JP2006282345A - Non-contact carrying device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a non-contact carrying device with simple structure, easily operable, and with reduced manufacturing cost of the device, for reducing discharge of gas to the circumference and to reduce filling up of dust of the circumference so that it can be used in a clean room. <P>SOLUTION: A device A carries an object 9 in a non-contact manner, and has a columnar gas blowout part 4 at a center part of a cushion chamber 6 opened in a lower part of a base part 1 to have an air tube 3 disposed therein whose upper part communicates with a gas inlet port 2 and lower part communicates with a nozzle 5. A flat face part 7 formed to a periphery of the gas blowout part 4 and opposed to the object has an exhaust port 8 for trapping exhaust blown out of the gas blowout port 4 and exhausting it upward. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

The present invention relates to a non-contact conveyance device used for holding, conveying, or rotating an object in a non-contact manner.

In recent years, with the spread of IC cards, smart cards and the like, the thickness of a wafer as a material thereof tends to be reduced, and the wafer diameter tends to increase in order to reduce manufacturing costs.

There are many and many different processes for manufacturing such wafers, and there must be no dust adhesion or damage during transfer between the processes, and there is a problem with vacuum suction or mechanical gripping. Non-contact transport devices have been proposed.

For example, in Patent Document 1, an air inlet is provided above a cushion chamber that opens below the base, an operating surface that faces the conveyed object is provided below the peripheral wall of the cushion chamber, and a fluid suction source is provided around the operating surface. There has been proposed a non-contact conveyance device that holds a conveyed object in a non-contact manner by a pressure reducing action caused by a high-speed air flow provided with a fluid suction port connected to the hood.

In the non-contact conveyance device proposed by Patent Document 1 described above, the air supplied from the air inlet passes through the cushion chamber, flows into the hood through the gap between the operating surface and the object, and is fluidized by the fluid suction source. It is sucked from the suction port and discharged to the outside.

Therefore, the air discharged to the periphery of the non-contact conveying device is reduced, and the problems of winding up surrounding dust and blowing off surrounding objects are reduced.

However, it is difficult to balance the supply air amount and the exhaust amount, and it is difficult to determine the timing of the air supply and stop timing and the start and stop timing of the exhaust. There was a problem.

In the non-contact adsorption part, high-pressure air passes through the cushion chamber from the air inlet, hits the object vertically, changes direction in the horizontal direction, and discharges through the gap between the working surface and the object. However, there is a problem that the decompression efficiency due to the ejector effect is low, the air consumption is large, the negative pressure generation efficiency is low, the power cost is increased, and the exhaust gas leaks to the outside.

Moreover, since the high-pressure air collides vertically with the object, the thin object may be damaged.

In addition, the suction system has a large pipe diameter, a large automatic switching valve, and a complicated structure, which makes it difficult to reduce the size of the suction system. Had a point.

Furthermore, there is a problem that the price of the entire apparatus becomes high.
JP-A-61-91652

The present invention has been proposed in view of the above, and does not wind up surrounding dust, is easy to operate, has high efficiency, reduces manufacturing costs, can be simplified and downsized, and thereby expands the range of action. It is possible,
Furthermore, it aims at providing the non-contact conveyance apparatus which can be used in the clean room which can also implement | achieve energy saving.

In order to achieve the above object, the non-contact transfer device according to claim 1 is a columnar shape in which a central portion of a cushion chamber opened below a base portion is provided with a trachea in which an upper portion leads to a gas inlet and a lower portion leads to a nozzle The gas ejection part is formed.

The nozzle is provided below the gas ejection portion, and the gas ejection angle is formed at a small angle with respect to the object.

An exhaust port penetrating upward is provided in a flat portion facing the object formed around the cushion chamber.

A second aspect of the present invention is a non-contact tweezer comprising a grip portion attached to the non-contact conveyance device according to claim 1 and a gas supply valve that manually opens and closes a gas pipe that leads to the non-contact conveyance device.

The effects described below can be achieved.

In the first aspect of the present invention, since the exhaust port penetrating the flat surface portion is provided, the gas ejected from the ejection portion is discharged upward from the exhaust port and is not discharged to the surroundings. Can be used in a clean room.

Operation of the exhaust source and on / off valve is no longer necessary, making operation easier.

Equipment and equipment such as an exhaust gas suction source, an exhaust pipe, and an on-off valve are no longer needed, reducing the equipment price.

The structure is simple and downsizing is possible, the range of action of the device is widened, and the degree of freedom is increased.

