Wafer storage box, wafer transfer device and wafer storage and transfer assembly having the same

A wafer storage box, wafer transfer device and wafer storage box and transfer assembly. The wafer storage and transfer assembly includes a chassis which is capable of translating or rotating, a sliding shaft, connecting levers, arms and at least two positioning sidewall. The chassis includes a groove. The sliding shaft can translate along the groove. The connecting levers are connected to the sliding shaft. Each arm extends from a connecting lever. The two positioning sidewall are respectively arranged on opposite sides of the chassis. Each positioning sidewall includes tracks accommodating the pins of connecting levers. The width of each of the tracks reduces from the front end of the positioning sidewall to the back end of the positioning sidewall. The wafer storage and transfer assembly can vacuum adsorb several wafers to achieve high efficiency of wafer storing and transferring.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the priority benefit of Taiwan application no.109120229, filed 2020 Jun. 16. The entirety of each of the above-mentioned patent applications is hereby incorporated by reference herein and made a part of this specification.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure relates to a wafer storage and transfer assembly, and more particular to a wafer storage and transfer assembly which can reduce the size of a wafer storage and transfer assembly.

BACKGROUND

Wafer is a major material in the semiconductor manufacture. However, the wafer is fragile. Besides, it would cause huge loss that the wafer is polluted after photolithography. Therefore, the special designed cassette is needed to protect the wafer during being picked and transferred. Currently, the robot is used to pick and transfer the wafer between the cassette and wafer transportation system. Therefore, the interval of the rib is about 10 mm to match the production equipment. Therefore, the size of the cassette which stores 25 pieces of wafers is huge. Furthermore, it is low efficiency that robot just once picks and transfers one wafer between the cassette and the wafer transportation system. Even more, when the mass wafers are transported between fabs, the occupied volume, transportation time and transportation cost are considerable.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, the present disclosure provides a wafer storage and transfer assembly which can achieve high efficiency of storing and transferring the wafers and substantially reduce the size of the cassette for transporting the wafers.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. The present disclosure provides a wafer transfer device, comprising a chassis, a sliding shaft, arms, and at least two positioning sidewalls. The chassis is capable of transiting or rotating. The chassis comprises a groove which comprises a first end and a second end. One end of the sliding shaft is accommodated in the groove and the sliding shaft translates between the first end and the second end. The each connecting levers comprises a plate, a through hole formed in the plate and at least two pins extending from two opposite sides of the plate. The sliding shaft passes through the through hole and the connecting levers are connected to the sliding shaft. Each arm extends from one of the connecting levers. The two positioning sidewalls respectively arranged on two sides of the chassis. The groove is located between the at least two positioning sidewalls. An inner side of each positioning sidewall comprises fixing ribs and each two fixing ribs form a track which accommodates one of the pins. A width of each of the tracks reduces from a front end of the at least two positioning sidewalls to a back end of the at least two positioning sidewalls.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. The present disclosure provides a wafer storage box. A wafer storage box from or into which the above-mentioned transfer device comprises a upper plate, a lower plate, two side plates, a back plate, an accommodation region, an opening and a cassette. The accommodation region is formed by the upper plate, the lower plate, the two side plates and the back plate. The opening located at open end of the accommodation region. A cassette accommodated in the accommodation region. The left sidewall and the right sidewall of the cassette respectively comprises ribs and each two adjacent ribs form a slot. Each slot and each rib on the left sidewall are corresponding to each slot and each rib on the right sidewall.

The present invention has been made in view of the above problems. The present disclosure provides a wafer storage and transfer assembly comprising one of the above-mentioned transfer device and one of the above-mentioned storage box. The transfer device picks a wafer out and into the storage box.

Therefore, the size of the cassette can be reduced dramatically. Particularly, when the mass wafers are transported between fabs, the occupied size reduces to half. The wafer storage and transfer assembly comprises several arms so that it can vacuum adsorb several wafers. In comparison with current equipment which adsorb a wafer once a time, the transfer device can save time of vacuum adsorbing and transferring and achieve high efficiency of wafer storing and transferring.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Some words are used to refer to specific elements in the whole specification and the appended claims in the disclosure. A person skilled in the art should understand that an wafer storage box and transfer device assembly manufacturer may use different names to refer to the same elements. The specification is not intended to distinguish elements that have the same functions but different names. In the following specification and claims, the terms “having”, “including”, etc. are open-ended terms, so they should be interpreted to mean “including but not limited to . . . ”.

