JPH06181251A - Positioning equipment - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make it possible to prevent the occurrence of contaminated particles due to sliding wear and improve the yield of products by performing contactless positioning for wafer or glass substrate. CONSTITUTION:In a positioning equipment for positioning an object to a predetermined position, provided are a floating body 6 for placing an object arranged in a space sealed by partitions, magnetic poles 18 for floating this floating body 6 from the partitions in contactless state by magnetic forces, and XY moving equipment 10 for moving the magnetic poles 18.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a positioning device,
In particular, it relates to a wafer or glass substrate alignment device in the semiconductor industry and liquid crystal industry.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In various processes of the semiconductor industry and liquid crystal industry, the positions of wafers and glass substrates are accurately set,
It is necessary to perform various processes. In order to accurately set the position of this wafer or glass substrate, conventionally, mechanical contact is made with the outer periphery of the wafer or glass substrate and the center position is aligned by moving this, and with respect to the orientation flat position. Aligns by combining rotation and orientation flat position sensing.

[0003]

The above-mentioned conventional alignment technique includes a step of mechanically contacting a semiconductor wafer or a glass substrate, so that sliding wear is unavoidable and contaminant particles are generated by the wear. In the semiconductor industry and the liquid crystal industry, there has been a problem that wafers are contaminated by the pollutant particles, which is the largest cause of a decrease in product yield.

The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and prevents the generation of pollutant particles due to sliding wear by aligning a wafer or a glass substrate in a non-contact manner.
An object of the present invention is to provide a positioning device that can improve the yield of products.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above-mentioned object, an aligning device of the present invention is an aligning device for aligning an article at a predetermined position, which is arranged in a space sealed by a partition wall. And a magnetic pole for floating the floating table in a non-contact state with the partition wall by a magnetic force, and a moving mechanism for moving the magnetic pole. is there.

[0006]

According to the present invention having the above-mentioned structure, the levitation table, which is placed in a clean and sealed space and has an article placed thereon,
It is levitated by the magnetic force so that it is not in contact with the partition wall, and in this state, the magnetic pole is moved by the moving mechanism to move the levitating table, thereby aligning the articles.

[0007]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the alignment apparatus according to the present invention will be described below. FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of the alignment apparatus of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the vacuum chamber 1 and the vacuum chamber 2 are openably and closably connected via a gate valve 3. A handling robot 4 is installed in the vacuum chamber 1,
The wafer 7 is handled by the hand unit 5 of the handling robot 4.
Is introduced from the vacuum chamber 1 into the vacuum chamber 2.

A levitation table 6 is arranged in the vacuum chamber 2, and a wafer support pin 8 for supporting a wafer 7 is installed on the levitation table 6.

On the other hand, an XY moving device 10 is installed outside the vacuum chamber 2, that is, outside the upper partition. The XY moving device 10 includes a guide rail 11 installed in the Y direction and a slider 12 slidably installed on the guide rail 11.
An X-direction guide rail 13 installed on the slider 12, a slider 14 slidably arranged on the guide rail 13, and a motor 15 for driving the sliders 12, 14. . A control base 16 is installed adjacent to the upper partition of the vacuum chamber 2, and the control base 16 and the slider 14 are connected via a connecting plate 17. The vacuum chamber 2 is communicated with a vacuum pump P via a valve V, and a vacuum is created in the vacuum chamber 1 and the vacuum chamber 2 by the vacuum pump P.

The control stand 16 is provided with magnetic poles 18, 18 for attracting and floating the floating stand 6. A gap sensor 19 for detecting the vertical distance of the levitation table 6 is installed on the lower partition wall of the vacuum chamber 2, and the detection value detected by the gap sensor 19 is output to a controller (not shown). The current supplied to the magnetic pole 18 is increased or decreased according to the output from the gap sensor 19 so that the levitation table 6 is levitated in a non-contact state while always maintaining a predetermined gap from the wall surface. Further, a stop brake 20 is installed on the control base 16, and the levitation base 6 is fixed by the stop brake 20 so as not to be displaced.