Since a non-contact transfer device with good negative pressure generation efficiency is used, the amount of gas supply is small and energy is saved.

Since a non-contact transfer device with good negative pressure generation efficiency is used, the amount of displacement is small, and the safety of dusting is increased accordingly.

Since the ejected gas does not hit the object vertically, the object is not damaged.

Do not blow away other objects around you.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. First, a first embodiment will be described with reference to FIGS.

FIG. 1 is a side sectional view of a non-contact conveying apparatus A according to the present invention. FIG. 2 is a bottom plan view of the non-contact conveying apparatus A of the present invention. In these drawings, this non-contact transfer device A is a device that holds (suspends and floats) an object (here, a wafer 9) in a non-contact manner, and is configured by using a columnar substrate 1.

That is, this non-contact conveying apparatus A forms a cushion chamber 6 that opens downward in the center of the base 1, and provides a flat portion 7 that faces the object 9 around the lower end of the cushion chamber 6. The flat surface portion 7 is provided with an exhaust port 8 penetrating upward substantially over the entire circumference.

In the central part of the cushion chamber 6, a columnar gas ejection part 4 is formed, in which a trachea 3 leading to the gas inlet 2 and the lower part leading to the nozzle 5 is provided. A nozzle 5 for ejecting gas toward the object 9 is provided at the lower end of the gas injection unit 4. The gas ejection angle of the nozzle 5 is an angle at which ejection is performed at a small angle with respect to the object 9.

In the non-contact conveyance device A having the above-described configuration, when the gas P is supplied from the gas supply device (not shown) to the gas inlet 2, the gas P passes through the trachea 3 and is directed from the nozzle 5 to the object 9. The gas is ejected at a high speed at a small angle, and most of the gas passes through a narrow gap between the flat surface portion 7 and the object 9 and is exhausted to the upper portion of the flat surface portion 7 through the exhaust port 8 provided in the flat surface portion 7. Is done.

The gas P ejected from the nozzle 5 is not ejected perpendicularly to the object, but is ejected at a small angle with respect to the object 9, so that the energy loss of the jet gas due to the collision is extremely small.

Further, the jet gas does not collide with the peripheral wall of the cushion chamber 6 vertically, and the energy loss due to the jet gas collision is extremely small.

A negative pressure is efficiently generated in the cushion chamber 6 by the gas ejection mechanism in which the energy loss of the jet flow due to the collision is extremely small.

Further, this space is decompressed by the gas P flowing into the space between the flat surface portion 7 and the object 9 at a high speed with little energy loss due to the collision.

Therefore, the object 7 is attracted to the plane part 7 by the negative pressure generated in the space formed by the cushion chamber 6 and the plane part 7 and the object 9.

On the other hand, when the object 9 approaches the flat portion 7, the cushion chamber 6 is rapidly pressurized by the pressure chamber type air cushion effect, and the object 9 is pulled away by the repulsive force of the gas in the space.

Due to this balance, the object 9 is held on the flat surface portion 7 in a non-contact state.

The gas P that has flowed into the space formed by the flat surface portion 7 and the object 9 flows into the discharge port 8 and is discharged above the base body 1.

Thus, in 1st Embodiment of this invention, since the nozzle 5 which ejects gas at a small angle toward the target object 9 is provided in the lower end of the gas injection part 4 of the center part of the cushion chamber 6. It is possible to generate negative pressure with high efficiency. Therefore, the amount of gas ejection should be small.

In addition, the mechanical exhaust device such as the gas suction device and the switching valve is not provided, and the exhaust port 8 is provided on the plane portion so that the exhaust gas is automatically discharged upward, thereby providing a mechanism. Supply and exhaust operations are no longer necessary, making operation easier. As a result, the exhaust was not discharged to the surrounding area, and the surrounding dust was not rolled up.

According to the above-mentioned item 2, the driving operation is simple. Since the device mechanism is simple, the manufacturing cost of the device can be greatly reduced.

Further, since the configuration of the apparatus can be simplified, it is possible to reduce the size and install the apparatus in a narrow space. As a result, the range of action as an apparatus can be expanded, and conveyance movement in a narrow region within the same process can be performed freely.

Since the gas ejected from the nozzle 5 is not ejected vertically to the object 9, there is no energy loss due to the collision, the negative pressure is efficiently generated in the cushion chamber 6, and the plane portion does not collide with the peripheral wall of the cushion chamber 6. 7 flows into the space between the object 7 and the object 9, so that there is little energy loss.

