JP-7856532-B2 - processing equipment

JP7856532B2JP 7856532 B2JP7856532 B2JP 7856532B2JP-7856532-B2

Inventors

米谷雅紀

Assignees

株式会社ディスコ

Dates

Publication Date: 20260511
Application Date: 20220913

Claims (3)

A processing apparatus for processing a wafer held on a chuck table, wherein a workset is formed by integrating a ring frame and a wafer by attaching tape to it, A cassette stage on which a cassette containing a workset is placed, A drawer mechanism that grips the workpiece set and pulls it out of the cassette, A temporary storage mechanism for temporarily placing the work set pulled out by the pull-out mechanism, A transport mechanism that uses suction to hold the upper surface of the ring frame of a work set temporarily placed in the temporary placement mechanism and transports the work set to the chuck table, A processing mechanism for processing wafers in a workset held on the chuck table, Control unit and Equipped with, The temporary placement mechanism comprises a pair of frame guides extending in the pulling direction of the workset of the pulling mechanism, and a spacing adjustment mechanism for adjusting the distance between the pair of frame guides. The transport mechanism comprises a transport pad having four suction cups that attract the upper surface of a ring frame, and a lifting mechanism that raises and lowers the transport pad. The transport pad comprises a pair of plates spaced apart in the spacing direction of the pair of frame guides, suction cups positioned at each end of the plates, and rails that allow the plates to move in the spacing direction. The control unit is The ring frame is equipped with an external dimension setting unit for setting the external dimensions, Based on the external dimensions set in the external dimension setting section, the transport pad is lowered to place the suction cup and plate within the gap between the pair of frame guides, and moved in a direction that narrows the gap between the frame guides, thereby moving the suction cup and plate along the rails of the frame guides to a position corresponding to the external dimensions of the ring frame, or, A processing apparatus that controls the following: lowering the transport pad based on the external dimensions set in the external dimensions setting unit to place the suction cup and plate outside the spacing between a pair of frame guides, moving in a direction that widens the spacing between the frame guides, and moving the suction cup and plate along the rails of the frame guides to a position corresponding to the external dimensions of the ring frame.
The spacing adjustment mechanism includes a spacing recognition unit that recognizes the spacing between a pair of frame guides, The processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the outer dimension setting unit sets the outer dimension of the ring frame by the interval recognized by the interval recognition unit when the frame guide clamps the ring frame.
The processing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the transport pad includes a load-applying unit that applies a load to the movement of the plate.

Description

This invention relates to a processing apparatus for processing wafers held together with a workpiece set on a chuck table. For example, in a processing apparatus for processing thin, disc-shaped wafers, a cassette containing a workset—a ring frame and wafer integrated by attaching tape to each—is placed on a cassette stage. The workset is then removed from the cassette and transported to a chuck table, where the wafer, held together with the workset, is processed. Examples of such processing apparatuses include dicing devices that cut wafers with cutting blades (see, for example, Patent Document 1) and laser processing devices that laser-process wafers using a laser beam (see, for example, Patent Document 2). In such a processing apparatus, the workpiece set housed in a cassette is grasped and pulled out, and temporarily placed on a pair of frame guides extending in the direction of the pull-out. Then, the upper surface of the workpiece set temporarily placed on the frame guides is held in place by four suction cups of the transport mechanism, and the workpiece set is raised to separate it from the frame guides. Afterward, the distance between the pair of frame guides is widened, and the workpiece set held by the transport mechanism is lowered and passed between the two frame guides, and the workpiece set is transferred to a chuck table waiting below the frame guides (see, for example, Patent Document 3). Japanese Patent Publication No. 2001-007058Japanese Patent Publication No. 2017-112227Japanese Patent Publication No. 2022-030478 This is a perspective view of a cutting apparatus, which is one embodiment of the processing apparatus according to the present invention.This is a perspective view of the spacing adjustment mechanism and workpiece set of the cutting apparatus according to the present invention.(a) is a perspective view of a small ring frame and the transport pad that holds it, and (b) is a perspective view of a large ring frame and the transport pad that holds it.This is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line A-A in Figure 5(a).(a) and (b) are plan views showing the position adjustment of the suction cups of the transport pad that holds the ring frame, which has been changed from a large size to a small size.(a) and (b) are plan views showing the position adjustment of the suction cups of the transport pad that holds the ring frame, which has been changed from a small size to a large size.This flowchart shows the flow of the cutting apparatus according to the present invention, from adjusting the position of the suction cup of the transport pad to pulling out the workpiece set from the cassette and then transferring the workpiece set to the chuck table. The embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. [Configuration of the processing equipment] First, the overall configuration of a cutting apparatus as one embodiment of the processing apparatus according to the present invention will be described below with reference to Figure 1. In the following description, the left-right direction in Figure 1 will be referred to as the "X-axis direction," the front-back direction as the "Y-axis direction," and the up-down direction as the "Z-axis direction." The cutting apparatus 1 shown in Figure 1 is a so-called dual dicer, and comprises a cassette stage 10 on which a cassette 11 containing a plurality of worksets WS (see Figure 2) including a wafer W, a cassette lifting mechanism 20 for raising and lowering the cassette stage 10, a drawer mechanism 30 for drawing out the worksets WS from the cassette 11 placed on the cassette stage 10, a temporary placement mechanism 40 for temporarily placing the worksets WS drawn out by the drawer mechanism 30, a chuck table 70 for holding the worksets WS, and a temporary placement mechanism The system comprises, as its main components, a first transport mechanism 90 that suction-holds the upper surface of the ring frame F (see Figure 2) of the workset WS temporarily placed on the chuck mechanism 40 and transports the workset WS to the chuck table 70; a processing mechanism 80 that processes the wafer W of the workset WS held on the chuck table 70; a spinner cleaning mechanism 110 that cleans the wafer W after cutting; a second transport mechanism 100 that transports the workset WS, including the cleaned wafer W, from the chuck table 70 to the spinner cleaning mechanism 110; and a control unit 120. Next, the main components of the cutting apparatus 1—the cassette stage 10, cassette lifting mechanism 20, pull-out mechanism 30, temporary placement mechanism 40, chuck table 70, first transport mechanism 90, processing mechanism 80, spinner cleaning mechanism 110, second transport mechanism 100, and control unit 120—will be described. (Cassette Stage) The cutting apparatus 1 shown in Figure 1 is equipped with a base 2 that supports each component. A rectangular opening 3, which is long in the X-axis di