Automatic feeding and discharging system for vertical furnace and vertical furnace body
Technical Field
The invention mainly relates to processing equipment of solar cells, in particular to an automatic feeding and discharging system for a vertical furnace and a vertical furnace body.
Background
Currently, in the manufacturing process of a crystalline silicon solar cell, a diffusion process is generally adopted to prepare a PN junction of a silicon wafer, and an LPCVD process is adopted to complete thermal oxidation and thin film deposition. In the diffusion/LPCVD process, a quartz boat is used as a carrier. Before the process, the silicon wafer from the previous procedure is taken out from a flower basket box and is loaded into a boat groove of a quartz boat; after the silicon chip is placed, the quartz boat is sent into a reaction chamber of the process equipment to carry out diffusion/LPCVD process; and (4) after the process is finished, sending out the quartz boat, cooling the quartz boat, taking out the silicon wafer subjected to diffusion/LPCVD from the quartz boat, loading the silicon wafer into a flower basket box, and sending the silicon wafer to the next process.
The reaction chamber of the traditional diffusion/LPCVD process equipment adopts a horizontal arrangement mode, and quartz boats in a corresponding automatic loading and unloading system take, place, transmit, position and load and unload silicon wafers in a horizontal mode. With the increasing diameter of silicon wafers, the conventional diffusion furnace has great difficulty in meeting the process requirements, and in order to solve the difficulties and adapt to the process progress requirements, a vertical diffusion/oxidation furnace has appeared, and compared with a horizontal furnace, the vertical furnace has the following advantages:
1. after the diameter of the diffusion furnace opening is increased, the cross section temperature difference of the constant temperature area is much larger in the horizontal furnace than in the vertical furnace, and the vertical furnace can better meet the process requirements; 2. the vertical diffusion/oxidation furnace can control the oxygen concentration precision and meet the special process requirements, thereby meeting the film process requirements; 3. in the process, the silicon wafer is easy to deform at a high temperature state, and the silicon wafer is horizontally placed in the vertical furnace, so that the deformation probability of the silicon wafer is smaller; 4. when high-temperature diffusion and silicon wafer crushing are carried out, the vertical furnace does not need to clean the reaction tube and the quartz boat, and adhesive substances and particles at the reaction part are few.
However, in the prior art, there is no perfect solution for the automatic vertical installation, automatic vertical in and out, and automatic silicon wafer loading and unloading of quartz boats in a reaction chamber of a multi-tube vertical diffusion furnace/LPCVD, so how to improve the automation degree of loading and unloading of a multi-tube vertical furnace body, realize stable and reliable automatic loading and unloading, and obtain higher production efficiency is a problem to be solved urgently by technical personnel in the field.
Disclosure of Invention
Aiming at the technical problems in the prior art, the invention provides the automatic feeding and discharging system for the vertical furnace and the vertical furnace body, which have the advantages of compact structure, small occupied space, high precision of taking and placing the silicon wafers, high automation degree and high stability, and can realize the automatic stable and reliable feeding and discharging of the quartz boat into and out of the furnace body and the automatic feeding and discharging of the silicon wafers.
In order to solve the technical problems, the invention adopts the following technical scheme:
an automatic loading and unloading system for a vertical furnace comprises a quartz boat taking and placing device, a boat turning device, a silicon wafer jacking device, a wafer integrating device, a wafer inserting and taking manipulator and a silicon wafer feeding and conveying device; the quartz boat taking and placing device is used for driving the quartz boat to transfer among the cache frame, the reaction chamber and the boat turning device; the boat turning device is used for realizing the conversion between a vertical state and a horizontal state of the quartz boat; the silicon wafer jacking device is used for driving a silicon wafer to do lifting motion so as to enable the silicon wafer to be separated from the quartz boat or placed into the quartz boat; the whole device is used for realizing the centering of the silicon wafer; the silicon wafer inserting and taking manipulator is used for driving a silicon wafer to be transferred between the silicon wafer feeding and conveying device and the silicon wafer jacking device; the silicon wafer feeding and discharging transmission device is used for automatically taking out the silicon wafers from the flower basket or sending the silicon wafers into the flower basket.
As a further improvement of the invention: still including unloading conveyor on the basket of flowers, unloading conveyor on the basket of flowers is used for realizing the automatic unloading of basket of flowers on the butt joint with AGV dolly.
