JPH09260467A - Wafer attitude alignment device - Google Patents

Abstract

(57) An object of the present invention is to simplify the mechanism and control of a wafer attitude alignment device. A wafer attitude aligning apparatus having a plurality of aligning units 67 for aligning a wafer by contacting a pair of rotating rollers with a lower part of the wafer and rotating the pair of rotating rollers in the same direction. In this case, the alignment unit is attached to the vertically sliding base plate 62 that is vertically movable, and the lifting cylinder 65 is connected to the vertical sliding base plate.
The wafer attitude alignment device can be raised and lowered through the vertical sliding substrate, and a plurality of wafer attitude alignment devices are simultaneously elevated and lowered by expanding and contracting the elevating cylinder.
The wafer attitude is aligned by the wafer attitude matching device.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, and relates to a wafer attitude aligning apparatus for performing wafer attitude adjustment before wafer processing.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A semiconductor device, a silicon wafer 1 on which a fine circuit pattern is formed, has a disk shape as shown in FIG. 5, and a linear portion called an orientation flat 2 is formed on a part of its outer peripheral portion. Are formed. When the wafer 1 is processed, the orientation of the wafer 1 is indispensable, but when the orientation of the wafer 1 is performed, the orientation flat 2 is used.

The basic operation for aligning the attitude of the wafer will be described with reference to FIGS.

The wafer attitude aligning device comprises two horizontally arranged parallel rotating rollers 3 and 3 and side rods 4 and 4 arranged parallel to the sides of the rotating rollers 3 and 3. The rotation rollers 3 are rotated by a motor (not shown). In addition, the rotary roller 3,
3 is capable of contacting the circumference of the wafer 1, and the side rods 4, 4 are arranged so as to substantially contact the circumference of the wafer. The rotating rollers 3 and 3 are made of fluorine resin,
The side rods 4 and 4 are made of quartz.

As will be described later, the wafer 1 is aligned with the wafer while it is loaded in the wafer cassette. The orientation of the wafer is such that the wafer 1 is brought into contact with the rotating rollers 3 and 3 in a state where the wafer 1 is perpendicular to the axis of the rotating rollers 3 and 3 and the side rods 4 and 4, and the wafer 1 is inside the wafer cassette. It is held in a floating state.

Assuming that the orientation flat 2 is located above when the wafer 1 is placed on the rotating rollers 3 and 3, the rotating rollers 3 and 3 are rotated counterclockwise in the figure, and the wafer 1 is rotated. Rotate in the direction. Then, when the orientation flat 2 is at the lowest position, the wafer 1 is supported by the side rods 4 and 4 on both sides, and the wafer 1 is floated with respect to the rotating rollers 3 and 3 (see FIG. 6). The rotation of the wafer 1 is stopped regardless of the rotation state of the rotating rollers 3 and 3. That is, the orientation of the wafer 1 is completed. The same applies to the case where there are a large number of wafers 1, and although there is a time lag, the orientation flat 2 is finally adjusted to the lowest position.

A conventional semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a wafer attitude adjusting device will be described with reference to FIG.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view showing an internal mechanism of the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, which includes a cassette transfer mechanism 5, a cassette loader 6, and a cassette loader 6.
Cassette stocker 7, buffer cassette stocker 8, wafer transfer machine 9, boat elevator 10, boat 11,
It comprises a furnace body 12, a reaction tube 13, a clean unit 14, a clean unit 15, a cooling unit 16 and the like.

The cassette transfer mechanism 5 has a pair of left and right cassette receiving bases 17, and a wafer attitude aligning device 18 to be described later is provided corresponding to the cassette receiving bases 17.

The cassette loader 6 has a guide rod 20.
Has a slide block 21 which can be moved up and down along a pair of left and right cassette stages 2
2 is provided, and the slide block 21 has a motor 23.
It can be moved up and down by being screwed into a screw rod 24 rotated by. The cassette stage 22 can receive the wafer 1 and the wafer 1 that has received the wafer 1.
Can be moved back and forth with respect to the cassette transfer mechanism 5.

The cassette stocker 7 is provided so as to be horizontally traversable. The cassette stocker 7 is screwed to a screen rod 25 via a nut (not shown), and is traversed by a motor 26 via the screen rod 25. It is possible.