It should be noted that in the following embodiments, features in a plurality of embodiments may be replaced, recombined, or mixed to complete other embodiments without departing from the spirit of the disclosure. The features of the embodiments may be used in any combination without departing from the spirit of the disclosure or conflicting with each other.

FIG. 1a schematic view of a wafer transfer device10according to the first embodiment of the disclosure. Referring toFIG. 1, a wafer transfer device10includes a fixed support20, a chassis30, a sliding shaft40, connecting levers50, arms60and two positioning sidewalls70.

The chassis30is arranged on the fixed support20. The chassis30is capable of translating or rotating relative to the fixed support20. The chassis30includes a groove32which includes a first end321and a second end323. In another embodiment, the fixed support20can be omitted or be replaced by another element, but the chassis30is still capable of translating or rotating.

One end of the sliding shaft40is accommodated in the groove32and the sliding shaft40translates between the first end321and the second end323.

Each connecting levers50includes a plate52, a through hole54which is formed in the plated52, and two pins56extending from two opposite sides of the plate52. The sliding shaft40passes through the through hole54and connecting levers50are connected to the sliding shaft40. In this embodiment, a number of connecting levers50is twenty-five. In another embodiment, the number of the connecting levers depends on needs.

Each arm60extends from one end of a plate52of connecting levers50. It should be noted that a number of the arms60is equal to a number of the connecting levers50. In this embodiment, a number of the arms is twenty-five. Each arm can vacuum adsorb a wafer (as shown inFIG. 5).

Referring toFIG. 1andFIG. 2, the two positioning sidewalls70are respectively arranged on two sides of the chassis30. The groove32of the chassis30is arranged between the two positioning sidewalls70. The inner side of each positioning sidewall70includes fixing ribs72. Each two fixing ribs of the positioning sidewall70form a track74which accommodates a pin56of the connecting levers50. A width of each of the tracks74reduces from a front end76of the at least two positioning sidewalls70to a back end78of the at least two positioning sidewalls74. The width of each of the track74at the front end76of the positioning sidewall70is 10 mm and the width of each of the track74at the back end78of the positioning sidewall70is 5 mm. In another embodiment, the width of each of the track74at the front end76or at the back end78depends needs. For example, the width of each of the track74at the back end78is between 3 mm to 10 mm.

Referring toFIG. 3, the wafer storage and transfer assembly80of the first embodiment includes one of the above-mentioned wafer transfer device10and a wafer storage box90from or into which the wafer transfer device10picks a wafer W. The wafer storage box90is substantially same as the conventional wafer storage box. As shown inFIG. 4, the storage box90includes an upper plate91, a lower plate92, two side plates93, a back plate94, an opening95, an accommodation region96and a cassette. The accommodation region96is formed by the upper plate91, the lower plate92, two side plates and the back plate94. The opening95is located at open end of the accommodation region96. The cassette97is accommodated in the accommodation region96. The cassette97includes ribs975on the two side plates93. Each two adjacent ribs form a slot977. The slot977on one side plate93is corresponding to another slot977on the other side plate93. The slot93and another slot are for storage of a wafer W. In this embodiment, the difference between the storage box90and the conventional storage box is a width of the slot977and the width of the slot977is 5 mm. In another embodiment, a width of the slot depends on needs. For example, a width of each slot977can be ranged from 3 mm to 10 mm.

Referring toFIG. 5, as shown on the left the cassette100is conventional and could be a wafer box or equipment. Therefore, the detail is not repeated herein. Conventional cassette can store 25 pieces of wafers and the distance between each two wafers is 10 mm. For convenience sake and streamlining figures, a number of wafers take 3 pieces as example. The following further explains the process that the wafer W transfer device10pick out from a conventional cassette and into the wafer storage box90.

