WO2014071783A1 - Automatic material handling system - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed is an automatic material handling system based on optical communication, the system comprising plurality of conveying carriers (10) moved on the guide rail; plurality of base stations (20) dividing the guide rail into plurality of successive closed regions correspondingly and each of which is in optical communication with the conveying carriers (10) in the corresponding closed region for obtaining and transmitting conveying carrier information in the closed region; and the server (30) coupled with plurality of base stations (20) to receive conveying carrier information and send the control instruction based on the conveying carrier information to the base station. The base station (20) receives the control instruction, converse the control instruction into an optical signal and sends the optical signal to the conveying carriers (10), so as to change the moving state of the conveying carriers according to the optical signal. The automatic material handling system dispatch the conveying carriers based on the optical communication technology, thus avoiding signal interference caused by the radio frequency communication and carrying the interval management for the conveying carriers.

Description

 Automatic material handling system

Technical field

 The present invention relates to the field of semiconductor integrated circuits, and more particularly to an automatic material handling system. technical background

 With the rapid development of information technology, integrated circuits play an important role in daily life, and their demand has also increased substantially, thus promoting the vigorous development of the global semiconductor market. In order to meet the large demand for integrated circuits, most semiconductor manufacturers have priority in increasing production capacity. In semiconductor manufacturing companies, wafers are usually handled in batches. However, manual handling is not only inefficient, but also dangerous. Therefore, Automatic Material Handling System (AMHS) has been widely used in semiconductor manufacturing companies.

Automated Material Handling System (AMHS) not only provides a high degree of automation, but also has a considerable impact on the performance of the entire manufacturing system. It also effectively utilizes limited cleanroom production space, increases the utilization of production equipment, and reduces the amount of work-in-progress. Cycle time, etc. As the throughput of AMHS systems increases, how to ensure handling efficiency and complete wafer handling as soon as possible is a huge challenge. Optimizing the scheduling of semiconductor automated material handling systems is critical to improving the competitiveness of semiconductor manufacturing companies. In the current AMHS system, radio communication is usually performed between a base station and an automatic navigation vehicle, for example, by setting an RFID tag or a radio frequency chip on an automatic navigation vehicle, thereby controlling the motion state of the automatic navigation vehicle to perform real-time handling scheduling. However, the communication between the base station and the automatic navigation workshop by the radio frequency communication technology is prone to the situation that the RF signal interferes with the clean room equipment and the wafer production, which affects the yield of the product. Summary of invention

 SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION A primary object of the present invention is to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art and to provide a self-transporting system based on optical communication to avoid interference of radio frequency signals on wafer production.

 In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides an automatic material handling system based on optical communication, comprising a plurality of transporting carriers, moving on a guide rail; N base stations, the rails are correspondingly divided into N consecutive closed sections, each The base station optically communicates with the transport carrier in its corresponding closed section to acquire and transmit transport carrier information in the closed section, where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2; and a server, a coupling Denoting N base stations, receiving and issuing control commands to the base station according to the transport carrier information, the base station converting the control command into an optical signal and transmitting the signal to the transport carrier, so that the transport carrier is based on The light signal changes the motion state.

 Preferably, the transporting carrier includes a first optical communication module, including a first transmitting module and a first receiving module, configured to transmit and receive optical signals; and a first signal processing module coupled to the first receiving module, The received optical signal is converted into a control signal; and a control module is coupled to the first signal processing module to control a motion state of the transport vehicle according to the control signal.

 Preferably, the base station includes a second optical communication module, including a second transmitting module and a second receiving module, configured to transmit and receive optical signals, and a second signal processing module, including an encoding module and a decoding module, where the decoding module is coupled And the second receiving module is configured to decode the received optical signal into the transport carrier information; the encoding module is coupled to the second transmitting module, encoding the control command into an optical signal; and server communication And a module, coupled to the second signal processing module, transmitting the transport carrier information to the server, and receiving the control instruction from the server.

