Data processing: generic control systems or specific application – Specific application – apparatus or process – Article handling
Patent
1997-12-08
2000-02-29
Terrell, William E.
Data processing: generic control systems or specific application
Specific application, apparatus or process
Article handling
901 30, 901 35, 901 46, G06F 1700
Patent
active
060320834
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a substrate transfer apparatus for transferring a substrate, e.g., a semiconductor wafer, and a heat treatment system using the same.
BACKGROUND ART
For example, a semiconductor manufacturing process has a step of heat-treating a semiconductor wafer as a substrate. Recently, a heat treatment apparatus which batch-treats a large number of wafers is used in order to effectively achieve required heat treatment. In such a heat treatment apparatus, usually, a wafer boat made of quartz and mounting a large number of wafers thereon is accommodated in a heat treatment chamber, and the wafers are heat-treated in this heat treatment chamber. Regarding this heat treatment, first, the wafers accommodated in a wafer carrier made of a resin, e.g., Teflon, are transferred therefrom onto the wafer boat to be subjected to heat treatment. After predetermined heat treatment is performed, the wafers are transferred from the wafer boat to the wafer carrier.
This wafer transfer operation is performed by a transfer apparatus arranged between the wafer carrier and the wafer boat. In this transfer apparatus, the transfer apparatus main body is moved in the vertical direction and the angular direction in accordance with an operation pattern predetermined by the control mechanism so that it is located at a transfer operation position. Also, a wafer carrying fork serving as a treatment target carrying member arranged in the apparatus main body is moved in the horizontal back-and-forth direction. The wafers are transferred between the wafer carrier and the wafer boat by these operations.
In the actual transfer operation, the fork of the transfer apparatus must perform wafer placing and extracting operations while maintaining an appropriate positional relationship with the target position of the arranged substrate holding member, e.g., the carrier or wafer boat, or with the wafer to be transferred.
The position where the wafer carrier or wafer boat is placed, the posture with which the wafer carrier or wafer boat is placed, and the state of the wafer support grooves are not always the same. More specifically, sometimes the wafer carrier or wafer boat is placed in an inclined state, and various types of displacements may occur in the wafer carrier or wafer boat itself. For example, in the wafer boat, thermal deformation can occur in the heat treatment step. Deformation or strain may occur in the wafer boat due to cleaning performed in order to remove contaminants that attach to the wafer boat during heat treatment. Furthermore, a wafer boat having a specific displacement in itself may be replaced. In the carrier, deformation tends to occur entirely or partly since the carrier is made of a resin.
When various types of these displacements occur in the wafer support member, or when the wafer support state of the wafer support member is inappropriate, the operation position of the fork of the transfer apparatus controlled in accordance with the basic operation pattern is actually relatively displaced from the wafer to be transferred, and the aimed transfer operation cannot be sufficiently performed accordingly. For example, in the wafer extracting operation, sometimes the target wafer cannot be placed on the fork in the aimed state. In the wafer placing operation, sometimes the wafer cannot be accurately inserted, or cannot be inserted at all, in the support groove of the wafer support member.
From these reasons, when a carrier or wafer boat is newly arranged, an operation called teaching is performed so that a transfer operation, which matches it, is performed.
This teaching is an operation of presetting in the apparatus the coordinate values of the respective wafer grooves of the wafer boat and the coordinate values of the wafer support portion of the corresponding carrier. The basic operation pattern of the transfer apparatus is adjusted based on this teaching.
In this case, the groove width of the wafer boat is 3 mm, the thickness of the wafer is 1 mm, and accordingly, the clearance a
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Terrell William E.
Tokyo Electron Limited
Tran Khoi H.
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