JPH0546982B2 - - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to a wafer carrier jig used for processing, transporting, and storing wafer-shaped materials used in semiconductor manufacturing processes.

[Conventional technology]

The conventional wafer carrier 14 is, for example, disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 59
As shown in Japanese Patent No. 213142 (see FIG. 5), it has an integrated structure with about 30 grooves 15 for storing round (or square) wafers 18.

Therefore, when processing wafers with a device that processes 3 or 11 wafers at a time, 3 or 11 wafers are placed in the groove 15 provided in the carrier 14, which can store approximately 30 wafers. A method is adopted in which each item is stored separately and transported and stored separately. Therefore, the number of carriers is larger than the number of wafers remaining in the manufacturing process, and there is a risk that the efficiency of transportation, storage, and storage may be reduced.

Furthermore, the diameter of the wafer 18 used is gradually increasing, and 120 to 200 mm is becoming mainstream.
However, in view of the standards of semiconductor manufacturing equipment and the improvement of wafer storage efficiency, the pitch 16 of the wafer storage groove 15 is limited to an extremely small value of approximately 6 mm, regardless of the increase in the diameter of the wafer 18. For this reason, with conventional carriers, it is not only very difficult to align and store large-diameter (200 mm diameter) wafers 18 in storage grooves 15 using manual tweezers, but also when taking out wafers 18, Only the area 17 above the storage groove 15 is the working area.

Furthermore, since next-generation semiconductor manufacturing processes require submicron processing precision, protection against contamination due to dust in the atmosphere is required more than ever when transporting and storing wafers. However, in conventional carriers, the opening for accommodating the wafers faces upwards, and the wafers must be stored and removed as well, so there is an extremely high chance of contamination due to dust in the atmosphere. be.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

The above-mentioned conventional technology is designed to cope with the large diameter of wafers in next-generation semiconductor manufacturing processes and the large changes in the number of wafers processed depending on the process equipment, or to keep the wafer surface highly clean during transportation and storage. Since this is not taken into consideration, there have been problems such as workability, in-process wafer storage efficiency, and reduced yield due to dust contamination when storing and taking out wafers.

In view of the above, the present invention provides a wafer carrier that improves the efficiency and workability of wafer transportation, storage, and storage between devices that process different numbers of wafers, and prevents wafer contamination during the transportation, storage, and storage. The purpose is to provide jigs.

[Means for solving problems]

The above problem is solved by a main carrier having an opening and two wafer storage grooves on the inner peripheral wall of the opening, and an upper part having a recess and one wafer storage groove on the inner peripheral wall of the recess. and a lower sub-carrier, and the two sub-carriers and the main carrier are configured to be mutually superimposed.

[Effect]

By providing two wafer storage grooves on the inner circumferential wall of the opening provided in the main carrier, and providing a partition wall between the two grooves, a sufficient working space is secured and storage efficiency is improved. can improve sex.

By overlapping an arbitrary number of the above carriers,
By stacking upper and lower sub-carriers each having one storage groove above and below the carrier, the wafer transport and processing unit can be freely set, and the wafers in the carrier can be kept free from dust in the working atmosphere. It is possible to protect against contamination by

〔Example〕

An embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of this embodiment, and FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 are illustrations of wafer storage and removal operations, respectively.

In FIGS. 1 to 4, the main carrier 2 provided with an opening 2A is provided with two wafer storage grooves 5a and 5b on the inner peripheral wall of the opening 2A.
Part of the partition wall 6 between the grooves 5a and 5b (Fig. 1b)
In this case, a partition wall 6A is provided on the right side (1/3 part).

The upper and lower sub-carriers 1 and 3 superimposed on the upper and lower parts of the main carrier 2, respectively, are provided with recesses 1A and 3A, respectively, as shown in FIGS. 1a and 1c, and the recesses 1A, On the inner peripheral wall of 3A,
One wafer storage groove 4, 7 is provided respectively. Both secondary carriers 1 and 3 and main carrier 2
are configured such that they can be mutually polymerized.

The case where the wafers 9 are stored in the main carrier 2 in a forward alignment will be described with reference to FIG.

First, as shown in FIG. 2B, after the main carrier 2 is erected upward, the first wafer 9a, whose back surface is suctioned by the vacuum tweezers 8, is worked in the area where the second storage 5b exists, and is placed in the first storage groove. Store in 5c.
That is, while holding the back surface of the wafer 9a,
The first wafer 9 is moved from the back surface to the front surface and stored in the first storage groove 5a.

Next, the second wafer (not shown) is also placed into the first storage groove 5a from the region where the first storage groove 5a exists without contacting the first wafer 9a, with its back surface being suctioned by vacuum tweezers. Store. That is, while holding the back surface of the second wafer, the second wafer is moved from the back surface toward the back surface of the first wafer 9a and stored in the second storage groove 5b.

Further, wafers are stored in the wafer storage grooves of the upper and lower sub-carriers 1 and 3 in the same manner as described above. A main carrier 2 and an upper sub-carrier 1 are placed on the lower sub-carrier 3,
As shown in FIG. 2A, they are stacked one after another to form a single body, and transported and stored in this state.

Furthermore, as shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, the wafer 9
Face the surfaces of a and 9b (or back to back)
When storing the wafers in the storage grooves 5a and 5b of the main carrier 2, the storage operation can be carried out without touching each other's wafers in the same way as in the case described above.

On the other hand, when removing the wafer from the carrier,
As shown in FIG. 4, the wafer 9 stored in the storage groove 5 of the carrier 2 is attracted by the vacuum tweezers 8 in the same manner as in the case of storage, and can be taken out without coming into contact with the surfaces of adjacent wafers.

Although the above-mentioned embodiment describes the case where only one main carrier 2 is used, the present invention is not limited to this, and it goes without saying that a plurality of main carriers 2 may be used.

According to this embodiment, when storing and taking out wafers in the main carrier, the work area can be set so as not to come into contact with the surfaces of adjacent wafers. Furthermore, since the upper and lower sub-carriers serve as the upper lid and the bottom stand, respectively, it is possible to omit the storage container for the carriers.

〔Effect of the invention〕

As explained above, according to the present invention, by widely utilizing the area on the side of each wafer storage groove provided in the carrier as a work area, it is possible to improve material yield and work efficiency by protecting the wafer surface. I can do it. Furthermore, during the transportation, storage, and storage of wafers, the wafers in the carrier can be protected from contamination due to dust in the working atmosphere, and the yield of products can be improved.

[Brief explanation of the drawing]

FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view showing one embodiment of the wafer carrier jig of the present invention, and FIGS. 2, 3, and 4 are diagrams each illustrating the wafer storage and removal operations in the carrier shown in FIG. 1. , Figure 5 A~
C is a plan view, a front view, and a side cross-section of a conventional wafer carrier. Explanation of symbols, 1, 3...Sub-carrier, 1A, 3
A... recess, 2... main carrier, 2A... opening, 4, 5, 7... wafer storage groove, 6A... partition wall, 9, 9a, 9b... wafer.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A main carrier having an opening and two wafer storage grooves on the inner peripheral wall of the opening, and upper and lower sub-carriers having a recess and one wafer storage groove on the inner peripheral wall of the recess. A wafer carrier jig comprising: a wafer carrier jig, characterized in that both of the sub-carriers and the main carrier are configured to be superimposed on each other.