JPH09246357A - Semiconductor wafer simultaneous orientation method and its device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a simultaneous orientation method and a device capable of simultaneously orienting semiconductor wafers in a carrier in a short time. SOLUTION: Wafers 10 are held with corresponding driving rollers 30 and freely rotatable holding rollers 20 as they are housed in a carrier 90, and the wafers 10 are coaxially disposed in a vertical axis. Then, the wafers 10 are lifted up coming into no contact with the carrier 90 and simultaneously rotated with the driving rollers 30, the cutouts 11 of the wafers 10 are detected by a photosensor 30 to simultaneously orient the wafers 10. Thereafter, the driving rollers 30 and the holding rollers 20 are made to descend and recede from the wafers 10, and all the wafers 10 are housed in the carrier 90 as oriented in the same direction.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for simultaneously aligning a plurality of semiconductor wafers housed in a carrier substantially coaxially and in parallel with each other, and an apparatus therefor. In detail, all of the fine arcuate notches for alignment provided at one point of each peripheral edge of a plurality of wafers housed in the carrier at a constant interval and substantially coaxially parallel to each other are parallel to the axis. The present invention relates to a semiconductor wafer simultaneous alignment method and apparatus for aligning the directions of all wafers simultaneously by arranging them on a line.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art It is well known that a large number of square chips are manufactured by cutting circular semiconductor wafers along parallel lines perpendicular to each other. In the manufacture of chips by cutting a semiconductor wafer, as shown in FIG. 3, all the plurality of wafers 10 housed in a carrier 90 coaxially in parallel at regular intervals must be aligned. Therefore, a minute arcuate notch 11 for orientation is provided at one point on the peripheral edge of each wafer 10, and the notches 11 of all the wafers 10 are oriented so as to be arranged on the same straight line parallel to the axis. Matching is done.
In the past, a wafer partially cut into a circular shape by a chord was used for alignment, but a wafer having the arcuate notch 11 formed therein is adopted in order to improve the chip yield. It became so.

As a conventional example of a method / apparatus for aligning the wafer 10 provided with the minute arcuate notches 11,
As shown in FIG. 3, an aligner 6 for aligning the directions one by one
It is known that a carrier robot 7 for transferring the wafers 10 one by one between the carrier 90 and the carrier 90 is combined.

To explain this, the transfer robot 7
Is configured to transfer the wafer 10 between the carrier 90 and the aligner 6 by a transfer member 7B attached to the tip of an arm 7A having a plurality of joints, which is lifted / lowered / refracted by the drive control mechanism 7D. ing. Further, when the aligner 6 detects that the notch 11 has passed a predetermined position by an optical sensor (not shown) such as an infrared sensor while the wafer 10 set by the transfer member 7B is rotated, At that point, the wafer 10 is configured to be stopped.

[0005]

However, since the wafers 10 are transferred back and forth one by one between the carrier 90 and the aligner 6 and are aligned, the entire wafers 1 are aligned.
It takes a long time to complete the alignment of 0,
It has the disadvantage of high cost.

Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a semiconductor wafer simultaneous alignment method and apparatus which can align the wafers 10 in a carrier 90 at the same time and in a short time. To provide.

[0007]

In order to achieve the above object, a method for simultaneously orienting all semiconductor wafers (10) of a plurality of semiconductors according to the first invention is a carrier (90). ), A plurality of wafers (10) each provided with a minute arcuate notch (11) for aligning at one point of the peripheral edge thereof are held horizontally in a plurality of stages substantially in parallel with each other in the vertical direction. All wafers (1) are held by the rotatable holding roller (20) and the driving roller (30) corresponding to each wafer (10).
0) are arranged vertically coaxially, then all the wafers (10) are lifted in a non-contact state with the carrier (90), and the respective driving rollers (20) rotate and drive the respective wafers (10) all at once. While the (10) rotates, the optical sensor (4
0) detects that the notch (11) has passed a predetermined position on its rotation orbit, it stops the corresponding drive roller (30) and stops all the drive rollers (30). When the wafer (10) is aligned, the holding roller (20) and the entire driving roller (30) are lowered to the original position, and the holding roller (20) and the entire driving roller (30) are grasped. By unwinding, all the wafers (10) are accommodated in a state of being aligned with the carrier (90) (Claim 1).

The semiconductor wafer simultaneous alignment device for simultaneously aligning the directions of all the wafers (10) of a plurality of semiconductors according to the second invention is housed in a carrier (90), and each of the semiconductor wafers has a fine alignment pattern at one point on the periphery. Circular arc notch (1
In a state where a plurality of wafers (10) provided with (1) are held horizontally in a plurality of stages substantially in parallel with each other in a direction substantially coaxial with the vertical direction, the wafer is held corresponding to the rotatable holding roller (20) and the carrier (10) is held. 90) and a plurality of drive rollers (30) corresponding to the respective wafers (10) to be rotationally driven after being lifted in a non-contact state, and notches (1) of the rotating wafers (10).
An optical sensor (40) for detecting that 1) has passed a predetermined position on the rotation path, and a notch (11) from the optical sensor (40) has passed a predetermined position on the rotation path. While holding the relative positional relationship between the controller (50) that stops the corresponding drive roller (30) based on the signal to align all the wafers (10), and the relative position of all the wafers (10) Roller (20) and drive roller (3
0) are respectively moved in the radial horizontal direction to grip and release the wafer (10), and by lifting and lowering, the carrier (90) is lifted in a non-contact state and returned to the carrier (90). And a roller moving mechanism (80) for controlling the movement (claim 2).

