TWM659479U - Wafer identification device - Google Patents

Abstract

A wafer identification device includes a supporting unit and a working unit. The supporting unit includes a support, and a stage movably disposed on the support along a longitudinal direction. The working unit includes a laser module disposed on the stage, and a detection module disposed on the stage spaced apart from the laser module. The laser module has a light source suitable for emitting a linear light extending along the longitudinal direction toward a wafer. The detection module has an image capturer for capturing the range of the linear light irradiating the wafer, and a processor connected to the image capturer. The processor is used to determine whether the number of the plurality of light spots formed by the linear light on the wafers meets the expected number, and to confirm the distances between the light spots.

Description

Wafer identification device

The invention relates to an auxiliary device for a semiconductor production line, and in particular to a wafer identification device.

Referring to FIG. 1 , a wafer box 1 is shown for containing multiple wafers W currently commonly used in semiconductor processes. The wafer box 1 defines a containing space 10 and has multiple supporting plates 11 extending from the left and right sides of the containing space 10 toward each other and suitable for supporting the wafers W in pairs (only one side can be seen in FIG. 1 due to the viewing angle). The supporting plates 11 divide the containing space 10 into multiple containing slots S for placing multiple wafers W. In the current mature semiconductor production line, the wafer W is taken from the containing space 10 by automated equipment and then introduced into the production line to execute the process of each station.

However, whether the wafer W can be introduced into the production line by the automated equipment depends in part on whether the wafers W are placed in the slots S as expected. Therefore, if a slot S does not contain the wafer W, a plurality of wafers W are placed in a slot S, or a wafer W is not placed flat on the mutually aligned carrier plates 11, it may affect the automated equipment's related operations of correctly introducing the wafer W. Similarly, even when the wafer W is placed back into the wafer box 1 after completing a specific process step, similar situations may occur and affect subsequent processes or even the shipment of finished products.

Therefore, the purpose of the present invention is to provide a wafer identification device that can specifically detect the condition of wafers placed in a wafer box.

Therefore, the novel wafer identification device is suitable for being arranged adjacent to a wafer box, and the wafer box defines an inner space suitable for placing multiple wafers along a longitudinal direction. The wafer identification device includes a supporting unit and a working unit installed on the supporting unit.

The supporting unit includes a bracket and a carrier which is movably arranged on the bracket along the longitudinal direction.

The working unit includes a laser module disposed on the carrier, and a detection module disposed on the carrier spaced apart from the laser module. The laser module has a light source suitable for emitting a linear light extending along the longitudinal direction to the wafers. The detection module has an image capturer for capturing a shooting range in which the linear light irradiates the wafers, and a processor informationally connected to the image capturer. The processor is used to determine whether a calculated number of the light spots meets an expected number corresponding to the shooting range based on a plurality of light spots formed on the wafers by the linear light in the shooting range, and to confirm whether a measured distance between adjacent light spots meets a specification distance.

The effect of the present invention is that the expected quantity can be properly set by using the principle that the shooting range fixed by the image capturer of the detection module should correspond to a specific number of wafers. Subsequently, the working unit is moved to an appropriate position relative to the wafer box to be confirmed by the supporting unit, and when the light source irradiates the wafers to form the light spots, the image capture device is used to take pictures. The calculated number of the light spots determined by the processor is the number of the wafers actually placed in the shooting range. Therefore, the calculated number can be compared with the expected number, and at the same time, it can be confirmed whether the measured distance representing the distance between the adjacent wafers is correct, thereby knowing whether the wafers in the shooting range are correctly placed.

Referring to FIG. 2 , an embodiment of the novel wafer identification device is shown. The embodiment is suitable for being arranged adjacent to a wafer box 9, and the wafer box 9 defines an inner space 90 suitable for placing a plurality of wafers 80 (see FIG. 5 ) along a longitudinal direction H. The embodiment comprises a supporting unit 2, a working unit 3 mounted on the supporting unit 2, and a fixing unit 4 adjacent to the supporting unit 2 and suitable for fixing the wafer box 9. Specifically, the wafer box 9 used in the embodiment is a front opening shipping box (FOSB) and is made of a transparent material.

Referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3 , the support unit 2 includes a support 21, a carrier 22 movably disposed on the support 21 along the longitudinal direction H, a deceleration mechanism 23 mounted on the support 21 and connected to the carrier 22, and a servo motor 24 connected to the deceleration mechanism 23. The form of the support 21 is not specifically limited and can be freely designed according to the production line environment or the need to fix various components, as long as it can be stably supported and has sufficient structural strength. The carrier 22 can be powered by the servo motor 24, and the appropriate position along the longitudinal direction H on the support 21 can be adjusted under the condition that the deceleration mechanism 23 controls the speed and optimizes the adjustment accuracy.

The working unit 3 includes a laser module 31 disposed on the carrier 22, and a detection module 32 disposed on the carrier 22 at a distance from the laser module 31. The laser module 31 has a light source 311 suitable for emitting a linear light extending along the longitudinal direction H to the wafers 80, and a first adjustment seat 312 mounted on the carrier 22 and capable of adjusting the irradiation direction of the linear light. The detection module 32 has an image capturer 321 for photographing a photographing range of the linear light irradiating the wafers 80, a second adjustment seat 322 mounted on the carrier 22 and capable of adjusting the photographing direction of the image capturer 321, and a processor 323 (shown in FIG. 4 ) informationally connected to the image capturer 321. The image capturer 321 is a charge coupled device (CCD), and the linear light generated by the light source 311 preferably matches the range that the image capturer 321 can capture, and irradiates 4 to 6 wafers 80 in a positioned state. In addition, the specific forms of the first adjustment seat 312 and the second adjustment seat 322 are not limited, and the directions of the light source 311 and the image capturer 321 can be freely adjusted.

Referring to FIG. 4 and FIG. 2 , the processor 323 is specifically a computing chip that can be pre-written with logic or installed with an image processing software, and can execute the required calculations and output the results. The processor 323 receives the information of the image captured by the image capturer 321, and obtains the number of multiple light spots formed by the linear light in the shooting range on the wafers 80 through image recognition, determines a calculated number of the light spots, and can also obtain a measurement distance between the adjacent light spots and a measurement area of each of the light spots in the shooting range.

Referring to FIGS. 4 to 6 in conjunction with FIGS. 2 and 3 , when the present embodiment is used to detect the wafers 80 placed in the wafer box 9, the directions of the light source 311 of the laser module 31 and the image capturer 321 of the detection module 32 can be adjusted in advance through the first adjustment seat 312 and the second adjustment seat 322 when the wafer box 9 is stably placed on the fixing unit 4. Since the wafer box 9 is made of a transparent material, the linear light emitted by the laser module 31 can penetrate and directly illuminate the wafers 80. It should be noted here that when the wafer 80 that has been manufactured is inspected and confirmed, since the manufactured structure surface is usually placed upward, in order to avoid unexpected reflection caused by the manufactured structure, the light source 311 is preferably as shown in Figure 4 when performing the inspection, with the principle of irradiating from the bottom to the top in an inclined direction toward the back of the wafer 80.

Next, in conjunction with the shooting range of the image capture device 321, if a single frame is set to shoot 5 wafers 80, for example, the laser module 31 used to emit the linear light and the detection module 32 responsible for interpreting the image formed by the light spots can be fixed in relative position and gradually move along the longitudinal direction H to perform the inspection operation at a rate of 5 wafers at a time through the function of the carrier 22 to move along the longitudinal direction H.

For each frame containing the light spots captured by the image capturer 321 in cooperation with the illumination of the light source 311, the processor 323 can determine whether the calculated number of the light spots, that is, the number of the wafers 80, meets an expected number corresponding to the shooting range (in this example, 5 wafers as shown in FIG. 6). After confirming that the calculated number matches the expected number, it can be generally determined that there are indeed 5 wafers 80 in the shooting range. On the contrary, if the number does not match, it can be directly known whether the number has increased or decreased. Furthermore, in view of the possibility that the wafers 80 may be placed overlapping each other, considering that the light spots formed by the multiple overlapping wafers 80 reflecting the linear light together should have a larger area, the processor 323 can also detect whether the measurement area of each light spot is within a preset reasonable range, thereby achieving the purpose of ensuring that the wafers 80 are not "overlapped". In addition, after presetting a specification spacing for the normal placement of the two wafers 80, the image recognition method is also used to confirm whether the measurement spacing of the adjacent light spots meets the specification spacing, so as to detect whether the wafer 80 is not placed horizontally but "slanted".

