JPH0255340B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to the configuration of a wafer insertion device in which a magazine containing wafers is placed and which transports wafers between the magazine and a wafer processing device.

Many wafer processing apparatuses used in wafer processes in the manufacture of semiconductor devices, such as ion implantation II apparatuses and chemical vapor deposition CVD apparatuses, are configured for single-wafer processing.

To automate this single wafer processing, a wafer insertion device is usually used in which a magazine containing a plurality of wafers is placed and the wafers are transferred between the magazine and a wafer processing device.

In this case, due to magazine size restrictions, etc.
Although the number of wafers that a magazine can accommodate is limited, it is desired to increase the number from the standpoint of automatic operation.

[Conventional technology]

The configuration of an example of a conventional wafer insertion device is as follows:
As shown in the side view of the figure.

In the figure, M is a magazine that accommodates a plurality of wafers W stacked at intervals, and 1 is a magazine M.
2 is a mounting table moving device that moves the mounting table 1 in the vertical direction in the figure; 3 is a mounting table moving device that moves the wafer W with a wafer holding portion 3a at the tip thereof between the magazine M and the wafer processing device A; The transport arm 4 is an arm moving device that moves the transport arm 3 in the horizontal and vertical directions in the figure.

The operation of this wafer insertion device is as follows (see FIG. 3 and FIG. 4, which is an operation flowchart).

The transfer arm 3 moves from the normal position (the position indicated by the solid line in FIG. 3) to the position shown by the long broken line in FIG. The mounting table 1 is positioned so that the height matches the height of the transfer arm 3), where the wafer holding section 3a grasps the wafer W to be processed from the magazine M, and further transfers it to the right (a), as shown in FIG. Move to the position indicated by the short dashed line in the figure. The wafer transported here is located directly above the wafer W placement position in the wafer processing apparatus A.

Next, the transfer arm 3 performs a downward loading movement b to place the wafer W on the wafer processing apparatus A, and then moves in the opposite direction to return to its home position.
Wafer processing apparatus A starts wafer processing.

Next, when the wafer processing is completed, the transfer arm makes a transfer movement a and a loading movement b, picks up the processed wafer W, and returns to place the wafer W in the magazine M at its original position. Return to normal position.

Next, the mounting table 1 makes a step movement c in the vertical direction (usually downward) in the figure, and the height of the wafer W adjacent to (usually adjacent to above) the wafer W returned earlier is the height of the transfer arm 3. Match.

Thereafter, the above operation is repeated, and when all the wafers W stored in the magazine M are completed,
Usually, the magazine M is replaced manually.

Therefore, one automatic operation period is from when the magazine M is replaced until the next replacement, and the number of wafers W processed during that period is the number stored in the magazine M.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

In the wafer insertion device having this configuration, the transfer arm 3 is located between two wafers W adjacent to the wafer W that has been picked up in the magazine M when carrying out the loading movement b.

Therefore, the wafer interval g when the magazine M accommodates the wafers W needs to be large enough to prevent the transfer arm 3 from coming into contact with the wafers W due to the loading movement b. For this reason, it is difficult to increase the number of wafers W accommodated in the magazine M, and this wafer insertion apparatus has the problem that the number of wafers W that can be processed in one automatic operation is small.

[Means for solving problems]

The above problem is that a magazine containing a plurality of wafers stacked at intervals is mounted, and the wafer transfer arm enters the magazine area from the side of the stacked storage section and grips one wafer, and then It has a means for moving forward in the stacking direction and placing the gripped wafer on the wafer processing device, and the arm does not come into contact with the wafers stored in the magazine when the arm moves in the stacking direction. The problem is solved by the wafer insertion device of the present invention, which comprises means for moving the magazines in the same direction.

[Effect]

In the case of a conventional wafer insertion device, it is necessary to increase the interval between wafers to be accommodated in the magazine. b)

Therefore, as in the above configuration, when the wafer transfer arm moves in the stacking direction, by moving the magazine in the same direction, the wafers sandwiching the arm also move in the same direction, making the spacing between the wafers smaller than before. It becomes possible to do so.

In this way, the present wafer insertion device makes it possible to increase the number of wafers that can be accommodated in the magazine, making it possible to increase the number of wafers that can be processed in one automatic operation compared to the conventional method.

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the wafer insertion device according to the present invention will be described below with reference to a side view of FIG. 1 showing its configuration and an operation flowchart of FIG. 2. The same reference numerals indicate the same objects throughout the figures.

FIG. 1 is a diagram corresponding to FIG. 3, and in the wafer insertion device shown in FIG. The wafer insertion device shown in FIG. 3 has been added with a function of performing auxiliary movement d in the same direction commensurate with the movement. Along with this change, the mounting table moving device 2 has been changed to a mounting table moving device 2a that also enables auxiliary movement d of the mounting table 1.

That is, when the arm moving device 4 gives a loading movement b to the transfer arm 3, the mounting table moving device 2a receives a signal from the arm moving device 4 and performs an auxiliary movement d of approximately the same amount in the same direction as the loading movement b. is given to the mounting table 1.

The operation of this wafer insertion device, as shown in FIG. 2 corresponding to FIG. 4, is completely the same as that described for the wafer insertion device shown in FIG. do.

As is clear from the above, the magazine used in this wafer insertion device can be the illustrated magazine Ma, which has a narrower wafer interval g and an increased number of wafers W to accommodate than the conventional magazine M. This increases the number of wafers W that can be processed in one automatic operation.

By doing so, the inventor of the present application was able to approximately double the number of wafers W accommodated without making the outer diameter of the magazine Ma larger than the magazine M.

Note that in the above embodiment, the mounting table moving device 2a is
A signal for giving the auxiliary movement d is sent to the arm moving device 4.
As described above, another sensor for detecting the movement of the transport arm 3 may be provided and a signal may be obtained from the sensor.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, according to the configuration of the present invention,
In a wafer insertion device that carries a magazine containing wafers and transports wafers between the magazine and a wafer processing device, it is possible to increase the number of wafers that the magazine accommodates, and to process wafers in one automatic operation. This has the effect of making it possible to increase the number of sheets compared to the conventional method.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

In the drawings, FIG. 1 is a side view showing the configuration of an embodiment of a wafer insertion device according to the present invention, FIG. 2 is a flowchart thereof, and FIG. 3 is a side view showing the configuration of an example of a conventional wafer insertion device. Figure 4 is a flowchart. In addition, in the figure, 1 is a magazine mounting table, 2,
2a is a mounting table moving device, 3 is a transfer arm, 3a is a wafer holding section, 4 is an arm moving device, A is a wafer processing device, M and Ma are magazines, W is a wafer, a is a transfer movement, b is a mounting movement , c represents step movement, d represents auxiliary movement, and g represents wafer spacing, respectively.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1 A magazine containing multiple wafers stacked at intervals is placed, and the wafer transfer arm
The arm has means for entering the magazine area from the lateral direction of the stacked storage section, gripping one wafer, moving further forward, moving in the stacking direction, and placing the gripped wafer on the wafer processing device; A wafer insertion device comprising means for moving the magazine in the stacking direction so that the arm does not come into contact with the wafers housed in the magazine when moving in the stacking direction.