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CN-114496868-B - Wafer conveying mechanical arm clamp, semiconductor processing equipment and wafer conveying method

CN114496868BCN 114496868 BCN114496868 BCN 114496868BCN-114496868-B

Abstract

The invention relates to a wafer conveying mechanical arm clamp, semiconductor processing equipment and a wafer conveying method, belongs to the technical field of semiconductor conveying equipment, and solves the problems that in the prior art, conveying equipment of semiconductor manufacturing equipment is askew to wafers in the wafer conveying process, and therefore, the wafers are damaged and the quality of the follow-up process is lowered. The invention discloses a wafer conveying mechanical arm clamp which comprises a single group or a plurality of groups of clamping jaws, wherein the mechanical arm clamp is used for picking and placing a wafer in a clamping mode, the clamping jaws comprise a fixed part and a movable part, the movable part is connected with the fixed part through a guiding device and an anti-falling device, the guiding device is used for guiding the moving direction and track of the movable part, and the anti-falling device is used for preventing the movable part from falling off the fixed part after moving along the guiding device. The invention realizes the self-adjustment of the wafer skew clamped by the manipulator of the transmission equipment in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment.

Inventors

  • Jin Genhao
  • ZHOU NA
  • LI LIN
  • WANG JIA
  • LI JUNJIE

Assignees

  • 中国科学院微电子研究所
  • 真芯(北京)半导体有限责任公司

Dates

Publication Date
20260512
Application Date
20201111

Claims (8)

  1. 1. The wafer conveying mechanical arm clamp is characterized by comprising a single group or a plurality of groups of clamping jaws, and the mechanical arm clamp realizes the pick-up and placement of wafers in a clamping manner; the clamping jaw comprises a fixed part and a movable part, and the movable part can move up and down; The movable part is connected with the fixed part through a guide device and an anti-drop device, the guide device plays a role in guiding the moving direction and track of the movable part, the anti-drop device is used for preventing the movable part from being separated from the fixed part after moving along the guide device, the longitudinal section of the clamping jaw is in a right trapezoid shape, the fixed side of the clamping jaw is the bottom side of the right trapezoid, the working side of the clamping jaw is the bevel side of the right trapezoid, a sealing ring mounting groove is formed in the top surface of the fixed part of the clamping jaw, and a sealing ring is placed in the sealing ring mounting groove.
  2. 2. The wafer transfer robot arm clamp of claim 1, wherein the sealing ring is one of propylene rubber, silicone rubber, nitrile rubber, neoprene rubber, ethylene propylene rubber, fluorocarbon rubber, and perfluororubber.
  3. 3. The wafer transfer robot arm clip of claim 1, wherein a maximum gap between the movable portion and the stationary portion is 0.5mm.
  4. 4. The wafer transfer robot arm clip of claim 1, wherein the movable portion compresses the seal ring into the seal ring mounting groove and into close contact with the end surface of the fixed portion under the action of an external force, and wherein the seal ring returns to its original shape after the external force is released, and wherein the restoring force of the seal ring causes the movable portion to move upward rapidly along the guide.
  5. 5. The wafer transfer robot arm clamp of claim 4, wherein the external force comprises one or more of spring force, mechanical latch, electromagnetic attraction, and vacuum pressure.
  6. 6. The wafer transfer robot arm clamp of claim 1, wherein the seal ring mounting groove has a longitudinal cross-section sized from one half to two thirds of the longitudinal cross-section of the seal ring, and the seal ring has a circular or oval cross-section.
  7. 7. A semiconductor processing apparatus comprising the robot arm clip of any one of claims 1-6.
  8. 8. A wafer transfer method, wherein the wafer transfer robot arm chuck according to any one of claims 1 to 6 is used, comprising: Before the mechanical arm clamps the wafer, the movable part of the clamping jaw compresses the sealing ring into the sealing ring groove under the action of external force and is tightly attached to the end surface of the fixed part, and the clamping jaw clamps the wafer; after clamping the wafer, removing the external force, and recovering the sealing ring, wherein the movable part moves upwards rapidly along the guide device under the action of the recovering force of the sealing ring; Under the action of the movable part moving upwards rapidly along the guide device, the wafer slides to the correct position along the inclined plane at the inner side of the clamping jaw, and the wafer is self-adjusted; The clamping jaw continues to transport and place the wafer to the designated location.