Preferably, the server includes a base station communication module, configured to receive the transport carrier information from the base station, and transmit the control instruction to the base station; and a third processing module coupled The base station communication module generates the control command according to the transport carrier information.

 Preferably, the closed interval size is determined by an optical beam angle and a transmit power of the base station. Preferably, the transporting carrier information includes confirmation information of the transporting vehicle in the closed section.

 Preferably, the transport carrier information further includes the transport carrier identification information.

 Preferably, when the base station communication module receives the transport carrier information sent by the Nth base station and the N-1 base station, the third processing module sends a stop command to the N-1th base station.

 Preferably, when the base station communication module receives the transport carrier information sent by the N-1 base station and does not receive the transport carrier information sent by the Nth base station, the third processing module The N-1 base station transmits a start command.

 Preferably, when the base station communication module receives the transport carrier information sent by the M-2 base station, and receives no more information about the transport carrier information sent by the M-1 base station, When the carrier information is transmitted by the Mth base station, the third processing module sends a start command to the M-2 base station, where M is a positive integer greater than 2 and less than or equal to N.

 The invention has the advantages that the transporting and dispatching of the transporting carrier by the optical communication between the carrier and the base station not only solves the problem of signal interference generated by the radio frequency communication in the prior art, but also manages the interval of the transporting carrier. . DRAWINGS

 1 is a schematic view of an automatic material handling system in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.

 2 is a schematic view showing the structure of a transporting vehicle according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a schematic structural diagram of a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention. FIG. 4 is a schematic structural diagram of a server according to an embodiment of the present invention.

 FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of communication between a transport carrier and a base station according to an embodiment of the present invention. Summary of the invention

 In order to make the content of the present invention clearer and easier to understand, the contents of the present invention will be further described below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. Of course, the invention is not limited to the specific embodiment, and general replacements well known to those skilled in the art are also encompassed within the scope of the invention.

 Referring first to Figure 1, there is shown a schematic diagram of an optical communication based automated material handling system architecture in accordance with one embodiment of the present invention. The automated material handling system includes a plurality of transport carriers 10, N base stations 20, and a server 30. Among them, the transporting vehicle 10 is moved on the guide rail as a carrier for carrying and loading materials. The transporting vehicle 10 may be an automatic navigation vehicle or an industrial transport robot or the like, and the present invention is not limited thereto. The N base stations 20 divide the guide rail into N closed-end closed sections in the range in which the optical communication is performed, and each of the base stations 20 can communicate with the transporting carrier 10 in its corresponding closed section.

Further, the size of the optical communication range of the base station 20 is determined by its optical beam angle and its transmission power. The base station is generally evenly arranged on one side of the guide rail, and the present invention is not limited to this on the same plane of the guide rail. As shown in FIG. 5, the triangular area formed by the light emitted from the base station 20 is its optical communication range within which the base station 20 and the transport carrier 10 communicate with each other. Referring to FIG. 1, when the transport carrier 10 enters the closed section of the base station 20, the base station 20 receives the optical signal sent from the transport carrier 10, and acquires the information of the transport carrier 10 from the optical signal, and this A transport carrier information is transmitted to the server 30, wherein the transport carrier information includes confirmation information of the transport carrier 10 in the closed section, by which the base station 20 can confirm the corresponding The carrier 10 is transported in the closed section. The server 30 is coupled to all of the base stations 20, so that it is possible to monitor the position information of all the transporting vehicles 10 in the entire system, that is, it is possible to monitor which closed sections the transporting vehicle 10 is present. The server 30 generates a control command based on the transport carrier information sent from the base station 20, and transmits the control command back to the corresponding base station 20, and the base station 20 converts the control command into an optical signal and transmits it to the transport carrier 10, so that the transport carrier is transported. 10 change its state of motion. As described above, the present invention realizes optical communication by performing optical signal coding and optical signal decoding on the transport carrier information and the control command, thereby performing transport scheduling of the transport carrier to avoid occurrence of radio frequency interference.

