TWM677698U - wafer box - Google Patents

Abstract

A wafer cassette includes a housing and a plurality of mounting frames. The housing includes a rear wall, two side walls, and a chamber. The side walls are respectively disposed on opposite sides of the rear wall. The mounting frames are spaced apart on the side walls of the housing. Each mounting frame includes a body and a first extension. The first extension extends from the body in an extension direction away from the rear wall, and the thickness of the body is greater than the thickness of the first extension. By providing bodies and first extensions of different thicknesses on the mounting frames, each mounting frame can provide at least two contact points on the bottom of the wafer, effectively improving the stability of the wafer placed on the mounting frame.

Description

wafer box

This invention relates to a wafer cassette, and more particularly to a wafer cassette for stably supporting wafers.

In traditional wafer cassette structures, wafers are typically placed directly on carriers with a fixed shape, which are manufactured using molding processes such as injection molding. However, uneven shrinkage or flatness errors can easily occur during the molding process, resulting in irregularities on the contact surfaces of the carriers. This further leads to problems such as uneven support, tilting, or wobbling of the wafers during placement, affecting the stability of wafer placement and the accuracy of subsequent processes. Traditional carriers usually only provide one or a few contact points, which cannot effectively distribute the wafer weight or compensate for surface errors, further increasing the risk of wafer damage or contamination.

In addition, to avoid direct hard contact between the wafer and the carrier, some existing technologies attempt to improve contact stability by adding gaskets, elastic materials, or surface treatments. However, such approaches not only increase manufacturing costs and assembly complexity, but may also lead to inconsistent contact characteristics due to material aging or deformation, making it difficult to effectively solve the problem of wafer instability caused by uneven carrier surfaces.

Therefore, in order to overcome the shortcomings and deficiencies of the existing technology, it is necessary to provide an improved wafer cassette to solve the problems existing in the aforementioned conventional technology.

The main objective of this invention is to provide a wafer cassette that utilizes a body of different thicknesses and a first extension on a carrier to provide at least two contact points at the bottom of the wafer on each carrier, thereby effectively improving the stability of the wafer placed on the carrier.

To achieve the above objectives, the present invention provides a wafer cassette, which includes a housing and a plurality of mounting frames. The housing includes a rear wall, two side walls and a cavity. The side walls are respectively disposed on opposite sides of the rear wall, and the cavity is located between the side walls and the rear wall, and the cavity is configured to accommodate a plurality of wafers. The mounting frames are respectively spaced apart on the side walls of the housing, wherein each mounting frame includes a body and a first extension. The first extension extends from the body in an extension direction away from the rear wall, and the thickness of the body is greater than the thickness of the first extension.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the main body includes a main body loading surface, and the first extension includes a first loading surface. Both the main body loading surface and the first loading surface are planar or conical.

In one embodiment of this novel invention, a first inclined surface is formed at the connection between the body loading surface and the first loading surface.

In one embodiment of this novel invention, the angle formed by the first inclined surface and the first loading surface is greater than 90 degrees.

In one embodiment of the present invention, each carrier further includes a second extension that extends from the first extension in an extension direction away from the rear wall, and the thickness of the first extension is greater than the thickness of the second extension.

In one embodiment of the present invention, the second extension includes a second loading surface, which is a plane or a cone.

In one embodiment of this novel invention, a second inclined surface is formed at the connection between the second loading surface and the first loading surface.

In one embodiment of this novel invention, the angle formed by the second inclined plane and the second loading plane is greater than 90 degrees.

In one embodiment of the present invention, each carrier further includes a terminal extension that extends from the second extension in an extension direction away from the rear wall, and the thickness of the terminal extension gradually decreases in the extension direction.

In one embodiment of this invention, the bottom of the main body, the bottom of the first extension, the bottom of the second extension, and the bottom of the final extension together form a continuous plane.

