JPH0647422B2 - Carrier - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Object of the Invention] (Industrial field of application) The present invention relates to a transfer device suitable for changing the delivery direction of a substrate-shaped transfer object, for example.

(Prior art) In etching equipment, a transfer device is used that takes out a substrate to be processed from a cassette, temporarily receives it in a load lock chamber, then changes the direction by 90 degrees and transfers it to the processing chamber. Has been done. The substrate after the etching process is also taken out of the processing chamber by the transfer device, turned 90 degrees, and transferred and stored in the cassette again.

The carrying device repeats the above-mentioned operation, and has been conventionally constructed as shown in FIG.

That is, a table-shaped saucer 2 on which a carrier 1 such as a substrate is placed
Is attached to one end of a link mechanism 4 installed in the load lock chamber 3, and after taking out the conveyed object 1 from the cassette 5, the direction is changed by 90 degrees to be carried into the processing chamber 6 or after processing. Remove the transported material 1 from the processing chamber 6 and re-insert the cassette 5
It is operated to be stored in.

Assuming that the direction of movement of the tray 2 around the load-lock chamber 3 is Y and the direction of the cassette 5 is X and the direction of the processing chamber 6 is X, the tray 2 is a load-lock chamber as shown in detail in FIG. By the operation of the link mechanism 4 in the unit 3, it is conveyed and moved in each direction.

That is, in FIG. 5, Z perpendicular to the XY plane (paper surface)
A motor 41 that rotates about a direction is fixed to a base, one end of a first arm 42 is fixed to the rotation shaft 41a, and a through hole 42b is provided at the other end of the first arm 42. A hinge is provided to support the rotation shaft 43a of the second arm 43 so as to be rotatable.

In addition, the rotary shaft 41a of the motor 41 is inserted so that the first pulley 44
Is fixedly mounted on a base, and the first pulley 44 is a second arm that rotates integrally with the rotary shaft 43a of the second arm 43.
The pulley 45 and the first timing belt 46 are connected to each other. The gear ratio between the first pulley 44 and the second pulley 45 is 2: 1.

Further, the through hole 43b at the other end of the second arm 43 is provided in the receiving tray 2
A hinge is formed by supporting the rotary shaft 2a of the second arm 43
Of the third pulley 43c fixed to the rotary shaft 43a and the rotary shaft of the pan 2
The fourth pulley 2b integrally fixed to 2a is connected by a second timing belt 47 at a gear ratio of 1: 1.

Therefore, the rotation of the motor 41 causes the first arm 42 to rotate, and the rotation axis 43a of the second arm 43 moves in the direction of arrow A accordingly. The rotation axis 43a is connected by the first timing belt 46. Therefore, the position of the rotary shaft 2a of the tray 2 rotates in the direction of arrow B, and the position of the through hole 43b moves in the X direction without shifting in the Y direction.

Further, since the tray 2 is connected by the third pulley 43c and the second timing belt 47, the tray 2 moves left and right (X direction) while maintaining the posture (direction) of the entire tray 2.

Therefore, the link mechanism 4 can always reciprocate the conveyed article 1 on the tray 2 only in a fixed direction (X direction in FIG. 5) only by switching the rotation direction of the motor 41.

By the way, the above-mentioned conventional conveying device changes the direction of the tray 2 in the X and Y directions respectively and conveys it as described with reference to FIG. 4. Therefore, as shown in FIG. so
It is necessary to rotate 90 degrees from state (a) to state (b).

Since the transported object 1 is often a rectangular substrate as shown in the figure, the width of the load lock chamber 3 is such that the length R'of one side is longer than at least the diagonal length R of the rectangular transported object 1. (R <R ') A large area is required. Therefore, the load lock chamber 3 requires a considerably large area as compared with the area occupied by the transported object 1 itself, but in order to downsize the entire structure of the etching apparatus or the like, it is necessary to make the load lock chamber 3 as small as possible. Therefore, some measure was requested.

(Problems to be Solved by the Invention) A conventional transfer device swirls a transferred object to change its direction, so a large space is required for the direction changing work. For example, if it is installed in an etching apparatus, the entire apparatus becomes large, It was an obstacle to miniaturization.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a carrying device which has a simple structure, which makes the space required for direction change compact, and which can realize downsizing of the entire device adopted.

[Structure of the Invention] (Means for Solving the Problems) A conveyor according to the present invention includes a tray on which a conveyed object is placed,
A link mechanism that can move the tray in a certain direction, a direction changing mechanism that changes the direction by rotating the link mechanism and the tray, and the conveyed object can be floated from the tray when the direction changing mechanism is operated. And a moving mechanism for vertically moving a conveyed object.

(Operation) The transport apparatus according to the present invention is provided with the transported article moving mechanism to levitate the transported article from the receiving tray, and changes the orientations of the receiving tray and the link mechanism by the direction changing mechanism in the floating state, so that the transported article itself is swung. You can change direction without

As a result, it is possible to reduce the size of the entire apparatus without requiring a large space in advance for changing the direction of the conveyed object.

