JP2003172454A - Gasket - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a gasket 1 used for a wafer carrier having an improved sealability. <P>SOLUTION: The gasket 1 is fitted to a lid member 3 of the wafer carrier 2 to seal a space between the lid member 3 and a box member 5, and comprises a first seal part 7 attachably/detachably abutted on the box member 5, and second seal parts 8 and 9 to prevent stuff to be sealed from entering a fitting groove 4 of the lid member 3. A lip type seal which is attachably/detachably and tightly fitted to the box member 5 is preferable for the first seal part 7, and the lip type seal which is elastically and tightly fitted to the lid member 3 on both sides of the fitting groove 4 is preferable. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a gasket which is a kind of sealing device, and more particularly to a gasket suitable for being used as a wafer carrier in the semiconductor field and the like.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, a general-purpose gasket has been used as a seal between a lid member and a box member of a wafer carrier, so that it is difficult to set the sealing property, mounting property, outgassing property and the like to an optimum state. There is a situation.

The gasket to which the present invention is applied is
It is used as a wafer carrier (carrier box) that carries Si wafers in the semiconductor manufacturing process. After the semiconductor manufacturing process is completed, the wafer carrier is washed with water and then used to carry the wafer again (generally, it takes about half a year to replace the wafer with a new one). Will be exchanged). Therefore, if water remains in the wafer carrier after cleaning, the product will be defective in the next step, and therefore there is a circumstance that water cannot enter the gasket mounting groove of the wafer carrier.

[0004]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In view of the above points, the present invention provides a gasket used for a wafer carrier or the like, which can improve the sealing property, the mounting property, the outgassing property and the like. With the goal.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, a gasket according to claim 1 of the present invention is a gasket which is mounted on a lid member of a wafer carrier and seals between the lid member and the box member. A first seal portion that comes into contact with the box member in a detachable manner, and a second seal portion that prevents a sealing object from entering the gasket mounting groove of the lid member. .

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the gasket according to the first aspect, the first seal portion is a lip type seal which comes into close contact with and separate from the box member, and the second seal portion is The lip-type seal elastically comes into close contact with the lid member on both sides of the gasket mounting groove.

A gasket according to a third aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the gasket according to the second aspect, the gasket is provided with an inner surface of the gasket mounting groove or the gasket for preventing the gasket from coming off. is there.

Furthermore, a gasket according to a fourth aspect of the present invention is characterized in that, in the gasket according to the third aspect, the gasket is formed of a fluororubber material.

In the gasket according to claim 1 of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the first seal portion which comes into contact with and is separable from the box member with respect to the gasket mounted in the gasket mounting groove provided in the lid member of the wafer carrier. Since it is provided, first, it is possible to seal between the lid member and the box member as a basic sealing performance. In addition to this, in addition to the first seal portion, the gasket mounting groove of the lid member is sealed. Since the second seal part that prevents the object from entering is provided, it is possible to seal the opening of the gasket mounting groove and prevent the sealing target such as water from entering the gasket mounting groove. Is.

The first seal portion is preferably a lip type seal which comes into contact with and separates from the box member as described in claim 2, and thus the first seal portion is attached to the box member. With a lip seal that comes in close contact with and away from the lip seal, the crushing load can be set small because the lip seal is easily elastically deformed.

Also, as the second seal portion, as described in claim 2, it is preferable that the second seal portion is a lip type seal that elastically comes into close contact with the lid member on both sides of the gasket mounting groove. When the second seal portion is a lip seal that elastically comes into close contact with the lid member, the lip seal elastically deforms when mounted and exerts a sufficient sealing action by its elastic return force, so that the sealing performance of the portion is improved. Is possible.

Further, when the inner surface of the gasket mounting groove or the gasket is provided with the gasket drop-out preventing projection, it is possible to effectively prevent the gasket from falling off. Since the second seal portion comes into close contact with the lid member in a state where the second seal portion is fixedly mounted in the gasket mounting groove, it is possible to stabilize the seal performance of the second seal portion.

Further, when the gasket is made of a fluororubber material as described in claim 4, it is possible to reduce the amount of harmful gas generated due to the characteristics of the material.

The following technical matters are included in the present application.

That is, in order to achieve the above object, one gasket proposed by the present application has the following contents.