As a further improvement of the invention: the quartz boat taking and placing device comprises a moving track assembly, a manipulator and a clamping assembly, wherein the clamping assembly is connected with the manipulator, the manipulator is installed on the moving track assembly, the moving track assembly is used for driving the manipulator to move back and forth along the moving track assembly so as to drive the quartz boat to transfer between a cache frame, a reaction chamber and a boat turning device, and the clamping assembly is used for clamping the quartz boat.
As a further improvement of the invention: the boat overturning device comprises a moving module, a boat positioning and clamping mechanism and a boat overturning mechanism, the boat overturning mechanism is installed on the moving module, the boat positioning and clamping mechanism is connected with the boat overturning mechanism, and the moving module is used for driving the boat overturning mechanism to move in the horizontal direction.
As a further improvement of the invention: the silicon wafer jacking device comprises a mounting frame, a jacking moving assembly and a jacking tooth assembly; the jacking tooth assembly is mounted on the jacking moving assembly, and the jacking moving assembly is mounted on the mounting frame; the jacking moving assembly is used for driving the jacking tooth assembly to move up and down; and a clamping groove is formed in the top tooth assembly and used for positioning the silicon wafer.
As a further improvement of the invention: the whole device comprises a linear guide rail, a driving assembly, a splitting assembly and at least two symmetrically arranged toothed plate assemblies; the linear guide rail is used for realizing that the toothed plate assemblies move along a linear direction, and the driving assembly is used for adjusting the distance between the two toothed plate assemblies and realizing silicon wafer centering; the slicing assembly is used for separating two silicon wafers in the same tooth slot, and the toothed plate assembly is used for loading the silicon wafers.
As a further improvement of the invention: the quartz boat taking and placing device comprises a quartz boat taking and placing assembly, and is characterized by further comprising a boat moving mechanical arm, wherein the boat moving mechanical arm comprises an X-direction moving module, a Y-direction moving module, a Z-direction moving module and a boat taking and placing assembly; the Y-direction moving module is used for realizing the movement of the quartz boat in the Y direction; the Z-direction moving module is used for realizing the movement of the quartz boat in the Z direction; the taking and placing boat assembly is used for positioning and clamping the quartz boat.
As a further improvement of the invention: the silicon wafer feeding and discharging transmission device comprises at least one silicon wafer feeding track and at least one silicon wafer discharging track.
As a further improvement of the invention: the feeding and discharging transmission device for the flower basket comprises at least one flower basket feeding track and at least one flower basket discharging track.
The invention also provides a vertical furnace body which comprises a plurality of furnace tubes and the automatic feeding and discharging system.
Compared with the prior art, the invention has the advantages that:
1. the automatic loading and unloading system for the vertical furnace is provided with a quartz boat taking and placing device, a boat turning device, a silicon wafer jacking device, a wafer integrating device, a wafer inserting and taking manipulator and a silicon wafer loading and unloading device; the quartz boat taking and placing device is arranged in the process machine table, can move in the machine table along the X-axis or Y-axis direction, and drives the quartz boat to transfer among the three positions of the buffer storage frame, the reaction chamber and the boat turning device; the quartz boats in the tube bodies can be efficiently, stably and reliably taken, placed and circulated; the quartz boat turning device is matched with the quartz boat taking and placing device, and when the quartz boat taking and placing device drives the quartz boat to be placed on the quartz boat turning device, the quartz boat turning device can realize that the quartz boat is converted from a vertical state to a horizontal state; the silicon wafer jacking device drives the silicon wafer to do lifting motion so as to separate the silicon wafer from the quartz boat or put the silicon wafer into the quartz boat; the centering of silicon chip is realized to the whole piece device, after the technology was accomplished to the silicon chip, insert and get a piece manipulator and take out the silicon chip from silicon chip jacking device and put into silicon chip unloader, get the silicon chip of not technology from silicon chip loading device again and put into silicon chip jacking device on, silicon chip jacking device descends, the silicon chip is put into the quartz boat, the operation of so cycling, the silicon chip is high-efficient, reliable and stable goes up the unloading operation, degree of automation is high, whole process need not artificial intervention, each part cooperation is inseparable, it is high to get the silicon chip precision, can promote solar wafer's production efficiency greatly.
