KR-20260062568-A - CONTAINER AND SUBSTRATE PROCESSING APPARATUS

KR20260062568AKR 20260062568 AKR20260062568 AKR 20260062568AKR-20260062568-A

Abstract

The present invention provides a container configured to accommodate a substrate and a ring member (consumable part) together, and a substrate processing device that performs a substrate processing process while transporting the substrate and the ring member between the container and a process chamber using a transport robot. The container includes a container body that provides a storage space and a partition that divides the storage space into an upper space area and a lower space area. The partition is provided to be movable vertically, so that the ratio between the upper space area and the lower space area can be varied according to vertical movement. Accordingly, storage versatility for the container can be secured and storage utilization can be improved.

Inventors

황문혁
최한빈
김재영
김용환

Assignees

세메스 주식회사

Dates

Publication Date: 20260507
Application Date: 20241029

Claims (10)

A container body providing a storage space in which at least one of a substrate and a ring member is stored in multiple quantities; A storage space comprising a storage space divided into an upper space area and a lower space area, and a movable partition provided to be movable in the vertical direction, thereby varying the ratio between the upper space area and the lower space area of the storage space according to the vertical movement. courage.
In claim 1, A guide further comprising a guide that guides the vertical movement of the above-mentioned movable partition. courage.
In claim 1, A partition lifting module further comprising a mechanism that moves the movable partition in the up and down direction using driving force, courage.
In claim 3, The above partition lifting module is, A screw rod extending in the above-mentioned vertical direction and rotated by a driving source; A nut member provided on the above-mentioned movable partition and coupled to the screw rod, which moves along the length of the screw rod when the screw rod is rotated, courage.
In claim 1, The above container body is paired with a plurality of shelves that support the substrate or the ring member from both the left and right sides, and are provided on the left and right walls of the storage space at intervals in the vertical direction. The above-described movable partition is positioned between any one selected shelf, excluding the uppermost shelf and the lowermost shelf among a plurality of shelves that are moved in the vertical direction and paired with each other, and forms a partition module with the selected shelf to divide the storage space into the upper space area and the lower space area. courage.
In claim 1, A purge gas injector further comprising a gas outlet that supplies purge gas from the outside to the upper side within the storage space,
In claim 1, At least one of the above substrate and the new above ring member is housed in the upper space region, and The above-mentioned ring member used is housed in the lower space area, courage.
A process chamber for performing a processing process on a substrate; A load port on which a container is mounted; It includes a conveying robot for conveying a ring member, which is a consumable part of the substrate and the process chamber, between the process chamber and the container mounted on the load port, The above container is, A container body providing a storage space in which at least one of the above substrate and the above ring member is stored in plurality; A movable partition comprising a storage space that divides the storage space into an upper space area and a lower space area, is provided to be movable in the vertical direction, and varies the ratio between the upper space area and the lower space area of the storage space according to the vertical movement driven by a driving force from a partition lifting module. Substrate processing device.
In claim 8, The above substrate and the new above ring member are housed in the above upper space region, and Under the control of a controller based on the progress of the above processing process, the conveying robot conveys the substrate between the process chamber and the upper space area, or conveys a new ring member from the upper space area to the process chamber, or conveys a used ring member from the process chamber to the lower space area, and the partition lifting module moves the movable partition to vary the ratio between the upper space area and the lower space area. Substrate processing device.
In claim 8, The above container further includes a purge gas injector having a gas inlet for receiving purge gas and a gas outlet for supplying said purge gas to the upper side within the storage space, and The above gas inlet is positioned at the bottom of the container body, and The load port has a purge gas supply port that is connected to the gas inlet when the container is mounted on the load port. Substrate processing device.

Description

Container and Substrate Processing Apparatus An embodiment of the present invention relates to a container used for transporting a substrate, such as a wafer, consumable parts, etc., for a substrate processing process, and a substrate processing device for performing a substrate processing process. A substrate processing device used to manufacture semiconductors may include a load port on which containers are mounted and a process chamber that provides a substrate processing space. Among the containers, some may be configured to be used exclusively for storing substrates (wafers), and others may be configured to be used exclusively for storing consumable parts for the process chamber (parts requiring replacement due to periodic damage). To perform a substrate processing process in the substrate processing space, the substrate processing device may use a transfer robot to transfer substrates and consumable parts from containers mounted on the load port to the process chamber or from the process chamber to the containers. Since this type of substrate processing device is configured so that each container can only accommodate a designated object, there is a problem in that the utilization of containers dedicated to consumable parts among the containers mounted on the load port is relatively low, which limits the innovation of process efficiency. In this regard, another problem is that when transporting substrates, the transport robot must be moved to the side of the containers dedicated to substrates among the containers mounted on the load port, and when transporting (replacing) consumable parts, the transport robot must be moved to the side of the containers dedicated to consumable parts among the containers mounted on the load port, so a lot of time is required for the transport robot to move. In addition, since the substrate processing device uses both a dedicated container for substrates and a dedicated container for consumable parts, there is a problem that significant setup work is required, and there is an inevitable problem that the possibility of sequence errors occurring during the execution of the substrate processing process is high. FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a substrate processing apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention. Figure 2 is an exploded perspective view showing the container illustrated in Figure 1. FIG. 3 is a perspective view illustrating the usage state of the container shown in FIG. 2. Fig. 4 is a front view showing the container illustrated in Fig. 3. Figure 5 is a plan view showing the interior of the container illustrated in Figure 4. Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention are described in detail with reference to the attached drawings so that a person skilled in the art can easily implement the present invention. However, the present invention may be embodied in various other forms and is not limited to the embodiments described herein. In describing embodiments of the present invention, if it is determined that a specific description of related known functions or configurations may unnecessarily obscure the essence of the present invention, such specific description is omitted, and parts having similar functions and operations are denoted by the same reference numerals throughout the drawings. At least some of the terms used in the specification are defined with consideration of their functions in the present invention and may vary depending on the user's or operator's intent, convention, etc. Therefore, such terms should be interpreted based on the content throughout the specification. Furthermore, when the specification states that a certain component is included, this means that, unless specifically stated otherwise, it does not exclude other components but may include additional components. Also, when it states that a part is connected (or coupled) to another part, this includes not only cases where they are directly connected (or coupled), but also cases where they are indirectly connected (or coupled) with another part in between. Meanwhile, the size, shape, and line thickness of components in the drawings may be depicted somewhat exaggerated for ease of understanding. The overall configuration of a substrate processing device according to an embodiment of the present invention is illustrated in FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 1, a substrate processing device (1000) according to an embodiment of the present invention may include an indexing unit (100), a process processing unit (300), and a controller (500). Herein, the indexing unit (100) and the process processing unit (300) may be arranged along a first direction (X). Hereinafter, the first direction (X) is a first horizontal direction, a second horizontal direction orthogonal to this first direction (X) is referred to as a second direction (Y), and a vertical direction (up and down direction) orthogonal to the first direction (X) and the second direction (Y) is referred to as a third direc