KR100572318B1 - Transfer device for unloading semiconductor substrate from container - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a transfer apparatus for loading or unloading wafers from a wafer container, wherein the apparatus has a fixed support to which fixed hands are coupled and a movable support to which a mobile hand is coupled. When unloading a plurality of wafers from the container, the plurality of wafers are unloaded by the fixed hand and the mobile hand, and when unloading a wafer inserted into a specific slot from the container, the movable support is The wafer moved close to the support and inserted into the particular slot is unloaded by the mobile hand.

According to the present invention having the above-described structure, the transfer apparatus can not only unload a plurality of wafers from the wafer container at the same time, but also unload a specific wafer.

Conveyor, Fixed Hand, Mobile Hand

Description

TRANSFER APPARATUS FOR UNLOADING SEMICONDUCTOR SUBSTRATE FROM CONTAINER {TRANSFER APPARATUS FOR UNLOADING SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES FROM A CONTAINER}

1 schematically shows a general conveying device;

2 and 3 are respectively a front view and a plan view schematically showing a transport apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention;

4 shows a state in which a moving support is moved to a first position to simultaneously unload a plurality of wafers from a FOUP; And

5 is a view showing a state in which the moving support is moved to the second position to unload only a specific wafer from the FOUP.

Explanation of symbols on the main parts of the drawings

10: FOUP 100: Hand part

110: fixed hand 120: moving hand

200: support portion 210: fixed support

220: moving support 240: moving support drive

300: pedestal 400: support rod

500: support rod drive unit

The present invention relates to a wafer transfer apparatus, and more particularly, to a transfer apparatus for unloading a wafer in a wafer container.

As the diameter of semiconductor wafers has recently increased from 200 mm to 300 mm, a front open unified pod (hereinafter referred to as a "FOUP", a sealed wafer container, is used to protect the wafer from airborne foreign matter or chemical contamination between wafer transfers. ") Is being used. In addition, as semiconductor chips are manufactured by a complete automation system, an equipment front end module (“EFEM”), which serves as an interface between the wafer container and the load lock chamber in the processing equipment, is installed.

In the above-described EFEM, a transfer device for transferring wafers between the wafer container and the processing equipment is disposed. In general, the transfer apparatus used has a hand of approximately 5 to 25 sheets to transfer a plurality of wafers simultaneously in order to shorten the time required for transfer.

1 is a view schematically showing a general transfer device. Referring to FIG. 1, the hands 710 are coupled to the support 720 so as to be spaced apart from each other by a predetermined interval, and the support 720 is linearly rotated or rotated horizontally by the driving unit 730. However, during the process, when a photo process needs to be reworked or when dry etching is performed with a sample, only a specific wafer among the wafers inserted into the slot in the FOUP 10 should be unloaded. Since all the hands are moved at the same time when using the above-mentioned transfer apparatus, only one of the plurality of wafers cannot be selectively transferred. Therefore, since the wafer must be separated separately before the FOUP 10 is put into the equipment, there is a problem that the production efficiency is significantly impaired in the automation line.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a transfer apparatus capable of not only simultaneously loading a plurality of wafers from a FOUP but also selectively loading any one wafer as needed.

In order to achieve the above object, the transfer device of the present invention includes a pedestal, a support portion coupled to the pedestal, a hand portion coupled to the support and the semiconductor substrate is placed, and a drive portion for moving the pedestal in the vertical or horizontal direction do. The support portion has a fixed support fixedly coupled on the front end of the pedestal and a moving support coupled to the pedestal so as to move along the pedestal at the rear end of the pedestal, the hand portion a plurality of fixed fixed to the fixed support And a moving hand fixed to the hands and the moving support and having a length longer than that of the fixed hand.

A guide hole is formed in the fixed support, and the movement hand is inserted into the guide hole and moved along the guide hole. Preferably, the guide hole is formed at a position higher than the position of the fixed hand coupled to the top of the fixed support.

