TW202008492A - Non-contact substrate handling equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

The invention discloses an embodiment of the present invention discloses a non-contact substrate operating apparatus, comprising: a gripping arm (222) and a gripping disk device; A plurality of suction sheet units (102, 103) arranged symmetrically in the center are arranged at the bottom of the grabbing disk device; The suction sheet unit (102, 103) is provided with a cavity and tangential holes (102-1, 103-1) communicating with the cavity; The grasping arm is internally provided with a vent pipe, and the grasping disc device is internally provided with an air cavity channel, and the vent pipeis communicated with the tangential holes (102-1, 103-1) through the air cavity channel, and the substrate is adsorbed by the pressure difference generated by the rotating vortex generated by the suction sheet unit. The device of the invention can eliminate the spin and deflection of the wafer and improve the accuracy of the device. The invention can avoid pollution, crushing and and the like tothe surface of the wafer, improve the quality of products. The device can be used to take and put tablets at high temperature so as to improve the capacity of equipments.

Description

Non-contact substrate handling equipment

The invention relates to the technical field of semiconductor integrated manufacturing, in particular to a non-contact substrate operation device.

In the field of semiconductor integrated circuit manufacturing, in order to generate epitaxially-coated semiconductor wafers, the epitaxial coating of the semiconductor wafer in the epitaxial reactor is usually used, and the deposition gas passes through the epitaxial reactor, which can be on the surface of the semiconductor wafer On the epitaxial material. In the epitaxial reactor, wafer substrate transfer is a very important content. The wafer is generally circular, with a front side and a back side. The front side of the wafer is the surface of the wafer that forms the structure of the integrated circuit; in addition, the area of a few millimeters at the edge of the wafer is also not used to achieve integrated circuit manufacturing. Therefore, during the wafer transfer process, it is very important to protect the front side of the wafer from damage.

At present, there are a variety of devices for transferring substrates in the existing epitaxial reactors, but all have deficiencies. For example, for a non-contact substrate operating device in an epitaxial reactor, during the wafer taking process, the suction force formed at each suction hole acts on the center of the front surface of the substrate. The bottom is deformed too much, so it is easy to form a crush injury; in addition, when taking a piece from the process chamber, the substrate still has a certain temperature, and there is a certain adhesion with the device's gripping device, the substrate may not be Accurate adsorption, can not guarantee smooth adsorption, resulting in failure or falling of the chip; for another type of non-contact substrate operation equipment in the epitaxial reactor, the orientation and layout of the tangential hole of the suction cup have problems, making each suction cup There are differences in the size of the airflow and the rotating vortex. When the wafer is sucked up, it will appear unstable, spin, and wavy, which cannot meet the needs of positioning, picking and placing at a fixed point, and transferring the wafer. Therefore, there is a need for a new apparatus for transferring substrates.

In view of this, embodiments of the present invention provide a non-contact substrate operating device.

According to an object of an embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a non-contact substrate handling apparatus, including: a gripping arm and a gripping disk device; one end of the gripping arm is connected to the gripping disk device; A plurality of suction chip units arranged symmetrically in the center are provided at the bottom of the disk taking device; the suction chip unit is provided with a cavity and a tangential hole communicating with the cavity; an air pipe is provided inside the grab arm, The grabbing disk device is provided with a venting channel inside, and the venting tube communicates with the tangential hole through the venting channel; wherein compressed gas passes through the venting tube, the venting channel, and the cut The hole is input into the cavity, a rotating vortex is formed in the cavity, and the substrate is absorbed by the pressure difference generated by the rotating vortex.

Preferably, the distance between the connection between the ventilation channel and the ventilation tube and the connection between the ventilation channel and each of the tangential holes are equal to uniformly deliver compressed gas to each Tangential hole of the suction unit.

Preferably, the ventilation cavity includes: a plurality of first sealed cavities; the plurality of first sealed cavities are arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of suction tablet units, and the plurality of first sealed cavities The first ends of the two are respectively connected to the tangential holes of the corresponding suction chip unit, the second ends of the plurality of first closed cavities are connected, and the plurality of first closed cavities are connected by the gripping disc device The center of is centered in a radial distribution; wherein, compressed gas is delivered to the tangential hole of the suction plate unit corresponding to it through the first closed cavity.

