JPH05311441A - Apparatus for producing magneto-optical disk - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To produce high-quality magneto-optical disks at a high yield without requiring manual labor at all by putting a tray carrier in a horizontal state and using robots to make the operation to attach and detach the disks to and from the tray carrier at the time of producing the magneto-optical disks. CONSTITUTION:The tray carrier 1 carrying the sputtered disks formed by subjecting the disks as substrates for the magneto-optical disks produced by injection molding to a sputtering treatment with a sputtering device is mounted on a mechanism 4 for horizontally rotating the tray carrier and inside and outside masks are removed by the robot A. The sputtered disks are then transferred by a robot B to stations 11, 13 for transferring and receiving the sputtered disks. The unsputtered disks are placed on an emptied substrate holder and the holder is capped by the inside and outside masks. After the disks are fitted to the substrate holder, the tray carrier 1 is transferred by a tray carrier conveyor 2 to the sputtering device. The circulation is successively repeated and the sputtered disks are transferred to the outside by a fluoroware conveyor 14.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an apparatus for automatically assembling / transporting a disk in a manufacturing process of a magneto-optical disk without directly manipulating the disk in the manufacturing process.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in the manufacture of a magneto-optical disk, a plurality of substrates (disks) manufactured by injection molding are manually attached to a tray carrier, and the tray carrier is transferred to a sputtering device for sputtering. The sputtered discs were removed from the tray carrier, aligned one by one on the fluoroware, and transferred to the next step, but this work was done manually in the open area. In addition, in order to prevent particles from adhering to the tray carrier, the disc is attached and detached with the tray carrier standing vertically. However, there is a possibility that the mounted disc may drop and cause scratches, and in order to prevent it, it is necessary to equip the tray carrier with a disc holding mechanism.

[0003]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs a robot with a tray carrier in a horizontal state for attaching / detaching a disc to / from a tray carrier to remove a sliding portion of a transfer material structure. By adopting a method that is not placed directly on the substrate, the problem of particles in horizontal work is solved, and disk transfer and tray carrier transfer are automatically performed without human intervention by using appropriate transfer means. The work is carried out in a clean area where no one enters the work area, and the defect rate of the magneto-optical disk is reduced to improve the productivity.

[0004]

The present invention comprises a tray carrier conveyor, a tray carrier horizontal rotation mechanism, an unsputtered disk transfer and supply station, a sputtered disk transfer and receiving station, and a fluoro-ware conveyor. A magneto-optical disc manufacturing apparatus provided with a robot for attaching and detaching a disc to and from a tray carrier placed on a horizontal rotation mechanism, and a robot for attaching and detaching an inner and outer mask that fixes the disc in advance. A large number of substrate holders are rotatably arranged at equal intervals in the vicinity of the outer periphery of a rotating disc, and a drive shaft claw is fixed to the center of the rotating disc. Is a tray carrier configured such that the plurality of substrate holders are individually rotated by the rotation.

[0005]

[Operation] A tray carrier on which a sputtered disc is mounted from a sputter device outside the system is mounted on a tray carrier horizontal rotation mechanism by a robot, the inner and outer masks are removed by a robot, and then the sputtered disc is sputtered by a robot. Transfer the used disc to the transfer and receiving station, place the unsputtered disc on the empty substrate holder, cover the unsputtered disc with the inner and outer masks, and attach it to the substrate holder. It is transferred to the sputtering device by a carrier conveyor. By repeating this circulation in sequence, the sputtered disk is transferred to the outside by the fluoroware conveyor.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 is a plane view of a disk attaching / detaching mechanism and its transfer mechanism and a disk transfer / supply mechanism for a tray carrier arranged in a clean booth. FIG. 3 is a layout view showing a tray carrier 1 on which a sputtered disc is mounted in a sputtering device provided outside the system, and is vertically transferred to a position of a tray carrier reversing mechanism 3 by a tray carrier conveyor 2. Come on. A tray carrier horizontal rotation mechanism 4 is installed near the tray carrier reversing mechanism 3, and the tray carrier reversing mechanism 3 holds the tray carrier 1 in a vertical state.
By reversing this 90 degrees, the tray carrier horizontal rotation mechanism 4
Place it in a horizontal position. Robots A and B are installed on both sides of the tray carrier rotating mechanism 4. The tray carrier rotating mechanism 4 rotates intermittently, whereby the tray carrier 1 placed on the rotating mechanism 4 is rotated to the temporary origin, and the inner mask 8 of the disk 7 to be described later is moved by the camera of the robot A and the image processing apparatus. Detect the center and recognize the substrate (disk) center. On the outside of the tray carrier rotating mechanism 4, an inner mask stand 5 and an outer mask storage cylinder 6 which will be described later are provided.
The inner mask 8 and the outer mask 9 covering the disks 7 held by the respective substrate holders of the tray carrier 1 are sequentially removed by the robot A for each substrate holder, and the inner mask table 5 is provided. And place it on the outer mask storage cylinder 6.

