CN119920750B

CN119920750B - Wafer support assembly and control method thereof and semiconductor device

Info

Publication number: CN119920750B
Application number: CN202510397415.5A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 陈海祥
Original assignee: Beijing Naura Microelectronics Equipment Co Ltd
Current assignee: Beijing Naura Microelectronics Equipment Co Ltd
Priority date: 2025-03-31
Filing date: 2025-03-31
Publication date: 2025-07-25
Anticipated expiration: 2045-03-31
Also published as: CN119920750A

Abstract

The application discloses a wafer supporting component, a control method thereof and semiconductor equipment, and belongs to the technical field of semiconductor processing; the number of the first driving pieces and the clamping mechanisms is at least three, the first driving pieces and the clamping mechanisms are in one-to-one correspondence, the first driving pieces are arranged below a supporting surface in the supporting body at intervals along the rotating direction of the rotating mechanism, each clamping jaw is rotatably arranged on the supporting body, one of the first driving pieces and the second driving pieces which are arranged correspondingly comprises an electromagnet, each electromagnet is in a first state and a second state, the first driving pieces and the second driving pieces repel each other when the electromagnet is in the first state, each clamping jaw is in contact with the outer edge of a wafer, and the first driving pieces and the second driving pieces attract each other when the electromagnet is in the second state. The wafer support assembly can solve the problem that the whole structure of the existing chuck is relatively complex.

Description

Wafer support assembly, control method thereof and semiconductor device

Technical Field

The application belongs to the technical field of semiconductor processing, and particularly relates to a wafer supporting assembly, a control method thereof and semiconductor equipment.

Background

In the semiconductor processing process, the chuck is an important auxiliary mechanism for supporting and fixing the wafer, and in the process, the chuck can also drive the wafer to rotate, so that the process uniformity of the wafer is improved.

At present, the chuck usually adopts a vacuum adsorption and mechanical limiting mode to achieve the purpose of fixing a wafer, for the vacuum adsorption chuck, a negative pressure mechanism needs to be connected, the whole structure is relatively complex, the clamping jaw of the mechanical limiting chuck usually utilizes two magnetic pieces to achieve clamping of the wafer, when the wafer needs to be released, another movable magnet or movable push rod is usually required to be utilized to enable the state of the clamping jaw to be changed, the structure of the chuck is relatively complex, and the control difficulty of movable devices is relatively large.

Disclosure of Invention

An object of the present application is to provide a wafer support assembly, a control method thereof and a semiconductor device, so as to solve the problem that the overall structure of the chuck is relatively complex.

In a first aspect, the application discloses a wafer support assembly comprising a rotation mechanism, a support mechanism, and a clamping mechanism, wherein,

The supporting mechanism comprises a supporting body and a first driving piece, wherein the supporting body is provided with a supporting surface for supporting a wafer, the supporting body is arranged on the rotating mechanism, and the rotating mechanism is used for driving the supporting body to rotate;

The number of the first driving pieces and the number of the clamping mechanisms are at least three, the first driving pieces are arranged below the supporting surface in the supporting body at intervals along the rotation direction of the rotating mechanism, and the clamping mechanisms are arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the first driving pieces;

each clamping mechanism comprises clamping jaws and second driving pieces arranged on the clamping jaws, each clamping jaw is rotatably arranged on the supporting body, one of the first driving pieces and the second driving pieces which are arranged correspondingly comprises an electromagnet, each electromagnet has a first state and a second state, the first driving pieces and the second driving pieces repel each other when the electromagnet is in the first state, the clamping jaws are in contact with the outer edge of the wafer, and the first driving pieces and the second driving pieces attract each other when the electromagnet is in the second state.

In a second aspect, the present application discloses a control method for controlling the wafer support assembly, the control method comprising:

Controlling the first driving current fed into each electromagnet to be continuously increased to a first current value so that each first driving piece and the corresponding second driving piece repel each other to clamp the wafer, wherein the first current value is smaller than a preset value;

And controlling each electromagnet to be electrified with a second driving current or controlling each electromagnet to be deenergized so as to enable each first driving piece and the corresponding second driving piece to attract each other and further release the wafer.

In a third aspect, the present application discloses a semiconductor device comprising the above wafer support assembly.

The embodiment of the application discloses a wafer supporting assembly, wherein a supporting body is provided with a supporting surface, a wafer can be supported on the supporting surface, and the supporting body is arranged on a rotating mechanism so that the supporting body can drive the wafer to rotate under the action of the rotating mechanism. Meanwhile, the number of the first driving parts and the clamping mechanisms are at least three, the first driving parts and the clamping mechanisms are in one-to-one correspondence, and the first driving parts and the clamping mechanisms are arranged on the supporting body at intervals along the rotation direction so as to provide good clamping effect for the wafer.

And in the fixture, the second driving piece is installed in the clamping jaw, the clamping jaw is connected with the supporting body in a rotating way, and one of the first driving piece and the second driving piece which are corresponding to each other comprises an electromagnet, therefore, in the use process of the wafer supporting assembly, the first driving piece and the second driving piece can be mutually repelled through enabling the electromagnet to be in a first state, and the clamping jaw of each fixture is contacted with the outer edge of a wafer, so that the purpose of clamping and positioning the wafer is realized, correspondingly, when the wafer needs to be released, the electromagnet is switched to a second state, the first driving piece and the second driving piece can be mutually attracted, and then each clamping jaw releases the wafer, so that the equipment such as a mechanical arm is convenient to grasp the wafer, and the purpose of taking the wafer is completed.