(Embodiment) An embodiment of the conveying apparatus according to the present invention will be described in detail below with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3. The same components as those of the conventional conveying device shown in FIGS. 4 to 6 are designated by the same reference numerals and detailed description thereof will be omitted.

That is, in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, a link mechanism 4 that can move the tray 2 in the direction indicated by the arrow X is attached to the tray 2 on which the article 1 is placed, as in the conventional case. The rotating shaft 41a of the first motor 41 is connected to the first shaft 41a through the coupling 41a '.
The cylindrical body 44a surrounding the rotary shaft 41a of the arm 42 is integrally formed with the first pulley 44 and surrounds the coupling 41a 'to mount and fix the first motor 41.

The tubular body 44a incorporates a direction changing mechanism 7 for rotating the tubular body 44a about a rotation shaft 41a.

That is, the fifth pulley 71 is fixed to the tubular body 44a, and the fifth pulley 71 is fixed to the frame body 8 and the rotary shaft pulley 73 of the second motor 72 and the third timing belt. 74
Are joined by. The frame 8 is integrally fixed to the base of the apparatus and rotatably supports the cylindrical body 44a.

Therefore, by rotating the second motor 72, the tubular body 44a is rotated, and the entire link mechanism 4 including the first motor 41 can be rotated.

Further, a pusher, which moves vertically through the frame body 8 and supports the substrate, which is the conveyed product 1, at the four corners and places it on the receiving tray 2, or floats from the receiving tray 2, that is, a conveying object vertical moving mechanism 9.

The transported object up-and-down moving mechanism 9 includes four receiving blocks 91 that support the substrate, which is the transported object 1, at four corners, a support shaft 92 that is connected to each of the receiving blocks 91 and moves in the vertical direction, and these support blocks 92. A connecting plate 93 that connects the shaft 92 and a cylinder 94 that moves the connecting plate 93 in the vertical (Z-axis) direction are configured.

Since the main body of the cylinder 94 is fixed to the frame body 8, when the cylinder 94 is operated, the connecting plate 93, the support shaft 92 and the receiving block 91 are integrally moved up and down. Therefore, when the four receiving blocks 91 are raised above the surface (height) of the tray 2, the four receiving blocks 91 are conveyed by the conveyed article 1.
It can be lifted upward by supporting it and lifted from the tray 2. Since the receiving block 91 has an L-shaped corner portion 91a, the substrate-shaped conveyed product 1 is accurately positioned and aligned at this corner portion.

This carrying device is configured as described above and carries in and out the cassette 4 and the processing chamber 5. When the direction is changed by 90 degrees in the load lock chamber 3, it is shown in FIG. 3 (a). In this state, the transported article vertical movement mechanism 9 first lifts the transported article 1 onto the pan, and then the direction changing mechanism 7 is moved to the second motor.
It is operated by 72 to rotate only the link mechanism 4 by 90 degrees as shown in FIG. 3 (b). After the 90 ° rotation is completed, the conveyed article vertical movement mechanism 9 is operated again, the receiving block 91 is lowered, and the conveyed article 1 is placed on the tray 2, so that the conveyed article 1 can be conveyed in the 90 ° -turned direction. it can.

In this way, in order to change the transport direction by 90 degrees,
Since the link mechanism 9 having a smaller volume is only rotated instead of changing the direction of, the area of the low lock chamber 3 can be small, and the structure can be made more compact.

In this embodiment, the case where the direction change is changed by 90 degrees has been described, but by controlling the direction change mechanism,
It is also possible to switch 90 degrees in degrees or the opposite direction.

[Advantages of the Invention] As described above, the carrying apparatus according to the present invention does not rotate the carried object to change the direction of the carried object in the horizontal direction. It is a great contribution to miniaturization and has a great practical effect.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a partially cutaway side view showing one embodiment of the carrying device, FIG. 2 is a plan view of the device shown in FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 shows a direction changing operation of the device shown in FIG. FIG. 4 is a plan view for explaining, FIG. 4 is a plan view showing a conventional conveying device, FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a link mechanism of the device shown in FIG. 4, and FIG. 6 is a direction changing operation of the device shown in FIG. It is a top view explaining. DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Transported goods, 2 ... Sauce, 3 ... Load lock chamber, 4 ... Link mechanism, 5 ... Cassette, 6 ... Processing chamber, 7 ... Direction change mechanism, 8 ... Frame, 9 ... Transported goods up-and-down moving mechanism.

─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (51) Int.Cl. ⁵ Identification code Office reference number FI technical display location H01L 21/68 A 8418-4M

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A receiving tray on which a conveyed object is placed, a link mechanism capable of moving the receiving tray in a fixed direction, a direction changing mechanism for changing the direction by rotating the link mechanism and the receiving tray, and the direction changing mechanism. And a transfer object vertical movement mechanism capable of floating the transfer object from the tray when operating the transfer device.