When the plurality of wafers are unloaded from the container by the above-described structure, the plurality of wafers are unloaded by the fixed arm and the movable arm and unloaded wafers inserted into a specific slot from the container. At this time, the movable support is moved close to the support so that the wafer inserted into the specific slot is unloaded by the movable hand.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5. The embodiments of the present invention may be modified in various forms, and the scope of the present invention should not be construed as being limited by the embodiments described below. This embodiment is provided to more completely explain the present invention to those skilled in the art. Therefore, the shape of the elements in the drawings are exaggerated to emphasize a clearer description.

2 and 3 are respectively a front view and a plan view schematically showing a moving device 1 according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. In the present invention, the process equipment is a batch process equipment such as a wet cleaning equipment which simultaneously performs a process on a plurality of wafers, and the moving device 1 includes a plurality of wafers between the container 10 and the process equipment. It may be a device for transferring (W) simultaneously or only a specific wafer (W '). Alternatively, in a recent automated facility, the container 10 is a front open unified pod (hereinafter referred to as 'FOUP'), which is a sealed wafer container, and the moving device 1 is a stage 20 on which the FOUP 10 is placed. ) And the load lock chamber of the processing equipment may be a device for transferring a plurality of wafers (W) at the same time or only a specific wafer (W) to the processing equipment.

2 and 3, the moving device 1 includes a hand part 100, a support part 200, a pedestal 300, a moving support driver 240, and a support rod driver 500. The hand part 100 is inserted into the FOUP 10 to unload the wafer W from the FOUP 10 or to load the wafer W into the FOUP 10. Have hands 110. The fixed hand 110 is a hand used to unload a plurality of wafers W at the same time, and the mobile hand 120 FOUPs a plurality of wafers W simultaneously with the fixed hands 110. It is used when unloading from 10 or only unloading a specific wafer W 'from the FOUP 10.

 The sum of the number of the plurality of stationary hands 110 and the mobile hand 120 is equal to the number of slots formed in the FOUP 10, so that the transfer device 1 has all the wafers W in the FOUP 1 at one time. Can be unloaded. On the contrary, the sum of the number of the fixed hands 110 and the mobile hands 120 is less than the number of slots formed in the FOUP 1 so that the unloading operation is repeated to unload the wafers W from the FOUP 1. Can be. The wafer W may be fixed by a mechanical clamping method or adsorbed onto the hand part 100 by vacuum means.

The support 200 is coupled to the fixed hands 110 and the mobile hand 120 to support them. The support part 200 has a fixed support 210 for supporting the fixed hands 110 and a movable support 220 for supporting the mobile hand 120. The fixed support 210 is fixedly coupled to the front end of the pedestal 300 disposed below, and the movable support 220 is coupled to be movable on the rear end of the pedestal 300.

The moving support 220 is moved from a first position, which is spaced from the rear of the fixed support 210, to a second position, which is adjacent to the rear of the fixed support 210. The copper support 220 is disposed in the first position when the unloading process is performed on the plurality of wafers W at the same time, and the second position when the unloading process is performed for the specific wafer W '. Is moved to.

The apparatus 1 of the present invention has a moving support driver 240 for linearly moving the moving support 220 on the pedestal 300. As the movable support driver 240, a pneumatic cylinder for linearly moving the rod 242 coupled to the side or rear surface of the movable support 220 may be used. Alternatively, the movement support driver 240 may have a structure for linearly moving the object by various mechanical mechanisms. In addition, the guide groove 320 for guiding the movement of the movable support 220 is formed on both sides of the upper surface of the pedestal 300, the lower surface of the movable support 220 is inserted into the guide groove 320 to move along Protrusions 222 may be formed.

The fixed hands 110 are fixedly coupled to the fixed support 210 so as to face each other at the same interval as the slots formed in the FOUP 10 from the bottom to the top of the fixed support 210. The moving hand 120 has a longer length than the fixed hand 110 and is fixedly coupled to the moving support 220. In the state in which the movable support 220 is moved to the first position, the end of the movable hand 120 is positioned on the same vertical line as the end of the fixed hand 110, and the movable support 220 is moved to the second position. The moving hand 120 has a sufficient length such that the end of the fixed hand 110 is spaced apart from the FOUP 10 by a predetermined distance while being inserted into the FOUP 10.

