WO2013000420A1

WO2013000420A1 - Wafer-clamping device using spring clips

Info

Publication number: WO2013000420A1
Application number: PCT/CN2012/077747
Authority: WO
Inventors: 杨开明; 朱煜; 李鑫; 汪劲松; 尹文生; 胡金春; 张鸣; 徐登峰; 穆海华; 崔乐卿; 余东东
Original assignee: 清华大学
Priority date: 2011-06-28
Filing date: 2012-06-28
Publication date: 2013-01-03
Also published as: CN102751228B; CN102751228A; CN202678300U

Abstract

A wafer-clamping device using spring clips. The device comprises a tray (101), wafer clamps (108), and protruding support blocks (106). A wafer clamp (108) comprises a support (102), a connection rod (104), a spring (105), and a sliding block (103). During a wafer (109) capture, the edge of the wafer (109) is in contact with the slander parts of the sliding blocks (103). The component force of the wafer gravity causes the sliding blocks (103) to move along the connection rods (104) toward the supports (102), and causes the springs to compress, and the wafer (109) is clamped among the wafer clamps (108). The bottom surface of the wafer is in contact with the top surface of the four protruding support blocks (106), and the wafer is supported by the protruding support blocks (106). The edge of the wafer is in contact with the side of the sliding blocks. The springs deform and exert a certain degree of pressure on the edge of the wafer, and tightly clamp the wafer, thereby fastening the wafer in place. By changing the positions of the wafer clamps at the far end of the tray, wafers of different diameters can be transported. Springs enhance the flexibility of the system, thereby preventing wafer damage during transport caused by hard contact between the tray and the edge of the wafer. During a wafer capture, a wafer only needs to be dropped into the slander area of the sliding blocks to meet requirements, thereby allowing the actuators at the far end a certain degree of position errors.

Description

Wafer clamping device using spring clip

Technical field

The invention relates to a wafer clamping device, which is mainly used in a semiconductor wafer processing equipment and belongs to the field of ultra-precision processing. Background technique

In the semiconductor manufacturing process, such as wafer cleaning, polishing, etc., there is a large amount of wafer transfer between the cassette-cartridge and the cassette-chamber, so a fully effective wafer is designed. Transmission devices are one of the hotspots in the semiconductor industry.

The wafer transfer device of the patent US2006/0182561A1 is shown in Figs. 10(a) and 10(b). The wafer tray 20 has circular grooves 24, 21a, 22a, 24a, 24b which are circular steps. When the tray picks up and transports the wafer, the bottom surface of the wafer is in contact with the surfaces of the steps 24a, 24b, and 24a, 24b support the wafer. The edge of the wafer is in contact with the side faces of the step 21a and the step 22a, and the movement of the wafer in the horizontal direction is restricted. The device can be used for the transfer of wafers in the semiconductor industry, but this structure has certain disadvantages: 1. The size of the circular groove 24, the steps 21a, 22a, 24a, 24b for fixing the wafer has been fixed, so the device is subjected to The size of the wafer is limited by the size of the wafer. 2 During the high-speed transmission, the sides of the steps 21a, 22a collide with the edge of the wafer in a rigid contact, which easily breaks the wafer. 3 When the wafer is being grabbed, if there is a positioning error at the end effector of the robot, the wafer cannot fall on the steps 24a, 24b, and the wafer will fall off during the transfer.

The patent US6276731B1 wafer transfer device is shown in FIG. The wafer carrying area is 2, and a stepped circular groove is formed at the carrying area 2, which is a step 3 and a step 4, respectively. The inner diameter of the step 3 is slightly larger than the wafer, and the height is equal to the thickness of the wafer. The inner diameter of the step 4 is larger than the diameter of the wafer, and the height is equal to the thickness of the wafer. The side of the step is brought into contact with the outer edge of the wafer to limit its horizontal movement for a fixed purpose. In contrast to the patent US2006/0182561A1, in this structure, the outer edge of the wafer is in contact with the side of the step 3 below the circular groove, and the design has the advantage that even if the wafer is not aligned, it is not aligned (Fig. 1 ib ), the side of the step 4 can also be used to limit its movement, ensuring that the wafer does not slip during transport. However, this structure has some shortcomings: 1 In the high-speed transmission process, the side of the wafer collides with the rigid side of the step to collide, which is easy to damage the wafer; 2 The size of the step 3 and the step 4 is fixed, so the device is subjected to the wafer diameter. Due to size limitations, only fixed-size wafers can be transferred.

Summary of the invention

The invention designs a wafer clamping device using a spring clip, the purpose of which is to allow the end effector to have a certain positioning error when grasping the wafer, and to reduce the collision degree on the edge of the wafer during the transmission, and avoid The wafer is damaged due to the collision of the tray with the edge of the wafer, and the device is not limited by the diameter of the wafer.