Obviously, in the wafer supporting assembly disclosed by the embodiment of the application, the opening and closing processes of the clamping jaw are respectively realized by utilizing the first driving piece and the second driving piece which are matched with each other, the overall structure of the wafer supporting assembly is relatively simple, and in the opening and closing process of the clamping jaw, the first driving piece and the second driving piece do not need to generate actions such as movement in a larger range relative to the supporting body, and only the direction or the magnitude of the current flowing into the electromagnet is required to be changed, so that the wafer supporting assembly disclosed by the embodiment of the application is relatively less in control difficulty.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the application and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments of the application and together with the description serve to explain the application and do not constitute a limitation on the application. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic view of a portion of a wafer support assembly according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of an electromagnet in a first state of a wafer support assembly according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is an enlarged view of a portion of the structure shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is an enlarged view of a portion of the structure shown in FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a schematic cross-sectional view of a clamping mechanism in a wafer support assembly according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is an enlarged view of a portion of the structure shown in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 is a cross-sectional view of a portion of an electromagnet in a second state in a wafer support assembly according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic diagram of a control method according to an embodiment of the present application.

Reference numerals:

100-a rotary mechanism,

200-Supporting mechanism, 210-supporting body, 211-base, 212-mount, 212 a-first limit surface, 213-supporting arm, 213 a-hollow channel, 214-supporting block, 220-first driving piece, 230-electric connection cable, 240-rotating shaft, and,

300-Clamping mechanism, 310-clamping jaw, 311-clamping part, 311 a-clamping surface, 311 b-second limit surface, 312-buckling part, 320-second driving piece,

410-Conductive slip ring, 411-rotating part, 412-sleeve, 413-rotating bearing, 414-bearing seat, 415-first electric connection part, 416-second electric connection part, 420-mounting frame,

500-Detecting member,

900-Wafer.

Detailed Description

The following description of the embodiments of the present application will be made clearly and completely with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which it is apparent that some, but not all embodiments of the application are described. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the application without making any inventive effort, are intended to be within the scope of the application.

The terms first, second and the like in the description and in the claims, are used for distinguishing between similar elements and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used may be interchanged, as appropriate, such that embodiments of the present application may be implemented in sequences other than those illustrated or described herein, and that the objects identified by "first," "second," etc. are generally of a type, and are not limited to the number of objects, such as the first object may be one or more. Furthermore, in the description and claims, "and/or" means at least one of the connected objects, and the character "/", generally means that the associated object is an "or" relationship.

As shown in fig. 1-7, the present application discloses a wafer supporting assembly, which can be used to support a wafer 900, and the wafer supporting mechanism 200 can also drive the wafer 900 to rotate. The wafer supporting assembly includes a rotating mechanism 100, a supporting mechanism 200 and a clamping mechanism 300, wherein the rotating mechanism 100 is used for driving the wafer 900 to rotate, the supporting mechanism 200 is used for providing a supporting function for the wafer 900, and the clamping mechanism 300 can enable the wafer 900 to be stably supported on the supporting mechanism 200 in a clamping manner.

As shown in fig. 2 to 4, the support mechanism 200 includes a support body 210 and a first driving member 220, where the support body 210 has a support surface for supporting a wafer, that is, the wafer may be supported on the support surface, and meanwhile, the support body 210 is mounted on the rotation mechanism 100, and the rotation mechanism 100 may specifically include a rotating motor or other devices, so that the rotation mechanism 100 can drive the support body 210 to rotate, and in this process, the support body 210 may also drive the wafer to rotate.

Of course, in order to ensure that the wafer will not slip relative to the supporting body 210 during the rotation of the rotating mechanism 100, in the embodiment of the application, the number of the first driving members 220 and the number of the clamping mechanisms 300 are at least three, and the plurality of first driving members 220 are mounted on the supporting body 210 at intervals along the rotation direction of the rotating mechanism 100. In order to ensure that the overall clamping uniformity of the plurality of clamping mechanisms 300 to the wafer is relatively better and to ensure that the clamping mechanisms 300 can provide a reliable clamping effect to the wafer to the greatest extent, in a further embodiment of the present application, the plurality of first driving members 220 and the plurality of clamping mechanisms 300 may be uniformly distributed along the rotation direction, for example, in the case that the number of the first driving members 220 and the clamping mechanisms 300 is three, an included angle between any two adjacent first driving members 220 may be 120 °.

Meanwhile, in order to prevent the first driving members 220 from interfering with the normal supporting function of the supporting surface, during the process of arranging the first driving members 220, each first driving member 220 may be located below the supporting surface, and it should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the vertex of the first driving member 220 may be located in the plane where the supporting surface is located, and in order to prevent the wafer from contacting with the first driving member 220 and affecting the cleanliness of the wafer, in the embodiment of the present application, any position on each first driving member 220 may be located below the supporting surface.

Accordingly, in the process of arranging the first driving members 220 and the clamping mechanisms 300, the plurality of clamping mechanisms 300 are required to be arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of first driving members 220, so that each first driving member 220 can drive the corresponding clamping mechanism 300 to act, and the purpose of clamping the wafer is achieved.

In detail, each clamping mechanism 300 includes a clamping jaw 310 and a second driving member 320, wherein the second driving member 320 is a device of the clamping mechanism 300 specifically matching with the first driving member 220, and the second driving member 320 is mounted on the clamping jaw 310, so that the clamping jaw 310 can move relative to the supporting body 210 under the driving of the first driving member 220. Each clamping jaw 310 is rotatably mounted on the supporting body 210, so that the clamping jaws 310 can rotate along different directions relative to the supporting body 210 to clamp and release a wafer. Specifically, jaw 310 may be coupled to support body 210 via shaft 240 such that jaw 310 is in a rotationally engaged relationship with support body 210.