The wafer transfer machine 9 has a guide rod 27.
And a screw handler 29 rotated by a motor 28, and a wafer handler 31. The elevator slider 30 and the screw rod 29 are connected to each other, and the wafer handler 31 is It is provided on the lifting slider 30.

The wafer handler 31 has a plurality of wafer chuck plates, and the wafer handler 31 is rotatable and reciprocally movable between the cassette stocker 7 and the boat 11.

The boat elevator 10 is provided with an elevating slider 34 which is vertically movable along a guide rod 33.
A screw rod 36 rotated by a motor 35,
A boat pedestal (not shown) is provided on the elevating slider 34, and the elevating slider 34 and the screw rod 36 are connected to each other. The boat 11 described above can be placed on the boat pedestal.

The wafer attitude aligning device 18 provided in the cassette transfer mechanism 5 includes the pair of cassette receiving bases 17.
It is provided corresponding to each.

As shown in FIG. 8, a substrate 40 is provided on the cassette pedestal 17, and an elevating guide 41 is provided on the substrate 40. A slider 42 is provided on the elevating guide 41, and an elevating frame 43 is fixed to the upper end of the slider 42. The elevating frame 43 has a flat concave shape, and two rotating rollers 3 and 3 made of a fluorine-based resin are provided in parallel to the elevating frame 43 in parallel, and the rotating rollers 3 and 3 have a groove 4
4 are engraved at a required pitch (wafer cassette wafer loading pitch).

A lifting frame 43 for the rotating rollers 3, 3.
The driven pulley 45 is fitted to one of the shaft ends protruding further. A motor 46 is provided on the side plate of the elevating frame 43 so as to project the output shaft therethrough.
Is fitted. A belt 48 is wound around the driven pulleys 45, 45 and the driving pulley 47, and the two rotating rollers 3, 3 are driven in the same direction by the drive of the motor 46 via the belt 48, the driven pulleys 45, 45. It can be rotated.

Quartz side rods 4 and 4 are arranged on both sides of the rotating rollers 3 and 3. The side rod 4,
4 are supported by side plates 49, and both side plates 49, 49 are connected by a connecting plate 50 below the rotating rollers 3, 3. A lift cylinder 51 is provided upward in the center of the elevating frame 43, the upper end of the rod of the lift cylinder 51 is connected to the connecting plate 50, and the lift cylinder 51 projects so that the two side rods 4, 4 are connected.
Is raised with respect to the rotating rollers 3 and 3.

A pedestal 52 protruding horizontally is provided on the substrate 40, and an elevating cylinder 53 is provided upward on the pedestal 52, and an upper end of a rod 54 of the elevating cylinder 53 is connected to the slider 42. Then, the rotation rollers 3, 3 and the side rods 4, 4 can be integrally lifted up and down through the lifting frame 43 by the expansion and contraction of the lifting cylinder 53.

The wafer cassette 39 is set above the wafer attitude alignment device 18, and the lifting cylinder 5
In the shortened state of 3, that is, in the lowered state of the elevating frame 43, the rotating rollers 3 and 3 are not in contact with the wafer 1,
When the elevating frame 43 is raised by the elevating cylinder 53, the lower portion of the wafer 1 comes into contact with the grooves 55 of the rotating rollers 3 and 3.

As described above, the attitude of the wafer 1 is adjusted by raising and lowering the rotating rollers 3 and 3, raising and lowering the side rods 4 and 4, and further rotating the rotating rollers 3 and 3. There is.

Next, the flow of the wafer 1 in the semiconductor manufacturing apparatus will be briefly described.

For loading and unloading the wafer 1, the wafer 1 is loaded in the wafer cassette 39, and the wafer cassette 39 loaded with the wafer is transported. The wafer cassette 39 is placed on the cassette pedestal 17 in a posture in which the wafer 1 is held vertically. The wafer attitude alignment device 18 moves up to align the wafer attitude. The slide block 21 is lowered by the drive of the motor 26 of the cassette loader 6 via the screw rod 24, and is made to stand by.

