand part 38 is a part which is actually bonded to the wafer in the process of taking out, moving, and stacking the wafers. A vacuum suction part 39 is formed at the end of the hand part 38 to minimize the damage of the wafer in the process of working. Good to do. Thus, the wafer can be attached to the hand portion 38 by bringing the hand portion 38 into contact with one surface of the wafer and then operating the vacuum adsorption portion 39 to move the hand portion 38 while the wafer is attached. The wafer is moved to the aligner unit 20 and the jar box.

Since a circuit or a chip is formed on the upper surface of a wafer such as a semiconductor wafer, it is preferable that the hand portion 38 be in contact with the wafer from the lower surface of the wafer in order to adsorb, withdraw and move the wafer. For this purpose, it is preferable that the vacuum suction part 39 formed on the hand part 38 is formed on the upper surface of the hand part 38, and in order to increase the reliability of vacuum suction, two or more vacuum suctions driven by separate vacuum lines are provided. It is preferable to form the portion 39.

In this case, the hand portion 38 of the robot unit 30 according to the present embodiment moves to the lower surface of the wafer stacked on the cassette, and then the upper surface of the hand portion 38 is brought into contact with the lower surface of the wafer to be vacuum-absorbed. The lower surface is to be coupled to the hand portion 38.

Meanwhile, in the automatic packing apparatus according to the present invention, the wafer taken out from the cassette is stacked upside down so that the top and bottom surfaces are inverted, and thus, the bottom surface of the wafer is immediately absorbed without the work such as flipping the jar box in a post process using the jar box. Can be withdrawn, increasing work efficiency.

To this end, the hand portion 38 or the arm portion 36 of the robot unit according to the present embodiment is coupled to the pillar portion 34 so as to be able to rotate 180 degrees about a horizontal axis. Usually, the hand part 38 is formed to be rotatable about its longitudinal direction, and the controller of the robot unit 30 controls the rotation of the hand part 38 to implement the operation of inverting the upper and lower surfaces of the above-described wafer. However, the up-down reversal operation of the hand portion 38 according to the present invention is not necessarily limited to being implemented by rotation about the longitudinal axis of the hand portion 38, and other methods within the scope apparent to those skilled in the art. Of course, it includes the implementation of the up and down reverse operation of the hand portion 38.

When the hand part 38 is reversed up and down in this manner, the hand part 38 takes out the wafer in the cassette, inserts it into the aligner unit 20, reads the wafer and aligns the center, and then aligns the unit 20. By rotating the hand portion 38 about its longitudinal axis, i.e., by inverting the hand portion 38 up and down, in the process of moving from) to the ruler box, the upper surface of the wafer is stacked downward in the ruler box.

8 is a flowchart illustrating an automatic packing method according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.

The automatic packing device according to the present invention is to stabilize the quality and improve the productivity by automating the packing process of the wafer, it is characterized in not only the configuration of the device but also the wafer packing method using the same.

That is, according to the automatic packing method of the semiconductor wafer or the like according to the present invention, first, the cassette containing the wafer is loaded in the cassette stage 10 located on one side of the main frame 1 (100). Loading of the cassette is performed by opening the door 72 formed in the shutter 70 as described above, pushing the cassette in which the wafer is accommodated in the transverse direction, and closing the shutter 70, and the cassette stage 10 is a guide ( When the cassette inserted along 12) is seated by the stopper 14, the clamp 18 is driven by the seating detection sensor 16 to fix the cassette to the cassette stage 10.

Next, the wafer is taken out by the operation of the robot unit 30 and seated in the aligner unit 20 positioned adjacent to the cassette stage 10 (110). As described above, a vacuum suction unit 39 is formed in the hand unit 38 of the robot unit 30 to absorb the wafer from the lower surface of the wafer to the hand unit 38 and then control the robot unit 30 to control the wafer. Move to aligner unit 20.

The aligner unit 20 reads an ID of a semiconductor wafer or the like, stores or transmits data corresponding thereto, senses the center of a wafer normally manufactured in a disk shape, and arranges the wafer seated at a predetermined position (120). .