A housing 22 is attached to the lower partition wall of the vacuum chamber 2, and the bearing 2 is accommodated in the housing 22.
3 and 23 are installed, and the rotary table 25 is rotatably supported by the bearings 23 and 23. Turntable 25
A gear 26 is fixed to the lower end of the shaft 25a, and the gear 26 is connected to a motor 28 via a gear 27 so that the rotary base 25 is rotationally driven.
Reference numeral 29 indicates the shaft 25a of the turntable 25 and the housing 22.
It is a sealing member that seals between

Next, the operation of the aligning device constructed as described above will be described. The wafer 7 is introduced from the vacuum chamber 1 into the vacuum chamber 2 through the sluice valve 3 by the hand portion 5 of the handling robot 4, and is placed on the wafer support pins 8 installed on the levitation table 6 in the vacuum chamber 2. It

First, the current position of the wafer 7 is recognized by the position detecting device. Based on the position information of the wafer 7, the XY transfer device 10 attached to the upper partition of the vacuum chamber 2 operates to align with the preset center position. Levitation table 6
Is always maintained at a predetermined gap from the wall surface by the magnetic pole 18 attached to the control stand 16 via the wall surface of the vacuum chamber 2, the gap sensor 19 and a control device (not shown) separately arranged to control the gap between them. However, it maintains a non-contact state. At this time, the levitation table 6 is fixed by the stop brake 20 so as not to be displaced. Therefore, the movement of the XY moving device 10 is transmitted to the control base 16 via the connection plate 17, and the control base 16 moves. As a result, the control stand 1
The magnetic pole 18 on 6 moves, and the levitation table 6 moves following this, and the position of the wafer 7 is corrected.

The position correction of the wafer 7, that is, the center alignment of the wafer 7 is performed by the position detecting device shown in FIGS. The position detecting device is installed in a vacuum chamber 2 (not shown in FIG. 1), and is composed of a plurality of pairs (4 pairs) of transmitters 30 and receivers 31 arranged vertically so as to sandwich the wafer 7. The beam B emitted from the container 30 is shown in FIG.
When reflected by the wafer 7 as shown in (b), the wafer 7 is moved by operating the XY moving device 10 in a direction away from the corresponding oscillator 30 to move the levitation table 6. Be seen. And FIG. 3 (a),
As shown in (b), when the beams B from all the transmitters 30 reach all the receivers 31, the alignment of the central position O of the wafer is completed.

Wafer 7 whose center position has been aligned
Are placed on the wafer support pins 32 on the rotary table 25 by lowering the floating table 6 by gap control.

The wafer 7 on the rotary table 25 is rotationally driven by a motor 28 and gears 26 and 27 to align the orientation flat position. The position of the orientation flat is detected by the orientation flat position detection device shown in FIGS. 4 and 5, and the rotation mechanism is driven by the position information. The orientation flat position detecting device is installed in a vacuum chamber 2 (not shown in FIG. 1), and a plurality of pairs (2 pairs) of oscillators 3 are provided above and below to sandwich the wafer 7.
3 and a receiver 34, and as shown in FIGS. 4 (a) and 4 (b), a beam B emitted from a beam transmitter 33.
If is reflected by the wafer 7, the wafer 7 is further rotated. Then, as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the beam B from the beam transmitter 33 is transmitted to all the receivers 3.
When 4 is reached, the rotation of the wafer 7 is stopped, whereby the orientation flat position is set. Note that reference numeral 35 is a translucent member that allows the transmission of the beam.

The wafer 7 whose center alignment and orientation flat alignment have been completed is taken out of the vacuum chamber 2 by the handling robot 4.

[0018]

As described above, according to the present invention, it becomes possible to position an article such as a wafer or a glass substrate which is not susceptible to contamination by particles in a clean space such as a vacuum in a non-contact state. It is possible to prevent the generation of pollutant particles due to sliding wear and improve the product yield.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing an embodiment of an alignment apparatus according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is an explanatory diagram showing a center position detection device in the alignment device according to the present invention.

FIG. 3 is an explanatory diagram showing a center position detection device in the alignment device according to the present invention.

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of an orientation flat position detection device in the alignment device according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of an orientation flat position detection device in the alignment device according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 1 vacuum chamber 2 vacuum chamber 3 sluice valve 4 handling robot 5 hand part 6 levitation table 7 wafer 8 wafer support pin 10 XY moving device 11 guide rail 12 slider 13 guide rail 14 slider 15 motor 16 control stand 17 connecting plate 18 magnetic pole 19 gap Sensor 20 Stop brake 22 Housing 23 Bearing 25 Rotating table 26, 27 Gear 28 Motor 30, 33 Transmitter 31, 34 Receiver

 ─────────────────────────────────────────────────── ─── Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Masaaki Kajiyama 4-2-1 Motofujisawa, Fujisawa City, Kanagawa Prefecture EBARA Research Institute

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. A positioning device for positioning an article at a predetermined position, a levitation table for placing an article placed in a space sealed by a partition, and the levitation table by a magnetic force applied to the levitation table. And a moving mechanism for moving the magnetic pole, the positioning device comprising: 2. The alignment device according to claim 1, wherein a vacuum state is formed or a clean gas is filled in the closed space. 3. The alignment apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the predetermined position of the article is a center position of the article or an orientation flat position and a center position when the article is a semiconductor wafer.