As described above, this novel wafer cassette, by providing a body of different thicknesses and a first extension on the carrier, allows each carrier to provide at least two contact points at the bottom of the wafer, thereby forming multiple support points at the bottom of the wafer. This improves the stability of the wafer placed on the carrier and effectively avoids adverse effects on wafer placement stability caused by irregular planar errors generated during the die-forming process. In addition, the multi-point support design can disperse the stress on the wafer and compensate for irregular planar errors generated during the die-forming process, thereby reducing the impact of tilting, shaking, or uneven support during wafer placement and ensuring the positioning accuracy and safety of the wafer in subsequent manufacturing processes.

To make the above-mentioned and other objects, features, and advantages of this invention more apparent and understandable, specific embodiments of this invention will be provided below, along with detailed explanations in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Furthermore, the terms for extension directions mentioned in this invention, such as upper, lower, top, bottom, front, back, left, right, inner, outer, side, surrounding, center, horizontal, transverse, vertical, longitudinal, axial, radial, uppermost, or lowermost, are merely extension directions for reference to the accompanying drawings. Therefore, the terms for extension directions used are for explaining and understanding this invention, and not for limiting this invention. It should be noted that the drawings are simplified schematic diagrams; therefore, only the elements and combinations related to this invention are shown to provide a clearer description of the basic structure or implementation method of this invention, while the actual elements and layout may be more complex. In addition, for ease of explanation, the components shown in the various figures of this invention are not drawn to scale with the actual number, shape, and size. The detailed scale can be adjusted according to the design requirements.

Referring to Figure 1, which is a perspective view of an embodiment of the present invention wafer cassette, the wafer cassette 100 includes a housing 2 and multiple carrier frames 3. The detailed structure, assembly relationship and operating principle of each component will be described in detail below.

Referring to Figure 2, which is a front view of an embodiment of the present novel wafer cassette, the casing 2 includes a bottom wall 21, a rear wall 22, two side walls 23 and a chamber 20, wherein the rear wall 22 extends upward from the bottom wall 21, the side walls 23 are respectively disposed on opposite sides of the rear wall 22 and assembled on the bottom wall 21, and the chamber 20 is located between the side walls 23 and the rear wall 22, and the chamber 20 is configured to accommodate multiple wafers (not shown).

The carriers 3 are spaced apart on the sidewalls 23 of the housing 2, and the multiple carriers 3 on one sidewall 23 correspond to the multiple carriers 3 on the other sidewall 23, so that each wafer can be carried by a pair of carriers 3 on the sidewalls 23.

Referring to Figure 3, which is a partial view of an embodiment of the present novel wafer cassette, each carrier 3 includes a body 31, a first extension 32, a second extension 33, and a terminal extension 34. The first extension 32 extends from the body 31 in an extension direction A away from the rear wall 22, and the thickness of the body 31 is greater than the thickness of the first extension 32. The second extension 33 extends from the first extension 32 in an extension direction A away from the rear wall, and the thickness of the first extension 32 is greater than the thickness of the second extension 33. The terminal extension 34 extends from the second extension 33 in an extension direction A away from the rear wall 22, and the thickness of the terminal extension 34 gradually decreases in the extension direction A. In this embodiment, the bottom of the main body 31, the bottom of the first extension 32, the bottom of the second extension 33 and the bottom of the terminal extension 34 together form a continuous plane, and the lengths of the main body 31, the first extension 32 and the second extension 33 are each at least one-third of the total length of the carrier frame 3.

Furthermore, the main body 31 includes a main body loading surface 311, the first extension 32 includes a first loading surface 321, and the second extension 33 includes a second loading surface 331. In this embodiment, the main body loading surface 311, the first loading surface 321, and the second loading surface 331 are all planar. In other embodiments, the main body loading surface 311, the first loading surface 321, and the second loading surface 331 may be provided as conical surfaces.

Specifically, a first inclined surface B1 is formed at the connection between the main body loading surface 311 and the first loading surface 321, and the angle formed by the first inclined surface B1 and the first loading surface 321 is greater than 90 degrees. A second inclined surface B2 is formed at the connection between the second loading surface 331 and the first loading surface 321, and the angle formed by the second inclined surface B2 and the second loading surface 331 is greater than 90 degrees.

