TWI682484B - Cassette adaptor - Google Patents

Abstract

This invention discloses a cassette adaptor. The aforementioned cassette adaptor is able to load the small-sized cassette into the large-sized wafer container. Therefore the production line can use the original crane of the large-sized wafer container to transfer the small-sized cassette.

Description

Cartridge structure transfer container

The invention relates to a cassette structure transfer container, in particular to a cassette structure transfer container which can load a small-size cassette into a large-size wafer box.

In the field of manufacturing and transmission of semi-finished semiconductor products, the transmission and transmission of wafers of various sizes is a very important part. Whether it is automated control, or cleanliness of the production line, etc., all belong to the focus of special attention on the production line or the transmission line.

In addition, for the transfer of wafers of various sizes, it must be considered in accordance with the needs of various plants and equipment. Due to the rapid development of science and technology, single-size wafers are generally difficult to meet the needs of the semiconductor industry in research and development or manufacturing. Often after a period of time, it will lead to a large increase in demand for wafers of a specific size.

Therefore, in the original production line or transmission line, wafers that can only be used to transfer specific sizes will not be used. It is bound to require the establishment of new production lines to transfer wafers of specific sizes. However, as a result, it is bound to increase the production and equipment maintenance costs of semiconductor factories.

In the existing technology, such as the technology contained in the published patent number TWI283452 (wafer support connector for semiconductor wafer transport container) of the Republic of China, it is designed with a series of elastic mechanisms to carry the wafer to prevent the wafer Damage caused by shaking and collision during transportation. But even with this kind of technology, its protection capacity will still be lower than that directly loaded in the cassette. Moreover, the design of the sheet-like mechanism also has the disadvantage that it is not easy to damage and repair. Therefore, under this premise, directly loading the wafer through a thin and poorly covered mechanism is not the most ideal technology.

In the technology contained in the published patent number TW201222704 (cassette adapter) of the Republic of China, although the covered cassette conversion structure is described, the case has not effectively solved the different sizes of cassettes and wafers How to carry and fix between boxes safely and smoothly.

備

搬送容器))一案所提出方案中，雖已運用包覆式的卡匣結構轉載晶圓，但該案仍具有定位不易以及卡匣容易滑出之缺點。因此，該案選用防止卡匣滑出之卡榫結構也僅能適用於特製的晶圓盒中，不具有泛用性。 Also published in Japan Patent No.-JP 2002-231802 (wafer transfer container with compatibility (interchangeability

Prepare

In the solution proposed in the case of "Transport Container"), although the wafer cassette has been transferred using the cladding cassette structure, the case still has the disadvantages of not easy positioning and easy slide-out of the cassette. Therefore, the tenon structure used to prevent the cassette from slipping out in this case can only be applied to the specially-made wafer box, and is not universal.

Therefore, if the existing transfer equipment can be used to execute the wafer transfer scheme, and at the same time all the defects mentioned in the prior art can be overcome, it will have a significant help for the production and equipment maintenance costs of the semiconductor factory.

In order to solve the problems mentioned in the prior art, the present invention provides a transfer container with a cassette structure. The transfer container of the cassette structure mainly includes a box body, at least two first ribs, at least two second ribs, and at least two third ribs.

The box body has a positioning opening, and the positioning opening is trumpet-shaped, and the box body houses a cassette. The at least two first ribs are symmetrically arranged on both sides of the inner upper edge of the box body, and are engaged with the upper end of the cassette.

The at least two second ribs are symmetrically arranged on the left and right sides of the box body, and are engaged with the left and right sides of the cassette. Finally, the at least two third ribs are arranged at the bottom of the box body and are engaged with the bottom of the cassette. Wherein, the positioning opening is used to position and guide the cassette into the transfer container of the cassette structure.

The above brief description of the present invention aims to provide a basic description of several aspects and technical features of the present invention. The brief description of the invention is not a detailed description of the invention, so its purpose is not to specifically list the key or important elements of the invention, nor to define the scope of the invention, but to present several concepts of the invention in a concise manner.