Symbols in parentheses indicate corresponding elements or corresponding matters in the description of embodiments of the invention which will be given later with reference to the drawings.

According to the first and second aspects of the present invention, in the state where a plurality of wafers are accommodated in the carrier, each wafer is held by the corresponding driving roller and rotatable holding roller, and all the wafers are held. Are arranged vertically coaxially. Next, the carrier is lifted in a non-contact state, and the respective driving rollers simultaneously drive and rotate the respective wafers. Further, the notches are detected by the optical sensor while the respective wafers rotate, and the orientations are simultaneously performed. Therefore, it is possible to significantly reduce the time and cost as compared with the conventional aligner.

[0011]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the first and second inventions will be described with reference to the drawings. The same parts as those in the conventional example are denoted by the same reference numerals, and description thereof will be omitted. 1 is a plan view of a semiconductor wafer simultaneous alignment apparatus according to an embodiment of the first and second inventions, and FIG. 2 is a front view of FIG.

The semiconductor wafer 10 is in the shape of a thin disk, and is provided with a minute arcuate notch 11 for aligning at one point on the peripheral edge. In addition, a plurality of wafers 10 are carrier 90
, And is horizontally held in a plurality of narrow shelves (partitions) provided on the inner surface of the carrier 90 in a substantially coaxial parallel to the vertical direction.

The embodiment of the first invention is constructed as follows. That is, each of the wafers 10 housed in the carrier 90 is first grasped from both sides by the corresponding driving roller 30 and each rotatable holding roller 20, and arranged vertically coaxially. Next, all the wafers 10 arranged vertically coaxially are lifted from below without contacting the carrier 90, and are simultaneously driven by the driving rollers 30 to rotate. While each wafer 10 rotates,
An optical sensor 40 such as an infrared sensor detects whether or not the notch 11 has passed a predetermined position on its rotation trajectory. When it is detected that the notch 11 has passed, the driving roller 30 that drives the wafer 10 is controlled to stop. As a result, the wafer 10 is stopped in the aligned state. After all the wafers 10 stopped in the aligned state as described above, all the driving rollers 30 and the holding rollers 20 are lowered, and the holding by the all driving rollers 30 and the holding rollers 20 is released. The carrier 90 is accommodated in a state of being aligned.

An embodiment of the second invention, which describes an apparatus for carrying out the first invention, will be described.
As described above, the plurality of wafers 10 are held horizontally in a plurality of stages that are substantially coaxial and parallel to the vertical direction. A driving roller 30 for driving each wafer 10 has a cylindrical driving body 31 abutting against the corresponding wafer 10 fixed to the upper end of a vertical shaft 35 driven by a driving device such as a motor M. A brim-shaped support plate 36 that supports the wafer 10 from below is provided at the lower end of the protrusion 31. The heights of the driving bodies 31 and the support plate 36 are set to different values according to the heights of the corresponding wafers 10.

Further, a plurality of wafers 10 held horizontally in a plurality of stages substantially coaxially parallel to each other in the vertical direction are held together with the corresponding drive rollers 30 and supported from below.
Is configured as follows. That is, each of the two vertical shafts 21 is rotatably supported in multiple stages, and each of the wafers 10 is rotatably held by a cylindrical rotating body 22. A brim-shaped support plate 23 is provided so as to support. Therefore, two holding rollers 20 are arranged for one wafer 10, but the number thereof is determined in order to stably hold and hold the wafer 10, and the number is not limited to this. Absent.

In the second invention, an optical sensor 40 is further provided for detecting that the notch 11 of each rotating wafer 10 has passed a predetermined position on the rotation path. Further, based on a signal that the notch 11 from the optical sensor 40 has passed a predetermined position on the rotation path, the control device 50 that stops the corresponding driving roller 30 and aligns all the wafers 10 is detected. It is provided.

Finally, the roller moving mechanism 80 for the driving roller 30 and the holding roller 20 for holding and lifting the wafer 10 stored in the carrier 90 will be described. The driving roller 30 and the holding roller 20 are erected on the stages S1 and S2 so as to be movable in the radial horizontal direction by expansion and contraction of the cylinders C1 and C2, respectively. Also,
The above-described various devices such as the driving roller 30 and the holding roller 20 are held on a lift table L that can be lifted and lowered by a plurality of cylinders C5. Below the stages S1 and S2, guide rails G1 and G2 for guiding the above-mentioned movements, respectively.
Is laid. As a result, when the cylinders C1 and C2 expand and contract, the driving roller 30 and the holding roller 20 are moved forward and backward in the radial horizontal direction, and as a result, the wafer 10 is gripped or released. When the plurality of cylinders C5 move up and down, the drive roller 30 and the holding roller 20 move up and down, and as a result, the wafer 10
Is lifted or lowered from the carrier 90 in a non-contact state and returned to the original state.