The technical solution of the present invention is as follows:

A wafer clamping device using a spring clip, characterized in that: a sheet V-shaped tray 101 is mounted, and two wafer clips 108 and two convex support blocks 106 are mounted on the top end and the end of the tray, and both ends of the tray end Each has two threaded holes, and the positions of the two wafer clips 108 at the end of the tray can be adjusted in different threaded holes depending on the diameter of the wafer. Whole. The upper surface of the raised support block 106 is planar to support the wafer. The wafer clip 108 is composed of a bracket 102, a link 104, a spring 105, and a slider 103. The bracket 102 is cylindrical, is threadedly connected to the sheet V-tray 101, and is rotatable by a certain angle. The slider 103 is provided with a through hole, and can be linearly moved along the connecting rod 104. The side has a sloped portion and a vertical portion. The wafer falls along the inclined portion, and finally the edge thereof is in contact with the vertical portion, so that the wafer 109 is placed on the four sliders. Fixed between. The end of the connecting rod 104 is fixedly connected to the bracket, and the other end supports the slider. The spring 105 is sleeved on the connecting rod 104, one end is fixed to the bracket 102, and the other end is fixed to the slider 103. When the slider 103 moves, the spring 105 is deformed, and a certain pressure is generated on the edge of the wafer 109 through the slider 103 to make the crystal The circle 109 is fixed.

The present invention adopts the above technical solution. When the wafer 109 is lifted, the wafer 109 is allowed to fall within the range of the inclined portion 103a of the slider 103, so that the end effector is allowed to exist when the wafer 109 is grasped. A certain positioning error. The use of elastic elements increases the flexibility of the device and avoids breakage caused by collisions at the edge of the wafer 109 during transport. The position of the end wafer clip can be adjusted so that the device is not limited by the size of the transport wafer diameter.

DRAWINGS

Figure 1 is a top plan view of the wafer transfer apparatus of the patent.

Figure 2 is a side view of the wafer transfer apparatus shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 (a) is a partially enlarged plan view of the wafer clip.

Figure 3 (b) is a partially enlarged front elevational view of the wafer clip.

Figure 4 is a diagram showing the state of instantaneous contact with the edge of the wafer when the wafer is grabbed.

Figure 5 is a diagram showing the state of the wafer in the process of transmission.

Figure 6 (a) is a plot of wafer clip size versus wafer diameter size.

Figure 6 (b) is a plot of wafer clip size versus wafer diameter size.

Figure 7 is a perspective view of the wafer clip that can be rotated.

Figure 8 is a wafer center diagram through the wafer center.

Figure 9 is a diagram of the slider height dimension requirement.

Figure 10 is a structural diagram of a wafer transfer apparatus of US2006/0182561A1.

Figure 11 is a structural view of a wafer transfer apparatus of the patent US6276731B1.

In the picture:

101-sheet V-tray; 102-stent; 103-slider; 104-link; 105-spring; 106-bump support block; 107-threaded hole; 108-wafer clip;

detailed description

The embodiments of the present invention are further described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

1 is a plan view of a wafer chucking apparatus 100 in the present invention. 2 is a side view of the wafer clamping device 100 of FIG. 1. The sheet tray 101 in the wafer holding device 100 has an approximate V shape, and may be Y-shaped or U-shaped. There is a clip for holding the wafer 109 on both sides of the front end of the tray 101 at both ends, and the wafer clip is supported by the bracket 102, sliding 103, The connecting rod 104 and the spring 105 are composed. A partial enlarged view of the wafer clip is shown in Figures 3a and 3b. The bracket 102 has a cylindrical shape and is screwed to the tray 101. The wafer clip at the front end of the tray 101 is fixed in position. There are 2-3 threaded holes 107 on both sides of the end of the tray 101. The end of the tray 101 is different according to the size of the transport wafer 109. The two wafer clips can be placed in different threaded holes 107 to adjust position. The slider 103 has a ramp shape at 103a, a bottom portion at the bottom portion 103b for contacting the edge of the wafer 109, and 103c is a through hole for linearly moving the slider 103 along the link 104. The connecting rod 104 has a cylindrical shape, one end of which is fixedly connected to the bracket 102, and the other end supports the slider 103 for linear movement. The spring 105 is sleeved on the connecting rod 104, and one end is fixedly connected to the bracket, and the other end is fixedly connected to the slider 103.

Each of the top ends of the tray 101 has a raised support member 106 located adjacent to the wafer clip and adjacent the wafer clip to the inside of the tray 101; there is a projection 106 on each side of the end of the tray 101. 106 is cylindrical, and the top surface 106a is flat and chamfered circumferentially, and may be screwed to the tray 101 or bonded. When the wafer 109 is supported, the top surface 106a contacts the bottom surface of the wafer 109 to support the wafer.