2 to 4 illustrate in detail the configuration of the transport carrier 10, the base station 20, and the server 30 in the system of the present invention. Referring first to FIG. 2, the transport carrier 10 includes a first optical communication module 11, a first signal processing module 12, and a control module 13. The first communication module 11 includes a first transmitting module 110 and a first receiving module 111 for transmitting and receiving optical signals. The first signal processing module 12 is coupled to the first receiving module 111 to convert the received optical signal into a control signal. The control module 13 is coupled to the first signal processing module 12, and controls the motion state of the transport carrier 10 according to the control signal. With continued reference to FIG. 3, the base station 20 includes a second optical communication module 21, a second signal processing module 22, and a server communication module 23. The second optical communication module 21 includes a second transmitting module 210 and a second receiving module 211 for transmitting and receiving optical signals. The second signal processing module 22 includes an encoding module 220 and a decoding module 221, wherein the decoding module 221 is coupled to the second The receiving module 211 decodes the received optical signal into the transporting carrier information; the encoding module 220 is coupled to the second transmitting module 210, and encodes the control command into an optical signal. The server communication module 23 is coupled to the second signal processing module 22, transmits the transport carrier information decoded by the decoding module 221 to the server 30, and receives a control command output from the server 30 to the encoding module 220. The server 30 includes a base station communication module 31 and a third signal processing module. 32. As shown in FIG. 4, the third signal processing module 32 is coupled to the base station communication module 31. The base station communication module 31 is configured to receive the transport carrier information from the base station 20. The third processing module 32 generates a control command based on the transport carrier information, and transmits the control message via the base station communication module 31.

 The specific operation of the automatic material handling system of the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to Figs. First, when the Xth transport carrier 10 enters the Nth closed section, the second receiving module 211 of the No. N base station 20 receives the optical signal transmitted by the first transmitting module 110 of the transporting carrier 10, and decodes The module 221 decodes the optical signal into the transport carrier information of the transport carrier 10 and transmits it to the server communication module 23, and the server communication module 23 transmits the transport carrier information to the server 30. The transporting of the carrier information includes the confirmation information of the transporting vehicle 10 in a certain closed section, so that the server 30 can monitor the presence of the transporting vehicle 10 in each closed section. Similarly, when the X-1th transport carrier 10 enters the N-1th closed section, the base station No. N-1 20 will also transmit the carrier information to the server 30. After receiving the two transport carrier information, the base station communication module 31 of the server 30 finds that the transport carrier 10 exists in the adjacent closed section, and therefore sends a stop control command to the server communication of the N-1th base station 20. The module 23, the server communication module 23, in turn outputs this stop control command to the encoding module 222, which encodes it into an optical signal for transmission via the second transmitting module 212. The first receiving module 111 of the X-1th transport carrier 10 in the N-1th closed section receives the optical signal and outputs it to the first signal processing module 12, and the first signal processing module 12 converts it into The control signal is then passed to the control module 13, and the transport carrier 10 of the X-1 is controlled to stop moving forward, whereby the Nth closed section is closed, and no further transporter is allowed to enter.

If the server 30 receives only the transport carrier information sent by the base station No. N-1 and does not receive the transport carrier information sent by the base station 20, it means that the Nth closed interval is not When the carrier 10 is further transported, the server 30 transmits a start command to the base station 20 of the N-1th, and encodes and decodes the optical signal to restart the transport carrier No. X-1 in the N-1 closed section. 10, whereby the Nth closed section is reopened, and the X-1 transport carrier 10 enters the Nth closed section.