In this embodiment, the tray carrier 1
Since 15 substrate holders are provided in the tray carrier 1, the tray carrier 1 rotates intermittently every 24 degrees. On the other hand, on the robot B side, the unsputtered disc transfer station 1
0 and a sputtered disc transfer station 11 are provided side by side. Further, the unsputtered disc transfer station 10 and the sputtered disc transfer station 11 have an unsputtered disc supply station 12 and a sputterer at their upper portions, respectively. The completed disc receiving station 13 is also installed. The unsputtered disc supply station 12 and the sputtered disc receiving station 13 are provided with a robot 12 ₁ and a robot 13 ₁ reciprocally movable, respectively. In addition, the unsputtered disc mounting and sputtered disc transfer stations 10 and 11 are provided with reciprocating placement moving bases 10 ₁ and 11 ₁ , respectively. Unsputtered disc transfer and supply stations 10, 12, sputtered disc transfer and receiving stations 11, 13
Is equipped with a uniaxial module rod, on which the mounting movable table 1
The robots 0 ₁ , 11 ₁ and the robots 12, ₁ 13 ₁ are engaged with each other and reciprocally move by their rotation. Below the unsputtered disc supply and sputtered disc receiving stations 12 and 13, a fluoroware conveyor 14 is provided so as to be orthogonal to them, and the conveyor transfer surface is inclined by 15 degrees. A large number of discs 7 are internally arranged in the Fluoroware in series at intervals. Further, an inkjet printer 16 is provided on the moving path of the placement moving table 11 ₁ of the sputtered transfer station 11.

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of the tray carrier 1,
Figure 4 shows each Figure 3A-A line sectional view, explaining the structure of the tray carrier 1, the drive shaft pawl 1 ₂ in the center of the rotary disk 1 ₁ is fixed near the outer peripheral portion of the rotary disk 1 ₁ fifteen substrate holder 1 ₃ are arranged at regular intervals. The center axis 1 ₄ of the substrate holder 1 ₃ rotatably provided through a bearing on the rotary disk 1 _1, the gear 1 ₅ is fixed to an end portion of the central shaft 1 _4, whereas the ring gear 1 ₆ Support rod 1 ₇
And is fixed to the bearing casing of the drive shaft pawl 1 ₂ . Gear 1 ₅ of the substrate holder 1 ₃ are respectively engaged in the ring gear 1 _6. The substrate holder 1 ₃ is placed disk 7, the center of the disc 7 inside the mask 8 (SU
Is tegmental by manufactured S) is adsorbed by the magnet to the central axis 1 _4, the outer edge of the disc 7 the outer mask 9 (manufactured by SUS)
There has been tegmental by being adsorbed on the substrate holder 1 ₃ with a magnet. A recognition unit of the camera is provided on the top surface of the sandwiching unit at the center of the inner mask 8, and a sandwiching unit of the robot A is provided on the outer edge of the outer mask 9. Drive shaft claw 1 ₂
The outer periphery of the other end is provided with a plurality of engaging recesses for sandwiching the drive transmission shaft, and the drive transmission shaft is intermittently rotated (to 24 degrees).
As a result, the tray carrier 1 rotates intermittently.

FIG. 5 schematically shows the relative arrangement of the apparatus of the present invention and the sputtering apparatus outside the system. The tray carrier 1 of the apparatus outside the system and the tray carrier 1 of the apparatus of the present invention are conveyed by the tray carrier conveyor 2. The tray carrier conveyor 2 is composed of an all-driving type roller conveyor, and particularly, a portion provided with the tray carrier reversing mechanism 3 and a standby portion of the tray carrier 1 that has been conveyed are provided in a portion related to the device of the present invention. ing. The tray carrier 1 is circulated and conveyed in the direction of the arrow by the tray carrier conveyor 2.

