TWI750398B - Wafer cassette - Google Patents

Abstract

A wafer cassette including a pair of supporting plates, a plurality of brackets and a plurality of supporting elements is provided. The supporting plates are disposed to face each other. The brackets are disposed between the supporting plates and connected with the supporting plates, so as to construct an accommodating space between the supporting plates. The supporting elements are correspondingly disposed on the brackets, wherein a material of the supporting elements is different from a material of the bracket, and the material of the supporting elements is a polymeric material with corrosion resistance.

Description

Wafer rack

The present invention relates to a wafer holder, and more particularly, to a wafer holder that can be used in a wafer transfer pod (Standard Mechanical Interface pod, SMIF pod).

In the wafer manufacturing process, the wafer can be placed in a wafer rack for transportation, storage, cleaning, or used in a semiconductor process or machine automation process, and can be further placed in a wafer transfer box for isolation. The wafer transfer box includes, for example, a base, a transparent cover and the aforementioned wafer holder, wherein the wafer is placed on the wafer holder and then placed on the base together with the wafer holder and covered with a transparent cover, so that the wafer can be structured. enough to be stored horizontally and isolated. In this way, the wafer holder and the wafer are in the same environment (ie, transport, storage, cleaning or the above-mentioned applications are carried out at the same time), so improving the rigidity and strength of the wafer holder and having both corrosion resistance has also become the focus of attention.

The present invention provides a wafer holder, which has both practicability and protection through the combination of composite materials.

The wafer rack of the present invention includes a pair of support plates, a plurality of brackets, and a plurality of support members. The support plates are arranged opposite to each other. The brackets are arranged between the support plates and are connected to the support plates to form an accommodating space between the support plates. The supporting member is correspondingly disposed on the bracket, wherein the material of the supporting member is different from that of the bracket, and the material of the supporting member is a corrosion-resistant polymer material.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the material of the support member includes polyetheretherketone (PEEK).

In an embodiment of the present invention, the material of the above-mentioned support plate is the same as that of the bracket.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the material of the support plate and the material of the bracket include stainless steel.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned brackets are respectively fixed to the support plate in an embedded manner.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned support members are respectively locked to the corresponding ones of the brackets.

In an embodiment of the present invention, each of the above-mentioned support members includes a plurality of grooves. The grooves are distributed at equal distances and face the accommodating space, and a wafer is suitable for penetrating and erecting a corresponding one of the grooves and is disposed in the accommodating space.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned support plate includes two opposite sides and a back side located on the two opposite sides, and the support members are disposed between the support plates and are distributed on the two opposite sides and the back side. The grooves arranged on the two opposite sides of the support member are opposite to each other, the grooves arranged on the back side of the support member face an open side located at the other end of the two opposite sides, and the wafer is suitable for penetrating from the open side and The corresponding ones are erected on the grooves and set in the accommodating space, so that the grooves arranged on the two opposite sides of the support member support two opposite ends of the wafer and the grooves arranged on the back side of the support member support the wafer the back end.

In an embodiment of the present invention, each of the grooves has an inclined surface, and the inclined surface is inclined relative to the virtual plane based on a virtual plane parallel to the support plate.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the above-mentioned wafer rack further includes a limiting plate disposed on the outer side of one of the supporting plates, and the wafer rack is adapted to be disposed on a wafer transfer box through the limiting plate .

Based on the above, in the wafer rack of the present invention, the support is arranged between a pair of support plates facing each other to form a accommodating space between the support plates, and the support is further correspondingly arranged on the support, wherein the support of the support is The material is different from that of the bracket, and the material of the support is a corrosion-resistant polymer material. In this way, the wafer rack uses the support plate and the bracket as the structure to ensure rigidity and strength, and further increases the corrosion resistance by selecting the support member made of corrosion-resistant polymer material as the material. Thereby, the wafer holder of the present invention has both practicality and protection through the combination of composite materials.