A gasket attached to the lid member of the wafer carrier to seal between the lid member and the box member. The gasket described above, which has a seal portion that comes into contact with the box member so as to come into contact with and separate from the box member, and a seal portion that prevents a sealing object from entering the mounting groove of the lid member. In the gasket described above, the seal portion that comes into contact with and separates from the box member has a lip-type seal shape aiming at reducing the crushing load, and the sealing target does not enter the mounting groove of the lid member. A gasket that deforms the lip parts provided on both sides of the gasket cross-sectional shape in order to prevent this, and uses the force to return it to seal. The gasket as described above, wherein the cap member has a groove or a gasket provided with a projection for preventing the cap from falling off. A gasket in which the gasket is made of a fluororubber material.

[0017]

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS Next, embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 shows a cross section (cut end face) of a gasket according to an embodiment of the present invention, and its mounting state is shown in FIG.
Is shown in.

The gasket 1 according to the embodiment is mounted in the gasket mounting groove 4 provided on the end surface 3a of the lid member 3 in the wafer carrier 2 to seal the space between the lid member 3 and the box member 5 when they are assembled. And is configured as follows.

That is, first, a gasket main body portion 6 to be mounted in the mounting groove 4 is provided, and the first and second upper and lower sides of the gasket main body portion 6 which come into contact with the end surface 5a of the box member 5 in a detachable manner. With the seal portion 7,
The second seal portions 8 and 9 elastically abutting the end surface 3a of the lid member 3 on the left and right sides of the gasket main body 6 in the drawing, respectively.
Is provided.

The first seal portion 7 is a lip-type seal that comes into contact with and separates from the end surface 5a of the box member 5, and the lip seal is located outside the wafer carrier 2 from its base end portion to its tip portion. It is formed so as to be inclined obliquely toward the left side in the figure).

The second seal portions 8 and 9 are lip type seals elastically intimately contacting the end surface 3a of the lid member 3 on both sides of the mounting groove 4, and the lip seals are attached to the lid member 3 to which they are attached. It is formed so as to be inclined obliquely toward.

The gasket 1 is integrally formed by using fluororubber as a molding material. The lid member 3 and the box member 5 are molded by using a predetermined resin as a molding material.

Further, as shown in FIG. 3, protrusions 10 for preventing the gasket from coming off are provided on the left and right side walls on the inner surface of the mounting groove 4, respectively. The protrusions 10 are provided between the pair of left and right protrusions 10, 10. The gasket 1 is fixed by sandwiching the portion 6. A plurality of the pair of protrusions 10 and 10 are provided at predetermined intervals along the longitudinal direction of the mounting groove 4 (vertical direction in FIG. 3). Further, as shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, each of the protrusions 10 is formed in a plane arc shape and is provided with chamfered portions 10a at the outer edge corners. Therefore, when the gasket 1 made of a rubber-like elastic material is mounted. It is designed not to hurt.

According to the gasket 1 having the above structure, the following operational effects can be obtained.

That is, first, since the gasket 1 mounted in the mounting groove 4 of the lid member 3 is provided with the first seal portion 7 that comes into contact with the end surface 5a of the box member 5 so as to be freely separable, The space between the wafer carrier 2 and the box member 5 can be sealed.
It is possible to prevent the intrusion. In addition to this, since the second seal portions 8 and 9 elastically contacting the end surface 3a of the lid member 3 are provided, the opening portion of the mounting groove 4 can be sealed and a seal against water or the like can be provided. It is possible to prevent the object from entering the mounting groove 4.

Further, since the first seal portion 7 is a lip seal which is easily elastically deformed, the crushing load can be set comparatively small. Therefore, the lid member 3 and the box member 5 can be combined with a relatively low load.

Further, since the second seal portions 8 and 9 are lip seals that elastically come into close contact with the end surface 3a of the lid member 3, the opening portion of the mounting groove 4 can always be well sealed. it can. The lip seal is the end surface 3a of the lid member 3.
Since it is elastically intimately contacted with, it is difficult to separate from the end face 3a. Therefore, the sealability of the part can be improved.

Further, since the gasket falling-off preventing projection 10 is provided on the inner surface of the mounting groove 4, it is possible to effectively prevent the gasket 1 from falling off the mounting groove 4. Further, in this way, the gasket 1 is mounted in the mounting groove 4
Since the lip seals of the second seal portions 8 and 9 are elastically brought into close contact with the end surface 3a of the lid member 3 in a state in which the second seal portions 8 and 9 are fixedly mounted, the sealing performance of the portions can be stabilized.