According to the above structure, the wafer is sequentially placed in the chamber 20 and supported by two corresponding carriers 3. Each carrier 3 includes a body 31 of different thicknesses, a first extension 32, and a second extension 33, thereby allowing the bottom of the wafer to be supported by the two carriers 3 respectively. Each carrier 3 provides at least two contact points, thereby forming multiple support points on the bottom of the wafer to improve the stability of the wafer placed on the carrier 3.

As described above, the wafer cassette 100 of this novel design provides at least two contact points at the bottom of the wafer by having a body 31 of different thicknesses and a first extension 32 on the carrier 3. This creates multiple support points at the bottom of the wafer, improving the stability of the wafer placed on the carrier 3 and effectively preventing irregular planar errors caused by the carrier 3 during the mold forming process from negatively impacting wafer placement stability. Furthermore, the multi-point support design disperses the stress on the wafer and compensates for irregular planar errors caused by the mold forming process, thereby reducing the impact of tilting, shaking, or uneven support during wafer placement and ensuring the positioning accuracy and safety of the wafer in subsequent manufacturing processes.

Although this invention has been disclosed by way of example, it is not intended to limit this invention. Any person skilled in the art may make various modifications and alterations without departing from the spirit and scope of this invention. Therefore, the scope of protection of this invention shall be determined by the scope of the appended patent application.

100: Wafer Case 2: Casing 20: Chamber 21: Bottom Wall 22: Rear Wall 23: Side Wall 3: Mounting Frame 31: Main Body 311: Main Body Mounting Surface 32: First Extension 321: First Mounting Surface 33: Second Extension 331: Second Mounting Surface 34: Terminal Extension A: Extension Direction B1: First Inclined Surface B2: Second Inclined Surface

Figure 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of the novel wafer cassette.

Figure 2 is a front view of an embodiment of the novel wafer cassette.

Figure 3 is a partial view of an embodiment of the novel wafer cassette.

22: Back wall

3: Carrier Frame

31: The Body

311: Body Loading Surface

32: First Extension

321: First loading surface

33: Second Extension

331: Second-order loading surface

34: Final extension section

A: Direction of extension

B1: First inclined plane

B2: Second inclined plane

Claims (10)

A wafer cassette includes: a housing including a rear wall, two side walls, and a chamber, the side walls being disposed on opposite sides of the rear wall, the chamber being located between the side walls and the rear wall, and the chamber being configured to accommodate a plurality of wafers; and a plurality of mounting racks being disposed at intervals on the side walls of the housing, wherein each mounting rack includes a body and a first extension, the first extension extending from the body in an extending direction away from the rear wall, and a thickness of the body being greater than a thickness of the first extension. The wafer cassette as described in claim 1, wherein the body includes a body mounting surface, the first extension includes a first mounting surface, and the body mounting surface and the first mounting surface are planar or conical. The wafer cassette as described in claim 2, wherein the connection between the body mounting surface and the first mounting surface forms a first slope. The wafer cassette as described in claim 3, wherein the angle formed by the first inclined surface and the first loading surface is greater than 90 degrees. The wafer cassette as described in claim 4, wherein each carrier further includes a second extension extending from the first extension in an extension direction away from the rear wall, and the thickness of the first extension is greater than the thickness of the second extension. The wafer cassette as described in claim 5, wherein the second extension includes a second loading surface, which is a plane or a cone. The wafer cassette as described in claim 6, wherein the junction of the second loading surface and the first loading surface forms a second slope. The wafer cassette as described in claim 7, wherein the angle formed by the second inclined plane and the second loading surface is greater than 90 degrees. The wafer cassette as described in claim 8, wherein each carrier further includes a terminal extension that extends from the second extension toward the extension direction away from the rear wall, and the thickness of the terminal extension gradually decreases toward the extension direction. The wafer cassette as described in claim 9, wherein the bottom of the body, the bottom of the first extension, the bottom of the second extension, and the bottom of the final extension together form a continuous plane.