For this reason, negative pressure was generated efficiently, energy consumption was reduced with less gas consumption, and at the same time, the amount of exhaust was so small that the surrounding dust was not lifted, and the clean non-contact transfer device A Could be realized.

In FIG. 2 described above, the number of nozzles 5 is three, but one or more may be used.

The ejection angle of the nozzle 5 is also set to an angle that is as parallel as possible to the object 9 and that does not hit the lower end of the circumferential wall of the cushion chamber 6. Is excellent.

FIG. 3 shows a good example in which an exhaust groove 10 is formed in the plane portion 7 in addition to the exhaust groove 8 so that exhaust is reliably collected and is not released to the surroundings.

Next, a second embodiment of the non-contact conveying apparatus B according to the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.

4 is a partial cross-sectional side view, and FIG. 5 is a bottom plan view. In the second embodiment, components that are substantially the same as those in the first embodiment described above are given the same reference numerals, and descriptions thereof are omitted.

The non-contact conveyance device B in the second embodiment is configured to include the gas ejection part 4 of the first embodiment described above. That is, the non-contact conveyance device B forms the cushion chamber 6 that opens downward in the center of the base 11, and provides the flat portion 7 that faces the object 9 around the lower end of the cushion chamber 6. The flat portion 7 is provided with an exhaust port 8 penetrating upward substantially over the entire circumference. In order to restrict the movement of the object 9 held in a non-contact manner at the front part of the base body 11, a fixed guide 13 protruding from the end surface of the object 7 held in front of the flat part 7 is provided. A positioning guide 14 that pushes the end face of the object 9 that can be moved back and forth in the groove 17 is provided behind the actuator 15 and a shaft 16. The gas inlet 2 is provided at the rear end portion of the base 11 and is connected to the trachea 3 whose lower portion communicates with the nozzle 5 via the trachea 12 to form a gas ejection portion 4. A nozzle 5 for ejecting gas toward the object 9 is provided at the lower end of the gas injection unit 4. The gas ejection angle of the nozzle 4 is an angle at which ejection is performed at a small angle with respect to the object 9.

In the non-contact conveyance device B having the above-described configuration, when the gas supply port 2 is sent from a gas supply device (not shown), the gas passes from the pipeline 12 through the pipeline 3 of the gas ejection unit 4 and from the nozzle 5. It is ejected at a small angle with respect to the object 9, passes through a gap formed by the flat portion 7 and the object 9, and is discharged upward from the exhaust groove 8.

During this time, the high-speed gas ejected from the nozzle 5 causes a pressure reducing action, and the object 9 is suspended and held on the flat portion 7 in a non-contact manner. Since the object 7 held in a non-contact manner is free to move horizontally with respect to the flat surface portion 7, the positioning guide 14 provided at the rear portion is attached to the fixed guide 13 provided at the front portion of the base portion 11. A visit is made by the actuator 15, the object 9 is pressed against the fixed guide 13, and the movement is stopped and positioning is performed at the same time. In this state, it is conveyed without contact.

In this embodiment, the guide 14 can be moved by the actuator 15. However, like the fixed guide 13, the guide 14 is fixed to the base body 11 at an interval slightly larger than the outer shape of the object 9. A fine movement between the guide 14 and the guide 14 is possible, but a system that does not leave is also a good example.

In this embodiment, the base body 11 has an elongated shape. However, a fixed guide and a positioning guide may be attached to the circular base body 1 of the first embodiment, and the number and shape of the guides are the shape of the object 9. There is no problem with the shape of the substrate.

FIG. 6 is a partial side sectional view showing the non-contact tweezers C in the third embodiment. 7 shows an upper plan view, and FIG. 8 shows a lower plan view.

The configuration of the base body 25 of the third embodiment is substantially the same as that of the base body 11 of the second embodiment.

In the non-contact tweezers C, a gas supply valve 21 and a filter 23 that are opened and closed by a manual operation are attached to the elongated gripping part 20, and connected to the gas inlet 2 through pipe lines 22 and 24.

The positioning guide 14 has a knob 19 which can be moved back and forth by pushing the knob 19 with a finger.

In the above configuration, the gas sent from the gas supply device (not shown) is supplied from the connection port 27, opened by manual operation of the gas supply valve 21, passes through the filter 23 through the conduit 22, The gas passes through the conduit 24 and passes through the substrate 25 from the gas inlet 2, and is ejected from the nozzle 5 of the substrate ejection part 4 and discharged upward from the exhaust port 8.

