Patent Publication Number: US-2007114111-A1

Title: Cassette and mechanical arm and process apparutus

Description:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION  
      1. Field of Invention  
      The present invention relates to a cassette, a mechanical arm and a process apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a cassette, a mechanical arm and a process apparatus that utilize the magnetic lead poles.  
      2. Description of Related Art  
      The thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFT-LCD) plays an important role in the display marketplace nowadays, and it mainly comprises a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, a back light module. The LCD panel is mainly composed of a color filter (CF) substrate, a thin film transistor (TFT) array substrate and a liquid crystal (LC) layer disposed between the CF substrate and the TFT array substrate. Here, the TFT array substrate is manufactured by performing multiple fabricating processes to form a plurality of thin film transistors (TFTs) arranged in matrix on the glass substrate for driving the LC layer.  
       FIG. 1  schematically shows a traditional cassette for placing substrates, and  FIGS. 2A and 2B  schematically show a traditional two-fork mechanism arm and removing of substrates out of the cassette, respectively.  FIG. 3  schematically shows a loading/unloading chamber of a traditional process apparatus. Refer to  FIGS. 1, 2A  and  2 B first. In general, the substrates S are placed in the cassette  100  in the fabricating process. Wherein, the cassette  100  comprises multiple side-bearing arms  110  disposed on opposite sides in the cassette  100  for bearing the substrate S. For simplicity, only one substrate S and the corresponding side-bearing arms  110  are shown in  FIG. 1 . In the traditional cassette  100 , the size of the side-bearing arms  110  cannot be too large so that the substrates S can be moved in or out of the cassette  100  using the mechanical arm  120 , and those side-bearing arms  110  result in difficulties in the positioning of the mechanical arm  120 . Additionally, due to increasingly larger sizes of the glass substrates, the side-bearing arms  110  and the glass substrates S would tend to deform.  
      Afterwards, the two-fork mechanical arm  120  extends to the bottom the substrate S and raises it. Later, the mechanical arm  120  that holds the substrate S withdraws out of the cassette  100  as shown in  FIG. 2B , and it moves the substrate S into the process apparatus  200  (shown in  FIG. 3 ). Likewise, with larger sizes of the glass substrates, a stronger structure intensity of the mechanical arm  120  is required to avoid the deformation of the mechanical arm  120  itself.  
      In  FIG. 3 , a process apparatus  200  includes a loading/unloading chamber  210  and a reaction chamber  220  connected with the loading/unloading chamber  210 . Wherein, a plurality of bearing pins are disposed inside the loading/unloading chamber  210  for bearing the substrate S which is from the cassette  100  and conveyed by the mechanical arm  120 . The substrate S is sent into the reaction chamber  220  of the process apparatus  200  for executing the semiconductor processes required. After the semiconductor processes are completed, the substrate S is held again by the mechanical arm  120  and is sent back to the cassette  100 .  
      It&#39;s worthy to note that the aforementioned bearing pins  212  used for bearing the substrate S needs to be designed properly, allowing the mechanical arm  120  to move in or out the substrate S. However, an improper design of the locations of the bearing pins  212  causes the difficulties in the poisoning of the mechanical arm  120 . Furthermore, when the bearing pins  212  get in touch with the substrate S, the electro-static discharge may appear between them, thereby damaging the electronic devices on the substrate S.  
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION  
      In view of this, one object of the present invention is to provide a cassette for improving the deformation of the side-bearing arms and the substrates in the traditional cassette.  
      Another object of the present invention is to provide a mechanical arm for improving the difficulties in the positioning of the traditional mechanical arm.  
      One another object of the present invention is to provide a process apparatus for improving the damages of the electronic devices on the substrate caused by the electro-static discharge.  
      Based on above-mentioned object or others, the present invention provides a cassette suitable for placing at least one substrate. The cassette comprises a case and at least a conveying unit. The conveying unit is disposed inside the case and comprises a plurality of rollers for bearing the substrate and at least a magnetic lead pole. Wherein, the magnetic lead pole is electrically connected to one of the rollers, and rotation of a corresponding roller is driven to move the substrate when the magnetic lead pole rotates.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic lead pole is disposed in one end of the corresponding roller.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic lead pole is perpendicular to the corresponding roller.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the rollers are disposed in parallel.  