In summary, in this embodiment of the novel wafer identification device, the laser module 31 and the detection module 32 of the working unit 3 can cooperate with each other to use image recognition to determine whether the wafer 80 is correctly placed, and whether there are abnormal placements such as overlapping, oblique insertion, etc., so as to perform special inspections on the placement of the wafer 80 in the wafer box 9 to ensure the normal operation of the back-end process or the stable shipment of the finished product. Therefore, the purpose of this novel device can be achieved.

However, the above is only an example of the implementation of the present invention, and it cannot be used to limit the scope of the implementation of the present invention. All simple equivalent changes and modifications made according to the scope of the patent application of the present invention and the content of the patent specification are still within the scope of the present patent.

2: Support unit 21: Bracket 22: Carrier 23: Speed reduction mechanism 24: Servo motor 3: Working unit 31: Laser module 311: Light source 312: First adjustment seat 32: Detection module 321: Image capture device 322: Second adjustment seat 323: Processor 4: Fixing unit 80: Wafer 9: Wafer box 90: Inner space H: Vertical direction

Other features and functions of the present invention will be clearly presented in the implementation method with reference to the drawings, in which: FIG. 1 is an incomplete three-dimensional diagram illustrating the situation where multiple wafers are placed in a wafer box; FIG. 2 is a three-dimensional diagram illustrating an implementation example of the present invention's wafer identification device; FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged three-dimensional diagram illustrating a support unit and a working unit of the implementation example; FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram illustrating the operation of a laser module and a detection module of the working unit; FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram illustrating the situation where a linear light emitted by the laser module is irradiated onto multiple wafers; and FIG. 6 is a partially enlarged diagram, which, in conjunction with FIG. 5, illustrates the situation where the linear light forms five light spots on the wafers.

2: Support unit

21: Bracket

22: Carrier

23: Speed reduction mechanism

24:Servo motor

3: Work unit

31: Laser module

311: Light source

32: Detection module

321: Image Capture

4: Fixed unit

9: Wafer box

90: Inner space

H: Longitudinal direction

Claims (7)

A wafer identification device is suitable for being arranged adjacent to a wafer box, the wafer box defining an inner space suitable for placing multiple wafers along a longitudinal direction, the wafer identification device comprising: A support unit, including a support, and a carrier movably arranged on the support along the longitudinal direction; and A working unit is installed on the supporting unit and includes a laser module disposed on the carrier and a detection module disposed on the carrier spaced apart from the laser module. The laser module has a light source suitable for emitting a linear light extending along the longitudinal direction to the wafers. The detection module has an image capturer for photographing a photographing range in which the linear light irradiates the wafers, and a processor connected to the image capturer. The processor is used to judge whether a calculated number of the light spots meets an expected number corresponding to the photographing range according to a plurality of light spots formed on the wafers by the linear light in the photographing range, and confirm whether a measured distance between the adjacent light spots meets a specified distance. A wafer identification device as described in claim 1, wherein the support unit further includes a deceleration mechanism mounted on the bracket and connected to the carrier, and a servo motor connected to the deceleration mechanism. The wafer identification device as described in claim 1, wherein the laser module of the working unit further has a first adjustment seat mounted on the carrier and capable of adjusting the irradiation direction of the linear light. The wafer identification device as described in claim 1, wherein the detection module of the working unit further has a second adjustment base mounted on the carrier and capable of adjusting the shooting direction of the image capture device. The wafer identification device as described in claim 1, wherein the image capturer of the detection module of the working unit is a charge-coupled photosensitive element. The wafer identification device as described in claim 1 also includes a fixing unit spaced adjacent to the supporting unit and suitable for fixing the wafer box. In the wafer identification device as described in claim 1, the processor of the detection module of the working unit is also used to determine whether a measurement area of each of the light spots in the shooting range is within a preset reasonable range.

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