JP2000077512A - Wafer housing case - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wafer housing case, wherein a wafer is housed in surface- contacted state for facilitating operations such as transportation and storage. SOLUTION: At the peripheral edge of a housing recessed part 20 provided at an upper side central part, cylindrical pits 21 communication with the outside air via a ventilation groove are formed. The profile of a case 10 is partitioned with long side parts 11 and short side parts 12 comprising an engagement edge 13 and an inside thick wall part 14. The engagement edge 13 of the short side part 12 is a protruding part 17 which protrudes beyond the opposite side. When the protruding part 17 is engaged with the inside thick wall part 14 after a wafer 30 is allocated at the housing recessed part 20, a plurality of cases 10 are engaged together to form a single body.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a wafer storage case used for transporting and storing a plurality of wafers.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art When transporting or storing thin wafers such as Si wafers, glass substrates, ceramic substrates, etc., a housing for accommodating a plurality of wafers separated from each other is used. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, a housing 1 having a structure in which a large number of partitions 2 are provided on the inner surface and an upper and lower part of an internal space 4 corresponding to the size of a wafer 3 to be accommodated is partitioned by a bottom plate 5 and a top plate 6 is known. Have been. When the wafer 3 is inserted into the partition 2 of each stage from the direction D, the edge of the wafer 3 on the opposite side in the radial direction is supported by the partition 2.
The plurality of wafers 3 are accommodated in the housing 1 with both edge portions supported by the partitions 2 and central portions separated from each other.

[0003]

However, the conventional wafer storage case is relatively heavy and expensive. On the other hand, Si
As can be seen from wafers, the diameter of wafers has been remarkably increased in order to improve productivity, and wafers exceeding 30 cm have been manufactured. When applying the conventional housing shown in FIG. 1 to transport or store such a large-diameter wafer,
A housing 1 having an accommodation space 4 having a size corresponding to a large diameter is required, and as a result, the housing 1 itself becomes large and heavy, and the work efficiency is reduced. In addition, since the wafer 3 is accommodated by supporting both edges in the radial direction with the partition 2, there is a high possibility that the central portion of the wafer 3 may be bent and deformed by its own weight during accommodation.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been devised in order to solve such a problem. A supporting and accommodating unit for accommodating individual wafers with foamed resin excellent in lightness is provided. It is an object of the present invention to provide a wafer storage case that stores a wafer in a stable state irrespective of the diameter of the wafer and facilitates operations such as transportation and storage by adopting a method of stacking the support storage units.

[0005] In order to achieve the object, the wafer accommodating case of the present invention has a thin octagonal shape whose outline is partitioned by long sides and short sides which are repeated with each other. A fitting edge and an inner thick portion formed with a step, a receiving recess formed in the upper central portion and having an inner diameter corresponding to the diameter of the wafer, and a peripheral edge of the receiving recess near the short side portion. A recess deeper than the receiving recess, a ventilation groove formed in the fitting edge of the short side and the inner thick portion to communicate the recess with the outside air, and a long side and a short side on the receiving concave side or on the opposite side. And a sloping surface provided below the short side portion.

[0006]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS A wafer storage case according to the present invention
It is made of foamed resin to reduce weight. As the foamed resin, a styrene resin, a urethane resin, or the like having a low foaming degree is preferable from the viewpoint of securing the strength required for the case. The wafer storage case has a flat square basic structure,
The four corners of the square are cut off, resulting in an octagon. Specifically, as shown in FIG.
And the short side portion 12 has a contour that is alternately repeated. Long side 1 forming the outline of wafer storage case 10
1 and the short side portion 12, the fitting edge 13 and the inner portion thick portion 1
A step 15 formed by 4 is provided. Short side 12
Is chamfered to form an inclined surface 16. The bottom surface of the long side portion 11 is a flat surface that is not chamfered so as to be in close contact with the step 15 on the case upper surface side.