The cassette transfer mechanism 5 rotates the cassette receiving stand 17 toward the cassette stocker 7 by 90 °. In the state after the rotation, the wafer 1 is in the horizontal posture.
By driving the motor 26, the cassette stage 22 is raised via the screw rod 24 and the slide block 21, and the wafer cassette 39 is placed on the cassette stage 22. The wafer cassette 39 is pulled out from the cassette transfer mechanism 5 on the cassette stage 22,
The screw rod 24 is rotated by the drive of the motor 23 to raise the slide block 21 to a predetermined position. The wafer cassette 39 is inserted into the cassette stocker 7 by the cassette stage 22 and stored in the cassette stocker 7. Then, the wafer cassette 39 loaded with the wafer 1 is stored in the cassette stocker 7 and the buffer cassette stocker 8.

When the storage of the wafer cassette 39 in the cassette stocker 7 is completed, the wafer transfer machine 9 is operated to transfer the wafer 1 from the wafer cassette 39 on the cassette stocker 7 side to the boat 11.

By driving the motor 26, the cassette stocker 7 is traversed, and the target wafer cassette 3
The storage row to which 9 belongs and the wafer handler 31 face each other. The motor 28 is driven to move the wafer handler 31 up and down through the screw rod 29, and the wafer handler 31 is used as a target wafer cassette 39.
Confront. The wafer 1 in the wafer cassette 39 is transferred to the boat 11 by rotating the wafer handler 31 and further moving it back and forth.

When a predetermined number of wafers 1 are transferred to the boat 11, the motor 35 is driven and the elevating slider 34 is raised via the screw rod 36 to move the boat 11 into the reaction tube 13. Charge into.

In the reaction tube 13, required processing such as formation of a thin film on the surface of the wafer 1 and diffusion of impurities is performed.

When the wafer processing is completed, the motor 3
5, the boat 11 is pulled out from the reaction tube 13, and the wafer transfer machine 9 transfers the wafer 1 to the empty wafer cassette 39 of the cassette stocker 7. Subsequent transportation of the wafer cassette 39 is performed by the operation reverse to that described above.

[0030]

In the conventional wafer attitude aligning apparatus described above, since a pair of wafer attitude aligning apparatuses are provided independently of each other, the aligning unit provided in the wafer attitude aligning apparatus is moved up and down. Mechanisms such as a guide mechanism and a drive mechanism such as a cylinder have to be individually provided, which complicates the structure and requires synchronization for driving. there were.

In view of the above situation, the present invention intends to simplify the mechanism and control of the wafer attitude alignment device.

[0032]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has a plurality of alignment units for aligning a wafer by bringing a pair of rotating rollers into contact with the lower portion of the wafer and rotating the pair of rotating rollers in the same direction. In a wafer attitude alignment device, the alignment unit is attached to a vertically sliding substrate supported so as to be vertically movable, an elevating cylinder is connected to the vertical sliding substrate, and the wafer orientation alignment is performed via the vertical sliding substrate. The apparatus can be moved up and down, and a plurality of wafer attitude alignment devices are simultaneously moved up and down by expanding and contracting the elevating cylinder, so that the wafer attitude alignment device aligns the wafers.

[0033]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

In FIG. 1, the same parts as those shown in FIG. 8 are designated by the same reference numerals and the description thereof will be omitted.

Two vertical guides 61 are fixed to a vertical substrate 60 fixed to a frame (not shown) of the cassette transfer mechanism 5, and a vertical sliding substrate 62 is slidably mounted on the guides 61. The vertical sliding substrate 62 has a concave shape, a bracket 63 is horizontally projected on the upper end surface of the concave horizontal portion, and a pedestal 64 projecting horizontally is provided on the lower end of the vertical substrate 60. It is fixed and the lifting cylinder 6 is attached to the pedestal 64.
5, the rod 66 of the lifting cylinder 65 is connected to the bracket 63.

A wafer attitude aligning device 67 is attached to the upward protruding end portions formed on both sides of the vertical sliding substrate 62 via L-shaped fixing metal fittings 68. The fixing bracket 6
The mounting hole 8 has a long diameter in the vertical direction, and the position of the wafer attitude aligning device 67 in the vertical direction can be adjusted.

