JP2002343844A - Wafer handling mechanism - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a wafer handling mechanism for a wafer processing apparatus of the same degree of an installing area and a manufacturing cost as those of a prior art without contaminating the wafer after processing. SOLUTION: The wafer handling mechanism 10 comprises a hand member 11 for placing the wafer to input and output the wafer and an arm member 16 for supporting the hand member to move the member in the wafer processing apparatus for processing the wafers 30, 31 such as silicon wafers or the like. The hand member has a first hand 11a for placing the forked wafer and a second hand 11b.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

[0001] 1. Field of the Invention [0002] The present invention relates to a wafer handling mechanism for handling a wafer such as a silicon wafer by loading or unloading the wafer in a wafer processing apparatus.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art A wafer such as a silicon wafer used for manufacturing a semiconductor device such as a memory is processed by various wafer processing apparatuses. The wafer processing apparatus,
It is installed in a clean room, and is configured as an automatic machine that automatically handles wafers in order to prevent contamination of wafers by dust from workers. For example, in order to load a wafer in the wafer processing apparatus or unload a wafer in the wafer processing apparatus outside the apparatus, a wafer 3 as shown in FIG.
A wafer handling mechanism 20 including a hand member 21 on which the hand member 21 is placed and an arm member 22 for supporting and moving the hand member 21 is used.

After the wafer 30 stored in the wafer transfer container transferred from the transfer path is placed on the hand member 21 and taken out, the hand member 21 and the arm member 21 are rotated counterclockwise by 90 ° in the figure. By rotating, the wafer 30 is loaded into the wafer processing apparatus. Further, the processed wafer 30 in the wafer processing apparatus is transferred to the hand member 2.
After being placed on 1, the hand member 21 together with the arm member 22
After rotating the wafer 30 clockwise, unloading the wafer 30 out of the apparatus and storing it in the wafer transfer container for transferring the processed wafer, the wafer transfer container transfers the wafer 30 with the wafer 30 stored therein. The wafer is transferred to the next wafer processing apparatus through the route.

[0004] In a conventional wafer processing apparatus,
For loading and unloading a wafer, a wafer handling mechanism 20 that handles the wafer using the same hand member 21 is used.

[0005]

However, in the conventional wafer handling mechanism for handling a wafer, a hand member for handling a transferred wafer is used for handling a wafer processed in the wafer processing apparatus. There is a problem that dust and the like that have adhered to the wafer before processing adhere to the hand member, and the dust and the like adhere to the wafer after processing and contaminate the wafer.

Further, if the wafer processing apparatus is provided with a wafer handling mechanism having a hand member for handling a wafer before processing and a wafer handling mechanism having a hand member for handling a processed wafer, The problem of contamination can be avoided, but if two sets of wafer handling mechanisms are provided, there is a problem that a larger installation area is required than before and the manufacturing cost is high.

The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and does not contaminate a processed wafer.
An object of the present invention is to provide a wafer handling mechanism having an installation area and a manufacturing cost which are almost the same as those in the related art.

[0008]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION According to the present invention, there is provided a wafer processing apparatus for processing a wafer such as a silicon wafer, a hand member for mounting the wafer for taking in and out the wafer, and a hand member supporting the hand member. A wafer handling mechanism including a moving arm member, wherein the hand member has a first hand portion and a second hand portion for mounting the bifurcated wafer. .

[0009]

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a wafer handling mechanism according to the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a wafer handling mechanism 10 according to an embodiment of the present invention moves wafers 30, 31 into and out of a wafer processing apparatus (not shown) for processing wafers 30, 31 such as silicon wafers. A wafer handling mechanism comprising a hand member 11 on which wafers 30 and 31 are placed, and an arm member 16 that supports and moves the hand member 11, wherein the hand member 11 has a bifurcated wafer 30, This is a configuration having a first hand unit 11a and a second hand unit 11b on which the base 31 is placed.

In this embodiment, the first and second hand parts 11a and 11a are divided into two parts.
1b, the side on which the wafers 30 and 31 are mounted is the tip 13, 14 side, the tip 13, 14 side is a predetermined angle,
Here, it is provided in an L-shape that is open at 90 °.

