Material or article handling – Apparatus for charging a load holding or supporting element...
Reexamination Certificate
1999-04-02
2001-12-18
Fischetti, Joseph A. (Department: 2167)
Material or article handling
Apparatus for charging a load holding or supporting element...
C414S609000, C414S935000, C414S936000, C414S940000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06331095
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transportation system for transporting objects before and after processing, for example, substrates for liquid crystal display (referred as “LCD substrates” hereinafter), semiconductor wafers, or the like, and also relates to a processing apparatus equipped with the transportation system for transporting the objects.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the processing apparatus of this kind, there has been widely employed a multi-chamber type of processing apparatus. The multi-chamber processing apparatus includes a plurality of processing chambers (e.g. three chambers) for applying identical or different kinds of treatments on the objects under atmosphere of reduced pressure, a transporting chamber having a function as a second load-lock chamber connected with the processing chambers, a load-lock chamber connected with the transporting chamber as well as the processing chambers and a mechanism for delivering the LCD substrates from a carrier mounted on a mounting mechanism to the load-lock chamber and vice versa.
In operation of the above apparatus, the substrate is brought into the load-lock chamber by the carrier. The substrate loaded in the load-lock chamber is transported from the load-lock chamber into a designated processing chamber by a transporting mechanism arranged in the transporting chamber. In the processing chamber, the substrate is subjected to a film deposition process by the plasma CVD method. Thereafter, the substrate upon completion of the film deposition process is accommodated in the carrier mounted on a second mounting mechanism, in the opposite course to the above course.
As the transporting mechanism, there has been employed an articulated robot which is provided, at a tip thereof, with a catch plate for mounting the substrate thereon. Recently, for the purpose of increasing the throughput, there is used a transporting mechanism having an upper catch plate and a lower catch plate in the “two-stage” arrangement. In the mechanism, one catch plate is used in order to load the substrate into the processing chamber, while the other catch plate is used to unload the substrate from the processing chamber. Two groups of substrate lifters (substrate supporting members) are arranged on a mounting table in the processing chamber. Each group of substrate lifters is adapted so as to move up and down in accordance with the designated steps.
Thus, in the processing chamber, the catch plates do not perform vertical movement in the processing chamber, and the lifters move up and down in accordance with predetermined steps so as to carry out the delivery of the substrates between the lifters and the catch plates. In this way, the operative cooperation of the catch plates in the two-stage arrangement with two groups of substrate lifters allows the loading/unloading of the substrates and the mounting/withdrawal on and from the mounting table to be performed effectively.
In the above-mentioned system, however, the control to drive the substrate lifters is apt to be complicated. Additionally, due to the complicated motion of the substrate lifters, there is an increased possibility that particles are produced in the processing chamber disadvantageously.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, it is therefore an object of the present invention to solve the problems in the above-mentioned prior art. In detail, the object of the invention is to provide a transporting system which is capable of reducing the possibility of producing the particles in the processing chamber, shortening the time required for transporting the substrates, from what would be typical in such a mechanism using the two-stage type of catch plates, and improving the reliability of the transporting system. Furthermore, it is another object of the invention to provide a processing apparatus of high performance employing the above transporting system of the invention.
According to the first aspect of the invention, the objects of the present invention described above can be accomplished by a method of placing an object before being processed on a table and removing an object after being processed from the table, the method including the steps of: (a) causing the object after being processed on the table to be rested on the first lifters, and lifting up the object after being processed on the table to a first height by first lifters; (b) moving a transporting member to a position above the mounting table and lower than the first height; (c) raising the transporting member to a position higher than the first height, so that the object after being processed rested on the first lifters rests on the transporting member and that the object after being processed is left from the first lifters; (d) withdrawing the transporting member carrying the object after being processed from upward of the mounting table; (e) raising second lifters to a second height different from the first height; (f) moving the transporting member, on which the object before being processed rests, to a position above the table and higher than the second height; (g) lowering the transporting member carrying the object before being processed, to a position lower than the second height, so that the object before being processed carried by the transporting member rests on the second lifters and that the object to be processed is left from the transporting member; (h) withdrawing the transporting member, which the object before being processed has been left therefrom, from the table; and (i) lowering the second lifters carrying the object before being processed so that the object before being processed rests on the table.
According to the second aspect of the invention, there is also provided a transporting system for transporting an object before being processed to a table and for transporting an object after being processed on the table to another position, said transporting system including: a transporting member provided with a supporting surface for supporting the object; a horizontal driving mechanism for moving the transporting member from a position above the table to the other position; first lifters provided with respective supporting surfaces allowing the object to be supported thereon, the first lifters being capable of moving vertically and being capable of carrying the object at a first height above the table; second lifters provided with respective supporting surfaces allowing the object to be supported thereon, the first lifters being capable of moving vertically and being capable of carrying the object at a second height above the table; and a vertical driving mechanism capable of elevating the transporting member between a low position lower than the first height and a high position higher than the first height above the mounting table and also capable of elevating the transporting member between a low position lower than the second height and a high position higher than the second height above the table.
In this case, it is preferable that the transporting system further includes a sequence controller for controlling respective motions of the first lifters, the second lifters and the vertical driving mechanism. Preferably, in case of transferring the object between the transporting member and the first lifters, the sequence controller has a function to control the motions of the first lifters and the vertical driving mechanism so that, upon resting the supporting surface of the first lifters at the first height, the supporting surface of the transporting member can be moved between the low position lower than the first height and the high position higher than the first height. Preferably, in the case of transferring the object between the transporting member and the second lifters, the sequence controller has another function, to control the motions of the second lifters and the vertical driving mechanism, so that, upon resting the supporting surface of the second lifters at the second height, the supporting surface of the transportin
Fischetti Joseph A.
Smith , Gambrell & Russell, LLP
Tokyo Electron Limited
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