In order to reduce the handling difficulty and the assembly difficulty of the clamping mechanism 300, in the embodiment of the present application, one of the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320, which are disposed correspondingly, includes an electromagnet, and by changing the current direction in the electromagnet, each electromagnet can have a first state and a second state, where the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 repel each other when the electromagnet is in the first state, in this case, the first driving member 220 can drive the clamping jaw 310 to rotate relative to the supporting body 210, and the clamping jaw 310 contacts the outer edge of the wafer, and correspondingly, in the case that each electromagnet is in the first state, each clamping jaw 310 contacts the outer edge of the wafer, so that the wafer can be clamped by the plurality of clamping jaws 310, and thus the wafer can be stably supported on the supporting surface of the supporting body 210.

In the case that the electromagnet is in the second state, the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 attract each other, so that the clamping jaw 310 can rotate reversely relative to the supporting body 210, and further the clamping jaw 310 is far away from the outer edge of the wafer, so as to achieve the purpose of releasing the wafer.

As described above, the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 have the capability of attracting each other and repelling each other, and for this purpose, both may include electromagnets, and in order to reduce the difficulty of assembling and controlling the wafer supporting assembly, in another embodiment of the present application, one of the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 includes electromagnets, and the other may include permanent magnets, and the installation position of the first driving member 220 on the supporting body 210 may be flexibly determined according to the actual situation such as the installation position of the second driving member 320 on the clamping jaw 310, and the installation position of the rotating shaft 240 between the clamping jaw 310 and the supporting body 210, so that the clamping jaw 310 can clamp and release the wafer correspondingly in the case that the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 repel each other or attract each other.

In the supporting mechanism 200, the supporting body 210 has a supporting surface, a wafer can be supported on the supporting surface, and the supporting body 210 is mounted on the rotating mechanism 100, so that the supporting body 210 can drive the wafer to rotate under the action of the rotating mechanism 100. Meanwhile, the number of the first driving members 220 and the clamping mechanisms 300 is at least three, and the first driving members and the clamping mechanisms correspond to each other one by one and are arranged on the supporting body 210 at intervals along the rotation direction so as to provide a good clamping effect for the wafer.

In addition, in the clamping mechanism 300, the second driving member 320 is mounted on the clamping jaw 310, the clamping jaw 310 is rotationally connected with the supporting body 210, and one of the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 corresponding to each other comprises an electromagnet, so that in the using process of the wafer supporting assembly, the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 can repel each other by enabling the electromagnet to be in a first state, and the clamping jaws 310 of each clamping mechanism 300 are contacted with the outer edge of a wafer, thereby achieving the purpose of clamping and positioning the wafer.

Obviously, in the above wafer supporting assembly disclosed in the embodiment of the present application, the opening and closing processes of the clamping jaw 310 are all performed by using the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320, so that the overall structure of the wafer supporting assembly is relatively simple, and in the opening and closing process of the clamping jaw 310, the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 do not need to be moved in a relatively large range relative to the supporting body 210, and only the direction or the magnitude of the current flowing into the electromagnet needs to be changed, so that the difficulty in controlling the wafer supporting assembly disclosed in the embodiment of the present application is relatively small.

As described above, when the wafer needs to be clamped, the electromagnet can be in the first state, so that the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 repel each other, and the driving claw 310 rotates relative to the supporting body 210, so as to achieve the purpose of clamping the wafer. In order to prevent the wafer from being damaged due to excessive clamping force applied by the clamping jaw 310 to the wafer, in one embodiment of the present application, the outer side of the supporting body 210 may be provided with a first limiting surface 212a, and the inner side of each clamping jaw 310 may be provided with a second limiting surface 311b, and by setting parameters such as the shape of each of the first limiting surface 212a and the second limiting surface 311b, and the relative position between the two, and the size and shape of the clamping jaw 310, each second limiting surface 311b may be limited to the first limiting surface 212a when each electromagnet is in the first state, and then each clamping jaw 310 may be limited to squeeze the damaged wafer by using the first limiting surface 212 a.

Of course, in the embodiment of the present application, as described above, the parameters such as the shape and the size of the related device, the positional relationship, etc. may be designed in time, so that when each second limiting surface 311b is limited on the first limiting surface 212a, each clamping jaw 310 also just contacts the outer edge of the wafer, so that the clamping jaw 310 can provide a reliable clamping limiting effect for the wafer, and meanwhile, no squeezing effect is generated on the wafer, so that the clamping jaw 310 may not damage the wafer. In more detail, the first limiting surface 212a and the second limiting surface 311b may be planar structures, so as to reduce the processing difficulty of the two surfaces and ensure relatively high limiting stability between the two surfaces.

Considering the influence of factors such as processing precision, in practical application, it is generally difficult to ensure that when the second limiting surface 311b is limited on the first limiting surface 212a, only a contact relationship exists between the clamping jaw 310 and the outer edge of the wafer, and no interaction relationship exists between the clamping jaw 310 and the outer edge of the wafer, further, in order to ensure that the clamped stability of the wafer is relatively high, in the processing process, when each clamping jaw 310 just contacts the outer edge of the wafer, each second limiting surface 311b is not yet contacted with the first limiting surface 212a, and when each clamping jaw 310 rotates by a relatively small angle in a direction approaching to the wafer, so that after the clamping jaw 310 and the wafer generate a clamping force meeting the requirement, each second limiting surface 311b contacts and limits with the first limiting surface 212a, wherein the size of the clamping force can be flexibly determined according to the actual conditions of the structures such as the wafer and the wafer, and the clamping force of the clamping jaw 310 is ensured to be relatively stably fixed on the supporting surface, and meanwhile, the clamping force of the clamping jaw 310 does not adversely affect the structure of the wafer and the wafer to cause the wafer to be damaged due to the extrusion. It should be noted that the foregoing does not conflict with the technical solutions defined by the present application.