Next, by operation of the robot unit 30, the wafer whose ID is read out from the aligner unit 20 and whose position is to be fetched again is taken out and stacked in a jar box located on the other side of the main frame 1. (130). As described above, by rotating the hand 38 of the robot unit 30 in this process, the upper and lower surfaces of the wafer are inverted and stacked in the ruler box. Thus, the lower face of the wafer is immediately absorbed and drawn out in a post process using the ruler box. It is possible to increase the convenience of work.

After the wafers are stacked upside down and stacked in the ruler box, the separators to be interposed between the wafers are picked up from the separator box positioned adjacent to the ruler box and stacked in the ruler box 140. As described above, two or more sheets may be picked up at the same time due to static electricity or being pressed for a long time, and the ionizer box stage 50 in which the separator box is loaded in order to prevent this and improve the reliability of the work may be ionizer and air. Install the blower 54.

On the other hand, by connecting two or more vacuum pads to the ends of the slip sheet pick-up unit 60 for picking up the slip sheets by vacuum suction, and controlling each pad to operate individually, the slip sheet pick-up unit 60 in the state of adsorbing slip sheets You can add credibility to your job by picking up one piece of tickle.

In this way, the wafer box is filled with the required amount of wafers by repeating the process of taking out the wafer from the cassette, reading and aligning the same, and stacking the wafer in the jar box (145). That is, the above process is repeated until a predetermined amount of wafers are filled in the jar box so that the wafers having the upper and lower sides inverted in the jar box are sequentially stacked with interlayer paper.

Through this process, when a predetermined amount of wafers are stacked in the jar box and the jar box is filled, the filled jar box is extracted and transferred to the next process. As described above, a second safety sensor 56 is installed in the magnetic box stage 40 so that a safety accident does not occur to an operator during extraction of the magnetic box, and the second safety sensor 56 controls the operation of the entire apparatus. If the worker intrudes into the device while the packing operation is in progress, the operation of the entire device is stopped.

Although the technical spirit of the present invention has been described in detail according to the above-described embodiments, the above-described embodiments are for the purpose of description and not of limitation, and a person of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate It will be understood that various embodiments are possible within the scope.

1 is a plan view showing an automatic packing device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 2 is a perspective view showing the front of the cassette stage according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a front view showing a shutter according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4a is a plan view showing a kanji box stage and a ruler box stage according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 4b is an elevation view showing the kanji box stage and ruler box stage according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 5 is a front view showing a slip sheet pickup unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Figure 6 is a front view showing that the second safety sensor is installed according to an embodiment of the present invention.

7 is an elevation view showing a robot unit according to an embodiment of the present invention.

8 is a flow chart showing an automatic packing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

1: main frame 10: cassette stage

12: guide 14: stopper

16: seating detection sensor 18: clamp

19: alignment mechanism 20: aligner unit

30: robot unit 32: moving part

34: pillar 36: arm

38: hand portion 39: vacuum adsorption portion

40: ruler box stage 50: kanji box stage

54: air blower 56: second safety sensor

58: operation button 541: first air blow hole

543: second air blow hole 60: ice sheet pickup unit

62: first pad 64: second pad

70: shutter 72: door

76: first safety sensor

Claims (17)