Further, since the gasket 1 is integrally molded using fluororubber as a molding material, harmful gas is unlikely to be generated from the gasket 1 to the wafer. Therefore, the outgassing property of the gasket 1 can be improved.

In the above embodiment, the gasket dropout preventing projection 10 for holding the gasket 1 in the mounting groove 4 is provided.
Although it is provided on the inner surface of the mounting groove 4, instead of this, the protrusion 10 may be provided on the gasket 1 side. FIGS. 6 and 7 show, as an example, a case where the gasket drop-off preventing projections 10 are formed as a pair corresponding to the left and right side surfaces of the gasket body portion 6, and each of the projections 10 is formed in a substantially hemispherical shape. ing.

[0032]

The present invention has the following effects.

That is, first, in the gasket according to claim 1 of the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the gasket fitted in the gasket mounting groove provided in the lid member of the wafer carrier is contacted with the box member in a freely detachable manner. Since the first seal portion is provided, it is possible to seal between the lid member and the box member, and it is possible to effectively prevent a sealing target such as water or dust from entering the wafer carrier. In addition to this, since the second sealing portion that elastically abuts the lid member is provided, the opening of the gasket mounting groove can be sealed, and the sealing object such as water can be sealed in the gasket mounting groove. Can be effectively prevented from invading.

A second aspect of the present invention having the above structure.
In the gasket described above, since the first seal portion is a lip seal that is easily elastically deformed, the crushing load can be set comparatively small. Therefore, the lid member and the box member can be combined with a relatively low load.

Further, since the second seal portion is a lip seal that elastically comes into close contact with the lid member, the opening portion of the gasket mounting groove can always be well sealed. Since the lip seal elastically comes into close contact with the lid member, it is hard to separate from the lid member. Therefore, the sealability of the part can be improved.

A third aspect of the present invention having the above structure.
In the gasket according to (1), since the gasket removal preventing protrusion is provided on the inner surface of the gasket mounting groove or on the gasket, it is possible to effectively prevent the gasket from falling off the gasket mounting groove. Further, in this way, since the lip seal of the second seal portion elastically comes into close contact with the lid member in a state where the gasket is fixedly mounted in the mounting groove, the sealing performance of the portion can be stabilized. .

A fourth aspect of the present invention having the above structure.
In the above gasket, since the gasket is formed of a fluororubber material, harmful gas is less likely to be generated from the gasket to the wafer. Therefore, the outgassing property of the gasket can be improved.

As described above, as a part of the semiconductor manufacturing process, there is a step of washing the lid member of the wafer carrier with water while the gasket is still attached. At this time, it is not allowed that water remains in the gasket attachment groove. There are circumstances (water is strictly prohibited in the semiconductor manufacturing process). Therefore,
In this regard, according to the present invention, since the second seal portion seals water and effectively prevents the water from entering the gasket mounting groove, it is possible to provide a gasket product suitable for use in a wafer carrier.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view of a gasket according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a mounted state of the gasket.

3 is a sectional view taken along line AA in FIG.

FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of a lid member showing a shape of a gasket falling prevention protrusion.

5 is a view in the direction of arrow B in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view showing another example of the gasket falling prevention protrusion.

FIG. 7 is a sectional view of the gasket provided with the protrusion for preventing the gasket from coming off.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 gasket 2 Wafer carrier 3 Lid member 3a, 4a end faces 4 Gasket mounting groove 5 box members 6 Gasket body part 7 First seal part 8,9 Second seal part 10 Gasket dropout prevention protrusion 10a Chamfer

Claims (4)

[Claims] 1. A lid member (3) for a wafer carrier (2).
A gasket (1) which is mounted on a wall and seals between the lid member (3) and the box member (5), the first seal portion (7) being in contact with and separable from the box member (5). And a gasket mounting groove (4) of the lid member (3)
Second seal part (8) to prevent the object to be sealed from entering
(9) A gasket having: 2. The gasket according to claim 1, wherein the first seal portion (7) is a lip-type seal that comes into close contact with and separate from the box member (5), and the second seal portion (8).
The gasket (9) is a lip type seal which elastically comes into close contact with the lid member (3) on both sides of the gasket mounting groove (4). 3. The gasket according to claim 2, wherein a gasket falling prevention protrusion (10) is provided on the inner surface of the gasket mounting groove (4) or the gasket (1). 4. The gasket according to claim 3, wherein the gasket (1) is formed of a fluororubber material.