FIGS. 6 and 7 show the tray carrier reversing mechanism 3, in which a machine base 3 ₁ provided with all-driving rollers 3 ₂ , 3 ₃ on its upper and side surfaces is rotated 90 degrees by supporting blocks 3 ₄ , 3 _4. freely and supported, machine base 3 through the motor and transmission mechanism 3 ₅
Rotate ₁ back and forth 90 degrees. The bearing casing portion of the drive shaft pawl 1 ₂ of the tray carrier 1 is fixed to a support plate 17 ₁ provided on the tray support 17 so that the tray carrier 1 is maintained in a vertical state. A rib 17 ₂ is vertically provided on the back side of the support plate 17 ₁ , and the tray 17 and the tray carrier 1 are separated by clamping the rib 17 ₂ with a clamp 17 ₃ extending from the machine base 3 _1. It is adapted to be positionally fixed to the machine base 3 _1.

The transport path of the tray carrier 1 will be described. Each disk 7 mounted on the tray carrier 1 is sputtered by a sputtering device outside the system, and is transferred to the tray carrier conveyor 2 from the outlet side of the sputtering device. Then, the tray carrier conveyor 2 provided in the vicinity of the apparatus of the present invention is made to stand by in the standby portion of the tray carrier conveyor 2 as shown in FIG. Transfer to part, clamp 1
7 by clamping the rib 17 ₂ by _3, the tray carrier 1 and fixed state, the motor and transmission mechanism 3
_The tray carrier reversing mechanism 3 is rotated by 90 degrees to the front side by 5. At that time the drive shaft pawl 1 ₂ of the tray carrier 1 is sandwiched clamping claw portion of the drive transmission shaft of the tray carrier rotating mechanism 4. Then, as shown in FIG. 1, the tray carrier 1
Is rotated to the temporary origin, and the center of the inner mask 8 on the substrate holder 1 ₃ is recognized by the camera of the robot A and the image processing device to recognize the center of the disk 7.

The inner mask 8 and the outer mask 9 are simultaneously pinched and removed by the robot A, and the inner mask 8 is placed on the inner mask table 5 and the outer mask 9 is placed on the outer mask storage cylinder 6. After that, tray carrier 1 1 pitch (24 degrees)
For the next substrate holder that is rotated, the robot A also sequentially removes the inner and outer masks 8 and 9 in the same manner. on the other hand,
When the substrate holder 1 ₃ removal of the inner and outer mask 8 and 9 of the tray carrier 1 came into the work area of the robot B, sputtering already disc 7 of the substrate holder 1 ₃ by a robot B
Is adsorbed and transferred to the placement moving table 11 ₁ of the sputtered transfer station 11. The lot number and the like are printed by the ink jet plink 16 on the disk 7 on the mounting / moving table 11 _{1 while} being moved on the sputtered transfer station 11. Sputtered disk receiving station 1 provided at a part of the upper part of the transfer station 11
The robot 13 ₁ of _No. 3 sequentially loads the sputtered disks 7 on the placement moving table 11 ₁ into the empty fluoro-wear 15 on the fluoro-conveyor 14. At this time, the empty fluorosphere 15 on the fluoro-conveyor 14 is inclined about 15 degrees, and the disk 7 is inserted into the guide of the fluoro-wear 15 in an inserted state, but the sputter surface is inserted so as to come to the upper side, Prevents scratches on the disc.

Next, the substrate holder 1 _{3 of the} tray carrier 1
From against the substrate holder 1 ₃ became empty remove the disc 7, the non-sputtered disc 7 in the fluorosilicone wear 15 came transported by fluoroalkyl ware conveyor 14 on non-sputtered disc supply station 12 of the robot At 12 ₁ , the unsputtered disk 7 is adsorbed to one sheet, and the mounting table 1 of the unsputtered disk transfer station 10 is attached.
The work table 10 ₁ is placed on the robot 0 ₁ and is moved to the robot B work area. Placed on the robot B ₁ 10 ₁
Tray carrier 1 by adsorbing the upper unsputtered disk 7
It is placed on the empty substrate holder 1 ₃ . Thus, the substrate holder 1 ₃ of the tray carrier 1, remove the sputtered already disks 7 and transferred to the fluorosilicone wear 15, for the substrate holder 1 ₃ emptied placing a non-sputtering disk The work is sequentially performed by the robot B. From all of the substrate holder 1 ₃ of the tray carrier 1 Remove the inner and outer mask 8,9, the substrate holder 1 ₃ the non-sputtered disc 7 is placed
When the robot enters the work area of the robot A, the robot A takes out the outer masks one by one from the inner mask of the inner mask table 5 and the outer mask storage cylinder 6, and the unsputtered disk 7 is removed.
Sequentially performing attached to the substrate holder 1 ₃ mounted with the. Thus, when all of the substrate holder 1 ₃ of the tray carrier 1 has finished attaching the non-sputtered disc 7 and the inner and outer mask 8,9, a tray carrier reversing mechanism 3 90 degrees rotation, and a vertical state, the clamp 17 After opening ₃ , the tray carrier conveyer 2 sends it to the sputtering device outside the system.
Then, the tray carrier 1 in the standby portion is carried into the tray carrier reversing mechanism 3 and the above-described work is repeated. In addition,
In the device of the present application, since the work is automatically performed without using any human hands, it is desirable to put the entire device in a clean booth and shield the disk from contamination such as dust as much as possible.

