Wafer carrying system and carrying method thereof

Details Wafer carrying system and carrying method thereof Wafer carrying system and carrying method thereof

2001-05-03

2003-04-15

Matecki, Kathy (Department: 3654)

Material or article handling

Apparatus for charging a load holding or supporting element...

C318S568160

Reexamination Certificate

active

06547504

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention broadly relates to a wafer carrying system, and in particular, to a wafer carrying system including an intermediate cassette device having a plurality of wafer support holders, a robot arm device for carrying a wafer, an aligner unit for aligning the wafer, and a wafer feed and storage cassette, and to a carrying method thereof.
Shown in
FIG. 5B
is a cross-sectional view of the wafer holding and rotating part
31
. The wafer holding and rotating part
31
includes a vacuum chuck. The vacuum chuck has an opening
31
-
3
located at the top surface of
31
. The opening
31
-
3
continues to a pathway for vacuum line
31
-
2
. Vacuum drains
31
-
4
are compartments of suction opening
31
-
3
. The wafer holding and rotating part
31
is holds wafer
22
by vacuum power.
Conventionally, as shown in
FIG. 1
, a wafer
101
is carried once from a wafer cassette
104
to an aligner unit
102
by a robot arm
105
, and then, the aligned wafer
101
is carried to an intermediate cassette (shuttle)
103
.
More specifically, the wafer
101
is aligned by the aligner unit
102
separately located from the intermediate cassette
103
to appropriately set the rotational position of the wafer
101
using a mark such as an orientation flat (a notch), and then, the wafer
101
is loaded on the intermediate cassette
103
. Herein, it is to be noted that numeral
105
denotes a main cassette (a vacuum cassette) while numeral
106
denotes an unloading cassette (a shuttle).
For example, when the wafer
101
is carried from the wafer cassette
104
to the intermediate cassette
103
, the carrying path is: the wafer cassette
104
→(carriage by the robot arm
105
)→the aligner unit
102
→(carriage by the robot arm
105
)→the intermediate cassette
103
; and thus two carriages by the robot are necessary.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a wafer carrying system which is capable of carrying each wafer in single operation of a robot device, and which is capable of shortening the changing time of a treated wafer with an untreated wafer, and a carrying method thereof.
According to an aspect of the present invention, a wafer carrying system comprises an intermediate cassette device having a plurality of wafer support holders, a robot arm device to carry the wafer, an aligner unit mounted below and extendable into the intermediate cassette device to align the wafer, and a wafer feed and storage cassette.
With such a structure, the wafer held by the robot arm device is transferred to the aligner unit, and aligned in the intermediate cassette device, and then, directly delivered from the aligner unit to a plurality of wafer support holders of the intermediate cassette device.
The aligner unit has a positioner, and the wafer is centered by the positioner and transferred to a wafer holding and rotating part by the vertical movement of the wafer holding and rotating part of the aligner unit or the positioner.
Further, the wafer is centered by the positioner on the aligner unit in which the positioner is provided in a concentric manner, is transferred to the wafer holding and rotating part of the aligner unit, and is delivered to a next process by the vertical movement of the whole aligner unit.
The center of the aligner unit and the wafer loading center of the intermediate cassette device are disposed concentrically with each other.
The aligner unit is horizontally moved to the intermediate cassette device to transfer the wafer so that the center of the aligner unit and the wafer loading center of the intermediate cassette device are disposed concentrically with each other.
The intermediate cassette device is horizontally moved to the aligner unit so that the center of the aligner unit and the wafer loading center of the intermediate cassette device are disposed concentrically with each other.
The center of the positioner of the aligner unit and the center of the wafer holding and rotating part of the aligner are disposed concentrically with each other in the vertical direction.
The aligner unit can be vertically raised/lowered, and wafers are successively loaded from the aligner unit to an upper end of the stage to a lower end of the stage of a plurality of wafer support holders of the intermediate cassette device by the raising/lowering operation of the aligner unit.
The aligner unit is disposed on the wafer-loading-center locus on a wafer insertion path of the intermediate cassette device, and the aligner unit is horizontally moved to receive the wafer from the robot arm device.
The aligner unit is horizontally moved and receives the wafer from the robot arm device, and the intermediate cassette device is vertically moved to transfer the wafer.
The plurality of wafer support holders of the intermediate cassette device have an open-bottom cavity space part, and the aligner unit can be vertically raised/lowered within this among the cavity space part.
The positioner and the wafer holding and rotating part of the aligner unit can be vertically raised/lowered among the open-bottom cavity space part of the plurality of wafer support holders of the intermediate cassette device.
The intermediate cassette device can be vertically raised/lowered, and the wafers are successively transferred from said aligner unit to the plurality of wafer support holders of the intermediate cassette device, and moved from an upper stage to a lower stage of the intermediate cassette device by the raising/lowering operation of the intermediate cassette device.
The aligner unit is disposed on the horizontal moving line of the intermediate cassette device or on a wafer-loading-center locus during the rotation by the shuttle drive, the wafer is delivered by horizontally moving the intermediate cassette device, toward the aligner unit and the aligner unit is vertically moved.
The intermediate cassette device is horizontally moved to deliver the wafer, and the intermediate cassette device is vertically moved.
The wafer is delivered from the robot arm device to the aligner unit, the vertical position of which can be changed by up/down movement, and the aligner unit or the intermediate cassette is vertically moved to receive and transfer the wafer.
The robot arm device is vertically moved during the carriage of the wafer from the feed and storage cassette, and the wafer is delivered to the aligner unit, the position of which can be changed by vertical movement, and the aligner unit or the intermediate cassette is vertically moved to receive and load the wafer.
The wafers are loaded in the empty wafer holding shelves of the intermediate cassette device, the intermediate cassette device is unloaded, then the same reloading process occurs.
A sensor to detect an orientation flat (or notch) of the wafer is installed in an inclined stance on the aligner unit.
The untreated wafer is automatically carried into a wafer (vacuum) treatment chamber from a vacuum container, and the treated wafer is automatically carried out of the wafer (vacuum) treatment chamber to the vacuum container.
The main cassette device (vacuum cassette) which has untreated or treated wafers is stored in a sealed box for continuous transfer into the wafer treatment chamber.
The feed and storage cassette device is stored in a sealed box for continuous transfer into a clean room.
The aligner unit can be advanced into a holding part of the main cassette device, and the main cassette device or the aligner unit is vertically moved to receive or to transfer the wafer from the aligner unit.
The robot arm device is horizontally movable between a plurality of the wafer feed cassettes.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a wafer carrying system comprises a wafer carrying device to collectively deliver a plurality of wafers between a plurality of wafer holding shelves in a vacuum cassette device provided in a treatment device in a vacuum chamber, including a wafer-loading shuttle device and a wafer-unloading shuttle device disposed at the side of the vacuum casse

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