Description

Wafer conveying mechanical arm clamp, semiconductor processing equipment and wafer conveying method Technical Field The present invention relates to the technical field of semiconductor conveying equipment, and in particular, to a wafer conveying mechanical arm clamp, a semiconductor processing device and a wafer conveying method. Background With the rapid development of integrated circuit technology, the number of integrated components on a single chip is increasing, and the critical dimensions of the components are smaller, so that the requirements on integrated circuit manufacturing are increasing. The higher requirements are not only embodied in the requirements of important key links such as film manufacture, gluing, developing, etching and the like, but also in other matched links and operations. The semiconductor processing equipment mainly comprises a process system and a conveying system, wherein the process system is a vacuum environment and is used for completing the process of etching and the like, a process chamber for carrying out process processing on silicon wafers and a wafer bin for storing the silicon wafers, the silicon wafers in each process task are firstly placed in the silicon wafer bin and then placed in the wafer bin, and the control system is used for conveying the silicon wafers from the wafer bin to the conveying chamber and then to the process chamber for carrying out process processing in the process of carrying out process processing on the silicon wafers according to the process tasks, namely the silicon wafers are conveyed to the process chamber through the silicon wafer conveying system for carrying out process processing. The conveying system is used for conveying the wafer between the wafer bin in the atmosphere and the process system in the vacuum environment, and is used for conveying the wafer in the vacuum environment and the atmosphere. The transmission chamber comprises an atmospheric manipulator (AtmRobot), a positioning and calibrating device (also called a calibrator), a pre-vacuumizing chamber (Loadlock) and a vacuum manipulator (VacRobot), wherein the control system controls the atmospheric manipulator to take out a silicon wafer from a wafer bin and put the silicon wafer on the calibrator for calibration, the atmospheric manipulator takes the silicon wafer out of the calibrator and puts the silicon wafer into the pre-vacuumizing chamber after calibration, a valve of the pre-vacuumizing chamber is opened after vacuumizing, and the vacuum manipulator takes the silicon wafer out of the pre-vacuumizing chamber and puts the silicon wafer into a process chamber for processing. The wafer enters the transmission cavity from the atmospheric environment and then enters the reaction cavity, and after the process production is completed, the wafer is transferred from the reaction cavity to the transmission cavity, and the transmission process of the wafer among different reaction cavities is completed by a mechanical arm. The mechanical arm accurately completes the wafer transmission of each step under the control of a set program. However, although the wafer is calibrated by the calibrator, when the wafer is transferred to the calibrator by the manipulator, and when the wafer is transferred to the process equipment in the next link by the manipulator from the calibrator, the wafer may be skewed, which may cause damage to the wafer, and improper matching and adjustment on the chuck, thereby causing degradation of yield of important processes such as film coating, developing, etching, and the like. The problem can be relieved in a limited way by increasing manual preventive maintenance, but workers cannot find the problem in time, the yield cannot effectively control the yield of products, meanwhile, abnormal preventive maintenance is greatly improved, the shutdown rate is improved, and the production efficiency is reduced. Disclosure of Invention In view of the above, the present invention is directed to a wafer transfer robot arm clamp, a semiconductor processing apparatus and a wafer transfer method, which are used for solving the problems of wafer breakage and subsequent process quality down-slip caused by wafer skew during transferring and transporting wafers by using the robot arm clamp. In one aspect, the invention provides a wafer transfer robot arm clamp, comprising a single group or a plurality of groups of clamping jaws, wherein the robot arm clamp is used for picking and placing a wafer in a clamping manner; The clamping jaw comprises a fixed part and a movable part; The movable part is connected with the fixed part through a guiding device and an anti-falling device, the guiding device plays a guiding role on the moving direction and track of the movable part, and the anti-falling device is used for preventing the movable part from falling off the fixed part after moving along the guiding device. Further, the longitudinal section of the clamping jaw is right