10‧‧‧Container transfer container

100‧‧‧Box

101‧‧‧The first rib

102‧‧‧The second rib

103‧‧‧ third rib

104‧‧‧positioning opening

105‧‧‧ First stop

106‧‧‧Second stop

107‧‧‧Locating hole

108‧‧‧door lock

109‧‧‧inclination element

11‧‧‧Cassette

12‧‧‧Top cover

121‧‧‧Fixed components

13‧‧‧Elastic element

131‧‧‧Elastic ribs

20‧‧‧ Wafer box

21‧‧‧ Wafer box cover

θ‧‧‧Slip angle

FIG. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of an embodiment of the present invention reproduced in a front opening wafer cassette.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of loading a cassette on a front opening wafer cassette according to an embodiment of the invention.

4 is a schematic front view of the present invention when loading a cassette.

5 is a schematic diagram of the structure of the upper cover and the fixing element according to the embodiment of the invention.

6 is a schematic diagram of the installation of the upper cover and the elastic element according to the embodiment of the invention.

7 is a schematic structural view of an elastic rib according to an embodiment of the invention.

In order to understand the technical features and practical effects of the present invention, and can be implemented in accordance with the content of the specification, the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings is further described in detail below: please refer to FIGS. 1, 2 and 3. FIG. 1 is a schematic structural view of an embodiment of the present invention; FIG. 2 is a schematic view of an embodiment of the present invention reproduced in a front-open wafer cassette; FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of an embodiment of the present invention loading a cassette in a front-open wafer cassette.

This embodiment mainly uses an eight-inch cassette as the embodiment of the cassette 11, and the wafer cassette 20 is a twelve-inch front-open wafer cassette. Actually, the types of the cassette 11 and the wafer cassette 20 are not limited, and only the size of the wafer W loaded in the cassette 11 is smaller than the wafer cassette 20.

As shown in FIG. 1, in this embodiment, a cassette structure transfer container 10 that can transfer a cassette 11 to a wafer cassette 20 mainly includes a cassette body 100, at least two first ribs 101, at least two second ribs 102 and At least two third ribs 103. The box 100 has a positioning opening 104, and the positioning opening 104 is trumpet-shaped. The positioning opening of this embodiment is set to a trumpet shape (see FIG. 3 first), which is mainly used to guide the cassette 11 into the box 100.

The design of the positioning opening 104 as a trumpet-shaped structure allows the present embodiment to naturally form the function of the guide angle, so that the cassette 11 can be aligned and received in the cassette body 100 of the cassette-contained transfer container 10.

At least two first ribs 101 are symmetrically arranged on both sides of the inner upper edge of the box 100, at least two second ribs 102 are symmetrically arranged on the left and right sides of the box 100, and finally at least two third ribs 103 are arranged on the box 100 at the bottom. The arrangement of the first rib 101, the second rib 102, and the third rib 103 has various effects. In this embodiment, the thickness of the first rib 101, the second rib 102 and the third rib 103 near the positioning opening 104 is thicker than the end near the inside of the box 100. In this way, in addition to the positioning function, the friction force of the cassette 11 sliding into the box 100 can be reduced.

In other possible embodiments, the first rib 101, the second rib 102, and the third rib 103 can also cooperate with the shape of the cassette 11 as a sliding rail type tenon or a fixing structure with a clamping function. No restrictions.

In this embodiment, in order to reduce the weight of the box 100, the positioning opening 104 is provided with a first stopper 105 and a second stopper 106 on the opposite side of the inside of the box 100. The width of the first blocking member 105 is larger than that of the second blocking member 106, and at least one blocking rib is further provided on the first blocking member 105 and the second blocking member 106 in this embodiment. The arrangement of the stop ribs can be seen in the cross-sectional view shown in FIG. 3. The stop ribs can facilitate the manual or mechanical handling of the box 100 and serve as a focus point for increasing friction or applying force.

After the cassette 11 slides into the box 100, this embodiment prevents the cassette 11 from sliding out of the box 100. In addition to the use of the first stopper 105 and the second stopper 106, the box 100 of this embodiment Further provided with at least one door lock 108. The form of the door lock 108 may be a rotary door lock or a latch type door lock, which is not limited by the present invention. In a possible implementation, it may be designed that when the cassette 11 slides into the bottom of the box 100, the first stopper 105 and the second stopper 106 are struck while pulling at least in concert with the hidden in the box 100 Components (not shown), which automatically lock the door lock 108.

In a possible implementation mode, after the wafer cassette cover 21 is covered with the wafer cassette 20, the wafer cassette 20 may be locked while passing through the other provided in the wafer cassette 20 or between the interlayers. At least the actuating element (not shown), after physically contacting the door lock 108, locks the door lock 108.