In order to make the above-mentioned features and advantages of the present invention more obvious and easy to understand, the following embodiments are given and described in detail with the accompanying drawings as follows.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wafer holder according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view of the wafer holder of FIG. 1 . FIG. 3 is a top view of the wafer holder of FIG. 1 . Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3 , in this embodiment, the wafer rack 100 includes a pair of support plates 110 and 120 , a plurality of brackets 130 and a plurality of support members 140 . The support plates 110 and 120 are disposed opposite to each other. The bracket 130 is disposed between the support plates 110 and 120 and connects the support plates 110 and 120 to form an accommodating space S between the support plates 110 and 120 . The support members 140 are correspondingly disposed on the bracket 130 , and each has a plurality of grooves 142 facing the accommodating space S. As shown in FIG. In this way, the wafers W are adapted to be inserted into and mounted on the corresponding ones of the grooves 142 to be disposed in the accommodating space S (as described later).

Specifically, in this embodiment, the support plates 110 and 120 are each a plate-shaped structure, and further, for example, a plate-shaped frame, and are arranged substantially parallel to each other and opposite to each other (eg, arranged in the XYZ coordinate system in the drawings). XY plane but not limited thereto). The bracket 130 is, for example, a bar-shaped bracket, and its extending direction is substantially perpendicular to the support plates 110 and 120 (eg, Z axis in the XYZ coordinate system in the drawings, but not limited thereto). The support plates 110 and 120 each include four sides, the bracket 130 is fixed between the support plates 110 and 120 and arranged on the three sides of the support plates 110 and 120 , and one side of the bracket 130 is not provided.

In detail, taking the support plate 110 as an example, the support plate 110 has two opposite sides 112 , 114 , a back side 116 and an open side 118 located between the two opposite sides 112 , 114 and opposite to each other, and the support plate 120 has a similar configuration . The brackets 130 are fixed between the support plates 110 and 120 and are arranged on the two opposite sides 112 , 114 and the back side 116 of the support plates 110 and 120 , and the brackets 130 are not provided on the open side 118 . In this way, the support plates 110 and 120 and the brackets 130 disposed on the three sides of the support plates 110 and 120 (ie, the two opposite sides 112 , 114 and the back side 116 ) constitute the main structure of the wafer holder 100 to provide the accommodating space S, and the wafer carrier 100 uses the opening side 118 as the inlet and outlet of the wafer W. However, in other not-shown embodiments, the arrangement position of the brackets 130 can be adjusted according to requirements only on the two opposite sides 112 and 114 of the support plates 110 and 120 , so that neither the backside 116 nor the opening side 118 is provided with the brackets 130 . The present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiments.

Furthermore, in this embodiment, the material of the support plates 110 and 120 is the same as that of the bracket 130 , such as stainless steel. The brackets 130 are respectively fixed to the support plates 110 and 120 in an embedded manner (as shown in the enlarged views of parts A and B in FIG. 1 , the bottom ends of the brackets 130 are embedded in the plate-like frame serving as the support plate 120 ). In this way, the wafer holder 100 having the main structure constituted by the support plates 110 and 120 and the brackets 130 disposed on the three sides (ie the two opposite sides 112 , 114 and the back side 116 ) of the support plates 110 and 120 has good rigidity with strength. However, in other not-shown embodiments, the material, shape and fixing method of the support plates 110 and 120 and the bracket 130 can be adjusted according to requirements (for example, the support plates 110 and 120 and the bracket 130 can also be made of different materials). Not limited by this.

On the other hand, the support member 140 is correspondingly disposed on the bracket 130 , such as a strip support member, and its extending direction is substantially perpendicular to the support plates 110 and 120 (such as the Z axis in the XYZ coordinate system in the drawing) but not limited by this). More specifically, the number and position of the support members 140 and the brackets 130 are the same, and the two are arranged correspondingly to each other. For example, the support members 140 are respectively locked to one side of the corresponding bracket 130 through the locking attachment 132 . . However, in other non-illustrated embodiments, the support member 140 can be adjusted according to requirements so that only part of the bracket 130 is disposed, and the present invention is not limited to the above-mentioned embodiments.