2. The automatic loading and unloading system for the vertical furnace is provided with the boat moving mechanical arm, wherein the boat moving mechanical arm comprises an X-direction moving module, a Y-direction moving module, an X-direction moving module and a boat taking and placing assembly, and the X-direction moving module is used for realizing the movement of a quartz boat in the X direction; the Y-direction moving module is used for realizing the movement of the quartz boat in the Y direction; the Z-direction moving module is used for realizing the movement of the quartz boat in the Z direction; the taking and placing boat assembly is used for positioning and clamping the quartz boat; can realize the quartz boat through moving the boat manipulator and change between the work position and the buffer position of turning over the boat device, when the quartz boat loading was accomplished and is not carried out the technology, move the boat manipulator and take out the quartz boat from turning over boat device work position and put into the buffer position, quartz boat get put device will accomplish the technology and the quartz boat after the cooling put into the work position of turning over the boat device, get the quartz boat on the buffer position again and place on the buffer frame of technology board, the influence of retractable short switching quartz boat to the productivity, the holistic production efficiency of equipment has been improved.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a structural layout diagram of the present invention in an embodiment.
FIG. 2 is a schematic structural diagram of a quartz boat pick-and-place apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of the boat turning device in an embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a silicon wafer jacking apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Fig. 5 is a schematic structural view of a monolith device of the present invention in a specific embodiment.
Fig. 6 is a schematic structural diagram of a boat-moving robot according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Illustration of the drawings:
1. a quartz boat taking and placing device; 11. a moving track assembly; 12. a manipulator; 13. a gripping assembly; 2. a boat turning device; 21. a moving module; 22. a boat positioning and clamping mechanism; 23. a boat turnover mechanism; 3. a silicon wafer jacking device; 31. a mounting frame; 32. jacking and moving components; 33. a top tooth assembly; 4. a sheet-shaping device; 41. a linear guide rail; 42. a drive assembly; 43. a slicing component; 44. a toothed plate assembly; 5. a slice inserting and taking manipulator; 6. a silicon wafer feeding and discharging transmission device; 61. a silicon wafer loading rail; 62. silicon wafer blanking rails; 7. a feeding and discharging transmission device for the flower basket; 71. a basket feeding rail; 72. a basket blanking track; 8. a boat moving manipulator; 81. an X-direction moving module; 82. a Y-direction moving module; 83. a Z-direction moving module; 84. taking and placing the boat assembly; 9. a furnace tube.
Detailed Description
The invention will be described in further detail below with reference to the drawings and specific examples.
As shown in fig. 1 to fig. 6, the embodiment discloses an automatic loading and unloading system for a vertical furnace, which includes a quartz boat taking and placing device 1, a boat turning device 2, a silicon wafer jacking device 3, a wafer integrating device 4, a wafer inserting and taking manipulator 5 and a silicon wafer loading and unloading transmission device 6; the quartz boat taking and placing device 1 is used for driving the quartz boat to transfer among the buffer storage rack, the reaction chamber and the boat turning device 2; the boat turning device 2 is used for realizing the conversion between the vertical state and the horizontal state of the quartz boat; the silicon wafer jacking device 3 is used for driving the silicon wafer to do lifting motion so as to realize that the silicon wafer is separated from the quartz boat or put into the quartz boat; the whole device 4 is used for realizing the centering of the silicon wafer; the wafer inserting and taking manipulator 5 is used for driving the silicon wafer to be transferred between the silicon wafer feeding and conveying device 6 and the silicon wafer jacking device 3; the silicon wafer feeding and discharging transmission device 6 is used for taking out the silicon wafer from the flower basket and transmitting the silicon wafer to a wafer taking position of the wafer inserting and taking manipulator 5 or automatically sending the silicon wafer into the flower basket.