As described above, the mounting positions of the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 are related to each other and each is related to the position of the rotation shaft 240 of the clamping jaw 310, and in one embodiment of the application, the end of the supporting body 210 may be penetrated into the clamping jaw 310, in which case, the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 may be located outside the rotation shaft 240 and the second driving member 320 may be located above the first driving member 220. In this case, when the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 repel each other, the second driving member 320 can rotate in a direction away from the first driving member 220, i.e. the second driving member 320 can drive the clamping jaw 310 to perform a counterclockwise rotation, so that the clamping jaw 310 contacts the outer edge of the wafer, thereby achieving the purpose of clamping the wafer.

In order to reduce the overall processing difficulty of the wafer supporting assembly, in another embodiment of the present application, the second driving member 320 may be located below the first driving member 220, and based on this, both the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 may be located inside the rotation axis of the clamping jaw 310, so that the clamping jaw 310 is located on the outer side of the first driving member 220 as a whole, which facilitates the processing and assembling of the clamping jaw 310, and in this case, no perforation or other structures need to be formed on the clamping jaw 310, so that the structural strength of the clamping jaw 310 is relatively high.

As described above, the first driving members 220 are mounted on the supporting body 210, the second driving members 320 are mounted on the clamping jaws 310, and the clamping jaws 310 are connected with the supporting body 210 through the rotating shaft 240, so that in order to further reduce the assembly difficulty of the wafer supporting assembly, in the embodiment of the application, each first driving member 220 may include an electromagnet, and further the first driving member 220 may utilize the supporting body 210 to achieve the purpose of externally connecting a power supply, so that the power connection difficulty of the electromagnet may be greatly reduced. Specifically, the support body 210 may be provided with a hollow passage 213a, and the electric connection cable 230 of the electromagnet may be disposed in the hollow passage 213a to be electrically connected to an external power source through a central region of the support body 210. More specifically, the other end of the power cable 230 may be electrically connected to an external power source through a ring structure to form a reliable electrical connection relationship with the external power source while ensuring that the power cable 230 does not interfere with the rotation of the support body 210. In this case, each of the second drivers 320 includes a permanent magnet, respectively.

In another embodiment of the present application, the supporting body 210 is further connected to the rotating mechanism 100 through the conductive slip ring 410, the conductive slip ring 410 can provide an electrical connection function, and the conductive slip ring 410 does not prevent the rotating mechanism 100 from normally driving the supporting body 210 to rotate, so that the reliability of the electrical connection of each first driving member 220 is relatively high.

Specifically, the conductive slip ring 410 includes a rotating portion 411 and a sleeve 412, the sleeve 412 is sleeved outside the rotating portion 411, and a rotating bearing 413 is disposed between the rotating portion 411 and the sleeve, so that the rotating portion 411 has a capability of rotating relative to the sleeve 412, the rotating bearing 413 is mounted on a bearing seat 414, and the bearing seat 414 is mounted on the sleeve 412. In the process of assembling the supporting mechanism 200, the rotating shaft of the rotating mechanism 100 can be connected with one end of the rotating portion 411 by using the connecting members such as the bolts and the flanges, and the supporting body 210 is mounted on the other end of the rotating portion 411, so that the rotating mechanism 100 can drive the supporting body 210 to rotate through the rotating portion 411 under the condition that the rotating mechanism 100 works.

At the same time, sleeve 412 may be mounted to the housing of rotary mechanism 100 by mounting bracket 420, thereby enabling the entire conductive slip ring 410 to be in reliable mounting relationship with rotary mechanism 100. In addition, the conductive slip ring 410 further includes a first electrical connection portion 415 and a second electrical connection portion 416, one of which is mounted on the rotating portion 411, and the other of which is mounted on the sleeve 412, wherein the first electrical connection portion 415 and the second electrical connection portion 416 have a relative rotation capability and are always in contact with each other to maintain an electrical connection relationship. More specifically, the first electrical connection portion 415 includes a rotating ring and is mounted on the rotating portion 411, and the second electrical connection portion 416 includes a brush mounted on the sleeve 412 and contacting the rotating ring, so that the electrical connection therebetween can be maintained during the relative rotation. Of course, the electrical cable 230 may be connected to the rotating ring, and the brush may be electrically connected to an external power source through a wire extending out of the sleeve 412.

In order to further improve the stability of the clamping of the wafer by the clamping jaw 310, in one embodiment of the present application, the solution may be further improved in terms of the substantivity and effectiveness of the interaction between the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320, so that the stability of the position of the wafer clamped by the clamping jaw 310 is relatively higher. In detail, in the process of installing the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320, the first driving member 220 may be disposed obliquely with respect to the vertical direction, and in the case where each electromagnet is in the first state, the magnetic pole distribution directions of the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 may be parallel to each other, more specifically, the straight lines where the magnetic pole distribution directions of the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 are disposed may be disposed in line, that is, the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 are disposed opposite to each other, in this case, the interaction direction of the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320 is made to be in the straight line direction, so that in other cases, the driving force of the first driving member 220 acting on the clamping jaw 310 may be relatively greater, so that the clamping jaw 310 may be more reliably maintained at a position contacting the outer edge of the wafer, and the clamping stability of the wafer may be improved.

As described above, the clamping jaw 310 is rotatably connected to the support body 210 through the rotation shaft 240, and under the action of the first driving member 220 and the second driving member 320, the clamping jaw 310 can contact the outer edge of the wafer, so as to achieve the purpose of clamping the wafer. In order to further enhance the stability of the clamping of the wafer by the plurality of clamping jaws 310, in one embodiment of the present application, with each electromagnet in the first state, the center of mass of each clamping mechanism 300 is located below the horizontal plane passing through the rotational axis of the clamping mechanism 300 and outside the vertical plane passing through the rotational axis of the clamping mechanism 300.