The operation will be described. According to the first and second aspects, first, the wafer 10 housed in the carrier 90 is placed on the center of the lift table L. The driving roller 30 and the holding roller 20 are previously retracted by the cylinders C1 and C2, and are lowered by the cylinder C5. Next, the driving roller 30 and the holding roller 20
Are moved forward by the cylinders C1 and C2, respectively, come into contact with the peripheral edge of the wafer 10 and are gripped, so that the entire wafer 1
0s are arranged vertically coaxially.

Further, all the wafers 10 which are gripped and supported by the driving roller 30 and the holding roller 20 are lifted by the plurality of cylinders C5 so as not to come into contact with the carrier 90. When the driving rollers 30 are activated, the wafers 10 are driven and rotated by the driving rollers 30 all at once. While the wafer 10 is rotating, an optical sensor 40 such as an infrared sensor detects whether or not the notch 11 of each wafer 10 has passed a predetermined position on its rotation path.

The wafer 10, which has been detected as having passed through the notch 11, is based on a signal from the optical sensor 40.
The corresponding driving roller 30 is stopped by the control device 50. As described above, all the wafers 10 are aligned and stopped. Finally, the cylinder C5 lowers the entire driving roller 30 and the holding roller 20, and the cylinders C1 and C2 retract and release the grip, so that the entire wafer 10 is accommodated in the carrier 90 in the aligned state. .

[0021]

As described above, according to the first and second aspects of the present invention, since a plurality of wafers are simultaneously aligned in a state of being accommodated in the carrier, the wafers are arranged one by one in the carrier and the aligner. It takes a lot of time to complete the alignment of all wafers because the wafers are reciprocally transferred between them and the alignment is completed, and the time and cost are remarkably shortened as compared with the conventional example in which the cost is high. Will be possible.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a simultaneous alignment device for semiconductor wafers according to an embodiment of the first and second inventions.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a simultaneous alignment device for a semiconductor wafer according to FIG.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view showing a conventional example.

[Explanation of symbols]

 6 Aligner 7 Transfer Robot 7A Arm 7B Transfer Member 7D Drive Control Mechanism 10 Wafer 11 Notch 20 Holding Roller 21 Vertical Axis 22 Rotating Body 23 Supporting Plate 30 Driving Roller 31 Driving Body 35 Vertical Axis 36 Supporting Plate 40 Optical Sensor 50 Controller 80 Roller moving mechanism 90 Carrier C1 Cylinder C2 Cylinder C5 Cylinder G1 Guide rail G2 Guide rail L Lifting platform M Motor S1 stage S2 stage

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A plurality of wafers, each of which is housed in a carrier and has a minute arcuate notch for aligning at one point of its peripheral edge, is horizontally held in a plurality of stages substantially coaxially parallel to the vertical direction. After holding all the wafers in a vertical coaxial arrangement by gripping them by a rotatable holding roller and a driving roller corresponding to each wafer, all the wafers are lifted in a non-contact state with the carrier, and each driving roller causes each wafer to be lifted. When all the wafers are rotated, the optical sensor detects that the notch has passed the specified position on its rotation path while the wafers are rotating, and stops the corresponding drive roller to drive all the wafers. When the holding roller and all the wafers are aligned, the holding roller and all the driving rollers are lowered to their original positions, and the holding roller and all the driving rollers release the grip, Simultaneous direction alignment method of a semiconductor wafer, characterized in that the wafer to fit in a state of aligned direction to the carrier. 2. A plurality of wafers housed in a carrier, each of which has a minute arcuate notch for aligning at one of its peripheral edges, are horizontally held in a plurality of stages in a substantially coaxial parallel to the vertical direction. , A plurality of drive rollers corresponding to each wafer to be rotationally driven after being gripped corresponding to a rotatable holding roller and lifted in a non-contact state with a carrier, and a notch of each rotating wafer are on a rotation path. Based on a signal that the optical sensor detects that the wafer has passed a predetermined position and that the notch from the optical sensor has passed the predetermined position on the rotation trajectory, the corresponding drive roller is stopped and all wafers are stopped. While holding the relative position relationship between all the wafers and the controller that aligns the wafers, the wafers are gripped by moving the drive roller and the holding roller back and forth in the radial horizontal direction. A roller moving mechanism that lifts the carrier from the carrier to a non-contact state and returns it to the carrier by raising and lowering the grip, and moving up and down.
A simultaneous alignment device for semiconductor wafers, which is provided with: