JPH0630349B2 - Wafer transfer jig - Google Patents

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Industrial Application] The present invention carries a boat on which a semiconductor wafer is placed into a high-temperature furnace tube to heat-treat the wafer, and unloads the boat on which the wafer has been heat-treated. For jigs for
The present invention relates to a wafer transfer jig suitable for heat treatment of a wafer boat in which a large number of large disk-shaped silicon wafers are arranged in parallel.

[Conventional technology]

Conventionally, a semiconductor wafer is heat-treated by placing a large number of the disk-shaped wafers in parallel on a boat, lifting the boat by a transfer jig and carrying it into a heat treatment furnace tube, and after heat-treating the wafer, the boat is heated. It is performed by the operation of lifting and carrying it out of the furnace. Such an operation is carried out by using a wafer boat carrying device including the carrying jig, and particularly, a horizontal movement and a slight vertical movement of a gripping member attached to the device. In the wafer conveyance jig, the non-notched tubular portion is attached to the grip member, and the wafer spacing boat is placed on the horizontal notch holding portion on the other end side.

As can be understood from this heat treatment operation, the wafer boat transfer jig attached to the transfer device has a wafer boat holder formed by notching on one side of a straight cylindrical quartz glass tube in the high temperature furnace tube. Since it is inserted, it is required to have quite stable and high heat resistance even in the high temperature region of wafer heat treatment. Therefore, as such a jig constituent material, quartz glass, silicon carbide, or the like, which has excellent heat resistance and is as pure as possible, is used.

However, with the demand for mass production of semiconductor chips and high yield, the diameter of the disk-shaped wafer to be heat-treated becomes large,
The number of heat treatments per one time also increased, and the wafer boat jig used in the heat treatment apparatus also became considerably large due to the large size of the wafer loading boat and the significant increase in the weight thereof. Therefore, the notch base of the boat holding part (the arcuate notch start part at the center of the glass tube), on which the wafer boat of a heavy jig is placed, is easily damaged by a large bending moment acting on it. Or, since the inconvenience such as the occurrence of bending is unavoidable, the solution of this problem has been an important issue in this technical field.

[Problems to be Solved by the Invention]

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a practically excellent wafer-mounting boat transportation jig in which the bending strength of the notched base portion is improved.

[Means for solving problems]

The inventors of the present invention have conducted trial research on a jig for wafer boat transportation that achieves the above object, and as a result, have developed a jig that is easy to manufacture and practically desirable.

That is, the present invention provides a wafer transfer jig having the requirements defined in claim 1.
In particular, the technical feature is that the notch start portion on the center side of the quartz glass tube and its vicinity are formed thicker than other portions and reinforced. Therefore, the reinforcement of the notch start portion (base portion) of the quartz glass tube jig of the present invention is considered so that the notch base portion and the vicinity thereof have the strength to withstand the loading and unloading of the wafer mounting boat.

Quartz glass jigs currently used have, for example, an outer diameter of approximately
100-120mm, length about 2100-2500mm and wall thickness about 4.5-5mm
The large cylindrical quartz glass tube of which the wafer boat mounting portion is formed by cutting out from one end to approximately 800 to 900 mm, and the weight thereof reaches, for example, 2 kg or more. In consideration of operability, it is preferable that the degree of reinforcement is as small as possible to reduce the weight, and the range is as small as possible to realize a predetermined effect.

Further, in the jig as described above, a large force acts on the end portion of the tubular portion attached to the jig holding member of the wafer transfer device, so the holding portion should be formed thick to reinforce it. Is highly preferred.

Such a jig of the present invention is, for example, a thin-walled tube made of quartz glass and having a predetermined length is linearly integrated with both ends or one end of a thick-walled tube made of quartz glass. Welded on to create a single quartz glass tube with different thickness,
It can be easily manufactured by cutting out the predetermined portion. Similarly, create an integral quartz glass tube with thick portions at both ends, cut out one end, and use a thin quartz glass plate with a thin arc shape in cross section that was created in advance. It is also possible to weld it to the edge of the above, or it is also possible to form the above-mentioned integral quartz glass tube having a partially different thickness by a reservoir or the like.

[Action]

The jig for wafer conveyance of the present invention is relatively lightweight even with a large size and excellent in operability, and moreover, a large amount of large-diameter wafers can be stably and efficiently carried in and out of the furnace for heat treatment.

〔Example〕

Next, the jig of the present invention will be described in more detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a usage state of an example of a wafer boat carrying jig of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an axial sectional view of the jig.

In the figure, a jig 1 is started in an arcuate notch at a portion near the center of a quartz glass cylindrical body, for example, a portion (notch start portion) 2 that is about 1/3 from one end, and is continuously connected to the notch The wafer boat holding portion 3 is formed by a notch parallel to the axis. Then, in the vicinity of the arcuate notch start portion 2, a thick layer 4 thicker than the thickness of the other portion is formed, and the thick layer has the same thickness as that of the other portion. Compared with this, for example, it is reinforced to a thickness of about 3 times, but practically, it is selected from the range of about 1.8 to 3.5 times. Further, as shown in the figure, the thick layer forming region is formed so that the notch side is long and the cylindrical side is short, and the forming range from the notch start portion 2 to the notch side is the axial direction. About 25 to 30% of the cutout length, and about 7 to 13% of the cutout length is practically adopted as the range of formation on the cylindrical side. However, these ranges can be appropriately changed in relation to the degree of reinforcement wall thickness and other conditions. By such reinforcement, in particular, the occurrence of damage or bending near the notch side can be effectively prevented, and a boat on which a large number of large-diameter wafers are placed can be stably placed, and this can be stably performed. Provided is a jig that can hold a workpiece and safely carry it.

Further, the end portion of the non-notched cylindrical portion of the jig is formed in the thick-walled pipe 5 over a length such that the portion gripped by the movement operation member of the wafer transfer device can be sufficiently reinforced.

As shown in FIG. 1, the jig 1 has its cylindrical reinforcing end portion 5 firmly attached to the movement operating member 7 of the wafer transfer device 6, and the wafer 8 is separated from the holding portion 3 of the jig. After placing the placed boat 9, the boat 9 is moved straight in the axial direction, the boat 9 is inserted from the heat treatment furnace carry-in port 10, and then the boat 9 is slowly lowered into the furnace and left out. Further, after the wafer heat treatment, the wafer boat is carried out of the furnace by a completely opposite operation.

Example 1 The jig used had an outer diameter of about 100 mm, a length of about 2510 mm, and a wall thickness of about
Approximately 800 mm was cut out from one end of a 4.5 mm cylindrical quartz glass tube and formed on the wafer boat mounting part,
In the vicinity of the notch start base on the center side of the jig, a uniform thick layer of about 12 mm is formed over the cut side of about 223 mm and the cylinder side of about 55 mm, but the thick layer on the cylinder side is The thickness change layer is formed over 44 mm.

Using such a jig of the present invention, loading and unloading were repeatedly carried out in a furnace having a temperature of about 1150 ° C.

On the other hand, a similar wafer boat heat treatment operation was performed using a jig having a similar size and shape that was not thickened.

The average life of the jig of the present invention was quite safe even after 56 times of use, whereas the conventional one failed after only 32 times.

Example 2 Using the same jig of the present invention as described above, in order to heat-treat a wafer boat on which a large number of wafers having an outer diameter of 5 inches are placed, the number of wafers to be carried in and out of a furnace tube having an inner diameter of 173 mm Was repeated and repeated.

The jig of the present invention was capable of loading and unloading up to an average of 250 wafers, but in the conventional jig, it was difficult to load and unload due to an average of about 160 deflections or damage.

〔The invention's effect〕

According to the reinforced wafer transfer jig of the present invention, there is substantially no damage or bending due to a wafer boat, it has excellent durability, and has a high practical value as a transfer device for large-diameter wafer heat treatment.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a usage state of an example of a jig of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a sectional view of the jig. Reference numerals in the figure: 1 ... Jig 2 ... Notch start portion 3 ... Wafer holding portion 4 ... Thick layer 6 ... Wafer transfer device 7 ... Moving operation member 8 ... Wafer 9 ... Boat

Continuation of front page (56) References JP-A-58-111343 (JP, A) JP-A-58-111342 (JP, A) Design registration 665992 (JP, S)

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A wafer heat treatment carrying jig in which one end side of a cylindrical quartz glass tube is axially cut out to form a wafer boat holding portion, and a cutout having an arcuate cross section at the center side of the tube is formed. A wafer transfer jig in which the thickness of the starting portion and its vicinity is made thicker than other portions. 2. The carrying jig according to claim 1, wherein the end portion of the tubular portion which is not cut is formed thick.