Preferably, the ventilation cavity includes: a second closed cavity; the second closed cavity is located in the center of the gripping disk device; and the second ends of the plurality of first closed cavity are all The second closed cavity channel is in communication, wherein compressed gas is evenly distributed to the plurality of first closed cavity channels via the second closed cavity channel.

Preferably, the ventilation cavity includes: a third sealed cavity; wherein the ventilation tube communicates with the second sealed cavity through the third sealed cavity.

Preferably, a plurality of sealed cavities corresponding to the plurality of suction chip units in one-to-one correspondence are provided in the gripping disk device; the plurality of suction chip units are respectively disposed in the sealed cavity corresponding to the plurality of suction chip units , Forming a plurality of annular sealed cavity channels corresponding to the plurality of suction tablet units in one-to-one correspondence; wherein, the first end of the first sealed cavity channel communicates with the annular sealed cavity channel, and the compressed gas passes through the The first closed cavity channel and the annular closed cavity channel are delivered to the corresponding tangential hole of the suction sheet unit.

Preferably, the gripping disk device includes: a chassis and an adapter disk device; the adapter disk device is provided on the chassis; the adapter disk device includes: an adapter chassis, an intermediate disk, and a top disk; The adapter chassis is connected to the intermediate chassis and the chassis respectively, and the intermediate chassis is connected to the top chassis, wherein the intermediate chassis and the intermediate chassis are formed between the adapter chassis, the intermediate chassis and the chassis A third sealed cavity is formed between the intermediate disc and the top disc.

Preferably, it further includes: a radiating disc; the radiating disc is respectively connected to the intermediate disc and the chassis, wherein the first is formed between the radiating disc, the intermediate disc, and the chassis Closed cavity.

Preferably, the plurality of sealed cavities are formed between the radiation disk and the chassis, wherein the suction sheet unit is disposed in the sealed cavity corresponding thereto.

Preferably, bumps are provided on the bottom of the chassis, and the bumps are used for positioning and limiting the substrate.

Preferably, a through hole with an exhaust function is provided in the center of the gripping disk device.

Preferably, the suction sheet unit is provided with the cylindrical cavity, and at least two tangential holes communicating with the cavity are provided on the top of the cavity and at the same height. The directional hole is tangent to the inner wall of the cavity.

Preferably, the number of the suction plate units is an even number, and the directions of the rotating vortices formed by the two adjacent suction plate units in the cavity are opposite.

The non-contact substrate operating device of the present invention uniformly distributes the suction chip units and uniformly delivers compressed gas to each suction chip unit, so that each suction chip unit forms the same lifting force, and the generated rotating forces can cancel each other out , Eliminate the spin and deflection of the wafer, improve the accuracy of the equipment; It can realize the floating pick-and-place wafer and transfer the wafer, effectively avoid the contamination and pressure injury caused by the wafer transfer tool on the wafer surface during the pick-and-place process. The quality of the product; it can effectively prevent the high-temperature gas from damaging the external gas path and equipment, and can carry out high-temperature pick-and-place films to shorten the cooling time of the equipment and increase the production capacity of the equipment.

Additional objects and advantages of the embodiments of the present invention will be partially given in the following description, which will become apparent from the following description, or be learned through the practice of the present invention.

The invention will be described more fully below with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are illustrated. The technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention will be described clearly and completely in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present invention. Obviously, the described embodiments are only a part of the embodiments of the present invention, but not all the embodiments. Based on the embodiments of the present invention, all other embodiments obtained by a person of ordinary skill in the art without making creative efforts fall within the protection scope of the present invention. The technical solutions of the present invention will be described in various aspects with reference to the drawings and embodiments.

In the following, for convenience of description, the "left", "right", "upper", and "lower" in the following are consistent with the left, right, up, and down directions of the drawing itself.

The "first" and "second" in the following are only used to describe the difference, and have no other special meanings.

As shown in the first to fifth figures, the present invention provides a non-contact substrate handling apparatus, including a gripping arm 222 and a gripping disk device. The gripping disk device can be implemented in a variety of specific structures. One end of the grasping arm 222 is connected to the grasping disk device. At the bottom of the gripping disk device are provided a plurality of suction chip units 102, 103 uniformly arranged in the circumferential direction.