Intuitively, as shown in fig. 5, the rotation axis of the clamping mechanism 300 is O, the horizontal plane and the vertical plane passing through the rotation axis are H and V, respectively, and a rectangular coordinate system is established by using the plane where the section of the clamping mechanism 300 perpendicular to the rotation axis is located, where, with the point where the rotation axis O is located as the origin, the straight lines where the H and V are located are the X and Y axes, respectively, and in the embodiment of the present application, the centroid of the clamping mechanism 300 is located in the fourth quadrant.

Under the above technical scheme, when the rotating mechanism 100 drives the supporting body 210 and the clamping mechanism 300 to rotate, the center of mass of the clamping mechanism 300 is located at the outer side and the lower side of the rotation axis, so that the clamping mechanism 300 will generate a trend of moving upwards and outwards relative to the supporting body 210 under the action of centrifugal force, but is limited by the connection effect of the rotating shaft 240, so that the clamping mechanism 300 cannot move outwards relative to the supporting body 210, and the clamping mechanism 300 can only rotate upwards relative to the supporting body 210, and in this case, the stability of the clamping effect exerted by the clamping jaw 310 on the wafer is relatively higher. Of course, in order to prevent the clamping force of the clamping jaw 310 on the wafer from being too large due to the too large centrifugal force from adversely affecting the structural reliability of the wafer, in the embodiment of the present application, when the rotating mechanism 100 is operated, the current flowing in the electromagnet may be properly reduced, so as to reduce the relative repulsive force between the first driving member and the second driving member, and ensure that the clamping force of the clamping jaw 310 on the wafer is not too large.

In order to further improve the position stability of the wafer clamped by the clamping jaw 310, in an embodiment of the present application, the clamping jaw 310 may include a clamping portion 311 and a buckling portion 312, wherein the buckling portion 312 is connected to a top end of the clamping portion 311, the clamping portion 311 has a clamping surface 311a, and in a case that each electromagnet is in the first state, the clamping portion 311 contacts an outer edge of the wafer through the clamping surface 311a, so as to achieve the purpose of clamping the wafer from an outer side of the wafer. Meanwhile, in the embodiment of the present application, when each electromagnet is in the first state, at least a portion of the projection of the buckling portion 312 in the horizontal plane is located on the wafer, that is, the buckling portion 312 is turned inwards relative to the clamping portion 311, in this case, the buckling portion 312 can be matched with the supporting surface, so as to achieve the purpose of providing a limiting effect for the wafer in the vertical direction, thereby further preventing the wafer and the plurality of clamping jaws 310 from being separated from each other during the rotation of the rotation mechanism 100, and improving the supporting stability of the wafer.

Of course, during the process of designing the clamping jaw 310, the dimension of the buckling portion 312 turned inwards relative to the clamping portion 311 cannot be too large, so that the buckling portion 312 still prevents the wafer from being placed on the supporting surface normally when each electromagnet is in the second state. In addition, the buckling portion 312 and the clamping portion 311 may be formed in an integrally formed manner, so as to ensure that the structural consistency of the clamping jaw 310 is relatively high, and the processing difficulty of the clamping jaw 310 is relatively low.

As described above, the support body 210 has a support surface to provide a supporting effect for the wafer by using the support surface. In detail, the supporting body 210 may be a disc-shaped structure, in order to reduce the weight of the supporting body 210 and further reduce the driving difficulty of the rotating mechanism 100, in one embodiment of the present application, the supporting body 210 includes the base 211, the mounting seat 212 and the supporting arms 213, as described above, the number of the first driving members 220 and the clamping mechanisms 300 is at least three, for this reason, in the embodiment of the present application, the number of the supporting arms 213 may also be at least three, and the supporting arms 213, the first driving members 220 and the clamping mechanisms 300 are in one-to-one correspondence, accordingly, the plurality of supporting arms 213 are uniformly and at intervals along the rotation direction, so as to ensure that the plurality of supporting arms 213 may provide a good and uniform supporting effect for the wafer.

In detail, one end of each supporting arm 213 is fixedly connected with the base 211, the other end of each supporting arm 213 is provided with a mounting seat 212, the mounting seat 212 is provided with a first driving member 220, and the clamping mechanism 300 is rotatably connected with the mounting seat 212 through a rotating shaft 240. Specifically, the shapes and dimensions of the base 211 and the mounting seat 212 may be flexibly selected according to practical situations, for example, the base 211 may be fixedly connected with the rotating portion 411 in the conductive slip ring 410 through a connection member such as a flange and a bolt, and the first driving member 220 may be formed into a stable assembly relationship with the mounting seat 212 through bonding, clamping or connecting a connection member, and in another embodiment of the present application, the first driving member 220 may be buried in the mounting seat 212, so that the assembly relationship between the first driving member 220 and the mounting seat 212 is more stable. In addition, the base 211, the support arms 213 and the mounting base 212 may be formed in an integrally formed manner, or the base 211 and the plurality of support arms 213 may be integrally formed first, and then the mounting base 212 is inserted and fixed to the end of the corresponding support arm 213, so as to complete the assembly of the support body 210.

Based on the above embodiments, the top surfaces of the plurality of mounting seats 212 may be used as supporting surfaces, in order to reduce the contact area between the supporting body 210 and the wafer as much as possible, in one embodiment of the present application, the supporting body 210 may further include supporting blocks 214, and by providing the top surfaces of the mounting seats 212 with the supporting blocks 214, the top surfaces of the plurality of supporting blocks 214 are all supporting surfaces. Of course, in an embodiment of the present application, the sum of the areas of the top surfaces of the plurality of support blocks 214 is smaller than the area of the top surface of the mounting base 212. Specifically, the supporting block 214 may have a cubic structure, so as to facilitate the processing operation, and of course, the specific size of the supporting block 214 may be flexibly determined according to the size of the wafer, which is not limited herein.

