Material or article handling – Apparatus for moving material between zones having different... – For carrying standarized mechanical interface type
Reexamination Certificate
2002-08-16
2004-10-26
Dillon, Jr., Joe (Department: 3651)
Material or article handling
Apparatus for moving material between zones having different...
For carrying standarized mechanical interface type
C414S939000, C414S940000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06808352
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method for transporting substrates, to a load port apparatus, and to a substrate transport system.
Specific applications of the invention relate to the use and structure of a substrate transport method and those of a substrate transport system, which transports substrates container to contain substrates.
2. Background Art
The invention relates to, as a typical example, an airtight substrate container for housing and transporting substrates at the time of manufacture of a semiconductor device or liquid-crystal display device, as well as to a load port apparatus for taking the substrates housed in the substrate container into a substrate processing system. The invention will be described hereinbelow by means of taking manufacture of a semiconductor device as an example.
FIG. 8
is a perspective view for describing a known side-door-integral-type substrate container to be used for manufacture of a semiconductor device.
This container is listed in, e.g., a catalogue of FLUOROWARE Co., Ltd. A substrate container of this type is called a FOUP according to the SEMI standards. Here, the word “FOUP” is an abbreviation of “front opening unified pod.” Information about detailed dimensions of the FOUP is provided in e.g. E62, E1.9 and E47.1 of the SEMI standards.
Reference numeral
100
shown in
FIG. 8
designates a wafer carrier serving as a substrate container. Here, the wafer carrier is described by reference to a FOUP standardized by the SEMI standards. As shown in
FIG. 8
, reference numeral
2
designates a carrier door whose surface is partially cut away.
Here, the wafer carrier
100
has a carrier shell
1
and the carrier door
2
. Boards can be loaded or unloaded by way of the carrier door
2
into the wafer carrier
100
.
In the wafer carrier
100
, substrates are supported by wafer teeth
10
provided inside a carrier shell
1
and by retainers
11
provided on the carrier door
2
.
In a state in which the carrier door
2
is closed, the inside of the wafer carrier
100
is a sealed space, and substrates are protected from extraneous matter in the atmosphere or chemical contamination.
Transporting substrates to a substrate processing system where the substrates are to be subjected to required processing requires a load port apparatus having a mechanism for unloading substrates stored in the wafer carrier
100
and taking the substrates into the substrate processing system. For instance, the FOUP corresponds to a load port apparatus having an FIMS surface standardized by the SEMI standards.
The word “FIMS” is an abbreviation of “front-opening interface mechanical standard.”
FIG. 9
is a schematic cross-sectional view showing a load port apparatus
300
provided in the substrate processing system when the wafer carrier
100
is placed on the load port apparatus
300
.
The load port apparatus
300
has kinematic pins
31
A to be used for placing the wafer carrier
100
at a given position on a table section
30
of the load port apparatus; and a load port door (FIMS door)
32
which performs opening and closing actions upon docking with the carrier door
2
.
In this system, after the wafer carrier
100
housing substrates
19
has been placed on the load port apparatus
300
, the load port door (FIMS door)
32
docks with the carrier door
2
of the wafer carrier
100
, thereby opening the carrier door
2
. At this time, the load port door
32
and the carrier door
2
that have docked with each other are stored at a predetermined location within the substrate processing system.
In such a system, when the carrier door
2
is opened or closed, external air enters the wafer carrier
100
. At this time, extraneous matter or the like also enters the wafer carrier
100
while being mixed with the external air and adheres to the substrates stored in the wafer carrier
100
. Adhesion of such extraneous matter potentially induces pattern failures or the like, and hence countermeasures against the extraneous matter must be taken in some way.
To this end, the load port apparatus is dimensionally designed and centered such that compatibility regarding dimensional accuracy and clearance is maintained among all FOUPs without involvement of a problem. There is prevented occurrence of extraneous matter, which would otherwise be caused by longitudinal, horizontal, or vertical offsets of the wafer carrier.
Gentle opening and closing of a door is implemented by means of lowering opening and closing speeds of a door or changing the speed or acceleration of the door at the time of opening the door. Alternatively, gentle opening and closing of the door is embodied by use of cams or springs. These measures prevent flow, into the wafer carrier, of external air including extraneous matter, which would otherwise be caused by friction of a packing or door.
In one type of load port apparatus, a movable section is changed from an upper location to a lower location for preventing adhesion of extraneous matter to the substrates even when the extraneous matter has developed from a movable section for detecting presence/absence of substrates or measuring the heights of substrates, such as a mapper.
A certain substrate processing system is constructed such that the inside of the system is maintained at a pressure higher than the pressure of the outside air, whereby the load port apparatus can effect blowout incessantly. Even if slight influx has developed, influx of outside air into the wafer carrier is prevented.
A carrier door of the wafer carrier is opened or closed by means of pulling away or pressing. The opening and closing actions of the carrier door will now be described by reference to
FIGS. 10A through 10D
.
FIGS. 10A
to
10
D are views showing the opening or closing states of the wafer carrier door.
FIGS. 10A and 10B
are views showing a state in which the carrier door is closed.
FIGS. 10C and 10D
are views showing a state in which the carrier door is opened.
As shown in
FIG. 10A
, when the carrier door
2
is closed, the carrier door
2
is pushed in the direction of the arrow. A narrow clearance is usually present between the carrier door
2
and a portion
1
A of the carrier shell
1
opposing the same. Hence, when the carrier door
2
has started closing, an internal atmosphere of the wafer carrier
100
encounters difficulty in escaping outside. Accordingly, the inside of the wafer carrier
100
is pressurized by means of only an amount corresponding to the volume of the thus-pushed carrier door
2
.
As shown in
FIG. 10B
, measures for releasing an internal atmosphere of the wafer carrier
100
to the outside can be taken by means of arranging the carrier shell so that the portion
1
A of the carrier shell
1
opposing the carrier door
2
can be opened outside when the carrier door
2
is pushed. By means of the measures, even when extraneous matter has developed at the time of closing of the carrier door, the extraneous matter is carried by the flow of the atmosphere escaping from the inside of the carrier to the outside, thus preventing entry of the extraneous matter into the wafer carrier.
As shown in
FIG. 10C
, when the carrier door
2
is opened, the carrier door
2
is pulled away in the direction of the arrow. Even in this case, the clearance between the portion
1
A of the carrier shell
1
and the carrier door
2
is usually narrow. Hence, the inside of the wafer carrier
100
is depressurized by only an amount corresponding to the volume of a withdrawn carrier door
2
.
In this case, since the outside air has a positive pressure as compared with the depressurized inside of the carrier, the outside air can flow into the wafer carrier
100
, as indicated by the arrows shown in FIG.
10
D. For example, as shown in
FIG. 10D
, if extraneous matter has developed as a result of slight offset of the carrier door
2
, the extraneous matter flows into the wafer carrier
100
while being carried by the flow into the wafer carrier
100
. If the extraneous matter that has entered the wafer carrier
100
adhe
Dillon, Jr. Joe
Foley & Lardner LLP
Semiconductor Leading Edge Technolgies, Inc.
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