As shown in the second and third figures, the suction unit 102, 103 is provided with a cavity and tangential holes 102-1, 103-1 communicating with the cavity, the tangential holes 102-1, 103-1 are connected The hole penetrates the wall of the cavity. The grasping arm 222 is provided with a ventilation tube, and the grasping disc device is provided with a ventilation channel. The specific arrangement of the ventilation channel can be set according to the design requirements. The vent tube communicates with the tangential holes 102-1, 103-1 through the vent channel, and compressed gas is input into the cavity through the vent tube, vent channel, and tangential holes 102-1, 103-1, forming a rotating vortex in the cavity , Use the pressure difference generated by the rotating vortex to attract the substrate. The substrate 40 may be various semiconductor wafer substrates and the like.

The suction unit 102, 103 is provided with a cylindrical cavity, and at least two tangential holes 102-1, 103-1, tangential holes 102-1 communicating with the cavity are provided at the top of the cavity and at the same height , 103-1 is tangent to the inner wall of the cylindrical cavity of the cavity. The plurality of suction chip units 102, 103 are evenly distributed, and the number is a double number, such as 6, 8 etc. The tangential holes of the two adjacent suction chip units can be arranged in a combination of left-handed and right-handed intervals. The directions of the rotating vortices formed by the two adjacent suction-piece units 102, 103 in the cavity are different, which are left-handed rotations. Vortex and right-handed vortex or vice versa.

As shown in the fourth figure, compressed gas enters the cavity along the tangential hole from the top of the suction plate unit, and forms a rotating vortex under the restraint of the wall surface of the cylindrical cavity. The high-speed rotating gas drives the gas in the central area of the cavity to rotate, and throws it toward the wall surface due to the centrifugal force, thereby generating a negative pressure area in the center of the cavity. The silicon wafer placed under the suction chip unit is vertically adsorbed by the negative pressure to realize the adsorption process. Due to the pressure, the gas moves downward in a spiral shape and is discharged in a scattered shape at the bottom of the suction plate unit, thereby forming an air cushion between the periphery of the silicon wafer and the suction cup, and finally achieving a non-contact suction plate. The suction plate unit uses Bernoulli's principle to generate a pressure difference by using a low pressure formed by a rotating vortex. Since the vortex formed by a single suction plate unit will cause the wafer to rotate, the suction plate unit adopts a central rotational symmetry distribution to Balance the rotation force between each other.

In one embodiment, the ventilation channel uniformly delivers compressed gas to the tangential holes 102-1, 103-1 of each suction chip unit 102, 103. The distance between the connection between the ventilation channel and the ventilation tube and the connection between the ventilation channel and each tangential hole 102-1, 103-1 are equal, so that the compressed gas is evenly delivered to each suction tablet unit 102, 103 tangential holes 102-1, 103-1. Ventilation channels can be implemented in a variety of specific structures. For example, the ventilation channel includes a plurality of first closed channels 105, and the plurality of first closed channels 105 are provided in a one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of suction chip units 102, 103. The first ends of the plurality of first closed channels 105 are respectively connected to the tangential holes 102-1, 103-1 of the corresponding suction chip units 102, 103, and the second ends of the plurality of first closed channels 105 are connected, In addition, the plurality of first sealed channels 105 are distributed radially with the center of the gripping disk device as the center. The compressed gas is uniformly delivered to the tangential holes 102-1, 103-1 of the corresponding suction chip units 102, 103 via the first closed cavity 105.

The ventilation channel includes a second closed channel 104. The second closed cavity 104 is located in the center of the gripping disk device. The second ends of the plurality of first sealed channels 105 are in communication with the second sealed channel 104, and the compressed gas is evenly distributed to the plurality of first sealed channels 105 through the second sealed channel 104. The ventilation channel includes a third closed channel 106. The third closed cavity 106 is located at the edge of the gripping disk device, and the vent tube communicates with the second closed cavity 104 through the third closed cavity 106. The number of the third closed cavity 106 may be plural.