In order to further reduce the control difficulty, in the present application, the wafer supporting assembly may further include a detecting member 500, and the detecting member 500 is used to detect whether the wafer is supported on the supporting surface of the supporting body 210, specifically, the detecting member 500 may be a distance sensor, and more specifically, may be an ultrasonic or infrared distance sensor. In the case where the wafer is supported on the support surface, the distance detected by the detecting member 500 is relatively small, whereas in the case where the wafer is not supported on the support surface, the distance detected by the detecting member 500 is relatively large, or the detecting member 500 cannot detect the effective distance.

Optionally, the number of the detecting elements 500 is one, which can achieve the purpose of detecting whether the wafer is supported on the supporting surface, and in order to further expand the detection project, in an embodiment of the present application, the number of the detecting elements 500 may be at least two, and of course, each detecting element 500 is located below the supporting surface.

In this case, based on the distance detection results of the detection pieces 500, it may be further determined whether the wafer is stably placed on the supporting surface, and in the rotation process of the rotation mechanism 100, it may be further determined whether the wafer is jumped or not by using the distance detection results of the detection pieces 500, so that in the case that the wafer is jumped, the clamping effect of the plurality of clamping jaws 310 on the wafer may be further increased by increasing the magnitude of the current flowing into the electromagnet, and a stable relative fixed relationship between the wafer and the supporting surface may be ensured.

Based on the wafer supporting assembly disclosed in any of the foregoing embodiments, the embodiment of the present application further discloses a control method, which may be used to control any of the foregoing wafer supporting assemblies, as shown in fig. 8, where the control method includes:

s1, controlling the first driving current fed into each electromagnet to continuously increase to a first current value so that each first driving piece and the corresponding second driving piece repel each other to clamp a wafer, wherein the first current value is smaller than a preset value.

As described above, in the wafer supporting assembly disclosed in the embodiment of the present application, the first driving member and the second driving member are respectively mounted on the supporting body and the clamping jaw, and one of the first driving member and the second driving member includes the electromagnet, so when the wafer needs to be clamped, the first driving current is passed through the electromagnet, so that the electromagnet is in the first state, and the first driving member and the second driving member repel each other, thereby achieving the purpose of clamping the wafer.

In order to ensure that the clamping jaw can continuously realize the purpose of clamping the wafer, in the application, when the wafer needs to be clamped, a first driving current is continuously introduced into each electromagnet. Meanwhile, considering that in the process of clamping a wafer, the first driving piece and the second driving piece repel each other, and the distance between the first driving piece and the second driving piece continuously increases, further, in order to ensure that the clamping jaw can reliably clamp the wafer, in the embodiment of the application, the first driving current which is introduced into the electromagnet can be continuously increased until the first driving current is equal to the first current value, and certainly, in order to prevent the clamping force of the clamping jaw on the wafer from being relatively large due to the overlarge first current value and the wafer from being extruded and damaged, in the embodiment of the application, the first current value is smaller than a preset value, wherein the size of the preset value can be flexibly determined according to the actual conditions of devices such as the wafer, the clamping jaw and the like, and the application is not limited.

The control method disclosed by the embodiment of the application further comprises the following steps:

S2, controlling each electromagnet to be electrified with a second driving current or controlling each electromagnet to be powered off so as to enable each first driving piece and the corresponding second driving piece to attract each other and further release the wafer.

As described above, in the case where the electromagnet is in the first state, the first driving member and the second driving member repel each other, and correspondingly, in the case where the electromagnet is in the second state, the first driving member and the second driving member attract each other, so that the clamping jaws are rotated in opposite directions, thereby achieving the purpose of releasing the wafer. In detail, since one of the first driving piece and the second driving piece comprises an electromagnet, and the other one comprises a permanent magnet, the first driving piece and the second driving piece can attract each other under the condition that magnetic poles of the first driving piece and the second driving piece which are close to each other are opposite, meanwhile, under the condition that the electromagnet is in a power failure state, the iron core of the electromagnet is under the magnetic action of the permanent magnet, the first driving piece and the second driving piece can be attracted each other, and the purpose of releasing the wafer can be achieved. In addition, besides the magnetic acting force, as the clamping jaw and the second driving piece are acted by other external forces such as self gravity, when the other external forces of the clamping mechanism are larger than the magnetic acting force between the first driving piece and the second driving piece, the external forces can overcome the magnetic acting force, and the clamping mechanism can rotate clockwise, so that the purpose of releasing the wafer is realized.

For this reason, in general, in the embodiment of the present application, the direction of the second driving current may be the same as or opposite to the direction of the first driving current, where, in the case that the direction of the second driving current is the same as the direction of the first driving current, the value of the second driving current needs to be smaller than the first current value, and as for the specific magnitude of the difference between the two, it may be flexibly determined according to parameters such as the specific structure and the installation position of the clamping jaw. In addition, the distance between the first driving piece and the second driving piece is continuously reduced in the process of releasing the wafer, so that the second driving current with the same direction as the first driving current is prevented from interfering the process of releasing the wafer, the value of the second driving current is continuously reduced, and therefore the clamping jaw can continuously rotate clockwise when the second driving current with the same direction as the first driving current is introduced, and the work of releasing the wafer is completed.

Further, in order to reduce the difficulty of placing the wafer on the support body under the drive of the robot or the like, in the embodiment of the application, each electromagnet is controlled to be kept in the second state under the condition that the support body does not support the wafer. That is, in the embodiment of the present application, if the wafer is not placed on the supporting body, the electromagnet is controlled to be kept in the second state all the time, so that the first driving member and the second driving member attract each other, the space surrounded by the plurality of clamping jaws is relatively large, and the placement difficulty of the wafer is reduced.

