KR20100025229A - A unit and a method for transfering a wafer - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: A substrate transfer unit and a method for transferring the substrate are provided to improve the efficiency of a substrate transfer by connecting a substrate transfer robot and a buffer unit. CONSTITUTION: A front open unified pod(FOUP)(400) is composed of a plurality of slots in which substrate is contained. A buffer unit(240) is composed of a plurality of slots in which the substrate is on standby. The buffer unit includes an entrance and an exit for the substrate. An index robot(300) loads/unloads the substrate between the FOUP and the buffer unit. A substrate transfer robot(220) transfers the substrate from the buffer unit to a processing chamber(100). The substrate transfer robot and the buffer unit moves together by a connection.

Description

Substrate transfer unit and substrate transfer method {A UNIT AND A METHOD FOR TRANSFERING A WAFER}

The present invention relates to a substrate transfer apparatus and method, and more particularly, to a substrate transfer apparatus and a substrate transfer method for efficiently carrying out a substrate between a pull and buffer unit, which is a carrier for accommodating a substrate, and a chamber in which a substrate processing process is performed. It is about.

In general, a semiconductor device is manufactured by selectively and repeatedly performing a process such as photographing, etching, diffusion, and metal deposition on a semiconductor substrate, and the semiconductor substrate is transferred to a specific position required for each process until it is formed into a semiconductor device. .

1 shows how a substrate is transported by the prior art.

As shown in FIG. 1, a plurality of semiconductor substrates on which the same process is generally performed is accommodated in a substrate carrier such as a foof 50 by a predetermined number of units and transferred to each process facility. The substrates received in the pool 50 are loaded into the buffer unit 30, which is a process standby position, by the index robot 40 of the transfer module disposed adjacently. The substrate is brought into the process chamber 10 from the buffer unit 30 to proceed with the treatment process. When the treatment process is completed, the substrate is unloaded back to the standby position and then transferred to the carrier by the index robot 40 of the transfer module. Is loaded.

On the other hand, the substrate transfer robot 20 performs the transfer of the substrate between the buffer unit 30 and the process chamber 10. The substrate transfer robot 20 unloads the substrate from the buffer unit 30 and moves to the chamber to bring the substrate into the chamber. Then, when the processing process is completed in the chamber, the substrate transfer unit 20 transfers the substrate from the chamber 10 to the buffer portion 30.

As described above, in the conventional substrate transfer, in the structure in which the buffer unit 30 and the substrate transfer robot 20 exist as separate units and the buffer unit 30 is fixed, the chamber 10 increases as the number of the chambers 10 increases. ) And the buffer portion 30 become further apart.

Therefore, as the movement in the track of the substrate transfer robot 20, which takes out the substrates one by one from the buffer unit 30 and carries them into each chamber 10, is repeated, a large amount of time loss occurs, and from a certain point, the chamber 10 Even if the number increases, there is a problem that the substrate processing throughput does not increase any more.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, eliminating unnecessary movement paths between the substrate transfer robot 20 and the buffer unit 30 so that the substrate processing throughput continuously increases even though the number of chambers increases. It is an object of the present invention to implement a substrate transfer unit and method that improves the bottleneck of processing.

Substrate transfer unit according to an aspect of the present invention is a pull (foup) consisting of a plurality of slots for receiving the substrate,

A buffer unit consisting of a plurality of slots to hold the substrate,

Index robot for loading / unloading substrates between the unwind and buffer sections,

And a wafer transfer robot for transferring the substrate waiting to the buffer unit to each process chamber, wherein the wafer transfer robot and the buffer unit are connected and moved together.

The substrate transfer unit according to another embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the wafer transfer robot and the buffer portion are mounted on the same table, and the wafer transfer robot and the buffer portion move together as the table moves.

The substrate transfer unit according to another embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the table is connected to a linear motor or ball screw to move along the track or connected to an automatically controlled belt to move the track according to the movement of the belt.

The substrate transfer unit according to another embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the wafer transfer robot and the buffer unit are integrally coupled or spaced apart by a predetermined distance.

A substrate transfer unit according to still another embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the buffer portion includes an carry-in portion and a carry-out portion, and the index robot loads the substrate on the carry-in portion and unloads the substrate from the carry-out portion.

The substrate transfer method according to the embodiment of the present invention,

Transferring the substrate from a foup that receives the substrate and loading the substrate into the buffer unit,

The wafer transfer robot includes a step of unloading the substrate loaded in the buffer unit and transferring the substrate to the process chamber, wherein the wafer transfer robot and the buffer unit are connected and moved together.

The substrate transfer method according to another embodiment of the present invention is characterized in that the wafer transfer robot and the buffer portion are mounted on the same table, and the wafer transfer robot and the buffer portion move together as the table moves.