The fixed hand 110 is provided with a guide hole 212 for inserting the mobile hand 120 and guides the linear movement of the mobile hand 120. As shown in Figure 2, the guide hole 212 is preferably formed at a position higher than the engaging portion of the fixed hand 110 located at the top. Unlike this, however, the guide hole 212 is formed between the positions where the fixed hands 110 are coupled, and the movable hand 120 is connected to the movable support 220 at a position corresponding to the position where the guide holes 212 are formed. Can be combined.

A support rod 400 that supports the pedestal 300 and is straight and rotated by the support rod driver 500 is coupled to the bottom of the pedestal 300. The support rod driving unit 500 may have a rotation motor for rotating the support rod 400, a vertical driving unit for driving the support rod up and down, and a horizontal driving unit for linearly moving the support rod horizontally. Although the structure of the rotary motor, the vertical drive unit, and the horizontal drive unit is not shown, various mechanisms used to move the object can be used.

FIG. 4 is a view showing the transfer apparatus 1 with the movable support 220 moved to the first position to simultaneously unload a plurality of wafers W from the FOUP 10, and FIG. 5 is a specific wafer. FIG. 1 shows the transfer device 1 with the movable support 220 moved to the second position to unload only W ′ from the FOUP 10. 5 is a specific wafer W 'to be unloaded from the FOUP.

Referring to FIG. 4, when unloading a plurality of wafers W, the moving support 220 is positioned at a first position spaced apart from the fixed support 210. At this time, the end of the mobile hand 120 is located on the same vertical line as the ends of the fixed hands 110, the mobile hand 120 and the plurality of fixed hands 110 are inserted into the FOUP (10) at the same time Wafer unloading is performed. However, there are times when only the specific wafer W 'needs to be unloaded, such as when the exposure process is performed again on the specific wafer W' or when the predetermined process is performed using the sample of the specific wafer W '. In this case, as shown in FIG. 5, the movable support 220 is moved to a second position adjacent to the fixed support 210. The end of the mobile hand 120 protrudes a considerable distance forward from the end of the fixed hand 110, and the support rod 400 descends downward to position the mobile hand at a height corresponding to the slot in which the specific wafer in the FOUP is placed. do. Since the support rod 400 is moved horizontally toward the FOUP, only the mobile hand 120 is inserted into the FOUP 10, so that only a specific wafer W ′ is unloaded.

In the present embodiment, a plurality of fixed hands and a moving hand are used simultaneously when loading / unloading a plurality of wafers from a FOUP. However, in contrast, only fixed hands are used when unloading a plurality of wafers, and a mobile hand may be used when unloading a single wafer.

The transfer apparatus according to the present invention has the effect of unloading a plurality of wafers simultaneously in the FOUP and unloading only wafers of a specific position.

Claims (6)

In the transfer apparatus for unloading a semiconductor substrate from a container having a plurality of slots, A pedestal; A support coupled to the pedestal; A hand portion coupled to the support portion, on which a semiconductor substrate is placed; And It includes a drive for moving the pedestal in the vertical and horizontal directions, The support portion, A fixed support fixedly coupled to the front end of the pedestal; A moving support coupled to the pedestal so as to be movable along the pedestal at a rear end of the pedestal, The hand part, A plurality of fixed hands fixed to the fixed support; And a moving hand fixed to the moving support and having a longer length than the fixed hand. The method of claim 1, The fixed support has a guide hole into which the mobile hand is inserted, The movement hand is characterized in that the movement is moved along the guide hole. The method of claim 2, The guide hole is a transfer device, characterized in that formed at a position higher than the position of the fixed hand coupled to the top of the fixed support. The method of claim 1, And when unloading a plurality of substrates from the container, the plurality of substrates being placed on the fixed hands and the mobile hand. The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, When unloading the substrate inserted into the specific slot from the container, the movable support is moved to approach the fixed support, and the substrate inserted into the specific slot is placed on the movable hand. The method of claim 5, The conveying apparatus further comprises a vertical driving unit for driving the pedestal up and down.

Images