 In order to avoid erroneous operation caused by communication failure, in another embodiment of the present invention, when the server 30 receives the transport carrier information sent by the base station No. 2-2 20, the information transmitted by the base station 20 of the M-1 is no longer received. When the carrier information is transmitted (M is a positive integer greater than 2), the start control command is not immediately issued until the server 30 receives the transport carrier information sent by the base station 20 that is not originally provided, indicating that it is at the M- The transport carrier in one closed section has entered the Mth closed section, and the start control command is issued, so that communication is established between the base station No. M and the transport carrier 10 to further ensure that the transport carrier 10 has left. The M-1 closed interval is prevented, so that the transport carrier still in the M1 closed interval due to the failure of the base station No. M-1 is prevented from being mistaken that the M-1 closed interval has been opened. On the basis of this, in another preferred embodiment of the present invention, the transporting carrier information further includes identification information of the transporting vehicle 10, that is, the server 30 can recognize the different transporting carriers 10, thereby 30, receiving the identification information of the No. X transport carrier 10 from the base station 20 of the No. M, determining that the Xth transport carrier 10 has entered the Mth closed interval from the M-1 closed interval, and then issues a start control command. Therefore, it is avoided that the other transport carrier 10 in the Mth closed section is mistaken for the Xth transport carrier, and the safety is further improved.

In summary, the optical material-based automatic material handling system proposed by the present invention transports the transport carrier by optical communication between the carrier and the base station, thereby effectively solving the signal generated by the prior art using radio frequency communication. Interference problem. The present invention has been described in terms of a preferred embodiment, and the embodiments are described by way of example only, and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. In the case of a number of changes and modifications, the scope of protection claimed in the present invention shall be as defined in the claims.

Claims

Rights request An automatic material handling system based on optical communication, comprising: a plurality of transporting carriers, moving on a guide rail;  N base stations, the rails are correspondingly divided into N consecutive closed sections, and each of the base stations optically communicates with the transport carrier in its corresponding closed section to acquire and transmit the transport carrier in the closed section Information, where N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 2;  a server, coupled to the N base stations, receiving and sending a control command to the base station according to the transport carrier information, where the base station converts the control command into an optical signal and sends the signal to the transport carrier, so that the The transporting carrier changes the motion state in accordance with the optical signal.  2. The automated material handling system of claim 1 wherein: said transport carrier comprises:  The first optical communication module includes a first transmitting module and a first receiving module, configured to transmit and receive optical signals;  a first signal processing module coupled to the first receiving module to convert the received optical signal into a control signal;  The control module is coupled to the first signal processing module, and controls a motion state of the transport carrier according to the control signal.  The automatic material handling system according to claim 2, wherein the base station comprises:  The second optical communication module includes a second transmitting module and a second receiving module, configured to transmit and receive optical signals;  a second signal processing module, comprising: an encoding module and a decoding module, wherein the decoding module is coupled to the second receiving module, and the received optical signal is decoded into the transporting carrier information; a second transmitting module, encoding the control command as an optical signal; And a server communication module, coupled to the second signal processing module, transmitting the transport carrier information to the server, and receiving the control instruction from the server. 4. The automated material handling system of claim 3, wherein the server comprises:  a base station communication module, receiving the transport carrier information from the base station, and transmitting the control command to the base station;  The third processing module is coupled to the base station communication module, and generates the control command according to the transport carrier information.  The automatic material handling system according to claim 4, wherein the size of the closed section is determined by an optical beam angle and a transmission power of the base station.  The automatic material handling system according to claim 4, wherein the transport carrier information includes confirmation information of the transport carrier in the closed section.  7. The automated material handling system of claim 6 wherein said transport carrier information further comprises said transport carrier identification information.  The automatic material handling system according to claim 6, wherein when the base station communication module receives the transport carrier information sent by the Nth base station and the N-1 base station, the third processing The module sends a stop command to the (N-1)th base station.  9. The automatic material handling system according to claim 8, wherein when the base station communication module does not receive the transport carrier information sent by the Nth base station, and receives the transmission from the N-1 base station And transmitting, by the third processing module, a start command to the N-1th base station.  The automatic material handling system according to claim 6 or 7, wherein when the base station communication module receives the transport carrier information sent by the M-2 base station, and no longer receives the M- The third processing module sends a start command to the M-2 base station when the transport carrier information sent by the Mth base station is received at the same time as or after the transport of the carrier information by the base station, where the M is sent to the M-2 base station, where M Is a positive integer greater than 2 and less than or equal to N.