A plurality of sealed cavities corresponding to the plurality of suction chip units 102, 103 in one-to-one correspondence are provided in the gripping disk device. The plurality of suction chip units 102, 103 are respectively disposed in the sealed cavity corresponding to the plurality of suction chip units 102, 103 to form a plurality of annular sealed cavity channels 130 corresponding to the plurality of suction chip units 102, 103 in one-to-one correspondence. The second end of the first closed cavity 105 communicates with the annular closed cavity 130, and the compressed gas is delivered to the corresponding tangential holes 102 of the suction unit 102, 103 via the first closed cavity 105 and the annular closed cavity 130 1, 103-1.

As shown in the fifth figure, the gripping disk device includes: a chassis 101 and a transfer disk device 121, and the transfer disk device 121 may adopt various structures. For example, the interposer device 121 is provided on the chassis 101, and the interposer device 121 includes an interposer chassis 110, an intermediate disc 111, and a top disc 109. The transfer chassis 110 is connected to the middle chassis 111 and the chassis 101, respectively, and the middle chassis 111 is connected to the top chassis 109. A third sealed cavity 106 is formed between the transfer chassis 110, the intermediate disc 111, and the chassis 101, and a second sealed cavity 104 is formed between the intermediate disc 111 and the top disc 109. The radiating disc 108 is connected to the middle disc 111 and the chassis 101, respectively. A first closed cavity 105 is formed between the radiation disk 108, the middle disk 111, and the bottom disk 101.

A plurality of sealed cavities are formed between the radiating disc 108 and the chassis 101, and the suction sheet units 102, 103 are disposed in the sealed cavities corresponding thereto. A bump 101-1 is provided on the bottom of the chassis 101, and the bump 101-1 is used for positioning and limiting the substrate. A through hole 107 having an exhaust function is provided in the center of the gripping disk device.

The adapter disk device 121 can evenly distribute the air source input through the vent tube provided inside the grab arm 222 to each suction chip unit 102, 103. The adapter plate device 121 is composed of an adapter base plate 110, an intermediate plate 111, and a top plate 109. The three sealed chambers 106 and the second closed chamber 104 are formed between the three and the closed connection with the chassis 101, and the radiation disk 108 connects the intermediate disk 111 and the bottom disk 101 to form a hermetic first closed cavity 105, and at the same time the suction plate units 102, 103 are embedded between the radiation disc 108 and the bottom disk 101 to form an annular closed cavity 130.

The compressed gas source is connected through the vent tube provided in the grab arm 222, and the compressed gas enters the second closed cavity 104 through the third closed cavity 106, and evenly enters the first closed cavity through the center hole of the second closed cavity 104 The cavity 105 reaches the annular sealed cavity 130 where the suction chip units 102, 103 are located, so that the airflow entering the tangential holes 102-1, 103-1 of each suction chip unit 102, 103 is the same, and the final formed support With the same lift force, the wafer will not be skewed and picked up; at the same time, because the suction chip units 102, 103 are evenly and symmetrically distributed in the center, the air inlets 102-1, 103-1 of the suction chip units 102, 103 also appear Symmetrical distribution, the generated rotating forces all cancel each other out, and the wafers will not rotate, and in order to ensure the positioning of the wafers during the transfer, the uniformly distributed bumps 101-1 are set to limit.

In one embodiment, an epitaxial reactor is provided, comprising: the non-contact substrate operating device as in any of the above embodiments.

The non-contact substrate operating device provided in the above embodiment uniformly distributes the suction chip unit and compresses the gas uniformly to each suction chip unit, so that each suction chip unit forms the same lifting force, and the generated rotation force can be Cancel each other, eliminate the spin and deflection of the wafer, and improve the accuracy of the equipment; it can realize the floating pick-and-place wafer and transfer the wafer, effectively avoiding the problems of contamination and pressure injury caused by the wafer transfer tool on the wafer surface during the pick-and-place process. Improve product quality; can effectively prevent high-temperature gas from damaging external gas lines and equipment, etc., can carry out high-temperature pick-and-place films, shorten equipment cooling time, and increase equipment capacity.

Unless otherwise stated, if any of the technical solutions disclosed in the present invention above discloses a numerical range, the disclosed numerical range is a preferred numerical range, and any person skilled in the art should understand that: a preferred numerical range It is just a numerical value with obvious or representative technical effect among many implementable numerical values. Due to the large number of values, which cannot be exhaustive, the present invention only discloses some of the values to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention, and the above-listed values should not constitute a limitation on the protection scope of the invention.