At the upper central portion of the wafer storage case 10, a circular storage recess 20 having an inner diameter corresponding to the diameter of the wafer to be stored is formed. The depth of the accommodation recess 20 is designed to be equal to the total thickness of the wafer 30 to be accommodated and the cushion sheets 31 (FIG. 5) arranged on both surfaces of the wafer 30. The accommodation recess 2 is provided in each short side 12
At the point where 0 approaches, a cylindrical depression 21 is formed. In this example, the depression is formed in a cylindrical shape. However, it goes without saying that depressions having various shapes may be formed instead of the cylindrical depression 21.

Since the central point of the cylindrical recess 21 is located substantially on the periphery of the housing recess 20, a part of the cylindrical recess 21 faces the housing recess 20. The cylindrical recess 21 is deeper than the housing recess 20 so that when the wafer 30 is disposed in the housing recess 20, a gap g is formed between the bottom surface of the cylindrical recess 21 and the wafer 30. The inner peripheral surface 22 corresponding to the peripheral edge of the housing recess 20 is a cylindrical inner surface 23 approaching the short side portion 12 at a location where the cylindrical recess 21 is formed. At the position where the cylindrical inner surface 23 is closest to the short side portion 12, the wafer housing case 10 passes through the inner thick portion 14 and the fitting edge 13.
Is formed. Ventilation groove 2
4 is deeper at the fitting edge 13 than the inner thick portion 14 as shown in the cross section of FIG. Housing recess 20
A projection 17 is formed on the lower surface of the wafer storage case 10 which is on the opposite side of the wafer storage case 10. The projecting portion 17 has a size that fits into the inner thick portion 14 on the upper surface side, and is designed to have a height equal to the step 15 between the fitting edge 13 and the inner thick portion 14. The fitting edge 13 is made to protrude upward, and the protrusion 17
(FIG. 4).

A plurality of wafer storage cases 10 are stacked with the respective wafers 30 stored therein. That is, after the wafers 30 sandwiching the upper and lower surfaces between the cushion sheets 31, 31 are arranged in the respective wafer storage cases 10, the upper case 10 is overlapped with the lower case 10 as shown in FIG. 5. Inner thick part 1 of lower case 10
The upper and lower cases 10, 10 are fitted and integrated by fitting the projection 17 of the upper case 10 into the case 4. The accommodated wafer 30 has the upper surface of the lower case 10 and the upper case 10
(FIG. 6). Therefore, the storage state is stabilized as compared with the conventional case (FIG. 1) which supports both edge portions located on the opposite side in the radial direction, and there is no deformation due to its own weight.

As shown in FIG. 6, a wafer housing case 10 in which a plurality of wafers 30 are housed individually is fitted with a metal case, a plastic case, and a metal case.
It is stored in a storage container (outer box) such as a wooden box or a cardboard box. Alternatively, the individual wafer accommodating cases 10 accommodating the respective wafers 30 are sequentially accommodated in the accommodating containers. As the storage container, a container having a storage space having a square cross section is usually used. Looking at the relationship with this storage container,
Since the wafer storage case 10 of the present invention has a shape in which four corners of a quadrangle are cut off at the short sides 12, a gap is formed between the inner surface of the storage container and the short sides 12. An inclined surface 16 serving as a clue is formed on the short side portion 12.
Therefore, the packing operation is facilitated in combination with the light weight of the wafer storage case 10. The inclined surface 16 also serves as a clue when removing the wafer storage case 10 packed in a storage container, and facilitates the removal operation.

When the wafer 30 is stored, a gap g is formed between the cylindrical recess 22 and the lower surface of the wafer 30 because the cylindrical recess 22 is formed on the periphery of the housing recess 20 as shown in FIG. ing. The gap g communicates with the outside through the inside thick part 14 and the ventilation groove 24 formed in the fitting edge 13. Therefore, when a plurality of wafers 30 are stored and stacked in a storage container, and the inside of the storage container is suctioned to purify the air, the air in the wafer storage case 10 is also sucked, and the cleaning is performed. Can be replaced with oxidized air.