In this embodiment, after the cassette body 100 is installed in the wafer cassette 20 and fixed, only the cassette 11 will touch the wafer cassette lid 21. The box body 100 itself is designed so that even if the positioning opening 104 does not touch the wafer box cover 21.

In addition, as shown in FIG. 3, to further prevent the cassette 11 from slipping out of the box 100, the box 100 of this embodiment may further be provided with at least one positioning hole 107, at least one inclination element 109 or combination. In a possible embodiment, the positioning hole 107 may be used to fix the cassette 11 with a special tenon structure, or to fix the cassette body 100 and the wafer cassette 20. The inclination element 109 can be used to cooperate with the flared structure of the positioning opening 104 to make the cassette body 100 of the cassette structure transfer container 10 form an anti-skid angle θ.

In this embodiment, the inclination angle element 109 makes the cassette structure transfer container 10 incline upwards in the direction of the positioning opening 104 with an anti-skid angle θ between 2° and 6°. More precisely, the slip resistance angle θ used in this embodiment is 4°.

In order to prevent the wafer W loaded in the cassette 11 from shaking, an upper cover 12 can be further installed on the cassette 11. Please refer to FIG. 4, which is a schematic front view of the present invention when loading a cassette. As shown in FIG. 4, in the embodiment in FIG. 4, at least two first ribs 101 are used to engage the upper cover 12, and the upper cover 12 is disposed on the cassette 11. In this embodiment, when at least two first ribs 101 are engaged with the upper cover 12, the gap between the first rib 101 and the upper cover 12 is between 0.5 mm and 1.5 mm.

Please refer to FIG. 5 together. FIG. 5 is a schematic structural view of an upper cover and a fixing element according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, the upper cover 12 of this embodiment (indicated by a dashed line, also refer to the structure of the upper cover 12 in FIG. 1) includes a fixing element 121. The fixing element 121 in this embodiment is composed of a plurality of fixing wings. The fixing element 121 has a certain elasticity and can be used to fix the wafer W in the cassette 11. As shown in the fixing element 121 in the close-up cross-sectional view in FIG. 5, when the fixing element 121 is covered in the direction of the arrow in FIG. 5, the wafer W can be fixed.

In this embodiment, the depth of the upper cover 12 (that is, the portion where the upper cover 12 and the cassette 11 repeatedly overlap) is designed to be between 23 and 30 mm, which can ensure that the wafer is not touched during the assembly process.

In actual operation, the wing-shaped fixing element 121 may directly contact the wafer W, or may not directly contact the wafer W, and only restricts the movement range of the wafer W.

In this embodiment, the upper cover 12 and the fixing element 121 can use polycarbonate (Polycarbonate, PC), carbon nanotube (CNT), cyclic olefin copolymer (COC), or a combination thereof. More precisely, in this embodiment, the material combination used may be Carbon (Polycarbonate, PC) Carbon Nanotube (CNT) or Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC) Mixed Nanocarbon Tube (Carbon Nanotube, CNT) made. The upper cover 12 and the fixing element 121 have the characteristics of the upper cover 12 and the fixing element 121 with surface resistance between 10 ⁴ -10 ⁹ ohm (Ω) and elasticity value between 5-100 gf (gf).

Next, please refer to FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 at the same time. FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of the upper cover and the installation of the elastic element according to the embodiment of the invention; FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of the elastic rib structure according to the embodiment of the invention. As shown in FIG. 6, in the embodiment of FIG. 6, the means for preventing the wafer W from shaking is fixed through the elastic element 13 provided on the upper cover 12 (indicated by broken lines). In this embodiment, the elastic element 13 can be disposed on the upper cover 12 by snapping, fitting, bonding, or even integrally forming. The material of the elastic element 13 in this embodiment may be an elastic body such as foam or rubber, and the invention is not limited thereto.

As shown in FIG. 7, the elastic element 13 of this embodiment is further provided with at least one elastic rib 131. To facilitate understanding of the fixing effect of the elastic rib 131, the part of the elastic rib 131 in FIG. 7 is explained. The partial view of the elastic rib 131 in FIG. 7 is viewed from the side. That is, the elastic ribs 131 are linearly arranged along the longer end of the elastic element 13. When the wafer W is engaged by the elastic element 13, the elastic rib 131 is elastically recessed to fix or prevent the wafer W from shaking.