Going with the above-mentioned figures and referring toFIGS. 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, at first, the wafer transfer device10is positioned between a conventional cassette100and the wafer storage box90(as shown inFIG. 6). The first end321of the groove32of the chassis30is near to a conventional cassette100and the second end323of the groove32of the chassis is near to the wafer storage box90. The slide shaft40begin to translate toward the first end321of the groove32and after the sliding shaft40reaching the first end321of the groove32(as shown inFIG. 7), the chassis30translates from an initial position toward the conventional cassette100(as shown inFIG. 8). When the sliding shaft40translates, the sliding shaft40drives the connecting levers50and the arms60to translate toward the conventional cassette100. At the same time, two pins56of each connecting lever50respectively slide on the track74. When the two pins56slide to near the front end76of the positioning sidewall70(That is to say, the sliding shaft40reaches the first end321of the groove32), a distance between each two connecting levers is 10 mm to match the structure of the conventional cassette100. Accompanied by the translating of the chassis30, each arm60can move into the cassette100and vacuum adsorb a wafer W. Next, as shown inFIG. 9, the chassis30translates toward the wafer storage box90relative to the chassis30. After the sliding shaft40go back to the initial position, the sliding shaft40translates toward the second end323along the groove32. At the same time, the sliding shaft40drives the connecting levers50to translate toward the wafer storage box90and the arms60and the adsorbed wafer W go away from the conventional cassette100. The sliding shaft40translates toward the second end323, two pins56of each connecting lever50respectively slide on the track74. Because a width of each of the track74reduces from the front end76of the positioning sidewall70toward the back end78of the positioning sidewall70, therefore, the distance between wafers adsorbed by each arm60reduces. As shown inFIG. 10, when the two pins56slide to the back end78of the positioning sidewall70on the track74(that is each sliding shaft40reaches the second end323of the groove32), a distance between each two connecting levers is 5 mm. That is, a distance between each two wafers is 5 mm.

According toFIG. 11, the chassis30rotates 180 degree relative to the fixing support20so that the wafers W adsorbed by the arms faces the opening95of the storage box90. At this time, the second end323of the groove32is near the conventional cassette100and the first end321of the groove32is near the storage box90. After the rotating of the chassis30, the position of chassis relative to the fixing support20translates toward the storage box90. It should be noted that the sliding shaft40still stays at the second end323of the groove32and not slides toward the first end321. Therefore, the distance between each of the wafers keeps 5 mm.

The chassis30drives the sliding shaft40to translate the wafer storage box90accompanied by the translating of the chassis30. At the same time, the chassis30drives the connecting levers50, arms60and wafers W translate toward to the wafer storage box90until the arms reach into the wafer storage box90. As shown inFIG. 12, the wafer W is placed in the corresponding slot977so that the chassis30can translate away from the wafer storage box90relative to the fixing support20and drives the arms60to go away from the wafer storage box90. As shown inFIG. 13, the process of picking wafers W from the conventional cassette100into the wafer storage box90by the wafer transfer device10is finished.

Because a width of each slot977of the wafer storage box90is 5 mm, a distance between each two wafers W is just 5 mm. Therefore, in contrast to the conventional structure, a size of the wafer storage box which stores 25 pieces of wafers can reduce half. Particularly, when the mass wafers are transported between fabs, the occupied size reduces to half. Besides, because a width of each of the track74of the positioning sidewall70reduces from the front end76to the back end78, the wafer transfer device10can pick wafers W out or into the wafer storage box90. And then the wafer transportation is performed by the wafer storage box90. In other words, the wafer transfer device10can reduce a width between wafers from 10 mm to 5 mm dramatically. It is easy and not complex to achieve the effect of reduce the size of the wafer storage box. On the other hand, because the wafer transfer device includes arms, in more detail, the wafer transfer device10includes twenty five arms60, it can transfer 25 pieces wafers at the same time. The conventional robot just adsorbs a wafer once a time. By comparison, the wafer transfer device10spends less time to adsorb and transfer wafers and achieve high efficiency wafer storing and transferring. Furthermore, the wafer transfer device10can transfer elements other than semiconductor wafers or be applied to another field. For example, the wafer transfer device10can transfer disc, mask or glass substrate which is applied in display field and not limited to the semiconductor wafer.

According to the concept of the invention, the structure of the wafer transfer device can be modified. For example, referring toFIG. 14, the wafer transfer device10′ is the second embodiment of the invention. A structure of the wafer transfer device10′ is substantially same as the wafer transfer device10disclosed in the first embodiment, except that the wafer transfer device10′ includes four positioning sidewalls70. Each two positioning sidewall70are respectively arranged on two side of the chassis30and the connecting levers includes four pins. Each two pins56extend from two opposite sides of the plate52. Four pins56of each connecting lever50respectively extend into the corresponding track74on the four positioning sidewalls. Therefore, when the sliding shaft40translates from the first end321of the groove32toward the second end323of the groove32, each connecting lever can be more stable.

Although the disclosure has been described in detail with reference to the foregoing embodiments, a person of ordinary skill in the art should understand that modifications may still be made to the technical solutions in the foregoing embodiments, or equivalent replacements may be made to part or all of the technical features; and these modifications or replacements will not cause the essence of corresponding technical solutions to depart from the scope of the technical solutions in the embodiments of the disclosure.