      Based on the above-mentioned object or others, the present invention provides a mechanical arm suitable for conveying a substrate. The mechanical arm comprises a main body and a conveying unit. The conveying unit is connected with the main body and comprises a plurality of rollers for bearing the substrate and at least a magnetic lead pole. Wherein, the magnetic lead pole is electrically connected to one of the rollers, and rotation of a corresponding roller is driven to move the substrate when the magnetic lead pole rotates.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic lead pole is disposed in one end of the corresponding roller.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic lead pole is perpendicular to the corresponding roller.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the rollers are disposed in parallel.  
      Based on the above-mentioned object or others, the present invention provides a process apparatus suitable for providing a semiconductor process of a substrate. The process apparatus comprises a reaction chamber, a loading/unloading chamber and a conveying unit. The loading/unloading chamber is connected with the reaction chamber, and the conveying unit is disposed inside the loading/unloading chamber. Wherein, the magnetic lead pole is electrically connected to one of the rollers, and rotation of a corresponding roller is driven to move the substrate when the magnetic lead pole rotates.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic lead pole is disposed in one end of the corresponding roller.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the magnetic lead pole is perpendicular to the corresponding roller.  
      According to one embodiment of the present invention, the rollers are disposed in parallel.  
      Based on the descriptions above, because the cassette according to the present invention utilizes the conveying unit composed of the rollers and magnetic lead pole for bearing and conveying the substrates, the deformation of the substrates can be improved, and the difficulties in positioning of the mechanical arm can be decreased. Besides, according to the present invention, the designing of the loading/unloading chamber of the process apparatus can be simplified, and the damages of electronic devices caused by electro-static discharge can be avoided.  
      It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed. 
    
    
     BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS  
      The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.  
       FIG. 1  schematically shows a traditional cassette for placing substrates.  
       FIGS. 2A and 2B  schematically show a traditional two-fork mechanism arm and removing of substrates out of the cassette, respectively.  
       FIG. 3  schematically shows a loading/unloading chamber of a traditional process apparatus.  
       FIGS. 4A and 4B  schematically show a top view and a side view of a cassette according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively.  
       FIGS. 5A and 5B  schematically show a top view and a three-dimensional view of a mechanical arm according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively.  
       FIG. 6A  schematically shows a top view a process apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and  FIG. 6B  schematically shows the usage of the cassette, the mechanical arm and the process apparatus according to the embodiments of the present invention simultaneously. 
    
    
     DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS  
       FIGS. 4A and 4B  schematically show a top view and a side view of a cassette according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively. Referring to  FIGS. 4A and 4B , in a semiconductor process, a substrate S to be processed or processed already can be placed in a cassette  300  shown in  FIG. 4A . This cassette  300  includes a case  310  and a conveying unit  320 . The conveying unit  320  is located in the case  310  and it can be used for bearing one substrate S. It is easily understood that the cassette  300  for the present embodiment can include a plurality of conveying units for bearing a plurality of substrates S, as shown in  FIG. 4B . Nevertheless, the cassette  300  with one conveying unit  320  of the embodiment herein is illustrated for simplicity  
      In the present embodiment, the conveying unit  320  includes a plurality of rollers  322  and a plurality of magnetic lead poles  324  wherein these rollers  322  are disposed in parallel for bearing the substrate S. In addition, each of the magnetic lead poles  324  is electrically connected to one terminal of the corresponding roller  322 . When the magnetic lead pole  324  rotates, rotation of the corresponding roller  322  is driven so that the substrate S is moved. Briefly, in  FIG. 4B , the substrates S are held, and moved out of the cassette  300  by the rollers  232  when necessary. Further, in more detail, the magnetic lead pole  324  can be perpendicular to the corresponding roller  322 . It is worthy to note, though the conveying unit  320  of the present embodiment owns a plurality of magnetic lead poles  324 , the substrate S can still be moved for the case that one single magnetic lead pole  324  is used.  