[0014]

INDUSTRIAL APPLICABILITY The apparatus of the present invention is connected to a sputter apparatus outside the system by a tray carrier conveyor, circulates a tray carrier having a large number of disks, and removes all the disks attached to and removed from the tray carrier. Since the robot is designed to perform the transshipment work on the transfer station, there is no human part at all, the contamination is prevented because it is done automatically, and the disc is attached to and detached from the tray carrier in the horizontal position. The work is easy, and there are few accidents such as accidentally dropping the disc. Also, according to the sputtering time,
You can freely select the speed of disk attachment / detachment,
The productivity can be improved to the maximum extent, the entire device can be stored in a clean booth, and the defect rate of the disk can be reduced.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a schematic plan layout view of a device of the present invention.

2A and 2B are side views of the lower side of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a partial plan view of the tray carrier of the present invention.

4A and 4B are sectional views taken along the line AA of FIG.

FIG. 5 is a schematic layout explanatory diagram of an apparatus of the present invention and a sputtering apparatus outside the system.

FIG. 6 is an explanatory diagram of a tray carrier reversing mechanism of the device of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a right side view of FIG.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Tray Carrier 1 ₁ Rotating Disc 1 ₂ Rotating Shaft Claw 1 ₃ Board Holder 1 ₅ Gear 1 ₆ Ring Gear 2 Tray Carrier Conveyor 3 Tray Carrier Reversing Mechanism 3 ₁ Machine 3 ₂ Conveyor Roller 3 ₃ Conveyor Roller 3 ₄ Support Block 4 Tray carrier horizontal rotation mechanism 5 Inner mask stand 6 Outer mask storage cylinder 7 Disc 8 Inner mask 9 Outer mask 10 Unsputtered disc transfer station 11 Sputtered disc transfer station 12 Unsputtered disc supply station 13 Sputtered disc receiving station 14 Fluoro Wear conveyor 15 Fluoroware 16 Inkjet printer 17 Tray support stand 17 ₃ Clamp

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Tetsuhiro Hotta 1-13-1 Nihonbashi, Chuo-ku, Tokyo TDC Corporation

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A tray carrier conveyor, a tray carrier horizontal rotation mechanism, an unsputtered disk transfer and supply station, a sputtered disk transfer and reception station, and a fluoro-ware conveyor, which are mounted on the tray carrier horizontal rotation mechanism. A magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus comprising: a tray carrier, a robot for mounting / dismounting a disk, and a robot for mounting / dismounting an inner / outer mask for fixing the disk in advance. 2. The tray carrier 9 is provided with a tray carrier clamp in a part thereof.
2. The apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a 0-degree inversion mechanism section.
The magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus described. 3. The unsputtered disc transfer and supply station is provided with a mounting movable table and a robot, respectively, and the sputtered disc transfer and reception station is provided with a mounting movable table and a robot, respectively. The magneto-optical disk manufacturing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2, characterized in that. 4. A large number of substrate holders are rotatably arranged at equal intervals in the vicinity of the outer peripheral portion of a rotating disk, and a drive shaft pawl is fixed to the central portion of the rotating disk. A tray carrier, wherein the plurality of substrate holders are configured to rotate individually. 5. Each of the substrate holders includes a rotation center shaft, a gear is provided at the other end of the center shaft, and a ring gear meshing with the gear is fixed to a bearing of the drive shaft pawl. The tray carrier according to claim 4, which is characterized in that. 6. The disk holder is provided on the upper surface of the substrate holder, and the magnetic attraction portion of the inner mask is provided at the central portion and the magnetic attraction portion of the outer mask is provided at the outer peripheral portion. The tray carrier according to claim 4 or 5.