The gap g is effective in taking out the wafer 30 by separating the fitted wafer storage cases 10 individually. That is, when the inclined surface 16 of one wafer storage case 10 is lifted as a clue, air enters between the adjacent wafer storage cases 10 from the gap g, so that the upper case 10 can be easily separated from the lower case 10, The wafer 30 is taken out of each wafer storage case 10. In addition, the wafer 30 taken out of the outer box can be transported to a predetermined work process using the wafer storage case 10 as a tray. In addition,
When shallow depressions 25 are formed at an appropriate pitch on the bottom surface of the accommodating concave portion 20, the infiltration of air between the upper case 10 and the lower case 10 is promoted, and the close contact between the upper and lower cases is completely prevented.

[0013]

As described above, the wafer accommodating case of the present invention, after expropriating each wafer one by one,
The plurality of wafers are fitted together to integrate them, so that a plurality of wafers can be efficiently recruited, and the work of packing into a storage container (outer box) and taking out of the storage container is facilitated. Further, since the wafer is supported and collected by the surface contact method, even if the diameter of the wafer becomes large, no bending deformation or the like occurs. In this way, the use of the wafer storage case of the present invention facilitates operations such as transportation and storage even for a large-diameter wafer, and also prevents damage to the wafer during transportation and storage.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 A conventional wafer housing case

FIG. 2 shows a wafer storage case according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a cross section of a wafer storage case.

FIG. 4 is a cross section of a case in which a fitting edge protrudes upward.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining how to collect and stack wafers in a wafer storage case.

FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a state in which a plurality of wafer storage cases accommodating wafers are fitted together and integrated.

[Explanation of symbols]

10: Wafer storage case 11: Long side 1
2: Short side portion 13: Fitting edge 14: Inner thick portion 15: Step
16: Inclined surface 17: Projecting edge 20: Housing recess 21: Cylindrical recess 22: Inner peripheral surface 23: Cylindrical inner surface 24: Vent groove 30: Wafer 31: Cushion sheet g: Gap

 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuing on the front page (72) Inventor, Keifumi Ichi, 555-1, Nakanoya, Annaka-shi, Gunma Inside the Super Silicon Research Laboratory, Inc. (72) Inventor, Kozo Abe 555-1, Nakanoya, Annaka-shi, Gunma Inside the Super Silicon Laboratories, Inc. (72) Inventor Shinji Okawa, 555-1, Nakanoya, Annaka-shi, Gunma Prefecture Inside the Super Silicon Laboratories Co., Ltd. (72) Toshifumi Ishikawa, 555-1, Nakanoya, Annaka-shi, Gunma Prefecture Inside the Super Silicon Laboratories Co., Ltd. (Reference) 3E096 AA01 AA14 BA16 BB04 CA02 DA04 DA18 EA03X FA01 FA14 FA27 FA28 GA02 GA03 GA04 GA14 5F031 BB04 BC0 1 BC03 MM11

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A fitting rim and an inner thickness having a thin octagonal shape whose contour is divided by a long side portion and a short side portion which are repeated with each other, and a step formed on the long side portion and the short side portion. Meat part,
A receiving recess formed in the upper central portion and having an inner diameter corresponding to the diameter of the wafer; a recess deeper than the receiving recess formed near the short side at the periphery of the receiving recess; and a fitting edge of the short side. And a ventilation groove formed in the inner thick part and communicating the dent with the outside air, a protrusion protruding from the outer edge of the long side and the short side on the side of the receiving recess or on the opposite side, and provided below the short side. And a plurality of cases fitted and integrated by fitting a projecting portion of one case to an inner thick portion of the other case. 2. A synthetic resin having a low foaming degree.
The described wafer collection case. 3. The wafer accommodating case according to claim 1, wherein a gap is formed between the lower surface of the wafer and the depression when the wafer is placed in the receiving recess. 4. A long side projection is provided on a flat surface such that a long side projection provided on one case is in close contact with a flat surface of a fitting edge provided on the other case. 2. The wafer collecting case according to claim 1, wherein