In this embodiment, the supporting member 140 is arranged such that the plurality of grooves 142 face the accommodating space S. As shown in FIG. Wherein, the grooves 142 arranged on the two opposite sides 112 and 114 of the supporting member 140 are opposite to each other (ie, the supporting member 140 arranged on the opposite side 112 faces the opposite side 114 with its groove 142 , and the supporting member 140 arranged on the opposite side 114 faces each other. The members 140 have their grooves 142 facing the opposite side 112 ), while the grooves 142 of the supports 140 arranged on the backside 116 face the open side 118 (ie, the supports 140 arranged on the backside 116 have their grooves 142 facing open side 118). In this way, when the wafer W enters the wafer holder 100 from the opening side 118 , the wafer W is adapted to penetrate into the grooves 142 corresponding to the same level from the opening side 118 and mount on the corresponding ones of the grooves 142 , and then set the in the accommodating space S of the wafer holder 100 .

In detail, in this embodiment, the grooves 142 provided in each of the support members 140 are distributed at equal intervals, for example, each support member 140 is provided with 13 grooves 142 , and the The grooves 142 in the same order correspond to the same level, and are suitable for supporting the same wafer W correspondingly. For example, as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 , the wafer W is penetrated and supported in the fifth groove 142 in the support member 140 from top to bottom, and each of the support members 140 Among them, the fifth groove 142 in the order from top to bottom is located at the same level. The wafer W after entering the accommodating space S is shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 . The grooves 142 arranged on the two opposite sides 112 and 114 in the support member 140 support the two opposite ends of the wafer W and are arranged in the support member 140 . The groove 142 on the backside 116 supports the rear end of the wafer W. As shown in FIG.

More specifically, since the wafer W is circular, after the wafer W penetrates into the accommodating space S, the two support members 140 arranged on the back side 116 support the rear end of the wafer W corresponding to their grooves 142 . On the two opposite sides 112 , 114 , two (four in total) support members 140 on the left and right (four in total) are arranged on the two opposite sides 112 , 114 and close to the back side 116 . The two support members 140 closest to the back side 116 in the 114 are arranged obliquely (that is, the back side 116 on the support plates 110 and 120 and the two opposite sides 112 and 114 are not at right angles), so that the The two support members 140 and the four support members 140 arranged on the two opposite sides 112 and 114 near the back side 116 are close to the circular wafer W. In this way, the wafer W disposed in the accommodating space S is affected by two points on the rear side and two points on the left and right respectively on the horizontal height corresponding to the fifth groove 142 in the support member 140 from top to bottom. The six-point support preferably covers the center of the wafer W, that is, more than half of the wafer W is supported by the above-mentioned six-point support of the support member 140, so that the wafer W can be stably placed in the accommodating space S.

In addition, although the remaining support members 140 arranged on the two opposite sides 112 and 114 do not support the circular wafer W with their grooves 142 , they can reach the accommodating space S when the wafer W enters the accommodating space S of the wafer holder 100 . Guiding action, that is, when the wafer W enters the accommodating space S, it first penetrates into the fifth concave in the order from top to bottom in the two support members 140 arranged on the two opposite sides 112 and 114 closest to the opening side 118 The groove 142 moves inwardly corresponding to the horizontal height and passes through the fifth groove 142 in the subsequent support members 140 in the order from top to bottom, and is then placed in the support members 140 arranged on the back side 116 and arranged in two grooves 142 . The supporting members 140 on the opposite sides 112 and 114 and close to the back side 116 are placed on the fifth groove 142 in order from top to bottom, so as to be placed in the accommodating space S of the wafer holder 100 . Although the above description takes the fifth groove 142 in the support member 140 as an example in order from top to bottom, all 13 grooves 142 in the support member 140 can achieve the function of supporting the wafer W, that is, in the support member 140 When the wafers W do not overlap, the wafer rack 100 can accommodate up to 13 wafers W. However, the present invention does not limit the number of grooves 142, which can be adjusted according to requirements.