First, when the wafer 109 is lifted by the tray 101, as shown in Fig. 4, the wafer 109 is first brought into contact with the sliders 103a of the four wafer clips. The wafer 109 will move downward under the force of gravity. Since the 103a is inclined, the force component of the gravity of the wafer 109 causes the slider 103 to move linearly along the link 104 toward the holder while compressing the spring 105.

As shown in FIG. 5, when the wafer 109 continues to move downward, the slider 103 moves a certain distance along the link 104, and the wafer 109 falls between the four sliders. At this time, the slider surface 103b and the wafer 109 The edge contact limits the horizontal movement of the wafer 109, and the bottom surface of the wafer is in contact with the top surface 106a of the four raised supports 106 and is supported by the four raised members 106. In such a configuration, the wafer 109 is sandwiched between the four wafer clips, and the wafer 109 is fixed by a certain clamping force on the wafer 109 due to the deformation of the spring 105.

Before the wafer 109 is transferred, the length of the link 104, the length of the spring 105, and the position of the end wafer clip should be adjusted according to the diameter of the wafer 109 so that the wafer 109 can fall while sliding the wafer 109. The inclined portion 103a of the block 103 is in the range. As shown in Fig. 6 (a) and Fig. 6 (b), assuming that the diameter of the wafer 109 is D, D1 < D < D2 should be made. If D < D1, the edge of the wafer cannot be subjected to pressure, and thus the horizontal movement of the wafer 109 cannot be restricted. If D > D2, the wafer 109 cannot fall between the four clips, and the wafer 109 will be detached during the transfer.

As shown in Figure 7, the holder 102 of the wafer clip can be rotated a certain angle. In order to make the wafer 109 evenly stressed, the deformation amount of the spring 105 in each clip should be equal, that is, the amount of movement of the slider 103 should be equal, so the angle of the bracket 102 should be adjusted so that the axis of each clip passes through the wafer 109. center. As shown in Figure 8.

When the wafer 109 is dropped onto the surface of the raised support 106, its bottom surface is in contact with 106a and is supported by four raised members 106. If the movement in the horizontal plane is restricted, the 103a should be brought into contact with its edge. As shown in FIG. 9, the distance between the bottom of the slope 103a and the upper surface of the tray 101 is L1, the distance between the bottom of the surface 103b and the upper surface of the tray 101 is L2, and when the wafer 109 is supported by the projections 106, the upper surface of the wafer 109 The distance from the upper surface of the tray 101 is H1, and the distance between the lower surface of the wafer 109 and the upper surface of the tray 101 is H2, and the following relationship should be satisfied between the sizes, that is, L1>H1, L2<H2 o

The slider 103 is fixedly coupled to the spring 105 so that the length of the spring 105 or the stiffness of the spring 105 can be varied. The number of thrusts of the wafer clip fixed wafer 109 is changed to avoid damage to the wafer due to excessive pressure.

In the present invention, since the above technical solution is adopted, when the wafer 109 is lifted, the wafer 109 can be placed within the inclined portion 103a of the slider 103, so that the end effector is allowed when the wafer 109 is grasped. There is a certain positioning error. The use of elastic elements increases the flexibility of the device and avoids wafer breakage caused by collision of the wafer with the edge of the wafer 109 during transport. The position of the two wafer clips at the end can be adjusted so that the device is not limited by the size of the transport wafer diameter.

Claims

Claim

A wafer holding device using a spring clip, comprising: a sheet V-shaped tray (101) having two wafer clips (108) and two raised support blocks at the top and the end of the tray (106), there are two threaded holes on both sides of the end of the tray, and the positions of the two wafer clips (108) at the end of the tray are adjusted in different threaded holes according to the diameter of the wafer; the raised support block (106) The upper surface is a plane for supporting the wafer; the wafer clip (108) is composed of a bracket (102), a connecting rod (104), a spring (105), and a slider (103). The bracket (102) is cylindrical, and The sheet V-shaped tray (101) is threaded and can be rotated by a certain angle; the slider (103) is provided with a through hole, linearly moves along the connecting rod (104), and the side has a sloped portion and a vertical portion, and the wafer is inclined Partially falling, and finally its edge is in contact with the vertical part, so that the wafer holder is fixed between the four sliders; the connecting rod (104) is fixedly connected to the bracket, and the other end supports the slider; the spring (105) is placed on the connecting rod (104) upper, one end and bracket (102) fixed, the other end is fixed with the slider (103). When the slider (103) moves, the spring (105) is deformed, and the slider (103) exerts a certain pressure on the edge of the wafer to fix the wafer.