The non-contact tweezers C having the above-described configuration is configured to eject gas from the nozzle 5 and generate a negative pressure to hold and carry the object 9 in a non-contact manner, as in the above-described embodiments. The gripper 20 is gripped by hand, the gas supply valve 21 is opened and closed by the operation of a finger, and the supply and stop of gas are performed so that the object 9 can be freely held in a non-contact manner like tweezers. It can be transported to the position.

At that time, in order to prevent the free movement of the object 9 being held or to position it, the positioning guide 14 equipped with a knob 19 that can be moved forward and backward with a finger is advanced, the object 9 is fixed, When the position is reached, the object 9 is released by moving backward.

When the free movement between the guides of the object 9 is allowed during conveyance, the positioning guide 14 is used as a fixed guide and may not be operated.

The filter 23 removes dust generated by sliding of the gas supply valve 21 and dust contained in the supplied gas so that dust and dust contained in the gas do not adhere to the object 7.

FIG. 9 shows a top plan view of the non-contact tweezers D of the fourth embodiment of the present invention.

The non-contact tweezers D are provided with guide plates 27 and 27 on both side surfaces of the base body 25 of the non-contact tweezers C. The mounting height of the guide plate 27 is the height of the groove 30 on two pitches of the wafer (object 9) being held.

The non-contact tweezers D is a device for inserting a wafer (target object 9) held in a non-contact manner by manual operation into the cassette 28.

FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating an operation of inserting the wafer 9 held by the non-contact tweezers D into the groove 30 of the cassette 28.

When the wafer 9 held by the non-contact tweezers D is manually inserted into the narrow grooves 31 and 31 of the cassette 28, the guide plate 27 is inserted into the groove 30 two pitches above the groove 31 into which the wafer 9 is inserted. If the non-contact tweezers D are moved along the groove 30, the held wafer 9 is automatically stored in the groove 31.

The non-contact tweezers D can solve the difficult problem that the hand holding the gripping part 20 is not stable, and the wafer 9 being held is advanced horizontally along the shelf 29 of the set.

In each of the above embodiments, the cushion chamber 6 has a circular shape, and a cylindrical gas ejection portion 4 is provided at the center thereof, and the gas is radially ejected from the plurality of nozzles 5. The shape of the chamber 6 is not limited to a circle, and may be, for example, a square or a polygon. Further, the nozzle 5 does not need to be in the center of the cushion chamber. For example, the nozzle 5 may be provided on the wall surface of the cushion chamber, and the number of nozzles 5 may be one or more.

In each embodiment, the cushion chamber 6 is provided, and the negative pressure is generated by ejecting gas from the nozzle 5. However, the present invention is not limited to this configuration, and the negative pressure is generated by ejecting gas. I just need it.

As mentioned above, although this invention was demonstrated based on the form of drawing, this invention is not limited to each said embodiment, Unless it changes the structure as described in the claim of a patent, it implements in any way be able to.

Side surface sectional drawing of the non-contact conveying apparatus A of this invention is shown. The bottom plan view of the non-contact conveyance apparatus A of this invention is shown. It is a figure which shows the structure of the other plane part 7 of the non-contact conveying apparatus A of this invention. The side surface partial sectional view of the non-contact conveyance apparatus B in 2nd Embodiment is shown. The top plan view of the non-contact conveyance apparatus B in 2nd Embodiment is shown. The side surface partial sectional view of the non-contact tweezers C in 3rd Embodiment is shown. The upper top view of the non-contact tweezers C in 3rd Embodiment is shown. The bottom plan view of non-contact tweezers C in a 3rd embodiment is shown. The upper top view of another non-contact tweezers D in a 3rd embodiment is shown. It is operation explanatory drawing of the non-contact tweezers D. FIG.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Base | substrate 2 ... Gas delivery port 3 ... Trachea 4 ... Gas ejection part 5 ... Nozzle 6 ... Cushion chamber 7 ... Planar part 8 ... Exhaust port 9 ...・ Object (wafer)
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 ... Exhaust port 11 ... Base | substrate 13 ... Fixed guide 14 ... Positioning guide 15 ... Actuator 20 ... Grasping part 21 ... Gas supply valve 23 ... Filter A, B. ..Non-contact transport devices C, D ... Non-contact tweezers P ... Gas

Claims (2)

  A non-contact conveyance device provided with a gas discharge port penetrating in a flat portion facing an object formed around a gas jet port. A non-contact tweezers comprising: a grip portion attached to the non-contact conveyance device according to claim 1; and a gas supply valve that opens and closes a gas pipe leading to the non-contact conveyance device.