The automatic loading and unloading system of the embodiment is provided with a quartz boat taking and placing device 1, a boat turning device 2, a silicon wafer jacking device 3, a wafer integrating device 4, a wafer inserting and taking manipulator 5 and a silicon wafer loading and unloading transmission device 6; the quartz boat taking and placing device 1 is arranged in the process machine table, can move in the machine table along the X-axis or Y-axis direction, and drives the quartz boat to transfer among the cache frame, the reaction chamber and the boat turning device 2; the quartz boats in the tube bodies can be efficiently, stably and reliably taken, placed and circulated; the boat turning device 2 is matched with the quartz boat taking and placing device 1, and when the quartz boat taking and placing device 1 drives the quartz boat to be placed on the boat turning device 2, the boat turning device 2 can realize that the quartz boat is changed from a vertical state to a horizontal state; the silicon wafer jacking device 3 drives the silicon wafer to do lifting motion so as to separate the silicon wafer from the quartz boat or put the silicon wafer into the quartz boat; the centering of silicon chip is realized to whole piece device 4, after the technology was accomplished to the silicon chip, insert and get piece manipulator 5 and take out the silicon chip from silicon chip jacking device 3 and put into silicon chip unloader, get the silicon chip of not technology from silicon chip loading device again and put into silicon chip jacking device 3 on, silicon chip jacking device 3 descends, the silicon chip is put into the quartz boat, the operation of so cycling, the silicon chip is high-efficient, reliable and stable goes up the unloading operation, degree of automation is high, whole process need not manual intervention, each part cooperation is inseparable, it is high to get the silicon chip precision, can promote solar wafer's production efficiency greatly.
In this embodiment, quartz boat gets puts device 1 is including removing track subassembly 11, manipulator 12 and pressing from both sides the subassembly 13 of getting, gets subassembly 13 and links to each other with manipulator 12, and manipulator 12 is installed on removing track subassembly 11, removes track subassembly 11 and is used for driving manipulator 12 along removing track subassembly 11 round trip movement in order to realize driving the quartz boat and shift between buffer memory frame, reaction chamber and the boat device 2 that turns over, presss from both sides the subassembly 13 and is used for realizing pressing from both sides tightly and the quartz boat.
The quartz boat taking and placing device 1 has the following action flows: the mechanical arm 12 takes the quartz boat to be processed from the cache position of the boat turning device 2 and puts the quartz boat into a cache frame of the process machine; taking out the quartz boat which finishes the process from the reaction chamber of the process machine table, and putting the quartz boat into a cache frame for cooling; taking the quartz boat to be processed from the cache frame and putting the quartz boat into the reaction chamber; and taking the cooled quartz boat from the buffer storage rack and putting the quartz boat on the boat turning device 2.
In this embodiment, the boat turning device 2 includes a moving module 21, a boat positioning and clamping mechanism 22, and a boat turning mechanism 23, the boat turning mechanism 23 is installed on the moving module 21, the boat positioning and clamping mechanism 22 is connected to the boat turning mechanism 23, and the moving module 21 is configured to drive the boat turning mechanism 23 to move in the horizontal direction.
The working process of the boat turning device 2 is as follows: after the quartz boat taking and placing device 1 is placed into the boat turning device 2, a travel switch detects a quartz boat in-place signal, the boat positioning and clamping mechanism 22 acts, the air cylinder clamps the quartz boat, and the servo motor drives the quartz boat to turn over for 90 degrees, so that the quartz boat is changed from a vertical state to a horizontal state; the moving module 21 moves the quartz boat to the position above the silicon wafer jacking device 3, the silicon wafer is jacked up by the silicon wafer jacking device 3 and separated from the quartz boat, and the silicon wafer is centered by the wafer integrating device 4; the wafer inserting and taking manipulator 5 takes the silicon wafer out and puts the silicon wafer into the silicon wafer blanking track 62, then takes the silicon wafer from the silicon wafer blanking track 61 and puts the silicon wafer into the silicon wafer jacking device 3, the silicon wafer centering device 4 centers the silicon wafer, the silicon wafer jacking device 3 descends, and the silicon wafer enters a quartz boat; the moving module 21 moves forwards to a working area of the silicon wafer to be taken in the silicon wafer jacking device 3, and the silicon wafer positioning and silicon wafer inserting and taking actions are repeated until the silicon wafer to be processed of the quartz boat is loaded. The quartz boat is accomplished and is inserted the piece, and the quartz boat anticlockwise overturns 90 degrees, moves module 21 and moves back, moves boat manipulator 8 and takes out the quartz boat and place at the buffer memory position, and quartz boat is got and is put device 1 and put into from the quartz boat that technology board taken out and turn over boat device 2.
In this embodiment, the moving module 21 includes a commutator and at least two lead screw assemblies, the two lead screw assemblies are connected through the commutator, and the driving can be realized only by using one set of motor.