Main frame; A cassette stage, located on one side of the main frame, for stacking a cassette containing a wafer; An aligner unit adjacent to the cassette stage, the aligner unit recognizing and aligning the wafer; A jar box stage located on the other side of the main frame and configured to stack jar boxes in which the wafers are sequentially stacked via interleaving paper; A slip box stage adjacent to the ruler box, for stacking a slip box; A slip sheet pick-up unit for picking up slip sheets from the slip sheets and stacking them on the ruler box; And a robot unit for extracting the wafer from the cassette and stacking the wafer on the magnetic box via the aligner unit. And the robot unit inverts the upper and lower surfaces of the wafer taken out from the cassette and stacks the same on the magnetic box. The method of claim 1, The robot unit is located at the center of the main frame, the cassette stage is located at both sides of the aligner unit, and the jar box stage is located at both sides of the slip sheet box stage opposite to the cassette stage, and the slip sheet pickup unit Is an automatic packing device located on the upper part of the slip sheet box stage and the magnetic box stage. The method of claim 1, The cassette stage detects whether the wafer is separated from a predetermined position while the cassette is loaded, and a protrusion detection sensor for transmitting a signal, and an alignment for moving the wafer in response to a signal transmitted from the protrusion detection sensor. Automatic packing device including apparatus. The method of claim 3, The alignment mechanism has a cylindrical shape having a length corresponding to the height of the cassette, the automatic packing device comprising a roller shaft installed in the vertical direction and movable in the horizontal direction. The method of claim 1, The cassette stage includes guides for lateral movement of the cassette corresponding to both sides of the cassette; A stopper for restricting the lateral movement of the cassette so that the cassette is seated at a predetermined position; A seat detection sensor for transmitting a signal corresponding to whether the cassette is seated; And a clamp inserted into a groove formed in a lower surface of the cassette in response to a signal received from the seat detection sensor. The method of claim 5, The seating detection sensor is a cushion type sensor coupled to the guide, the clamp is an automatic packing device driven by a piston. The method of claim 1, A shutter is coupled to one side of the main frame to shield the cassette stage, and the shutter is automatically coupled with a first safety sensor that transmits a signal by detecting a door and whether the door is opened or closed in response to the position of the cassette stage. Packing device. The method of claim 1, And the aligner unit includes a reading unit for reading the ID of the wafer, and an alignment unit for detecting a center of the wafer and aligning the center to a predetermined position. The method of claim 1, The ticker box stage includes an ionizer installed to face the ticker box; Automatic packing device including an air blower (blower) for injecting air toward the interleaver. The method of claim 9, The air blower is installed in a direction of injecting air toward the interleaver at the outer circumference of the interleaver box, and includes a plurality of first air blow holes formed up to a predetermined height at a bottom surface and corresponding to a maximum loading height of the interleaver Automatic packing device with 2 air blow holes. The method of claim 10, A vacuum pad is coupled to a distal end of the slip sheet pick-up unit to pick up the slip sheet by vacuum suction, and after the pick-up of the slip sheet, pauses at a height corresponding to the position of the second air blow hole. The method of claim 11, The vacuum pad includes a first pad and a second pad coupled to extend from the end of the pick-up unit in the direction in which the slip sheet is loaded, and the first pad extends separately from whether the second pad is extended. Automatic packing device. The method of claim 1, The other side of the main frame is coupled with a second safety sensor for transmitting a signal by detecting whether the operator intrudes into the position of the jacquard stage or upper limb kanji box stage, the kanji pick-up unit or the robot unit is the second Automatic packing device in which operation stops in response to a signal transmitted from a safety sensor. The method of claim 1, The robot unit is coupled to the main frame to move in the horizontal direction; A pillar portion coupled to the moving portion and expanded in a vertical direction and rotatable about a vertical axis; An arm portion coupled to the pillar portion and extending in a horizontal direction; A hand portion coupled to an end of the arm portion; Automatic packing device including a vacuum suction unit coupled to the hand. The method of claim 14, The vacuum suction unit is coupled to the upper surface of the hand portion, the hand portion is moved to the lower surface of the wafer and the automatic packing unit for absorbing and withdrawing the lower surface of the wafer on the upper surface of the hand portion. The method of claim 14, The hand part or the arm part is coupled to the pillar part so as to be rotatable about a horizontal axis, and the hand part rotates about the horizontal axis in the process of moving from the aligner unit to the jar box. Device. (a) loading a cassette containing a wafer in a cassette stage located at one side of the main frame; (b) withdrawing the wafer and seating in the aligner unit located adjacent to the cassette stage; (c) reading the ID of the wafer and aligning the position of the seated wafer; (d) extracting the wafer from the aligner unit and inverting the upper and lower surfaces thereof and loading the wafer in a jar box located on the other side of the main frame; (e) picking up the kanji from the kanji box located adjacent to the kan box and stacking it on the kan box; And (f) repeating the steps (a) to (e) so that the wafers are sequentially stacked through the interleave paper.

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