The wafer attitude aligning device 67 has substantially the same structure as the wafer attitude aligning device 18 described above, and has rotating rollers 3 and 3 and side rods 4. The rotating rollers 3 and 3 are driven by a motor 46. The side rod 4 is rotated, and the side rod 4 is moved up and down with respect to the rotating rollers 3 by the lift cylinder 51. In this embodiment, only one set of side rods 4 is provided, and a wafer detector 69 is provided instead of the other set of side rods 4.

The wafer detector 69 is provided with strip-shaped tongues 70 which are inserted in the gap between the wafers loaded in the wafer cassette in a comb-like shape, and each tongue 70 has a wafer detection sensor, for example, a reflection type. A light detection sensor is provided to detect the wafer when the attitude of the wafer is being adjusted.

Next, the operation will be described.

In the standby state of the wafer attitude aligning device 67, the lifting cylinder 65 is shortened. When the wafer cassette 39 is placed on the cassette transfer mechanism 5 (see FIG. 7), the elevating cylinder 65 extends and the vertical sliding substrate 62 rises. As the vertical sliding substrate 62 rises, the left and right wafer attitude aligning devices 67 simultaneously rise, and the side rods 4 and 4 contact the wafers in the wafer cassette,
The tongue 70 of the wafer detector 69 is inserted between the wafers.

By rotating the side rods 4 and 4, the wafers are aligned and the presence / absence of wafers is detected by the wafer detector 69. The position being detected is detected.

When the wafer alignment is completed, the elevating cylinder 65 is shortened, the left and right wafer alignment devices 67 are lowered through the vertical sliding substrate 62, and the wafer alignment is completed.

In the conventional wafer attitude aligning device 18, the rotary roller 3 is provided with the groove 44 to be fitted to the peripheral edge of the wafer, but as shown in FIG. 2, the rotary roller 3 has an inverted V shape along the generatrix. A large number of ridges 71 are formed at an equal pitch in the circumferential direction,
The spline shaft shape may be used. When the spline shaft-shaped rotating rollers 3 and 3 are brought into contact with the wafer 1, they are brought into contact with each other via the ridges 71 as shown in FIG. Contact. Therefore, the rollers 3, 3
The contact area between the wafer 1 and the wafer 1 is remarkably small, and a large surface pressure is obtained between the rollers 3 and 3 and the wafer 1. Therefore, a large frictional force is obtained between the rotating rollers 3 and 3 and the wafer 1 and The wafer is rotated without slippage. Therefore, the time required for posture adjustment is shortened, and no particles caused by slippage are generated.

In the above embodiment, the vertical sliding substrate 62
Although two sets of wafer attitude alignment devices 67 are provided in the above, it is needless to say that one set or three or more sets can be provided.

[0045]

As described above, according to the present invention, since the wafer attitude aligning device is configured to be lifted and lowered by one elevating mechanism and one elevating and lowering device, the structure is significantly simplified and Since the control for the lifting drive is sufficient, the control mechanism is simplified and the manufacturing cost is greatly reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of a rotating roller used in the present embodiment.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a relationship between the roller and a wafer.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a wafer attitude adjusting operation.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a wafer attitude adjusting operation.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a wafer attitude adjusting operation.

FIG. 7 is an internal transparent perspective view of a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus equipped with a conventional wafer attitude alignment device.

FIG. 8 is a perspective view showing a conventional wafer attitude alignment device.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 Wafer 3 Rotating Roller 4 Side Rod 60 Vertical Substrate 61 Guide 62 Vertical Sliding Substrate 63 Bracket 64 Pedestal 65 Elevating Cylinder 66 Rod 67 Wafer Alignment Device 68 Fixing Bracket 69 Wafer Detector 70 Tongue

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A wafer posture aligning apparatus having a plurality of aligning units for bringing the pair of rotary rollers into contact with the lower part of the wafer and rotating the pair of rotary rollers in the same direction to align the wafer. The aligning unit is attached to a vertically sliding substrate supported so as to be able to move up and down, and an elevating cylinder is connected to the vertical sliding substrate so that the wafer attitude aligning device can be raised and lowered through the vertical sliding substrate. Characteristic wafer attitude alignment device.