As described above, in the wafer transfer process, the wafer may be grasped by a robot or the like and placed on the support surface of the support body. Generally, the storage position of the wafer and the movement path of the robot arm may be preset, so that the wafer placed on the supporting surface by the robot arm is expected to be in an aligned state, where the aligned state is that the center of the wafer corresponds to the center of the supporting surface, or the center of the wafer is located directly above the center of the supporting surface, in this case, the center of the wafer is considered to be matched with the center of the supporting surface.

However, due to the influence of factors such as control precision and errors, the center of the wafer placed on the supporting surface by the manipulator may still be not aligned with the center of the supporting surface, so that in order to improve the clamped stability of the wafer, in the embodiment of the application, the rotation speed of the plurality of clamping mechanisms relative to the supporting body can be controlled by controlling the magnitude of the current flowing into the plurality of electromagnets, so as to change the position of the center of the wafer. Specifically, the rotation speed of the clamping mechanism with smaller distance from the outer edge of the wafer is relatively faster, so that the clamping mechanism can rotate the same angle with other clamping mechanisms relative to the supporting body in the same time while overcoming the friction force between the wafer and the supporting surface, the corresponding distance for driving the wafer to move is realized, and the purpose of aligning with the center of the supporting surface is achieved.

Based on the above situation, the control method disclosed in the embodiment of the present application may further include:

Controlling the first driving currents which are introduced into the electromagnets to be equal in magnitude so as to keep the center of the wafer matched with the center of the supporting surface;

the first driving currents flowing into the electromagnets are controlled to be different in magnitude so that the wafer moves relative to the supporting surface and the center of the wafer is matched with the center of the supporting surface.

As described above, when the center of the wafer is aligned with the center of the supporting surface, it is described that the initial position of the wafer is normal, at this time, the position of the wafer does not need to be changed by using the clamping mechanism, and further, the magnitude of the first driving current flowing into each electromagnet may be equalized, so that the rotation speeds of the plurality of clamping mechanisms relative to the supporting body are controlled to be the same, so that the plurality of clamping mechanisms can simultaneously or substantially simultaneously contact with the outer edge of the wafer, and the clamping operation of the wafer is completed, and in this process, the center of the wafer and the center of the supporting surface are always kept in a mutually matched state.

Otherwise, when the initial position of the wafer is abnormal, taking the wafer as a whole and rightwards, and a clamping mechanism is arranged on the right side of the wafer as an example, the distance between the clamping mechanism and the wafer is minimum, and the wafer needs to be moved to the right left by a preset distance so as to ensure that the wafer can be in a state of being aligned with the supporting surface. In this case, the first driving currents flowing into the electromagnets may be different, specifically, compared with other clamping mechanisms, the currents flowing into the clamping mechanism located right to the wafer may be relatively larger, so that the rotation speed of the clamping mechanism is relatively faster, when the clamping mechanism contacts the wafer before other clamping mechanisms, the clamping mechanism may drive the wafer to move to the left, in this process, the rotation speed of the clamping mechanism is reduced due to the influence of the friction force between the wafer and the supporting surface, and because the rotation speed of the clamping mechanism is relatively larger when the clamping mechanism is not in contact with the wafer, the clamping mechanism may also rotate by the same angle at the same time as other clamping mechanisms, so as to achieve the purpose of aligning the center of the wafer with the center of the supporting surface.

Furthermore, since the plurality of clamping jaws are located outside the outer edge of the wafer, and the supporting body for supporting the wafer is mounted on the rotating mechanism, the clamping mechanism is subjected to centrifugal force under the working condition of the rotating mechanism, so that the clamping effect of the wafer is adversely affected, for example, the wafer may be affected by vibration, centrifugal force and other factors, and the relative supporting surface is jumped or clamped unstably, which adversely affects the process uniformity of the wafer.

Therefore, in a further embodiment of the present application, a high-speed camera may be used to detect whether the wafer moves relative to the supporting surface, and in another embodiment of the present application, a plurality of detecting members may be installed on the supporting body to detect the linear distance between the wafer and the detecting members, and based on the detection results of the plurality of distances, whether the wafer moves relative to the supporting surface may also be determined.

Considering that the clamping stability of the wafer is directly related to the clamping force of the clamping mechanism, and that the centrifugal force acting on the clamping mechanism when the rotating mechanism works affects the clamping force between the clamping mechanism and the wafer, in this embodiment of the present application, the control method may further include:

When the rotation speeds of the rotating mechanisms are different, the clamping acting forces between the clamping mechanisms and the wafer are controlled to be equal. Specifically, it may be determined whether the effect of the centrifugal force acting on the clamping mechanism on the clamping effect is a positive or negative effect when the rotating mechanism rotates, based on parameters such as the actual position of the centroid of the clamping mechanism, so as to control the magnitude of the first driving current flowing into the electromagnet accordingly. For example, the centrifugal force of the rotating mechanism acting on the clamping mechanism can reduce the clamping force between the clamping jaw and the wafer, and the magnitude of the first driving current flowing in the electromagnet can be increased, otherwise, the magnitude of the first driving current flowing in the electromagnet can be reduced, so that the clamping acting force between the clamping jaw and the wafer is always unchanged or basically unchanged, and the situation that the wafer is unstable in clamping and bounces or is damaged due to too tight clamping is prevented.

Based on any of the above wafer supporting components, the embodiment of the application also discloses a semiconductor device, which includes any of the above wafer supporting components, and of course, the semiconductor device may also include a cavity, and at least a portion of the wafer supporting components may be mounted in the cavity.