       FIGS. 5A and 5B  schematically show a top view and a three-dimensional view of a mechanical arm according to an embodiment of the present invention, respectively. The substrate S from the cassette  300  is then held and conveyed by a mechanical arm  400 . The mechanical arm  400  includes a main body  410  and a conveying unit  420  where the conveying unit  420  is connected with the main body  410 . Here, the conveying unit  420  can be identical to the conveying unit  320  of above-mentioned cassette  300 , and it also includes a plurality of rollers  422  and a plurality of magnetic lead poles  424 . Likewise, these rollers  422  are disposed in parallel for bearing and conveying the substrate S and each of the magnetic lead poles  424  is electrically connected to one terminal of the corresponding roller  422 . The magnetic lead pole  424  can be perpendicular to the corresponding roller  422 , for example. Additionally, it&#39;s worthy to note that, said main body  410  can be disposed on an adjusting substrate  430  which is suitably used for adjusting the vertical height of the conveying unit  420  so that the conveying unit  420  can hold the substrate S on the conveying unit  320  in the cassette  300  correspondingly, and for guiding the transmission direction of the substrate S.  
      In a word, in the conveying of the substrate S the mechanical arm  400  is to hold the substrate S sent from the conveying unit  320  of cassette  300 . Later, by rotating the magnetic lead pole  424  of the conveying unit  400 , the corresponding roller can be driven to rotate and thereby to move the substrate S. That is, the mechanical arm can be used to both hold and convey the substrate S.  
      After that, the mechanical arm  400  conveys the substrate S into a process apparatus  500 .  FIG. 6A  schematically shows a top view a process apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and  FIG. 6B  schematically shows the usage of the cassette, the mechanical arm and the process apparatus according to the embodiments of the present invention simultaneously. Referring to  FIG. 6A and 6B , the process apparatus  500  includes a reaction chamber  510 , a conveying unit  520  and a loading/unloading chamber  530  where the loading/unloading chamber  530  and reaction chamber  510  are connected together. Besides, the conveying unit  520  and previously-mentioned conveying unit  320  can be still identical, and it also includes a plurality of rollers  522  and a plurality of magnetic lead poles  524 . Wherein, the ways of disposing and electrical connection for those rollers  522  and the magnetic lead poles  524  are the same with those mentioned above and will not be repeated here.  
      Therefore, the substrate S held by the mechanical arm  400  is conveyed into the loading/unloading chamber  530 , and later sent into the reaction chamber  510  by the conveying unit  520  for performing the semiconductor fabricating processes required. After the completion of processes, the substrate S is sent back to the cassette  300  for storing by sequential conveying of the conveying unit  520  and the mechanical arm  400 . It can be seen that, by using the identical conveying units provided by the present invention, the operations of storing, conveying and fabricating process of the substrate can be sequentially performed.  
      It&#39;s also worthy to note here, in the present embodiment there is no limitation for the usage of the cassette  300 , mechanical arm  400  and process apparatus  500  simultaneously. Otherwise, the cassette  300 , mechanical arm  400  and process apparatus  500  can be employed separately.  
      To sum up, the present invention provides at least advantages as follows.  
      1. According to the present invent, the conveying units provided by combining the rollers and the magnetic lead poles are applied on the cassette, the mechanical arm and the process apparatus. Thus, the cassette, mechanical arm and process apparatus are capable of bearing the large-scale substrates.  
      2. Compared with the prior art, the cassette of the present invention can bear a larger amount of substrates and positioning of the mechanical arm of the present invention can be obviously simplified.  
      3. Compared with the prior art, damages of electronic devices caused by electro-static discharge can be prevented by utilizing the loading/unloading chamber with simplified design based on the present invention.  
      It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made to the structure of the present invention without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention. In view of the foregoing descriptions, it is intended that the present invention covers modifications and variations of this invention if they fall within the scope of the following claims and their equivalents.