Due to the configuration as described above, the substrate transfer apparatus according to the present invention is connected between the substrate transfer robot and the buffer unit is moved together or in particular mechanically coupled on the same table to move on the track between the substrate transfer robot and the buffer unit The movement distance is 0 or fixed at a predetermined distance, thereby increasing the substrate transfer efficiency and increasing the number of chambers, compared to the conventional structure in which the buffer unit is fixed and only the substrate transfer robot moves to reciprocate between the buffer unit and the chamber. This has the effect of continuously increasing throughput.

Hereinafter, exemplary embodiments according to the present invention will be described with reference to the accompanying FIG. 2. As shown in FIG. 2, the substrate transfer apparatus according to the present invention includes a pull 400, which is a carrier for accommodating the substrate, and an index robot 300 for transferring the substrate from the pull to the buffer unit 240. The substrate accommodated in the buffer unit 240 is transferred to each chamber 100 for processing the substrate by the wafer transfer robot 220. In this case, in the related art, only the wafer transfer robot 220 moves and transfers the substrate to each chamber while the buffer unit 240 is fixed at a predetermined position. However, according to the present invention, the buffer unit 240 is fixed. It is designed not to be moved but to move. In particular, the buffer unit 240 is designed to move together with the wafer transfer robot 220 under a structure connected to the wafer transfer robot 220 without moving independently, whereby the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 are moved. The distance between) remains constant at zero or a predetermined distance.

Meanwhile, the structure in which the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 may be connected and move together may be designed and implemented in various ways. As an exemplary embodiment according to the present invention, as shown in FIG. 2, The wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 are located on the same table 260. The position of each unit of the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 on the table 260 may vary according to a specific design, and the distance between the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 may be It may be designed to be variable on the table 260 and may be designed to rotate on the table 260 while maintaining a predetermined distance between the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240.

In addition, the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 located on the same table 260 move together when the table 260 moves along a predetermined track of the transfer passage 200. The movement of the table 260 along the track can be designed in various forms. The table 260 may move as the table moves in conjunction with a linear motor or ball screw, or as a track with an automatically controlled belt moves. As such, the wafer transfer robot 260 moves with the buffer unit 240 to unload the substrate from the buffer unit 240 to load the substrate into each chamber 100, or to process the substrate processed in the chamber 100. Unloading is performed to load the buffer unit 240. The structure in which the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 described above are mounted on the same table 260 is described for the purpose of illustration of the present invention, and the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 are It is sufficient if the structure is connected and the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 can move together.

Hereinafter, a substrate transfer unit according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. 3. As shown in FIG. 3, the substrate transfer unit may include a wafer transfer robot 220, a table 260, and a buffer unit 240 shown in FIG. 2. The buffer unit 240 illustrated in FIG. 2 may be configured as an import unit 242 and an export unit 244 as shown in FIG. 3. The loading section 242 is waiting for a specific processing and then receives a substrate to be transferred to each chamber 100 by the wafer transfer robot 220, and the loading section 244 completes a specific processing in each chamber. And the substrate transferred by the wafer transfer robot 220 from each chamber. The substrate transfer process between the wafer transfer robot 220, the buffer unit 240, and the index robot 300 is as follows.

The index robot 300 may load the substrate accommodated in the pull 400 into the loading portion 242 of the buffer portion 240, and in this case, the index robot 300 may load the plurality of substrates into the loading portion 242. have. Then, when the table 260 on which both the substrate transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240 are mounted moves along the track to reach the target chamber, the wafer transfer robot 220 moves the substrate from the loading unit 242 of the buffer unit. Unloading loads the substrate into the target chamber. On the other hand, for a chamber having a substrate in which a predetermined process (photo, etching, diffusion, metal deposition, etc.) has been completed in each chamber, the substrate is loaded into the loading portion 244 of the buffer portion 240 by unloading the substrate from the chamber. It is then transferred by the index robot 300. As such, since the wafer transfer robot 220 is connected to the buffer unit 240 and simultaneously moved, the wafer transfer robot 220 has been required to move in order to load / unload a substrate into the fixed buffer unit 240. The movement operation on the track is omitted.

Hereinafter, the structure of the index robot 300 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIG. The index robot 300 may have a plurality of blades 350 for loading / unloading a plurality of substrates. The number of blades may be set differently according to a specific embodiment, and for example, the number of blades may be designed to be the same as the number of slots of the pool 400 or the slots of the buffer unit 240, in this case, the pool When the substrate is moved between the buffer 50 and the buffer unit 240, all of the substrates accommodated in the pool 50 or the buffer unit 240 may be loaded / unloaded in a single movement, thereby increasing efficiency.

5 illustrates an exemplary buffer portion 240 in accordance with the present invention.