In this embodiment, the silicon wafer jacking device 3 includes a mounting frame 31, a jacking moving assembly 32 and a jacking tooth assembly 33; the top tooth assembly 33 is arranged on the jacking movable assembly 32, and the jacking movable assembly 32 is arranged on the mounting frame 31; the jacking moving assembly 32 is used for driving the jacking tooth assembly 33 to move up and down; and a clamping groove is formed in the top tooth component 33 and used for positioning a silicon wafer.
In this embodiment, the whole slice apparatus 4 includes a linear guide rail 41, a driving assembly 42, a slice assembly 43, and two symmetrically arranged toothed plate assemblies 44; the linear guide rail 41 is used for realizing the movement of the toothed plate assemblies 44 in a linear direction, and the driving assembly 42 is used for adjusting the distance between the two toothed plate assemblies 44 and realizing silicon wafer centering; the slicing assembly 43 is used for separating two silicon wafers in the same tooth slot, and the toothed plate assembly 44 is used for loading the silicon wafers. Through the cooperation of the silicon wafer jacking device 3 and the whole-wafer device 4, the silicon wafer can be effectively taken out of or put into the quartz boat in batch accurately, the position deviation can not occur in the silicon wafer taking and placing process, and the problems that the silicon wafer drops and is damaged are not easy to occur.
In order to shorten the time for switching the quartz boat, the boat moving manipulator 8 is further designed in the embodiment, the boat moving manipulator 8 includes an X-direction moving module 81, a Y-direction moving module 82, a Z-direction moving module 83 and a boat taking and placing assembly 84, and the X-direction moving module 81 is used for moving the quartz boat in the X direction; the Y-direction moving module 82 is used for realizing the movement of the quartz boat in the Y direction; the Z-direction moving module 83 is used for realizing the movement of the quartz boat in the Z direction; the pick-and-place boat assembly 84 is used to position and clamp the quartz boats.
Can realize the quartz boat through moving boat manipulator 8 and change between the work position and the buffer position of turning over boat device 2, the quartz boat loads when not carrying out the technology, move boat manipulator 8 and take out the quartz boat from the work position of turning over boat device 2 and put into the buffer position, quartz boat get put device 1 will accomplish the technology and the quartz boat after the cooling puts into the work position of turning over boat device 2, get the quartz boat from the buffer position again and place on the buffer frame of technology board, can shorten the time of changing the quartz boat through moving boat manipulator 8, avoid producing the influence to the productivity, the holistic production efficiency of equipment has effectively been improved.
In the embodiment, the silicon wafer feeding and discharging transmission device 6 comprises two silicon wafer feeding rails 61 and two silicon wafer discharging rails 62, the silicon wafer feeding rails 61 and the silicon wafer discharging rails 62 are arranged in parallel, the basket feeding and discharging transmission device 7 comprises two basket feeding rails and 71 two basket discharging rails 72, the silicon wafer feeding rails 61 are in butt joint with the basket feeding rails 71, and the silicon wafers are taken out of the baskets through the silicon wafer feeding rails 61; the silicon wafer discharging rail 62 is in butt joint with the basket discharging rail 72, and silicon wafers are conveyed into the basket through the silicon wafer discharging rail 62.
In this embodiment, basket of flowers material loading track 71 and basket of flowers unloading track 72 and AGV dolly direct butt joint have realized the automatic unloading of basket of flowers.
Example two
The embodiment also provides a vertical furnace body which comprises a plurality of furnace tubes 9 and the automatic loading and unloading system in the first embodiment, wherein the automatic loading and unloading system is used for realizing vertical feeding and unloading of the quartz boat into and out of the furnace tubes 9 and automatic loading and unloading of the silicon wafers.
The vertical furnace body in the embodiment is provided with the automatic feeding and discharging system, so that automatic feeding and discharging of the flower basket, automatic feeding and discharging of the silicon wafer, automatic transfer of the silicon wafer at each station, automatic taking and placing of the silicon wafer, automatic overturning of the quartz boat and automatic feeding and discharging of the quartz boat in and out of the vertical furnace tube 9 are realized. The whole process is unmanned, the automation degree is high, the automatic feeding and discharging system runs stably and reliably, the chip taking and placing precision is high, the fault rate is low, and the production efficiency of the solar cell is greatly improved.
The above is only a preferred embodiment of the present invention, and the protection scope of the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments, and all technical solutions belonging to the idea of the present invention belong to the protection scope of the present invention. It should be noted that modifications and embellishments within the scope of the invention may be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the principle of the invention.