Radiant energy – Photocells; circuits and apparatus – With circuit for evaluating a web – strand – strip – or sheet
Reexamination Certificate
2001-06-05
2004-04-06
Pyo, Kevin (Department: 2878)
Radiant energy
Photocells; circuits and apparatus
With circuit for evaluating a web, strand, strip, or sheet
C414S937000, C414S940000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06717171
ABSTRACT:
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention is directed toward methods and apparatuses for accessing microelectronic workpiece containers, such as FOUP containers.
BACKGROUND
Microelectronic devices, such as semiconductor devices and field emission displays, are typically fabricated on and/or in microelectronic workpieces using several different types of process machines (“tools”). A workpiece, for example, is often processed using tools for depositing, implanting, diffusing, doping, etching, polishing/planarizing, and patterning materials. A workpiece can typically undergo several processing steps within a single enclosed clean or “mini” environment within a processing tool. For example, microelectronic workpieces can be plated with a conductive material, annealed, etched, and cleaned, using a plurality of processing chambers all housed within a single processing enclosure that defines a clean mini environment.
These processes can be performed on each workpiece individually in separate single-wafer processing chambers, and the workpieces can be moved from one processing chamber to the next, a technique referred to in the industry as single wafer processing. One initial problem encountered with single wafer processing was determining how to deliver individual workpieces to and from the enclosure while maintaining a clean environment within the enclosure. One approach to addressing this problem has been to load several workpieces in a portable container while the container is in a clean environment and then seal the container with a removable door. Accordingly, the interior of the container can define another clean mini environment. The door is then removed when the container is flush with a hatch of the processing enclosure to reduce the likelihood for introducing contaminants into the enclosure.
One conventional container having the foregoing design is a Front Opening Unified Pod (FOUP). In operation, the door of the container is positioned flush against the hatch of the processing enclosure to reduce or eliminate any non-clean gas volume between the door and the hatch, and the door and the hatch are then moved together into the enclosure, allowing access between the interior of the container and the interior of the processing enclosure. A robot then retrieves individual microelectronic workpieces from the container, delivers them to the appropriate processing stations, and returns them to the container after they have been processed. Once the container has been refilled with processed microelectronic workpieces, the removable door is put back in place and the container is moved away from the enclosure.
To improve the efficiency of the foregoing operation, it may be desirable to place a relatively large number of microelectronic workpieces in a single container. It may also be desirable to increase the size of the microelectronic workpieces. Accordingly, the container can become quite heavy when fully loaded with microelectronic workpieces, making the container difficult to handle.
One known approach to addressing the foregoing problem (shown schematically in
FIGS. 1A-B
) is to provide a processing enclosure
10
with a container intake section
12
that allows containers
13
to be loaded at an ergonomically suitable height. The container
13
is translated horizontally at the intake section
12
(as indicated by arrow “T” in
FIG. 1A
) to align a removable door
16
of the container with a door remover
18
of the enclosure
10
. The door remover
18
can include a panel positioned in an aperture
15
of a movable frame
14
. The door remover
18
engages the door
16
and moves it horizontally into the enclosure, as indicated by arrow “U.” Referring to
FIG. 1B
, the frame
14
and the container
13
move upwardly together on an elevator
20
(as indicated by arrow “V”) to align the open container
13
with a robot
19
. The elevator
20
then indexes the container
13
upwardly and downwardly (as indicated by arrow “W”) to align each microelectronic workpiece in the container
13
with the robot
19
. The robot
19
transfers each workpiece to one or more processing chambers
21
for processing, and then returns each workpiece to the container
13
.
One drawback with the approach shown in
FIGS. 1A-B
is that moving the container
13
up and down to align the workpieces with the robot
19
can cause the workpieces to shift within the container
13
. As the workpieces shift, they can be damaged, or the workpieces can become misaligned relative to the robot
19
. The robot
19
may then be unable to retrieve the workpieces from the container
13
.
Another problem associated with moving microelectronic workpieces into and out of a container has been determining which positions within the container are occupied by workpieces, and whether the workpieces in the occupied positions are properly seated. One approach to addressing this problem, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,188,323 to Rosenquist et al., is to mount a scanning device on a door opener that opens the door of the container. The door opener operates by engaging the door of the container and retracting the door horizontally into the enclosure and then downwardly away from the container. As the door opener moves downwardly with the door, the scanner moves past the workpieces in the open container and scans the workpieces with a beam of light. However, this arrangement may not provide for consistent scanning results and, in some cases, the scanner can mistakenly indicate workpieces in unoccupied positions, and/or mistakenly indicate no workpieces in occupied positions.
SUMMARY
The present invention is directed toward methods and apparatuses for handling microelectronic workpieces initially positioned within a container. The container can be changeable from a first configuration with the microelectronic workpieces generally inaccessible within the container, to a second configuration with the microelectronic workpieces accessible for removal from the container. Several embodiments of the apparatus comprise a movable container support that positions the container next to an aperture of a workpiece processing tool, and then remains in a fixed, stationary position while the microelectronic workpieces are moved from the container into the tool and back again. An advantage of this feature is that microelectronic workpieces can be less likely to shift in the container because the container can remain in a fixed position while it is being accessed. Instead, a movable robot can index a sufficient amount to access each microelectronic workpiece within the container without moving the container itself.
Another feature of several embodiments of the apparatus is a scanner that scans the positions of the microelectronic workpieces (for example, with a focused beam of light) as the container is changed from the first configuration to the second configuration. The scanner can be mounted to a portion of the apparatus that does not move toward or away from the microelectronic workpieces. An advantage of this feature is that the scan be more accurate than some conventional scans because the focal point of the scanning beam has a consistent location relative to the microelectronic workpieces.
In one aspect of the invention, the apparatus can include a container access device positionable proximate to an aperture of an enclosure that at least partially encloses a region for handling the microelectronic workpiece. The container access device can be movable to change the configuration of the container from the first configuration to the second configuration. The apparatus can further include a container support movably positioned proximate to the aperture, with an actuator coupled to the container support to move the container support between a first position at a first height and a second position at a second height different than the first height. The container support can be configured to support the container in a fixed, stationary position relative to the aperture when the container is in the second configuration and positioned to have the micro
Bexten Daniel P.
Hanson Kyle M.
Harris Randy
Perkins Coie LLP
Pyo Kevin
Semitool Inc.
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