The buffer unit 240 according to the present invention, as already described, includes an import unit 242 and an export unit 244, and the number of slots of the import unit 242 and the export unit 244 is exemplarily described. The same may be set. The number of slots of the carry-in part 242 and the carry-out part 244 is equal, and the number of blades of the index robot 300 is equal to the number of the blades of the index robot 300 so that the index robot 300 may be carried in the carry-in part 242 or the carry-out part 244. All of the substrates can be loaded or unloaded in one operation. On the other hand, the number of slots of the carrying-in part 242 and the carrying-out part 244 may be designed differently according to a specific design.

Hereinafter, the advantages of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the present invention.

In a structure in which four chambers are arranged in a line, assuming that the moving distance from the wafer transfer robot to the closest chamber is 1m and the distance between chambers is 1m, the distances from the wafer transfer robot to each chamber are 1m, 2m, 3m, and 4m, respectively. Becomes At this time, as in the conventional case, when the buffer unit is fixed at a position of 0 m, the total distance to be moved from the buffer unit to the chamber 1 is required because the wafer transfer robot must reciprocate to each chamber from the buffer unit in order to replace the four chambers. The distance between the round trip distance = 2 m, the round trip distance from the buffer part to the chamber 2 = 4 m, the round trip distance from the buffer part to the chamber 3 = 6 m, and the round trip distance from the buffer part to the chamber 4 = 8 m are all 20 m. .

On the contrary, since the wafer transfer robot 220 according to the present invention is connected to the buffer unit 240 and moves together, the distance that the table 260 must move in order to replace the substrate in the four chambers is all the chambers in one movement. Since it is possible to replace the inner substrate, only the reciprocating distance to the farthest chamber 4, i.e. 8 m, needs to be moved. In this way, it is possible to efficiently transfer the substrate by omitting the unnecessary movement path between the wafer transfer robot 220 and the buffer unit 240, and fixed by the conventional substrate transfer method as the number of chambers increases Since the distance between the buffer unit and the extended chamber is further increased, the transfer efficiency of the substrate transfer method according to the prior art and the substrate transfer method according to the present invention is rapidly different.

As described above, the substrate transfer apparatus according to the present invention is a substrate transfer robot by connecting the substrate transfer robot and the buffer portion to move on the same track, for example mechanically coupled on the same table to move on the track This eliminates the travel distance between the buffer and the buffer unit, thereby increasing substrate transfer efficiency compared to the conventional structure in which the buffer unit is fixed and the substrate transfer robot only moves, and continuously increases the throughput of substrate processing even if the number of chambers is increased. Can be.

The above-described embodiments have been described as examples of the present invention, and the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments, but may be appropriately modified in a range not contrary to the spirit or spirit of the invention as understood from the claims and the entire specification. This is possible, and all the embodiments accompanying such a deformation | transformation are included in the technical scope of this invention.

The nature, nature, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same objects.

1 shows a substrate transfer unit according to the prior art.

2 is a side view of the substrate transfer unit according to the present invention.

3 is a three-dimensional view of the substrate transfer unit according to the present invention.

4 shows an index robot according to the invention.

5 shows a buffer section according to the invention.

* Description of the main symbols in the drawing

10, 100: chamber 20, 220: wafer transfer robot

30, 240: buffer part 40, 300: index robot

50, 400: Loosen 260: Table

242: carrying out part 244: carrying out part

350: index robot arm blade

Claims (7)

A foup consisting of a plurality of slots for receiving the substrate; A buffer unit including a plurality of slots to hold the substrate; An index robot for loading / unloading the substrate between the pool and the buffer unit; And A wafer transfer robot for transferring a substrate waiting in the buffer unit to each process chamber, And the wafer transfer robot and the buffer portion are connected and move together. The method of claim 1, The wafer transfer robot and the buffer unit is mounted on the same table, And the wafer transfer robot and the buffer unit move together with the movement of the table. The method of claim 2, And the table is connected to a linear motor or a ball screw to move along the track or onto a belt that is automatically controlled to move the track in accordance with the movement of the belt. The method according to claim 1 or 2, And the wafer transfer robot and the buffer unit are integrally coupled or kept spaced apart by a predetermined distance. The method according to claim 1 or 2, The buffer unit includes an import unit and an export unit, And the index robot loads a substrate into the loading portion and unloads the substrate from the loading portion. In the substrate transfer method of carrying in and out of a board | substrate to the installation which a semiconductor manufacturing process advances, Transferring the substrate from a foup that receives the substrate and loading the substrate into a buffer portion; A wafer transfer robot unloading the substrate loaded in the buffer unit and transferring the substrate to each process chamber; And the wafer transfer robot and the buffer portion are connected and move together. The method of claim 6, The wafer transfer robot and the buffer unit may be connected and moved together, wherein the wafer transfer robot and the buffer unit may be mounted on the same table, and the wafer transfer robot and the buffer unit may move together according to the movement of the table. , Substrate transfer method.

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