At the same time, if the above invention discloses or involves parts or structural parts that are fixedly connected to each other, unless otherwise stated, the fixed connection can be understood as: a fixed connection that can be detached (for example, using a bolt or screw connection), or It is understood as: non-removable fixed connections (such as riveting and welding). Of course, the fixed connections can also be replaced by an integrated structure (such as manufactured using a casting process that is integrally formed) (except that it is obviously impossible to use an integral forming process).

In addition, the terms used to indicate the positional relationship or shape used in any of the technical solutions disclosed in the present invention, unless otherwise stated, have a meaning including a state or shape similar to, similar to, or close to. Any component provided by the present invention may be assembled from a plurality of separate components, or may be a separate component manufactured by an integral molding process.

The above embodiments are only used to illustrate the technical solutions of the present invention but not to limit them; although the present invention has been described in detail with reference to the preferred embodiments, persons of ordinary skill in the art should understand that specific embodiments of the present invention can still be carried out Modifications or equivalent replacements of some technical features; without departing from the spirit of the technical solutions of the present invention, they should be covered in the scope of the technical solutions claimed by the present invention.

The description of the present invention is given for the sake of example and description, and is not exhaustive or limits the present invention to the disclosed form. Many modifications and changes will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art. The embodiments are selected and described in order to better explain the principle and practical application of the present invention, and enable those of ordinary skill in the art to understand the present invention to design various embodiments with various modifications suitable for specific uses.

101‧‧‧Chassis 101-1‧‧‧Bumps 102, 103‧‧‧Sucker unit 102-1, 103-1‧‧‧ Tangential hole 104‧‧‧Second closed cavity 105‧‧‧First Closed cavity 106‧‧‧ Third closed cavity 107‧‧‧Through hole 108‧‧‧Radial disc 109‧‧‧Top disc 110‧‧‧Transfer chassis 111‧‧‧Intermediate disc 121‧‧‧Transfer Disk device 130‧‧‧Annular closed cavity 222‧‧‧Grab arm

In order to more clearly explain the embodiments of the present invention or the technical solutions in the prior art, the following will briefly introduce the drawings required in the embodiments or the description of the prior art. Obviously, the drawings in the following description are only For some embodiments of the present invention, for those of ordinary skill in the art, without paying any creative labor, other drawings may be obtained according to these drawings:

The first figure is a schematic view of the structure of a venting channel of an embodiment of a non-contact substrate handling device according to the present invention.

The second and third figures are schematic diagrams of the structure of the suction sheet unit according to an embodiment of the non-contact substrate operating device of the present invention.

The fourth figure is a schematic diagram of the working principle of the suction unit.

FIG. 5 is a schematic structural cross-sectional view of an embodiment of a non-contact substrate operating device according to the present invention.

101‧‧‧Chassis

101-1‧‧‧Bump

102、103‧‧‧Suction tablet unit

104‧‧‧The second closed cavity

105‧‧‧The first closed cavity

106‧‧‧The third closed cavity

107‧‧‧Through hole

130‧‧‧Annular closed cavity

222‧‧‧ grabbing arm

Claims (13)