In addition, please refer to FIG. 1 , in this embodiment, the wafer rack 100 further includes a limiting plate 150 disposed on the outer side of one of the support plates 110 and 120 (eg, the support plate 120 ), and the wafer rack 100 is suitable for The wafer W can be horizontally stored and isolated by being disposed on the wafer transfer box (not shown) through the limiting plate 150 . In this way, the wafers W placed in the wafer rack 100 can be transported, stored, cleaned or used in the semiconductor process accordingly. Since the wafer holder 100 and the wafer W are in the same environment and are in contact with corrosive liquids (eg, the cleaning liquid of the wafer W), it is also important to improve the corrosion resistance of the wafer holder 100 . In this way, in addition to the function of supporting the wafer W by the grooves 142 , the support member 140 can also increase the corrosion resistance of the overall structure by virtue of its material properties.

In detail, in this embodiment, the material of the support member 140 is different from the material of the bracket 130 . More specifically, the material of the support member 140 is a polymer material with corrosion resistance, such as polyetheretherketone, but not limited to this. In this way, the support structure that provides support between the support plates 110 and 120 is composed of the bracket 130 and the support member 140, and the bracket 130 and the support member 140 are made of different materials, that is, a combination of composite materials (stainless steel and polyether ether) A combination of ketones), so that the wafer holder 100 can ensure the rigidity and strength of the wafer holder 100 by using stainless steel to make the main structure (ie, the support plates 110 and 120 and the bracket 130 ), and by choosing a corrosion-resistant material The support member 140 is made of PEEK to increase the corrosion resistance of the wafer holder 100 . Moreover, in addition to the above technical features, the rest of the setting methods (such as the overall size or the number of grooves) of the wafer holder 100 can be adapted to the specifications of the existing wafer holder, so that the wafer holder 100 of this embodiment can be applied to the existing wafer holder 100 . Round delivery box. In this way, the wafer holder 100 has both practicality and protection at the same time through the combination of composite materials.

Please refer to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 , especially the enlarged views of part B of FIG. 1 and part C of FIG. 2 , in this embodiment, the grooves 142 each have an inclined surface 142 a and a flat surface 142 b , wherein the flat surface 142 b is parallel to the support plate 110 With the virtual plane (such as the XY plane in the XYZ coordinate system) where the 120 is located, the inclined plane 142a is inclined relative to the virtual plane based on the virtual plane (such as the XY plane in the XYZ coordinate system) where the support plates 110 and 120 are located. (that is, inclined relative to the plane 142b), and the inclined plane 142a is located outside the plane 142b (that is, the plane 142b is located inside the groove 142 and the inclined plane 142a faces the accommodating space S). In this way, the groove 142 uses the flat surface 142b to support the wafer W, and when the wafer holder 100 together with the wafer W is used in a liquid environment (eg cleaning), the wafer holder 100 especially the wafer holder 100 The inclined surface 142a in the groove 142 can help the liquid to leave the groove 142 and not easily remain. However, the present invention does not limit whether the inclined surface 142a is provided or not, and it can be adjusted according to requirements, as long as the groove 142 can achieve the function of supporting the wafer W.