The first hand portion 11a and the second hand portion 11b may be formed integrally with each other at a predetermined angle, or may be formed as separate members and combined. Also, a first hand portion 11a formed of a separate member
And the predetermined angle of the second hand portion 11b may be arbitrarily settable. Further, in addition to the L-shape, a configuration having two sets of hand parts as described above in a U-shape and a configuration having three or more sets of hand parts may be used.

The wafer handling mechanism 10 has, for example, one end of an arm 16a rotatably attached to a base 15, and an arm 16 attached to the other end of the arm 16a.
b, the hand member 11 is rotatably mounted. The arms 16a and 16b may be composed of separate members and combined, or may be formed integrally. The number and shape of the arms may be appropriately selected and provided.

The hand member 11 is configured to be rotated by a predetermined angle about a shaft 17 and fixed to the arm 16b as required. Also, the first hand unit 11a and the second hand unit 11a
The hand part 11b may have a wafer fixing function such as suction-fixing the wafers 30 and 31 to be placed by vacuum suction. Further, the hand member 11 and / or the arm member 16 are provided to be able to move up and down in a horizontal state.

Note that the hand member 11 does not rotate with respect to the arm 16b, but rotates by a necessary rotation angle by the arm 16a and / or the arm 16b so as to handle the wafer before and after processing. Is also good. That is, the hand member 11
And / or rotation of the arm member 16 causes the first hand unit 1
The wafer 1a and the second hand unit 11b may be configured to handle wafers before and after processing separately.

Next, wafer handling by the wafer handling mechanism 10 will be described. The wafer is stored in a wafer transfer container (not shown) and transferred along a transfer path, with the surface opposite to the surface to be processed facing down, under the wafer 30 placed on a support shelf in the wafer transfer container. After inserting the first hand unit 11a, the first hand unit 11a is slightly raised in a horizontal state so that the wafer 30 can be slightly lifted out of the support shelf and taken out.

Next, the arm 16a is moved 9
After being rotated counterclockwise by 0 ° and taken out of the wafer transfer container, the wafer 30 is loaded into a processing tank or the like of the wafer processing apparatus. The form of loading is
It is suitable for the wafer processing apparatus.

When the wafer 31 processed by the wafer processing apparatus is to be unloaded, the hand member 11 is rotated counterclockwise by 90 ° around the arm 17b with respect to the arm 16b to rotate the second hand unit 11b. Is directed toward the wafer 31 in the wafer processing apparatus. Wafer 31
After the second hand 11b is inserted under the second hand 11b, the second hand 11b is slightly raised in a horizontal state, and the wafer 31 is placed on the second hand 11b. The wafer 31 is rotated clockwise by 90 ° to move the wafer 31, and the wafer 31 is placed on a support shelf in a wafer transfer container for transferring the processed wafer 31.

The wafer handling mechanism 10 replaces the conventional hand member 21 of the wafer handling mechanism 20 with a hand member 11, for example.
May be provided with a mechanism for rotating and fixing as described above.

As described above, the wafer handling mechanism 10 according to the embodiment of the present invention has two sets of hand units as the hand member 11, that is, the first hand unit 11a and the second hand unit 11b. Therefore, the transferred wafer and the wafer processed by the wafer processing apparatus can be handled by different hand units. Further, since two sets of hand parts, that is, the first hand part 11a and the second hand part 11b are attached to one set of arm parts 16a and 16b, the installation area is the same as the conventional wafer handling. It is about the same as the installation area of the mechanism.

[0021]

According to the present invention, the unprocessed wafer that has been transported and the processed wafer that has been processed by the wafer processing apparatus can be handled by separate hand units, so that contamination of the processed wafer can be achieved. Can be prevented, and the installation area can be substantially the same as the conventional case, and the manufacturing cost can be reduced to the same level as the conventional case.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing an embodiment of a wafer handling mechanism according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a conventional wafer handling mechanism.

[Explanation of symbols]

 10, 20 Wafer handling mechanism 11, 21 Hand member 11a First hand portion 11b Second hand portion 13, 14 Tip 15 Base 16, 22 Arm member 16a, 16b Arm portion 17, 18 Axis 30, 31 Wafer

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A wafer processing apparatus for processing a wafer such as a silicon wafer, comprising: a hand member on which the wafer for loading and unloading the wafer is mounted; and an arm member for supporting and moving the hand member. A wafer handling mechanism, wherein the hand member has a first hand portion and a second hand portion on which the bifurcated wafer is placed.