A non-contact substrate operating device, including: a gripping arm (222) and a gripping disk device; one end of the gripping arm (222) is connected to the gripping disk device; A bottom of the device is provided with a plurality of suction chip units (102, 103) arranged symmetrically in the center; the suction chip unit (102, 103) is provided with a cavity and an omnidirectional hole (102-) communicating with the cavity 1, 103-1); the grasping arm is provided with a vent tube inside, and the gripping disc device is provided with a vent cavity inside, the vent tube passes through the vent cavity and the tangential hole (102- 1, 103-1) communication; wherein, compressed gas is input into the cavity through the vent tube, the vent cavity, and the tangential hole (102-1, 103-1), in the cavity A rotating vortex is formed, and the substrate is attracted by the pressure difference generated by the rotating vortex. The non-contact substrate operating device as described in item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein the communication place between the ventilation channel and the ventilation tube and the ventilation channel and each of the tangential holes (102-1 , 103-1) The distance between the connecting points is equal, so that the compressed gas is uniformly delivered to the tangential holes (102-1, 103-1) of each suction chip unit (102, 103). The non-contact substrate operation device as described in item 2 of the patent application scope, wherein the venting channel includes: a plurality of first sealed channels (105); the plurality of first sealed channels (105) and The plurality of suction chip units (102, 103) are provided in a one-to-one correspondence, and the first ends of the plurality of first sealed channels (105) communicate with the tangential holes of the corresponding suction chip units, The second ends of the plurality of first closed cavities (105) are connected, and the plurality of first closed cavities (105) are radially distributed with the center of the gripping disk device as the center; wherein, The compressed gas is delivered to the tangential holes (102-1, 103-1) of the suction sheet unit corresponding thereto via the first closed cavity (105). The non-contact substrate handling device as described in item 3 of the patent application scope, wherein the venting channel includes: a second closed channel (104); the second closed channel (104) is located in the grip The center of the disk taking device; the second ends of the plurality of first sealed channels (105) are in communication with the second sealed channel (104), wherein compressed gas passes through the second sealed channel (104) ) Evenly distributed to the plurality of first closed channels (105). The non-contact substrate operating device as described in item 4 of the patent application scope, wherein the venting channel includes: a third closed cavity channel (106); wherein the vent tube passes through the third closed cavity channel ( 106) Communicating with the second closed cavity (104). The non-contact substrate handling equipment as described in item 5 of the patent application scope, wherein a plurality of closed chambers corresponding to the plurality of suction chip units (102, 103) are provided in the gripping disk device The plurality of suction tablet units (102, 103) are respectively disposed in the sealed cavity corresponding to the plurality of suction tablet units (102, 103) to form a plurality of ring-shaped sealed chambers corresponding to each other Channel (130); wherein the first end of the first sealed cavity channel (105) is in communication with the annular sealed cavity channel (130), compressed gas passes through the first sealed cavity channel (105), the ring The sealed cavity (130) is delivered to the corresponding tangential hole of the suction sheet unit. The non-contact substrate handling equipment as described in item 6 of the patent application scope, wherein the gripping disk device includes: a chassis (101) and an adapter disk device (121); the adapter disk device (121 ) Is provided on the chassis (101); the adapter plate device (121) includes: an adapter plate (110), an intermediate plate (111), a top plate (109); the adapter plate (109) 110) Connected to the middle plate (111) and the chassis (101) respectively, the middle plate (111) is connected to the top plate (109), wherein, in the adapter chassis (110), all The third closed cavity (106) is formed between the intermediate plate (111) and the bottom plate (101), and the second is formed between the intermediate plate (111) and the top plate (109) Closed cavity (104). The non-contact substrate handling device as described in item 7 of the patent application scope further includes a radiating disk (108); the radiating disk (108) is respectively connected to the middle disk (111) and the chassis ( 101) Connection, wherein the first closed cavity (105) is formed between the radiating disc (108), the intermediate disc (111), and the bottom disc (101). The non-contact substrate handling device as described in item 8 of the patent application scope, wherein the plurality of closed cavities are formed between the radiation disk (108) and the chassis (101), wherein, the The sheet suction unit (102, 103) is arranged in the sealed cavity corresponding to it. A non-contact substrate handling device as described in item 7 of the patent application scope, wherein a bump (101-1) is provided at the bottom of the chassis, and the bump (101-1) is used to perform Positioning and limit. The non-contact substrate handling equipment as described in item 2 of the patent application scope, wherein a center through hole (107) with an exhaust function is provided in the center of the gripping disk device. The non-contact substrate handling device as described in item 1 of the patent application scope, wherein the suction plate unit (102, 103) is provided with a cylindrical cavity, which is on the top of the cavity and located at the same height At least two tangential holes (102-1, 103-1) communicating with the cavity are provided at the location, and the tangential holes (102-1, 103-1) are tangent to the inner wall of the cavity. The non-contact substrate operating device as described in item 12 of the patent application range, wherein the number of the suction chip units is an even number, and the two adjacent suction chip units (102, 103) are in the cavity The direction of the rotating vortex formed is opposite.

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