It should be noted that, in this document, the terms "comprises," "comprising," or any other variation thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of elements does not include only those elements but may include other elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus. Without further limitation, an element defined by the phrase "comprising one does not exclude the presence of other like elements in a process, method, article, or apparatus that comprises the element. Furthermore, it should be noted that the scope of the methods and apparatus in the embodiments of the present application is not limited to performing the functions in the order shown or discussed, but may also include performing the functions in a substantially simultaneous manner or in an opposite order depending on the functions involved, e.g., the described methods may be performed in an order different from that described, and various steps may be added, omitted, or combined. Additionally, features described with reference to certain examples may be combined in other examples.

The embodiments of the present application have been described above with reference to the accompanying drawings, but the present application is not limited to the above-described embodiments, which are merely illustrative and not restrictive, and many forms may be made by those having ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit of the present application and the scope of the claims, which are to be protected by the present application.

Claims

1. A wafer support assembly comprising a rotation mechanism (100), a support mechanism (200) and a clamping mechanism (300), wherein,

The supporting mechanism (200) comprises a supporting body (210) and a first driving piece (220), the supporting body (210) is provided with a supporting surface for supporting a wafer (900), the supporting body (210) is mounted on the rotating mechanism (100), and the rotating mechanism (100) is used for driving the supporting body (210) to rotate;

The number of the first driving pieces (220) and the number of the clamping mechanisms (300) are at least three, the plurality of first driving pieces (220) are arranged below the supporting surface in the supporting body (210) at intervals along the rotating direction of the rotating mechanism (100), and the plurality of clamping mechanisms (300) are arranged in one-to-one correspondence with the plurality of first driving pieces (220);

Each clamping mechanism (300) comprises a clamping jaw (310) and a second driving piece (320) mounted on the clamping jaw (310), each clamping jaw (310) is rotatably mounted on the supporting body (210), the second driving piece (320) is located below the first driving piece, the first driving piece and the second driving piece are located on the inner side of the rotation axis of the clamping jaw (310), one of the first driving piece (220) and the second driving piece (320) which are arranged correspondingly comprises an electromagnet, each electromagnet has a first state and a second state, the first driving piece (220) and the second driving piece (320) repel each other when the electromagnet is in the first state, each clamping jaw (310) is in contact with the outer edge of the wafer (900), and the first driving piece (220) and the second driving piece (320) attract each other when the electromagnet is in the second state.

2. The wafer support assembly according to claim 1, wherein a first limiting surface (212 a) is disposed on an outer side of the support body (210), a second limiting surface (311 b) is disposed on an inner side of each clamping jaw (310), and each second limiting surface (311 b) is limited to the first limiting surface (212 a) when each electromagnet is in the first state, and the first limiting surface (212 a) is used for limiting each clamping jaw (310) to crush and damage the wafer (900).

3. The wafer support assembly of claim 1, wherein with each of the electromagnets in the first state, a center of mass of each of the clamping mechanisms (300) is located below a horizontal plane passing through a rotational axis of the clamping mechanism (300) and outside a vertical plane passing through the rotational axis of the clamping mechanism (300).

4. The wafer support assembly of claim 1, wherein the clamping jaw (310) comprises a clamping portion (311) and a buckling portion (312), the buckling portion (312) is connected to a top end of the clamping portion (311), the clamping portion (311) has a clamping surface (311 a), the clamping surface (311 a) contacts an outer edge of the wafer (900) with each of the electromagnets in the first state, and at least a portion of a projection of the buckling portion (312) in a horizontal plane is located on the wafer (900).

5. The wafer support assembly according to claim 1, wherein the support body (210) comprises a base (211), a mounting seat (212) and a support arm (213), one end of the support arm (213) is fixedly connected with the base (211), the other end of the support arm (213) is provided with the mounting seat (212), the mounting seat (212) is provided with the first driving member (220), and the clamping mechanism (300) is rotatably connected with the mounting seat (212) through a rotating shaft (240).

6. The wafer support assembly of claim 5, wherein the support body (210) further comprises support blocks (214), the top surface of each mounting base (212) is provided with the support blocks (214), and the top surfaces of the plurality of support blocks (214) are the support surfaces.

7. The wafer support assembly according to claim 1, wherein each of the first driving members (220) comprises an electromagnet, the support body (210) is connected to the rotation mechanism (100) by means of an electrically conductive slip ring (410), and the support body (210) is provided with a hollow channel (213 a), the hollow channel (213 a) being adapted to receive a grounding cable (230) of the first driving member (220).

8. The wafer support assembly according to claim 1, wherein each of the first driving members (220) is disposed obliquely with respect to a vertical direction, and the magnetic pole distribution directions of the first driving member (220) and the second driving member (320) corresponding to each other are parallel to each other with each of the electromagnets in the first state.

9. The wafer support assembly of claim 1, further comprising a detecting member (500), the detecting member (500) configured to detect whether a wafer (900) is supported on the support surface.

10. A control method for controlling the wafer support assembly of any of claims 1-9, the control method comprising:

11. The control method according to claim 10, wherein the direction of the second driving current is the same as the direction of the first driving current, and the value of the second driving current continuously decreases, or the direction of the second driving current is opposite to the direction of the first driving current.

12. The control method according to claim 10, characterized by further comprising:

And controlling each electromagnet to be kept in the second state under the condition that the supporting body does not support the wafer.

13. The control method according to claim 10, characterized by further comprising:

and controlling the first driving currents flowing into the electromagnets to be different in magnitude so as to enable the wafer to move relative to the supporting surface and match the center of the wafer with the center of the supporting surface.

14. The control method according to claim 10, characterized by further comprising:

And under the condition that the rotating speeds of the rotating mechanisms are different, controlling the clamping acting forces between the clamping mechanisms and the wafer to be equal.

15. A semiconductor device comprising the wafer support assembly of any one of claims 1-9.