Thin substrate transferring apparatus

Details Thin substrate transferring apparatus Thin substrate transferring apparatus

1999-04-08

2001-05-22

Bratlie, Steven A. (Department: 3652)

Material or article handling

Device for emptying portable receptacle

Nongravity type

C414S744300, C414S937000, C414S941000

Reexamination Certificate

active

06234738

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transferring apparatus for transferring a thin substrate such as a wafer, a glass substrate or the like, and further to a transferring apparatus having an articulated robot constructed so as to reduce the swivel radius.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
In general, a thin substrate, such as a silicon wafer, a glass substrate or the like, is processed and transferred within a clean room. Therefore also a transferring apparatus for transferring a thin substrate is installed within a clean room, and has an arm body to be swiveled in the horizontal direction so that the thin substrate is transferred from the prescribed position to the position for the substrate to be processed. In the prior art, a transfer robot arranged within the transferring apparatus has a hand supporting the thin substrate and a drive unit which rotates the hand or moves it up and down, and the drive unit is arranged within a machine bed. A transfer robot
110
shown in
FIG. 16
is known well usually, and has a machine bed
111
, an arm body
112
which is rotated or moved up and down with respect to the bed
11
and is flexional, and a hand
113
which is rotatable with respect to the arm body
112
at the top end of the arm body
112
. The arm body
112
is constituted by two arms, a first arm
114
which is rotated with respect to the machine bed
111
by a motor (not shown) arranged within the machine bed
111
, and a second arm
115
which is adjacent at the top end of the first arm
114
. The first arm
114
and the second arm
115
are driven and transmitted by a pulley belt (not shown), and by the driving and transmission, the second arm
115
is rotated with respect to the first arm
114
. The robot
110
having the arm body
112
and the hand
113
attracts a thin substrate housed within a cassette (not shown) and is moved linearly, thereby the thin substrate can be taken out or taken in without contacting with both ends of the cassette.
In the transfer robot in the prior art, however, since the hand is moved linearly by the flexion of the two arms, the moving area of the hand is limited. Therefore when there are many processings of the work or when the work is moved to a remote distance in one process, a rail is installed below the robot and the robot itself is moved along the rail. However, when the robot itself is moved, a space for the transferring apparatus itself becomes large and the installation cost is increased. In order to solve the problems, such improvement has been tried that the number of arms is increased and a motor is mounted to a part of respective swivel units and an articulated robot raising the degree of freedom of the moving trajectory of the arm is arranged thereby the transfer stroke of the substrate is lengthened and the moving of the robot itself is eliminated.
However, when the moving of the hand is performed by simply increasing the number of arms and the horizontal swivel is performed, the swivel radius becomes large and the distance between the robot and the cassette within the transferring apparatus or the distance between the processing stage must be set large thereby the apparatus becomes large scale.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems in the prior art, an object of the present invention is to provide a thin substrate transferring apparatus which is constructed compactly by decreasing the swivel radius of an arm of a robot.
Therefore a thin substrate transferring apparatus of the present invention comprises at least a cassette for housing a thin substrate, at least one processing unit for processing the thin substrate, and an articulated robot capable of supporting the thin substrate and transferring it to the processing unit, where the articulated robot has primary swivel means driven so as to transfer the thin substrate to the vicinity of the cassette or the processing unit, and secondary swivel means driven so as to transfer the thin substrate into the cassette or the processing unit, and the primary swivel means is supported rotatable to the machine bed and the secondary swivel means is supported to the movable machine bed supported to the primary swivel means and is provided with a hand supporting the thin substrate and is swiveled in the horizontal direction. Since the primary swivel means is moved substantially in parallel to the cassette or the processing unit and the secondary swivel means is moved substantially orthogonal to the cassette or the processing unit separately from the primary swivel means, the transfer stroke of the hand can be lengthened and the swivel radius can be made small. Therefore the distance between the cassette for housing the substrate and the processing unit for processing the substrate can be set short and the whole apparatus can be made compact. Also if the primary swivel means is constituted to be swiveled in the vertical direction, since the movement of the Z-axis and the Y-axis of the hand is performed by the primary swivel means, the Z-axis drive unit of the hand arranged in the prior art can be omitted and the robot itself can be, compact, and also since the movement of the Y-axis of the hand is performed by the primary swivel means, in comparison with the robot in the prior art, the transfer stroke can be lengthened significantly and the apparatus itself can be made compact.
Also if the primary swivel means is swiveled in the horizontal direction, since the movement of the Y-axis of the hand is performed by the primary swivel means, in comparison with the robot in the prior art, the transfer stroke can be lengthened significantly and the apparatus itself can be made compact.
Also if the secondary swivel means has two arm sets, since the substrate can be transferred in or transferred out continuously, the throughput in the processing unit can be improved.
Further if the secondary swivel means has two hands, since the substrate can be transferred in or transferred out continuously, the throughput in the processing unit can be improved.
An articulated robot for transferring a thin substrate according to the present invention comprises primary swivel means driven so as to transfer the thin substrate to the vicinity of a cassette or a processing unit, and secondary swivel means driven so as to transfer the thin substrate into the cassette or the processing unit, where the primary swivel means is supported to be swiveled in the vertical direction to a machine bed, and the secondary swivel means is supported to a movable machine bed supported to the primary swivel means and is provided with a hand supporting the thin substrate and is swiveled in the horizontal direction. Since the primary swivel means is moved substantially in parallel to the cassette or the processing unit and the secondary swivel means is moved substantially orthogonal to the cassette housing the arranged thin substrate or the processing unit for processing the thin substrate separately from the swivel means, the transfer stroke of the hand can be lengthened and the swivel radius can be made small. Therefore the distance between the cassette housing the substrate and the processing unit for processing the substrate can be set short and the whole apparatus can be made compact.
In the robot, if the primary swivel means has two vertical swivel arms joined by the common shaft and the first vertical swivel arm is supported to be swiveled by a first drive motor supported to the machine frame and one end of the second vertical swivel arm is supported to the movable machine bed and is arranged to be swiveled by a second drive motor connected to the common shaft, the primary swivel means can be flexed freely in the vertical direction and the thin substrate can be moved to the vicinity of the processing unit.
Also if the movable machine bed in the robot is arranged to be swiveled by a third drive motor connected to the second vertical swivel arm, the secondary swivel means can be always swiveled in the horizontal direction irrespective of the swi

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