To sum up, in the wafer rack of the present invention, the support is arranged between a pair of support plates facing each other to form a accommodating space between the support plates, and the support members are further correspondingly arranged on the support, wherein the support The material of the parts is different from the material of the bracket, and the material of the support is a polymer material with corrosion resistance, so that the support structure (ie the bracket and the support) supported between the support plates is a combination of composite materials (such as stainless steel) in combination with PEEK). In this way, the wafer rack uses the support plate and the bracket as a structure to ensure rigidity and strength, and uses a corrosion-resistant polymer material as the support member to increase corrosion resistance. In addition, the wafer holder provides multi-point support for the wafer through the grooves on the support member, so as to improve the stability of the wafer in the wafer holder. Thereby, the wafer holder of the present invention has both practicality and protection through the combination of composite materials.

Although the present invention has been disclosed above by the embodiments, it is not intended to limit the present invention. Anyone with ordinary knowledge in the technical field can make some changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. Therefore, The protection scope of the present invention shall be determined by the scope of the appended patent application.

100‧‧‧Wafer holder 110, 120‧‧‧Support plate 112, 114‧‧‧Opposite side 116‧‧‧Back side 118‧‧‧Open side 130‧‧‧Bracket 132‧‧‧Lock attachment 140‧‧‧ Support 142‧‧‧groove 142a‧‧‧inclined surface 142b‧‧‧flat surface 150‧‧‧limiting plate A, B, C‧‧‧Part S‧‧‧accommodating space W‧‧‧wafer

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a wafer holder according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a front view of the wafer holder of FIG. 1 . FIG. 3 is a top view of the wafer holder of FIG. 1 .

100‧‧‧Wafer rack

110, 120‧‧‧Support plate

112, 114‧‧‧ Opposite side

116‧‧‧Back

118‧‧‧Open side

130‧‧‧Bracket

132‧‧‧Lock accessories

140‧‧‧Support

142‧‧‧Grooving

142a‧‧‧Bevel

142b‧‧‧Flat

150‧‧‧Limiting plate

A, B‧‧‧Partial

W‧‧‧Wafer

Claims (7)

A wafer rack, comprising: a pair of support plates arranged opposite to each other, wherein each of the pair of support plates includes two opposite sides, a back side and an opening side located between the two opposite sides and opposite to each other; a plurality of brackets , arranged between the pair of support plates and connected to the pair of support plates to form an accommodating space between the pair of support plates; and a plurality of support pieces, correspondingly arranged on the bracket, and each has a face facing the accommodating space A plurality of grooves in the space, wherein the material of the supports is different from the material of the brackets, and the material of the supports is a corrosion-resistant polymer material, and a wafer is suitable for penetrating and erecting on the support The corresponding ones of the grooves are disposed in the accommodating space, wherein the grooves in each of the supports are distributed at equal intervals, and the grooves of the supports are located in the same order They correspond to the same level and are suitable for correspondingly supporting the same wafer. The support members are arranged between the pair of support plates and are distributed on the two opposite sides and the back side. The support members are arranged on the two opposite sides. The grooves of the side are opposite to each other, the grooves arranged on the back side of the supports face the opening side, and the wafer is suitable for passing through the opening side and being mounted on the grooves The corresponding ones are arranged in the accommodating space, so that the grooves arranged on the two opposite sides of the support members support two opposite ends of the wafer and the support members arranged on the back side The grooves support the rear end of the wafer, wherein the material of the pair of support plates and the material of the brackets include stainless steel. The wafer holder according to claim 1, wherein the material of the support members comprises polyetheretherketone (PEEK). The wafer holder as claimed in claim 1, wherein the material of the pair of support plates is the same as the material of the brackets. The wafer holder according to claim 1, wherein the brackets are respectively fixed on the pair of support plates in an embedded manner. The wafer holder as claimed in claim 1, wherein the support members are respectively locked to the corresponding ones of the brackets. The wafer holder of claim 1, wherein each of the grooves has an inclined surface, and the inclined surface is inclined relative to a virtual plane parallel to the pair of support plates as a reference. The wafer holder as described in claim 1, further comprising a limiting plate disposed outside one of the pair of support plates, and the wafer holder is adapted to be disposed on a wafer through the limiting plate on a round transfer box.

Images