The material of the elastic element 13 will affect the depth of the wafer W embedded in the elastic rib 131; in this embodiment, the embedded depth may be between 1 and 3 mm according to requirements, and the force on the wafer is between 0.1 and Between 100 grams of force (gf). In addition, in order to allow the elastic element 13 to have more functions, the elastic element 13 can also be made of antistatic foam.

In a possible implementation manner, an anti-seismic layer of the same material as the elastic element 13 may also be added to the groove of the fixing element 121, and the invention is not limited thereto.

However, the above are only preferred embodiments of the present invention, and the scope of implementation of the present invention cannot be limited by this, that is, simple equivalent changes and modifications made in accordance with the scope of patent application and description of the present invention are still It is within the scope of the present invention.

10‧‧‧Container transfer container

100‧‧‧Box

101‧‧‧The first rib

102‧‧‧The second rib

103‧‧‧ third rib

104‧‧‧positioning opening

105‧‧‧ First stop

106‧‧‧Second stop

107‧‧‧Locating hole

108‧‧‧door lock

Claims (17)

A transfer container with a cassette structure includes: a box body with a positioning opening, the positioning opening is a trumpet-shaped guide angle, the box body guides a cassette into the cassette body through the trumpet-shaped guide angle, and accommodates the cassette; at least Two first ribs, which are symmetrically arranged on both sides of the upper edge of the inside of the box, and engage the upper end of the cassette; at least two second ribs, which are symmetrically arranged on the left and right sides of the box, and engage the sides of the cassette Left and right sides; and at least two third ribs, which are arranged at the bottom of the box body and engage the bottom of the cassette. The transfer container with a cassette structure according to claim 1, wherein the positioning opening is provided on the opposite side of the box body with a first stopper and a second stopper. The transfer container of cassette structure as described in claim 1, wherein the cassette is an eight-inch cassette, and the transfer container of the cassette structure is carried in a twelve-inch front-opening wafer cassette. The transfer container of a cassette structure according to claim 1, wherein the at least two first ribs are used to snap-fit an upper cover provided on the cassette. The transfer container with a cassette structure according to claim 4, wherein the upper cover comprises an elastic element, a fixing element or a combination thereof. The transfer container of the cassette structure as described in claim 5, wherein the depth of the upper cover is between 23-30 mm. The transfer container of cassette structure as described in claim 5, wherein the material of the upper cover and the fixing element is polycarbonate (Polycarbonate, PC), carbon nanotube (CNT), cyclic olefin copolymer (Cyclic Olefin Copolymer (COC) or a combination thereof. The transfer container of cassette structure as described in claim 5, wherein the surface impedance of the upper cover and the fixing element is between 10 ⁴ ~ 10 ⁹ ohm (Ω), and the elasticity value of the upper cover and the fixing element is between 5~100 Gram force (gf). The transfer container for a cassette structure according to claim 3, wherein the box body is further provided with at least one tilting element, and the at least one tilting element tilts the transfer container for the cassette structure upward by a non-slip angle along the direction of the positioning opening. The transfer container of cassette structure as described in claim 9, wherein the slip resistance angle is between 2° and 6°. The transfer container of cassette structure as described in claim 5, wherein the material of the elastic element is foam or rubber. The transfer container of cassette structure as described in claim 11, wherein the elastic element directly contacts the plurality of wafers contained in the cassette, and the depth of the elastic element embedded in the plurality of wafers is between 1 and 3 mm And the force on the multiple wafers is between 0.1 and 100 grams of force (gf). The transfer container of cassette structure as described in claim 5, wherein the fixing element comprises a plurality of fixing wings. The transfer container of a cassette structure according to claim 1, wherein the thickness of each end of the first rib, the second rib, and the third rib near the positioning opening is thicker than the end closer to the inside of the box body. The transfer container of the cassette structure as described in claim 1, wherein at least one door lock is further provided on the box body. The transfer container with a cassette structure according to claim 1, wherein at least one positioning hole is further provided on the box body. The transfer container of the cassette structure according to claim 4, wherein when the first rib is engaged with the upper cover, The gap between the first rib and the upper cover is between 0.5 mm and 1.5 mm.

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